Toledo : Innovation + Job News

On Front Street in East Toledo, sandwiched between two abandoned buildings, LexaMed � a medical and pharmaceutical company �opened for business with eight employees in 2006. And hasn't looked back.

Today, LexaMed stands out as a neighborhood bright spot, even though it's surrounded by years of economic neglect.

LexaMed tests medical devices and pharmaceuticals, does auditing and conducts laboratory work. The company's own product line, BEC Growth-Chek � a liquid suspension containing micro-organisms for testing � is helping to take LexaMed to the next level.

The company now boasts 30 employees, not counting an additional 45 contracted employees. President Robert Reich proudly points to the company's hundreds of years of combined in-the-lab experience.

"I think we have a success story to tell, especially in Toledo," says Reich. "The environment in Northwest Ohio is certainly changing. We can't live on automotive batteries and auto parts anymore."

When LexaMed took over the previous company, the building had fallen into receivership. "The whole area has seen better days," he says.

Now, LexaMed is in the process of purchasing the 25,000-square-foot building. And plans are also in the works to spend some cash to fix up the aging facility and its 10 labs.

"It shows our commitment to staying in Ohio," Reich says. "And staying in Toledo."

He says he "wouldn't be surprised" if the company hired an additional half-dozen employees this year. LexaMed is also considering branching out its operations.

"We're constantly looking to improve," says Reich. "We're expanding our product offering, and expanding on our technologies. We want to stay current."

Source: Robert Reich, Lexamed
Writer: Colin McEwen

The University of Toledo is already well known for its role in incubating young alternative energy companies, like solar products manufacturer Xunlight. Now it has a campus devoted purely to the development and commercialization of advanced and alternative energy technologies.

Last week, UT signed the first two leases for its new Scott Park Campus of Energy and Innovation, dedicated in September as the university's newest technology accelerator, says Chuck Lehnert, vice president of facilities and construction. The university calls the 177-acre campus the first in the country committed solely to advancing renewable, alternative and sustainable energies.

"Our university's mission is to improve the human condition," Lehnert says. UT's pioneer work in new energy options has made "renewable and sustainable energy part of our DNA. Scott Park demonstrates our commitment."

The campus will serve as an alternative energy laboratory for teaching, research and demonstration and an accelerator for new ideas coming to the marketplace. The hope is that resulting new companies will locate within the UT technology corridor and spur economic growth in northwest Ohio, Lehnert says.

While the Scott Park Campus hopes to make an economic impact on northwest Ohio, it hopes to make no impact on the environment. A 10-kilowatt solar array and a 100-foot wind turbine have already been installed at Scott Park. And there are plans for a larger, 1.12 megawatt solar array to be installed on eight acres near the UT soccer field. The goal: a neutral carbon footprint.

Source: Chuck Lehnert, University of Toledo
Writer: Gene Monteith

What do you get when an occupational therapist brainstorms with a nuclear engineer?

If you're a child with a disability, you get a chance at a better future.

Elisabeth Wharton, an occupational therapist for the Toledo Public Schools, wanted to help her pupils develop very basic skills. She asked husband Randy � trained to study and solve problems � for some ideas.

"Some of her kids had problems with gross motor skills, they couldn't do things like other kids because their hands got in the way," Randy says.

The solution: "Cuttables" and "Traceables," patent-pending round and square shapes with special handles that a child can more easily grip. Magnets enable the shapes to be changed and repositioned as needed. A square can become a house! A circle can be a face! Even a vision-impaired child has been able to create pictures with the shapes, which are "in pretty colors and fun to use," Wharton says. "They look cool and like neat toys."

The Whartons maintain their day jobs while running Createable Learning Concepts. TheToledo Chamber of Commerce has provided assistance and the Regional Growth Partnership granted Createable Learning $10,265 while providing coaching and counseling to help the start-up get off the ground. Wharton says although the Chamber and RGP usually back tech ventures, they advanced this one because its products (manufactured at Plastic Technologies Inc. in Holland, Ohio) help children develop higher levels of independence and achievement, which will make them better students and thus, better adults.

Next up for the Whartons: Web site upgrades and partnering with major distributors. Once Cuttables and Traceables are in stores and sales volume picks up, the Whartons will delegate some tasks and begin hiring.

Source: Randy Wharton, Createable Learning Concepts
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

A plasma volume expander may sound like something plucked from the pages of a science fiction novel, but to a trio of University of Toledo researchers working on the innovative lifesaving drug, it's very real.

After working with a patient in 1999 whose blood pressure was critically unstable as plasma seeped out of her blood vessels, frustrated UT doctors Joseph Shapiro and Ragheb Assaly sought out a treatment.

They teamed up with UT biochemist J. David Dignam and found a solution in their plasma volume expander, Pegylated albumin -- or PEG-Alb as it is known as in the biotech biz.

Toledo-based ADS Biotechnology was born.

The researchers created a molecule similar to the native albumin already present in the blood, but with a larger diameter to prevent leakage into vital organs that can cause serious injury or death.

PEG-Alb is the only known treatment for CLS -- a biomedical stat that is bound to drum up some serious attention� and cash.

The UT college of medicine -- where Shapiro is the department chair and Assaly is a pulmonary-critical care specialist -- has contributed $1 million. The northwest Ohio-based Rocket Ventures Ignite! Grant was for $50,000, then Rocket Ventures gave a $250,000 investment courtesy of the Third Frontier Program. The U.S. Department of Defense committed $200,000.

Mary Shapiro, chief financial officer of ADS Biotechnology, says PEG-Alb could be a crucial advancement for military medicine as a resuscitation fluid on the front lines.

The firm is now working to set up clinical trials in hopes of marketing PEG-Alb in the next three to five years.

Source: Mary Shapiro
Writer: Colin McEwen