At the forefront of Michigan\'s economic resurgence is the University Research Corridor, an alliance of Michigan\'s three largest research institutions-Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. According to the 2011 Empowering Michigan Economic Impact Report released Oct. 4, Michigan\'s University Research Corridor continues to grow in areas critical to the state\'s resurgence: student enrollments, degrees granted in the high-tech and high-demand sectors, number of alumni living in the state contributing to the state\'s economy through wages and taxes, research and development expenditures and start-up companies. Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour said the report highlights the impact of having universities and business moving forward in tandem. \"Business and universities are both part of the solution to our economic challenges,\" Gilmour said. \"It\'s the combined power that can really make a difference.\'\'

The next major innovations in medicine could be on the drawing boards in Detroit, including a bra with ultrasound that can detect breast cancer and a miniature wireless pump to help millions of Americans with failing hearts. The medical inventions are among more than dozen in development at the new Henry Ford Health System Innovation Institute, a think tank for creating medical products opening Monday on Henry Ford\'s Detroit campus. The institute unites Detroit medical and biotechnology researchers at Henry Ford and Wayne State University with engineering, design and medical students from a half-dozen area schools. A major collaboration for the new institute involves Wayne State's College of Engineering, where microchip technology expert Gregory Auner is working on more than a half-dozen projects, including several using Raman spectroscopy for cancer detection. Auner\'s team also is making a miniature heart-assist pump for people with congestive heart failure, a common problem in elderly patients. And a team he heads is developing a 4D ultrasound device inserted into a silicone bra that immediately picks up signals of cancerous cells. A photo of Auner is included.

Learning from Detroit\'s Midtown area\'s success is the focus of a daylong session at Wayne State University, 12:30-6 p.m., Tuesday, at the McGregor Memorial Conference Center. The event, sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers, features representatives from retail and local government who will share their strategies for attracting new business to struggling areas. Speakers include Red Elk Banks, executive operations coordinator for Whole Foods, which plans to open a store in Midtown in spring 2013. Also featured is Sue Mosey, president of the University Cultural Center Association, which has been instrumental in bringing development to the area and incentives for local employees to live near work.

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, asthma is the third ranking cause of hospitalization of children younger than 15 in the United States. Richard Slatcher, assistant professor of psychology in Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a five-year, $3 million grant by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to study 180 children between the ages of 10 and 15 in Detroit, using an innovative home-based naturalistic assessment tool called the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR). The EAR will measure whether identified risky family behaviors are associated with greater asthma morbidity - such as symptom severity, emergency room visits and pulmonary function. "This is an important study for children in Detroit, an area that has troubling high incidences of asthma morbidity and mortality," said Hilary Ratner, vice president for research and interim dean of the Graduate School at Wayne State University.

The 2011 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) football season is at the halfway point. With five games to play the divisional races are tight, and many teams still have their sights set on the GLIAC Championship. Wayne State University (5-0, 4-0), No. 6 in the latest AFCA Division II Top 25 poll, will host Lake Erie College (1-4, 0-4) on Saturday. The Warriors defeated Northern Michigan University last week 30-28 in Marquette, while Lake Erie lost at Ferris State University 38-14. Last season Wayne State defeated Lake Erie 28-16.

Chet Privett has multiple roles for the undefeated football team at Wayne State University. The highest-ranking college football team in Michigan doesn\'t reside in Ann Arbor or East Lansing. The undefeated Wayne State Warriors, currently the sixth-ranked team in the nation in Division II, are putting together perhaps the greatest season in the history of the program. Sophomore fullback Chet Privett, a De La Salle grad, embodies this and has become one of the unsung heroes for coach Paul Winters. \"What he brings to the team is a mentality, he\'s so tough,\" Winters said. \"I think that helps everybody else be tough. He\'s always into it.\" A photo of Privett is included.

Although Michigan\'s universities are working together more than ever, there\'s no need to consolidate them into one statewide system, the presidents of the state\'s biggest three said Tuesday at the Detroit Economic Club. The comments came as a new bill started working its way through the state Legislature to establish a new commission to look at restructuring the university system. The commission would be tasked with analyzing the current governing system and then making recommendations, which could include consolidating some universities. The university presidents said keeping the universities autonomous would be best for the state. WSU President Allan Gilmour said he does not think there is much clamor for consolidation. \"The alternative (to autonomous universities) is a czar, a commission in Lansing,\" he said, adding he did not think any of the business leaders in the audience would want politicians running their companies. Regarding the University Research Corridor, the three presidents said the corridor is devoted to bringing university resources to bear on Michigan\'s problems, particularly in terms of economic development and in developing entrepreneurship. \"Entrepreneurship isn\'t just high-tech companies,\" Gilmour said. \"It\'s also things like retail.\" A photo of the presidents is included.

At the forefront of Michigan's economic resurgence is the University Research Corridor (URC), an alliance of Michigan's three largest research institutions - Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. According to the 2011 Empowering Michigan Economic Impact Report released yesterday, Michigan's University Research Corridor continues to grow in areas critical to the state's resurgence: student enrollments, degrees granted in the high-tech and high-demand sectors, number of alumni living in the state contributing to the state's economy through wages and taxes, research and development expenditures, and start-up companies. The report showed that the URC invested more than $1.8 billion in research, had an economic impact of more than $15.2 billion on the state, and educates 137,583 students. The universities have more than a million alumni with more than 573,000 living in Michigan. Allan Gilmour, president of Wayne State University, said the report highlights the impact of having universities and business moving forward in tandem. "Business and universities are both part of the solution to our economic challenges," Gilmour said. "It's the combined power that can really make a difference."

