• Engagement with Industry

    ACABI links industry, academic and medical expertise to solve problems and enrich existing products and services with new technologies.

  • Expanding Discovery Applications

    ACABI identifies enhanced uses for technologies developed by the University of Arizona and collaborating partners, that can be rapidly implemented in the clinical world.

  • Unmet Needs

    ACABI works to resolve unmet needs, primarily biomedical, surfaced through close work with physicians and medical experts at the University of Arizona and Banner University Medical Center.

Message from the Director

The Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation (ACABI) is a new center at the University of Arizona aimed at developing novel solutions to the broad range of continuously emerging unsolved problems and unmet needs in health care, well care and overall individual well-being, in the rapidly evolving world and society in which we live.

With best regards,    
Marvin J. Slepian, MD Director

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Innovation 101

Innovation 101

At the heart of the ACABI model and rationale is its Creativity Engine — a process in which distilled needs are examined through the lenses of diverse technologies to find novel, life-changing solutions to medical problems.

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The Arizona Center for Accelerated BioMedical Innovation (ACABI) is a “creativity engine,” established to develop practical, value-added solutions to emerging unmet needs.

Innovation News

Michael DiCaro wins the Katheryn B. Willock Award

Impactful research performed at the Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation (ACABI) on the "Origination and Dissemination of Inventive Knowledge in the Medical Device Industry", came up big at the Graduate and Professional Student Showcase, taking home the Katheryn B. Willock Library Research Award and a $1000 prize. The Graduate and Professional Student Showcase is an annual research conference that takes place on the University of Arizona Mall, and has been held during the spring semester each year since 1993 attracting more than 130 graduate and undergraduate students each year.

UA Researchers Go the Distance, Help Develop and Test Device for Body Chemistry and Fluid Analysis Via Sweat

A little larger than a quarter and about the same thickness, the simple, low-cost device helps the wearer quickly decide if any adjustments, such as drinking more water or replenishing salts, electrolytes and sugar, need to be made or if something is medically awry. Designed for one-time use of a few hours, this device can be adapted and used for disease diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. Details were published Nov. 23 by the journal Science Translational Medicine.

New Tucson company aims to put life-saving devices in neighborhoods

CardioSpark is a way to “make neighborhoods cardiac safe,” said one of the company’s founders, Tucson cardiologist and mechanical engineer Carter Newton, who is working with Dr. Marvin Slepian, of the Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation, and Dr. Karl Kern, a cardiologist and professor at the University of Arizona and chair of the Sarver Heart Center Resuscitation Research Group.

UA Innovation Hub Headed by Slepian to Accelerate Translational Medical Research

The University of Arizona has announced the creation of a center focused on accelerating the development and commercialization of translational biomedical technologies.