Contact: Robbie S. Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Some recent college graduates may be shaken by the national economy, but Ali Borazjani of Starkville isn't one of them.
Borazjani, who received a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering last weekend, was among some 2,400 spring graduates of Mississippi State.
Borazjani has many reasons to feel optimistic about the future. In February, he became chief scientific officer of Innometrix, a biomedical device company he created with Benjamin C. "Ben" Weed, a biomedical engineering doctoral student at the university. Weed, of Huntsville, Ala., serves as the company's chief operations officer.
As part of their business, Borazjani has filed paperwork related to a patent pending on a medical device to help women predict the onset of pelvic organ prolapse, a disease with symptoms including incontinence. Additionally, the two are working with a nonprofit start-up organization, Global Solutions in Reproductive Health Care, to help provide medical supplies to South African hospitals and medical clinics.
A Starkville High School graduate, Borazjani will be juggling all these projects as he begins study this fall at the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic, one of the nation's top hospitals. Along with the entrepreneurial ventures, he plans to complete a doctorate and also become a physician.
Asked about thoughts on his future career, the young researcher and businessman had no hesitation in expressing optimism for the field of biomedical engineering.
"It involves things people haven't done before," Borazjani said. "Goals for the field are very beneficial and very possible."
Borazjani said a 2010 internship with a South African hospital changed his life. After seeing so many women there affected with post-pregnancy bladder dysfunctions and babies born with bladder problems, he decided to find some opportunity to help.
Returning home, he joined with Weed and faculty mentor Jun Liao, an MSU associate professor of biomedical engineering, to begin work on possible solutions.
Borazjani also enlisted assistance from the university's Entrepreneurship Center and the Office of Technology Commercialization to help turn his vision into reality.
Gerald Nelson, director of MSU's E-Center and the Thad Cochran Endowment for Entrepreneurship, said some institutional partners have shown interest in assisting as the company grows. Among others, the business plan recently was reviewed by Bill Aulet of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan Entrepreneurship Center, Nelson added.
Having reached the milestone of a bachelor's degree, Borazjani has his mind clearly focused on making a difference in the lives of as many people as possible.
"We want to make sure mothers are alive to be with their children," he said.
Borazjani is the son of Abdolsamad and Fatemeh Borazjani. His father is a research associate in the basic science department of MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine.
For more information, contact Nelson at 662-325-2560 or gnelson@engr.msstate.edu or Borazjani at 662-312-7601 or ab549@msstate.edu.