LOCAL Houston | The City Guide February 2018 | Page 46

FOOD | ARTS | COMMUNITY | STYLE+LEISURE STRONG MEDICINE JOHNSON & JOHNSON ENGINEERING STUDIO EXPANDS AT THE TMC Johnson & Johnson, the New Jersey-based global healthcare leader, believes in the depth of knowledge and experience in the tech community at the Texas Medical Center. In fact, the company recently invested in its second facility at the complex – the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center (CDI @ TMC) – a broad, innovative collaboration to accelerate development, from concept to commercialization, of breakthrough medical devices technology. Housed within the TMC Innovation Institute, the 26,000sf facility hosts Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies’ research and development staff, working on select internal projects along with strategically aligned external ventures of JJMDC. For the first time, medical devices innovators are able to execute each stage of the product development life cycle without ever having to leave TMC, enabling unparalleled efficiency in responding to patient needs. The TMC Innovation Institute is also home to JLABS @ TMC, a life sciences incubator and TMC's first collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, which opened in 2016. CDI @ TMC offers R&D teams real-time visibility into the most pressing healthcare chal- lenges, as well as rapid prototyping and development of relevant patient solutions. Further, through the collaboration, CDI @ TMC staff will also be welcome at the TMC network's broad range of preclinical facilities – including those at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital and Texas Heart Institute – to test new ideas. "CDI @ TMC represents unprecedented collaboration between the scientists, business lead- ers, academicians and investors required to bring revolutionary medical devices from con- cept to market," said Sandi Peterson, Group Worldwide Chair of Johnson & Johnson. "With all these resources in one zip code, medical devices may be developed, tested, moved to clinical trials and regulatory approval, then provided to the doctors and patients around the world who need them faster than ever before." Described as an "engineering studio," the facility is appointed with all the tools its staff may need to translate ideas to products, including a machine shop, a mechanical testing lab, an electronics workspace and component lab, a 3D printing lab and a virtual reality demonstration area. The space itself is designed to spur creativity, with a conference room made of spare building materials – a symbol of new applications for traditional ideas – and a wall with glass cases to display medical devices led-learnings. They’ve come a long way from Band-Aids and baby shampoo. This is the J&J of the future, and it’s only at the Texas Medical Center. For more information, please visit www.jnjinnovation.com. 11.14.2017 3:26pm By Tim Moloney 46 L O C A L | 2 . 2018 | Photography by Dror Baldinger 2 . 2018 | L O C A L 47