RBTC’s Beer & Biotech January 2025

What’s Next for the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and Health Sciences at Virginia Tech?

Erin Burcham, President of VERGE and Executive Director of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council, will moderate a question-and-answer session with Dr. Mike Friedlander, Executive Director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and Virginia Tech’s Vice President of Health Sciences and Technology. The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC opened its doors in 2010, and begins its 15^th year of operations in 2025. Discussion topics include:

• Where are the health sciences at Virginia Tech and Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC headed?
• What will the next five years look like with the research enterprise, plans for growth, and commercialization efforts?

Erin Burcham

Burcham is the president of Verge and executive director of the Roanoke-Blacksburg Technology Council. She has spearheaded initiatives for technology, innovation, and talent development in the region including multiple GO Virginia projects throughout her career. Previously, she served as the director of talent solutions for the Roanoke Regional Partnership. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of South Carolina and a master’s degree in leadership with a focus on economic development from Virginia Tech.

Dr. Mike Friedlander

Dr. Friedlander serves as the founding executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech’s vice president for health sciences and technology, and the senior dean for research at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. Dr. Friedlander has led the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC since its inception in 2010, driving the growth of research activity, employment, student enrollment, and commercialization. Today he leads 43 faculty biomedical research teams working in Roanoke and Washington, D.C., who have an active extramural funding portfolio valued at $225 million, to solve the world’s major health challenges.

A highly accomplished neuroscientist, Dr. Friedlander has served as the principal investigator on multiple research grants on brain processes that mediate vision, developmental plasticity, and traumatic brain injury. He is a professor of biological sciences in the College of Science.

Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Dr. Friedlander was a professor and chair of the department of neuroscience and director of neuroscience initiatives at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and prior to that, he served as the founding chair of the Department of Neurobiology, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine.