The cosponsor for the 2008 summit is the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center (GCIC), a large research and product development consortium, lead by the Cleveland Clinic - the #1 ranked heart center in the US for the past 13 years. GCIC was established to assist companies and commercialize cardiovascular products to improve patient care.

Estimated at more than $420 billion, cardiovascular medicine is the largest healthcare market opportunity in the US. The cardiovascular disease burden poses clear challenges – medical, scientific, and commercial – with enormous benefit accruing to the investigators, entrepreneurs, and companies that can provide innovative, state-of-the-art solutions.

GCIC is building cross-industry partnerships to facilitate the development and adoption of new cardiovascular technologies geared towards improving patient care. Cardiovascular research and commercialization – along with millions of patients – will benefit from the progress made through companies affiliated with GCIC.

Read more about the exciting work going on at GCIC at:

WiCell Research Institute
The co-sponsor for the 2007 summit was WiCell Research Institute, headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, a supporting organization of the University of Wisconsin-Madison which is known as a world leader in the area of hES cell research. WiCell is home to the National Stem Cell Bank which banks, characterizes, and distributes NIH-registry human embryonic stem cell lines.


Academy of Molecular Imaging (AMI)
AMI is involved in the various technologies of molecular imaging and multimodalities formed by merging together imaging of biological processes with imaging anatomical structures within which these processes take place. This includes such technologies as PET, optical imaging, MRI, SPECT, CT and ultrasound.



Society of Non-invasive Imaging in Drug Development (SNIDD)
SNIDD is a component of AMI whose mission it is to inform and educate scientists within the pharmaceutical industries, academia and regulatory agencies on the basic information obtainable using non-invasive imaging, and its potential application to drug discovery, research and development.