M2D2 receives $500,000 grant to develop new medical devices

LOWELL and WORCESTER, Mass. The Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center (or M2D2), a collaboration of UMass Lowell and the UMass Medical Center in Worcester, has received a $500,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s John Adams Innovation Institute, according to printed reports. M2D2 offers small medical device companies access to world-class researchers and resources to help venture capitalists see the products and ideas these smaller companies can offer.

The grant aims to help entrepreneurs develop new medical device ideas. M2D2 is now working with companies from around the state to develop products including a system to prevent elderly people from falling, a dissolvable heart stent and a system that uses contact lenses to deliver glaucoma drugs.

M2D2 has already received $150,000 from the institute, and UMass Lowell is seeking funding from the state life sciences board to transform the Institute for Plastics Innovation, which houses M2D2, into an innovation center for life sciences.