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Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship

We are a dedicated institute for student entrepreneurs across campus and beyond. We aim to maximize your success by fostering your entrepreneurial mindset, promote inter-disciplinary collaboration and provide support for the creation and development of your new ventures. Jumpstart your ideas and get involved today!

Tune in for excitement!

Passion. Potential. Pitches. Don't miss any of the 2025 New Venture Challenge excitement.

Tune in Friday, April 11 at 1 p.m. for great ideas and fierce competition. Then, join the judges, mentors, spectators and teams as they see who is going home with thousands of dollars in venture financing. The awards broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. and one team will walk away as the overall best venture. 

Start your entrepreneurial journey

Central Michigan University’s College of Business Administration is the home of the Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship and the first Department of Entrepreneurship in the state of Michigan. We are a student-centric hub where experiential, curricular, and external entrepreneurial opportunities intersect.

Our mission is to maximize student success by fostering a campus-wide entrepreneurial mindset that promotes inter-disciplinary collaboration and the creation of new ventures.

We aim to create innovative programming, boost cross-campus and ecosystem collaboration and provide a comprehensive mentoring program.

Our institute provides extracurricular opportunities and is open to all undergraduate and graduate CMU students.

Student opportunities

  • Meet experienced alumni, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors, and other business and political leaders.
  • Learn practical skills, innovative thinking, and connect with mentors and entrepreneurial resources.
  • Attend skill-building workshops and compete in pitch competitions and Hackathons.
  • Take part in special scholarship programs and travel experiences.
  • Pitch your venture at our signature New Venture Challenge event and compete for up to $20,000 in cash awards.

      Find your path

      Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur?

      Every journey is unique. Explore the opportunities that interest you.

      Student researches copine-A's role, shedding light on cellular processes and cancer functions

      by Henry Heller

      Central Michigan’s second-year Ph.D. student Cody Morrison is working alongside Cynthia Damer, Ph.D., in the Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology Program (BCMB) to study a family of proteins called copines found in the soil-dwelling amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. Dictyostelium are single-celled organisms, and the Damer lab uses them as model organisms to study and understand cancer cells and cellular processes in humans, who also have copine proteins. 

      Their research is mainly focused on a protein called copine-A and how it might regulate cellular processes. Through the use of molecular techniques, such as western blotting and RNA sequencing,  the Damer lab hopes to elucidate the role copine-A may play in cellular signaling, development, and calcium regulation. Through the use of genetic mutants, they can observe phenotypic differences in cellular processes like growth and signaling inside the amoeba. The researchers in the Damer lab believe that through further research they will be able to develop a better understanding of how cancer functions inside the human body, considering that humans have similar copine proteins. 

      If you wish to know more about their research, they currently have two manuscripts submitted that should be available for viewing within the next year. 

      This story is brought to you by the  Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

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