SRI International – Innovation Starts Here

The SRI was founded 1946 as part of Stanford University.  This is fascinating place to work I would guess.  Robert Scoble recently took a tour and provided videos that cover some of what they do there.  They have everything from contract with the FDA to figure out why devices (stents) and drugs don’t work all the way up to robotics.  I’m going to focus on the the healthcare end of things even though they have a lot more than healthcare going on.

When you visit the “spinoff” pages you can see both Intuitive Industries (daVinci robot) and Nuance listed.  This is where they had their beginnings at SRI.  SRI is also the birthplace of the “computer mouse”.  At the end of this post I have included the SRI documentary so you can see how it evolved over the years.  SRI has worked with the NIH to develop drugs and clinical trials since the 1950s.

SRI Biosciences from the Website:

“SRI Biosciences has all of the resources necessary to advance R&D programs from Idea to IND® — from initial discovery to investigational new drug applications that enable human clinical trials. We team with academia, biotech and pharma companies, foundations, and government agencies to solve important health problems around the globe. We carry out basic research, drug discovery, and drug development, including contract services. SRI’s drug pipeline has yielded several marketed drugs, several additional drugs currently in human testing, and more than 10 programs in preclinical stages or early discovery. In our CRO business, we have advanced well over 100 drugs to clinical trials. We also work at the interfaces of science and technology to create novel platforms for the next generation of tools in diagnostics, drug delivery, medical devices, and systems biology.”

First of all I have included Robert’s interviews relative to the Intuitive Robotic Surgery Unit.  In the first video as he states you get an explanation and inside look into how the robot works today and then part 2 shows the future, robotic surgery over the web and with “no” doctor at the controls, yikes.  I don’t know if I would ever be ready for that one.  Some of their work is in conjunction with DARPA.  These take a while to watch so be prepared.  Robert even was able to sit down and try his hand at the daVinci.  The future of “surgical pods” for the military is something that is work in progress.