GVSU Graduate, Anderson Peck, stands in front of the Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building, flanked by two people to his left and two people to his right.

Engineering graduate realizes vision for Medical Mile Radiopharmacy

BAMF Health can provide same-day diagnosis and treatment for cancer

STORY by Michele Coffill / PHOTOS BY KENDRA STANLEY-MILLS

At top: Standing in front of BAMF Health are, from left, Jeff VanOss, Samantha Spurr, Anderson Peck, Diana McCrumb and Paul Shields. All five earned master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from Grand Valley.

Years before moving into their multi-million dollar global headquarters on Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile, Anderson Peck ’12 said he and Anthony Chang would meet at the East Grand Rapids Public Library to plan for what would become BAMF Health.

“We would meet there nearly every day until 3:30 p.m. when they would kick us out to make room for the students,” said Peck, who earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering.

BAMF (Bold Advanced Medical Future) Health opened in August in the Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building on Michigan Street. With cutting-edge equipment unique to the U.S., BAMF Health has the ability to produce novel radiopharmaceuticals and, in some cases, offer same-day treatment to cancer patients in its theranostics clinic. Theranostics combines molecular imaging and molecular targeted radiation therapy to accurately diagnose and treat patients.

Looking through the inside of a spacious and shiny medical instrument, we see two people wearing dark blue lab coats

Grand Valley graduates Samantha Spurr, left, and Paul Shields, right, are pictured near a research hot cell, which allows them to work safely with radioactive material.

Anderson Peck and Anthony Chang designed this BAMF Health logo, which resembles the face of a lion.

It’s a high-tech and high-touch facility that provides cancer patients with treatments that until now had only been available in Germany. Peck called BAMF Health both life-changing and life-saving.

Peck and Chang, CEO and founder of BAMF Health, met while working at the Van Andel Institute. As chief technology officer and co-founder, Peck led the design of the radiopharmacy and facility. He also has recruited some key members of the 70-person staff, which include 11 Grand Valley alumni, most of whom have engineering degrees. Peck and four others came from the biomedical engineering program.

Program meets needs of industry, community

The Padnos College of Engineering and Computing launched its master’s degree biomedical engineering program in 2010, after receiving a National Science Foundation grant. Samhita Rhodes and John Farris wrote that grant. Rhodes, professor and director of the School of Engineering Graduate Program, said the Laker alumni who work at BAMF Health epitomize the engineering program’s mission of serving the needs of industry and community.

Rhodes was hired in 2007 with the intent of starting the biomedical program. Her first tasks were to meet with leaders at medical technology companies in Michigan and the Midwest like Stryker, Siemens Medical and GE Healthcare. Starting with a biomedical engineering minor in 2009, Grand Valley now offers the only undergraduate and graduate biomedical engineering programs in West Michigan.

Step 1: Molecular imaging. Icon of a body scanner.

Patients get a 3D scan with the Total Body PET/CT scanner in less than 5 minutes.

Step 2: Molecular therapy. Icon of a DNA strand.

The radiopharmacy produces targeted radio therapy medicine and is able to administer it to patients the same day.

Step 3: Monitor results. Icon of a clipboard with a medical graph on it.

Using the world’s first and most advanced SPECT/CT available, we confirm that treatment is working. Patients see a significant reduction in cancer cells within hours.

“Through those meetings, we knew we wanted this program to be very entrepreneurial, to address the needs of the growing medical technologies and devices industry in West Michigan and beyond,” Rhodes said. “We wanted to flip the switch on the adage that biomedical engineers are jacks of all trades but masters of none.”

Paul Shields and Jeff VanOss were in the same master’s degree cohort with Peck and they were among the first people Peck recruited to work at BAMF Health, well before there was a building.

“We were meeting in another building that overlooked this parcel of land and Anderson said, ‘See that patch of grass? That’s where our building will be,’” said VanOss ’10 and ’12.

It’s not lost on Peck that early hires like VanOss trusted BAMF Health’s vision. “I was asking people to make a major change in their life by painting a picture for them of what will happen,” he said.

As lead research engineer, VanOss uses artificial intelligence to study the data collected from patients. “I’m studying the images from scans and other patient data and looking for new insights to help determine if this person is a candidate for this type of treatment or not. It’s very validating to see the work being done here,” he said

Two employees stand looking and gesturing to a large screen showing a full body scan.

Jeff VanOss and Diana McCrumb, BAMF research engineers, stand in front of the results of a 3D scan at the BAMF Health headquarters in Grand Rapids. Both are biomedical engineering graduates from Grand Valley.

A person holds the handles to a machine that fits easily on their fingers

Samantha Spurr uses manipulator arms to work in a research hot cell.

Beakers with red tops are connected with small white tubes

Detail of a research chemistry system inside BAMF Health is pictured.

Unique technologies get fast-track FDA approval

BAMF Health is the first clinic in the country to use a medical imaging 3D scanner capable of capturing the entire human body in a single bed position. Made by United Imaging, the Total Body PET/CT scanner reduces the time needed to scan a patient from 40 minutes to less than five minutes, Peck said.

Shields, senior research engineer, designs devices to help the radiopharmacy operate smoothly. At the center of the radiopharmacy are two cyclotrons that produce radioactive isotopes used for medical imaging. Using targeted molecular radiation therapy, a significant reduction in cancer cells can be seen within hours.

Senior engineering project monitors level of radiation

A product designed by senior engineering majors will be installed at BAMF Health to measure and detect the level of radiation in the facility’s clinic.

Students created sensors and a control board that will monitor the levels of radiation in clinic rooms and send data to a central hub. The team of Ben Zaremba, Nicholas Biesbrock and Jacob Commyn (computer engineering graduates) and Mathew Yerian-French (electrical engineering graduate) completed the project in August.

Zaremba equated the process of meeting with BAMF Health, designing the product and meeting deadlines to being a contract employee. “It was a great experience and something that will look great on a resume,” he said.

Anderson Peck, chief technology officer and co-founder, said the infrastructure at BAMF Health lends itself to more senior projects.

“They updated the sensor technology to where we needed it to be. And that’s something we couldn’t purchase, it’s something that needed to be created for us,” Peck said.

“The radiopharmacy can produce a wide variety of medicines and produce them the day of administering it to patients,” Shields ’10 and ’12 said. Because it’s such a unique delivery method, machines used to deliver the medicine could not be purchased “off the shelf,” he said.

Shields works with Samantha Spurr, who earned two Grand Valley engineering degrees including a master’s in biomedical engineering in 2021. Now a research engineer, Spurr said the co-op experience she had as a student set her up for success at BAMF Health.

“Working at a startup requires you to do a lot of different tasks,” Spurr said, adding she is called on to train new staff members on automation processes.

The initial patients who were seen at BAMF Health suffered from advanced prostate cancer. Plans are to move to offering treatment for patients suffering from a wide variety of cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Peck said approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for BAMF Health to treat prostate cancer patients was fast-tracked, as was approval for insurance reimbursement from most insurers.

“We expected approval processes to take two years and had that in our business plan. It took two months,” he said.

Peck’s thumbprint is throughout the facility, from the style and color of furniture in the clinic to the mobile workspaces that easily allow teams from different disciplines to collaborate.

“It’s difficult to put into words, I have invested so much of myself in this facility over these last years. Then in mid-summer to have our first patient to come through was very gratifying.

“We set out to help people and this is only the beginning. More and more patients have come through and that is reassurance that we are on the right path,” he said.