Translating biomedical research into beneficial commercial and profitable products for healthcare is often difficult due to different expertise and the mutual understanding of objectives and requirements of the scientific community, clinical needs, and industry. Conformance to government medical product regulations is essential for translation of discoveries to patient care, but this is often not clearly understood by academic faculty, either in medical schools or research universities. Speeding successful translation of research discoveries into commercial products must be achieved through new relationships between academia, clinical practitioners, and industry. There are numerous translational research centers in medical schools, but few centers specifically target developing and implementing engineering solutions necessary for translation of medical technology into clinical practice. TRIBES is a new type of collaborative entity that provides early-stage engineering, product development expertise, and support services to prepare technologies for addressing unmet needs in the clinical setting.

The Translational Research Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Science (TRIBES) links biomedical research and educational activities at Georgia Tech with key medical institutions and organizations to provide critical capabilities for pre-commercial engineering development activities for license and transition of technology into industry for the benefit of diagnosis and treatment of patients in the healthcare system.

• Coordination between healthcare & Georgia Tech faculty.
• Focus on "product" development (big D, little r).
• Proof-of-concept and alpha prototypes.
• FDA design control documentation.
• GMP alpha and beta prototype manufacturing.
• Pre-clinical small & large animals studies.