Norma Sue Kenyon, Ph.D. is Vice Provost for Innovation at the University of Miami and Chief Innovation Officer of the Miller School of Medicine. Under her leadership, the U Innovation team, including the Office of Technology Transfer and the Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research has successfully increased the number of licensing agreements and startups emanating from faculty innovations across the university's 11 schools and colleges. The Launch Pad and Launch Pad Med provide mentoring for emerging student, alumni and faculty entrepreneurs throughout the university community, and Kenyon established the ‘Cane Angel Network to provide investment opportunities to all startups connected to the university. Together with community partners, Kenyon is working to grow the Converge Miami innovation district (previously known as the UM Life Science and Technology Park), and as part of the university's roadmap initiative, is heading up planning for a hemispheric innovation hub at the U.
The Martin Kleiman Professor of Surgery, Microbiology & Immunology and Biomedical Engineering at the Diabetes Research Institute, Dr. Kenyon and her research team have focused on ways to transplant insulin producing islet cells, in both clinically relevant transplant models and in clinical studies, without the need for life-long anti-rejection drugs. Kenyon has received research funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation and several industry collaborators. She has served as a member of both the National Advisory Allergy and Infectious Disease Council and the NIH Council of Councils. Kenyon was a scientific advisor to the Food and Drug Administration, spending half her time at the FDA for a year and has participated in several panels involving islet transplantation and stem cells.
Kenyon earned her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University, followed by post-doctoral positions at UCLA and the University of Miami. Subsequent to post-doctoral training, Kenyon was a Senior Scientist and Lab Head at Coulter Corporation, holding positions in both research and product development.
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