Tulane, LSU Join Regional Healthcare Technology Hub

Tulane University and LSU Health New Orleans are two of 25 universities that have joined the healthcare technology hub called the Southeast Xlerator Network. The goal of the network is to accelerate the commercialization of life sciences research and biomedical innovations.

The Southeast Xlerator Network is part of a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health awarded to the universities of Kentucky, Louisville and West Virginia and the accelerator XLerateHealth, all leading the initiative.

“The network will provide new programming, educational resources and commercialization tools to make it easier for biomedical innovators to bring cutting-edge research taking place in labs across the region into the marketplace where it has the potential to improve lives throughout the world,” said James Zanewicz, chief business officer for Tulane University School of Medicine and Louisiana site lead for the consortium.

Louisiana is one of the states included in the Southeast’s Institution Development Award (IDeA) region, along with Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and West Virginia.

LSU Health New Orleans’ participation in the IDeA Hub grant will provide our faculty, staff, students and affiliated startups with expanded access to biomedical innovation-related expertise and resources,” said Patrick Reed, director of the Office of Technology Management and the site lead at LSU Health New Orleans. “Our involvement, along with both Tulane and Southern universities, plugs Louisiana directly into this large regional network, helping further support life sciences research and commercialization in New Orleans and all around the state.”