Randal Charlton Receives Henry J. Heimlich Award for Innovative Medicine

DETROIT, MICH.   What do you get when you Google the words “Asterand” and “Heimlich?”  Mr. Randal Charlton, interim director of TechTown located on the campus of Wayne State University says, “Google will cough up the whole story; be careful not to choke when you read this!”

Mr. Charlton who is also Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Special Assistant to the President for Economic Development at Wayne State University , and founder and former CEO of Asterand, was recently presented the Henry J. Heimlich Award for Innovative Medicine from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).  PCRM is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit health organization that promotes preventative medicine.

This award recognizes inspiration in medicine and research and was presented to Mr. Charlton by Dr. Heimlich and actress Lisa Edelstein at PCRM’s Art of Compassion Gala on April 14.  Mr. Charlton was recognized for spearheading the use of discarded human tissue for drug testing and medical research. 

A number of years ago, Mr. Charlton saw a need to study disease in human tissues, genes and populations, and founded Asterand to do just that.  By developing quality-control methods for tissue collection at participating hospitals, Asterand now supplies human tissues for research on numerous diseases including breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and many others.  The company also aids pharmaceuticals to assess potential drugs directly on human tissues, thus improving the drug evaluation process time and decreasing the usage of animals in testing. 

Who knew that Googling the words “Heimlich” and “Asterand” would cough up such a prestigious honor for a Michigan-based entrepreneur!

Wayne State University is one of the nation’s pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. 

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