The Edward & Jennifer St. John Center for Translational Engineering and Medicine will fuel innovation, collaboration, and accelerated tech transfer to improve human health in Baltimore and beyond.
Photo: Edward and Jennifer St. John
“What does this new announcement mean? The word ‘supercharged’ comes to mind. We’ve supercharged this engineering program with medicine to have these new inventions, these new ideas come across to solve vexing problems,” said University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, in opening remarks at a Jan. 10 ceremony. The event marked the announcement of a $10 million joint gift from Edward and Jennifer St. John and the Edward St. John Foundation, which will establish the Edward & Jennifer St. John Center for Translational Engineering and Medicine (CTEM).
The new center brings together researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) at UMB and the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP). Occupying the fourth floor of 4MLK at the University of Maryland BioPark, CTEM will foster face-to-face collaboration among clinicians and engineers. Their proximity will ensure that real-world clinical needs inform the creation of new devices, diagnostics, and treatments, accelerating the pathway from research to patient care — resulting in next-generation medical solutions that will benefit patients across Maryland and beyond.
UMCP President Darryll J. Pines, PhD, MS, followed Jarrell’s comments by underscoring the center’s potential to “radically change the future” for health care innovation.
“This is a collaboration that is only a collaboration that's been done five times before in the United States, between engineering and medicine,” Pines said. Citing concerns such as increasing cancer diagnoses in younger patients and the possibility of future pandemics, he noted that UMB and UMCP have “exceptional people and exceptional resources that can be brought to bear on these incredible, grand challenge problems.”
Both presidents expressed gratitude to Jennifer and Edward St. John and to Sharon Akers, president of the Edward St. John Foundation, for the significance of the gift. Edward St. John, a UMCP engineering graduate turned Baltimore-based business leader and philanthropist, previously donated $10 million to build the Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center at UMCP. Having long supported UMB’s mission, St. John also committed $1 million to the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, supported UMB’s CURE Scholars Program, and pledged another $1 million in 2021 for a Clinical Stem Cell Laboratory at the University of Maryland Medical Center. This new contribution will establish endowed and current-use professorships in bioengineering, student awards in translational engineering and medicine, and operating funds for the center.
“It truly is a privilege to be here on this important day. It’s an important day because it represents the joining together of these major institutions in a way that we know will have a major impact on the fields of engineering and medicine,” said Jennifer St. John, emphasizing that the combined efforts of UMB and UMCP could save lives well beyond Maryland. “We are incredibly proud to support this endeavor, this visionary approach to the new frontier of engineering and medicine.”
Edward St. John added, “The discoveries that will be made, the technologies that will be created, and the protocols that will be designed here and established will shape the future of medicine.”