Jacobs Institute

Eight students. Three departments. One summer of learning.

We're excited to welcome our interns to the Jacobs Institute. Working across our engineering, education, and communications teams, they'll gain hands-on experience, collaborate with mentors, and contribute to meaningful projects that support our mission.

Internships are about more than observing. They're about learning through real-world challenges, building professional relationships, and translating their classroom knowledge into practice.

Over the coming months, these students will be working alongside our staff, physicians, engineers, and partners while exploring careers in medical innovation and healthcare. They each have their own project they’re working on along with a staff mentor throughout the season.

We're looking forward to seeing and showing off what they accomplish this summer.

Swipe through to meet our 2026 summer interns.

Two events. Two communities. One Buffalo.

This weekend, Jacobs Institute team members spent time at two very different events; but both reflected something important about Buffalo.

On Friday, a group of staff volunteers joined the 26th annual Fruit Belt Clean-a-Thon, helping support a community that’s long been our neighbor and an important part of this city's history.

On Sunday, team members participated in Buffalo's Pride Parade, celebrating inclusion, visibility, and the many individuals who help make our community stronger.

These events may have looked different, but both were opportunities to step away from our daily work and engage with the people and neighborhoods that make Buffalo the City of Good Neighbors.

At the Jacobs Institute, innovation doesn't happen in isolation. Being an active and engaged member of our community is an important part of who we are.

Today's medical students are tomorrow's neurosurgeons.

This weekend, aspiring neurosurgeons gathered for the UB Neurosurgery & & Spine Group Neurosurgery Sub-Internship Training Camp, gaining hands-on experience with neurosurgical techniques, simulation, procedural skills, and mentorship from faculty and residents.

The Jacobs Institute was proud to support the program by providing a collaborative environment where students could learn, practice, and build connections within the neurosurgical community.

Swipe through to see some of the day's highlights.

Some of the most important conversations at the Jacobs Institute don’t start in the conference rooms. This morning, the JI team welcomed new Chief Operating Officer Will Sutton with a casual meet-and-greet breakfast in our café collaboration space.

One of the things that makes the Jacobs Institute unique is the culture created in spaces like this; where conversations happen organically, ideas are exchanged freely, and you never quite know who you’ll end up connecting with over coffee.

The breakfast gave staff the opportunity to meet Will in an informal setting, ask questions and hear about his outlook for the future.

Strong organizations are built on more than strategy and expertise. They’re built on connection, accessibility, and collaboration. This morning was a great reflection of that culture in action.

Welcome to Buffalo and the Jacobs Institute, Will.

The Jacobs Institute is excited to welcome Western New York native William “Will” Sutton back to the region as Chief Operating Officer starting today, May 26.
Will brings more than 30 years of experience in medical device innovation, engineering, commercialization, and organizational leadership, with executive roles at Minnetronix Medical, Forj Medical, Hansen Medical, and St. Jude Medical.

Over the course of his career, he has helped guide more than 100 medical technologies from concept to commercialization and is named inventor on four patents.
But what stood out most during the search process wasn’t only Will’s technical and operational expertise, it was his deep alignment with the Jacobs Institute’s mission to bring clinicians, researchers, innovators, and industry together to improve patient care through medical device innovation.

“The human body is the ultimate engineering challenge,” Will said. “We know more about designing for outer space or the bottom of the ocean than we do about solving problems inside the human body.”

Raised in Rochester, New York, Will also brings a strong connection to Western New York and a belief in Buffalo’s growing potential as a hub for healthcare innovation.

“There are brilliant ideas everywhere, but ideas alone are not enough,” he said. “You need the systems, collaboration, development process, training, and organizational structure to help innovations actually reach patients.”

Most recently, Will led more than 200 engineers and technical professionals focused on developing complex medical systems and scaling innovation from concept through commercialization.

His addition strengthens the Jacobs Institute’s role as a connector between research, clinical practice, and industry. He supports our mission to help accelerate life-changing technologies to patients.

Please join us in welcoming Will to Buffalo and the Jacobs Institute.

We spend a lot of time solving complex problems together. Yesterday, we focused on laser tag instead.

For our quarterly company outing, nearly two dozen Jacobs Institute team members spent the afternoon at Lasertron playing laser tag and mini golf; competing in teams, cheering each other on, and enjoying the kind of laughter that usually only happens when adults get permission to feel like kids again for a few hours.

It was an afternoon with pizza, arcade games, and a reminder that strong workplace culture is built just as much through shared experiences as it is through shared goals.

We’re grateful to work alongside a team that values collaboration, connection, and a little healthy competition.

Clinical Trials Day was marked this week, and we recognize the people and processes that make clinical research possible, from investigators and coordinators, CROs and regulators, to the investigative teams reviewing and interpreting results.

But every clinical trial starts with the proper preparation.

Before sites are activated.
Before patients are enrolled.
Before data is collected.

It starts by looking at whether the medical device is ready to get to the clinical trial stage safely.

This is a critical phase that often gets less attention. The work that happens before a trial ever begins.

For early-stage medical device companies, that’s where uncertainty is highest.

The Office of Regulatory Services and Office of Quality Services at the The Jacobs Institute helps teams navigate that space and de-risk the process through early feasibility studies, including:

• Evaluating the feasibility of initiating a U.S. device study;
• Identifying clinical and regulatory risks before submission;
• Reviewing FDA submission strategies based on device type and development stage;
• Providing substantive review of draft submissions to anticipate potential FDA feedback;
• Outlining challenges and practical pathways forward; and
• Engaging with regulatory staff to ultimately get the trial approved.

The goal is to help ensure that when you run your clinical trial, you’re giving patients potentially new hope with a novel treatment or therapy.

Because better trials don’t start at enrollment.

They start with preparation.

Happy Clinical Trials Day.