The presidents of Michigan\'s three largest public universities on Tuesday called proposed legislation that could result in consolidation of the institutions\' governing boards unnecessary. Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour, Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon, and University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman spoke at the Detroit Economic Club, saying the proposed plan -- ostensibly an effort to encourage greater cooperation among universities -- is redundant as many universities already work contiguously, the Detroit Free Press reports. Gilmour said a consolidated governing board would be centralized at the state Capitol and wouldn\'t be popular. \"The alternative (to independent universities) is a czar, a commission in Lansing,\" he said, according to the Free Press. A photo of President Gilmour is included.

The Michigan Diversity Council announced the appointment of representatives from sponsor organizations Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, KPMG, Michigan First Credit Union, MRM Worldwide and Wayne State University, to its Advisory Board. Included among the Wayne State appointees are: Victor Green, director of community relations, and Terry Margolis, director of educational outreach and executive and professional development.

A story about Reading Works, the new coalition of business, civic, educational, philanthropic and media partners, mentions Wayne State University's participation as one of the partner organizations on the alliance. The campaign is raising money and seeking volunteers to support nine agencies in the region that provide instruction for adults who want to learn to read. The effort is seen as key to improving the work force in the Detroit area to attract employers and fill available jobs that require reading skills. (Print edition only)

The presidents of Michigan\'s three top research universities are holding a panel discussion at the Detroit Economic Club. The event starts at 12:40 p.m. Tuesday at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel. The panel includes Mary Sue Coleman of the University of Michigan, Allan Gilmour of Wayne State University and Lou Anna Simon of Michigan State University. The group says its three schools attract 93 percent of all external academic research and development dollars that come into Michigan and spend about $1.6 billion on research each year.

Fox 2 reporter Deena Centofanti's "Health Works" segment explores research on premature births being conducted at Wayne State University's Perinatology Research Branch. A discovery made by researchers could save hundreds of thousands of babies from being born too soon across the country. Doctors know that women who have what is known as a \"short\" cervix are at higher risk for delivering a premature birth. A new gel containing progesterone can be rubbed on the cervix and help lower the risk. Dr. Roberto Romero, chief of the program in Perinatal Research and Obstetrics and Professor of Molecular Obstetrics and Genetics at Wayne State; and Dr. Sonia Hassan, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Wayne State University School of Medicine and associate dean for Maternal, Perinatal and Child Health, were featured in the story.

The General Motors/Wayne State University Supply Chain Case Competition brought 16 university teams to Detroit in late September. The program, developed by professors at Wayne State\'s business school in conjunction with supply chain managers at sponsoring companies, focused on the issues and challenges of buying advanced technology components for electric vehicles. It required students to analyze such factors as component and logistics costs, sourcing tradeoffs, global procurement, and recycling. Wayne State University was among the regional winners.

The cost of gasoline has drivers feeling the pain at the pump nationwide. Bio-fuel could be the solution to weaning the U.S. off its dependency on foreign oil, but in recent years the high cost of feed stock has idled progress in the bio-fuel industry. Now a Wayne State University start-up company is hoping to change all of that. NextCAT is developing a product that will make bio-diesel production more cost effective, and if all goes well it could be available for sale next year.

WSU senior free safety Jeremy Jones knocked down a fourth-and-10 pass to help the undefeated Warriors win 30-28 in Marquette against Northern Michigan last Saturday. James Jackson took the opening kickoff 90-yards for a touchdown. Quarterback Mickey Mohner was 15-for-28 passing for 233 yards for Wayne State. The Warriors racked up 410 yards of offense.

The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index continued to slide in September, falling to 53.1 from 53.8. It was the sixth straight month that the index has fallen. "We are now starting to see the greater uncertainty reflected in our survey responses," Nitin Paranjpe, an economist and supply-chain specialist at Wayne State University's business school, said in a press release. "This month, more than one-third of responding purchasing managers said they expect a less stable economy. This shows a marked deterioration going forward, considering that figure was less than 7 percent in July."

Wayne State University's Another Chance adult education program is mentioned in this story profiling Tulsha Morsaw who benefitted from the services, and obtained her GED. \"I wanted it so bad. I wanted to be back in society,\" Morsaw says. Alesia Williams, the project coordinator, says Morsaw and other students receive special attention meant to keep them encouraged and attending classes. Reading Works offers an opportunity for Another Chance to reach many more students in need of a GED in a worsening economy, she says. A sidebar lists WSU tutoring locations.

Nate McCaughtry, Wayne State associate professor and director of the Center for School Health, spoke about the university's new partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield to address obesity among school children in Detroit. McCaughtry discussed the link between academic achievement and nutrition and physical activity.

The Southeast Michigan Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) dropped slightly from 53.8 in August to 53.1 in September. Levels above 50 in this index indicate economic growth, so the lower number means the economy was growing a bit more slowly in September than it was in August. The Southeast Michigan PMI, a composite index of local economic activity, is calculated from a monthly survey of purchasing managers administered by faculty from the School of Business Administration at Wayne State University and the local chapter of the Institute for Supply Management. Nitin Paranjpe, an economist and global supply chain management faculty member in Wayne State's business school, said that the Southeast Michigan economy experienced growth this month in spite of the increasing uncertainty and volatility in the U.S. economy as well as the international economy, primarily Europe.