History
The Institute owes its existence to the vision and largesse of Mr. Alfred E. Mann, Chairman of the Board and CEO of MannKind Corporation. He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Alfred Mann Foundation and Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. He also founded and is co-CEO of Advanced Bionics Corporation, now a Boston Scientific Company. Mr. Mann is a prominent biomedical technologies entrepreneur. Among his many achievements, he has made major contributions to the development of cardiac pacemakers and cochlear implants.
He recognized that many good ideas and novel biomedical technologies developed by University faculty were not readily available to commercial interests. His goal was to create an institution that would facilitate the transition of intellectual property developed in a University environment to commercialization free of the financial pressures of a start-up venture. This goal was realized in 1998 when Alfred Mann and Steven Sample, President of the University of Southern California, established the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California.
Funding for AMI is provided by an endowment of $160 Million created through the generosity of A.E. Mann, the A.E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Research and the Mannkind Corporation.
More About AMI
