Who we are
Advisors who educate, connect, and equip local and international partners with the tools they need to pursue life science education, innovation and technology commercialization in the Texas Medical Center and beyond.
Sarah Gerwig, MPH, PMP
Sarah is a journalist, global health expert, patent holder and certified project management professional. She works with startups, universities and students to facilitate innovation and technology commercialization, life science education and business development opportunities in the Texas Medical Center, Austin, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Central and South America and the Middle East.
She works with foreign direct investment and government agencies, chambers of commerce in the US and beyond with proven success in building dozens of public private partnerships and generating over $6 million USD in funding for academic institutions, startups and for-profit fortune 500 companies in global health innovation.
Sarah earned her bachelors of journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and continues to work with University of Texas partners through the Texas Global Health Security Innovation Consortium, an arm of the University of Texas Austin Technology Incubator (ATI). She completed her Masters of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center’s School of Public Health in Houston and co-founded the Student Society for Global Health while focusing on management and policy.
Sarah previously worked at Baylor College of Medicine as Director of the Global Innovation Center and Associate Director of Global Medical Innovation and Adjunct Professor in the Bioengineering Department at Rice University.
Will Clifton, MD
Will Clifton is a biomedical engineer, and entrepreneur specializing in medical devices and innovation. Will is the COO of Polyvascular, a Houston startup developing percutaneous pediatric heart valves which has received over $3M in non-dilutive funding. Will is also President and Co-founder of Enventure, a Houston non-profit providing community, education, and experiential learning opportunities to Texas grad students and medical innovators.
After earning his MD, Will served as Senior Director of Medical Affairs at Procyrion, where he spent seven years developing a percutaneous pump to treat heart failure, taking it from concept through a successful first in human trial. Will's research led to one issued and two pending patents, multiple peer-reviewed publications, and multiple clinical studies.
Will graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California where he developed a percutaneous implantable glucose sensor. Will graduated medical school from Baylor College of Medicine where he continued to study medical technology with a focus in Minimally Invasive Surgical Technology with mentorship from Dr. William Cohn of the Texas Heart Institute.
Will was Director of Rice's Medical Innovation masters in bioengineering program. Will has hosted and lectured many medical technology courses at Rice, BCM, and the Texas Medical Center's Innovation Institute, including teaching the TMC Biodesign Fellowship since 2019. Will consults for numerous medical device and digital health startups, developing clinical and regulatory strategies, FDA submissions, and R&D strategies.