St. Jude scientist to lead U of M’s healthcare innovations effort

A St. Jude Medical research scientist will now pave the way for healthcare innovations emerging from the University of Minnesota.

Saurav Paul, who has been with the Minnesota medical device company since 2002, has been named director of the Innovation Fellows Program at the University of Minnesota’s Medical Devices Center, the Star Tribune reported Tuesday.

Paul replaces Marie Johnson, who left in mid April to focus her energies on ramping up her startup AUM Cardiovascular. Paul was a top investor at St. Jude Medical with 100 U.S. and international patent publications.

The Innovation Fellows Program is an intensive, one-year training program. Launched in 2008, it selects mid-career professionals from backgrounds as diverse as engineering, biosciences and medicine to create new innovative medical devices that can be commercialized.

Per Paul’s LinkedIn profile, he appears to have diverse experience, at least when it comes to education. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, India; a master’s degree also in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Science; a master’s in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Minnesota. He also has a J.D. from the William Mitchell College of Law with a focus on intellectual property law.

Here is the news release from the University.