Brandon McNaughton, PhD — The Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation

Research Scientist, Emergency Medicine

As a tech entrepreneur, scientist and inventor, Dr. McNaughton has devoted his career to adding value to early-stage technology development and startup companies. He has founded two high-tech startups—serving as CTO at the venture capital-backed diagnostic company, Life Magnetics, Inc. Life Magnetics was founded to commercialize a novel biosensor product that was spun out of the University of Michigan.

Dr. McNaughton’s research interests are focused on developing new technologies for life science and in vitro diagnostics applications.This includes magnetic particle synthesis, fabrication, dynamics, and applications; development and application of biosensors; and innovation/technology development principles and good practices.

He currently works as an Entrepreneur in Residence with Detroit Innovate, which is an early stage venture capital fund at Invest Detroit and is an Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist at the UM Department of Emergency Medicine. Additionally, he teaches Entrepreneurship for the UM Center for Entrepreneurship.

Dr. McNaughton received his BS in Physics from California State University-Bakersfield in 2002 and his PhD in Applied Physics from UM in 2007. He then worked at the UM Department of Physics as a research fellow from 2008-2009, followed by assistant research scientist in Biomedical Engineering, where he was also a translational research scholar until 2010. In previous roles, he has formed and led interdisciplinary teams, ranging from clinicians to scientists, to accomplish award-winning research and value-added milestones for technology development.