Dr. Marnie LaVigne
Director of Business Development, University of Buffalo Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology
A native of Buffalo, New York, Dr. LaVigne holds a BS in neuroscience and a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Rochester. She has spent over 20 years creating new products and start-up businesses involving innovative applications of technology in healthcare and life sciences across a range of sectors, including work with managed care (e.g., Aetna USHealthcare), pharmaceuticals (e.g., Bristol-Myers Squibb), medical devices (e.g., Welch Allyn) and medical informatics (e.g., Medscape/MedicaLogic, now GE Medical and WebMD). After cofounding Patient InfoSystems, a technology-based consumer health management company which had an Initial Public Offering within two years of incorporation, she subsequently joined a Web portal and medical informatics company, Medscape, where she was Chief Marketing Officer. Since 2001, Dr. LaVigne has focused her efforts back in Upstate New York to grow the life sciences industry, first as an independent consultant, then with BuffLink, an economic development organization in Buffalo.
In her current position as Director of Business Development for the UB Center for Advanced Biomedical and Bioengineering Technology at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences, Dr. LaVigne is responsible for creating partnerships and commercialization linkages that facilitate the transfer of technology coming from the region’s premier research institutions in a ‘bench to the bedside’ approach facilitating economic growth and creation of jobs in the Buffalo Niagara region and Upstate New York. Dr. LaVigne is an editorial board member for Biotechnology Healthcare and Disease Management, and a member of the Board of Directors for Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and the Women’s Business Center at Canisius College.