Cincinnati : Innovation + Job News

Akebia Therapeutics has stepped up to the plate, is waiting for the pitch, and is confident in its abilities to hit the ball out of the park.

"Both are potential home runs," says Ian Howes of Akebia's two revolutionary drugs for treatment of anemia, blood vessel leakage and cancer.

The Cincinnati-based biomedical company spun off of Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals in 2007. Since then, Akebia has focused on two drugs with technical-sounding names: AKB-6548 and AKB-9778.

The first has moved into the early stages of human trials and is designed as a safer alternative to traditional anemia treatments. According to Howes, chief financial officer and vice president of corporate development, one of the problems in combating anemia is the traditional treatment. Current drugs boost EPO -- the hormone that triggers production of red cells -- but at a dangerous 500 to 1,000 times the needed amount.

Akebia's AKB-6548 has shown in animal and early human trials to boost EPO production only two to three times the normal amount, Howes says.

The second drug is still six months from clinical trials, but is even more promising, Howes says. AKB-9778, designed to stop blood vessel leaks, could revolutionize treatments for diseases like sepsis and acute influenza as well as the effects of Interleukin 2, a cancer drug that can cause blood vessel leaks. Akebia's new drug stopped 100 percent of the leaks that IL2 caused in animal tests. But the most surprising -- and potentially most beneficial finding? Howes says early results indicated the new drug also stopped cancer tumors from spreading to other parts of the body.

Akebia currently has 11 employees, but Howes says once the second drug enters clinical trials, the company could grow to 15 to 20.

Source: Ian Howes, Akebia
Writer: Gene Monteith

Cincinnati State Technical and Community College is helping workers in Southwest Ohio ready for the coming green work revolution, with its emerging  Center for Innovative Technologies.

Students and funders are taking notice. The college's enrollment jumped 23.5 percent over 2008, to an all time high of 10,056. And in September, Cincinnati state won a $10,000 Excellence in Green Building Curriculum Incentive Grant from the U.S. Green Building Council for its certificate program in sustainable design and construction. It was the country's only community college that received that grant.

The Center for Innovative Technologies is the only one of its kind in Greater Cincinnati, offering more than 35 degrees, programs and certificates designed to develop the next generation of highly skilled workers.

"With a shift in the market, we're training people to get living-wage jobs, whether that's installing solar cells, sustainable construction, or design," says Ralph Wells, the college's certificate chair for sustainable design and construction. "We also look at what skills the business community says it's looking for."

The center was launched to train, or retrain, workers as technology drives a transformation in construction, medical, engineering, communications, aviation and other areas. In addition, the college offers a Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency major in Electro- Mechanical Engineering Technology.

Several areas in particular stick out with Cincinnati State's programs. There's the college's Workforce Development Center , which offers training for those seeking certification to install solar photovoltaic systems. There's also the college's co-op program that allows students to get paid work experience and a chance for employment after graduation with companies like Duke Energy, Procter & Gamble, Melink Corp. and Mazal Corp.

Source: Ralph Wells, Cincinnati State
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

It's a question every marketer asks: What's the best mix of activities to drive the most sales?

These days, more businesses are asking those questions using The Emerging Marketplace, a web-based technology developed by Cincinnati-based ThinkVine.

While the questions are age-old, ThinkVine's technology is leading edge. In fact, according to Chief Executive Officer Damon Ragusa, his company uses SimCity-like game technology to find the answers.

"We create artificial populations to create live, simulated environments of the marketplace," he explains. "It's a very realistic simulation of real environments. We care about why things happen, not just what. "

Founded in 1999 as an advanced analytics and economic modeling consulting firm, ThinkVine refined tools developed in that business to launch Emerging Marketplace earlier this year.

"There had been little evolution as to how the work was being done," Ragusa says. "You can hire a group of statisticians to (to review historical data), and they will go away for six, seven, nine months, and come back with a report."

By contrast, Ragusa says Emerging Marketplace's simulations are based on how real people use media and are real time, meaning a client can ask "what if" questions and get immediate answers.

Ragusa cites a growing clientele that includes businesses like LegalZoom, Hershey's, Del Monte, Novartis, Pepsico, Sunny Delight and Miller Brewing. With help from a $500,000 grant through CincyTech, "we are looking at triple digit growth in revenue and number of brands under contract. We currently don't report number of employees but we increased our employee base by five-fold year over year and plan to increase again in 2010 by roughly 75 percent."

Source: Damon Ragusa, ThinkVine
Writer: Gene Monteith

Anybody with a computer or PDA can tell you that there is no shortage of online guides devoted to supplying information about various venues, be they restaurants, nightclubs, galleries or concert venues. The difficulty, most of us quickly discover, is staying abreast of the ever-shifting events that occur at these venues.

Zipscene, launched in 2004 by Sameer Mungur and partner Jaydev Karande, endeavored to streamline and simplify the events-listings game by aggregating the information into one easy-to-use portal. Users found they could plan their entertainment calendars simply by browsing event types, dates, venues or location.

"The local entertainment business is very event-driven," explains Mungur, Zipscene's chief executive officer. "These operators are constantly changing their offerings in an attempt to attract a wider audience." A bar may launch a new happy hour; a restaurant might organize a wine dinner; a gallery may be planning a buzz-worthy art opening.

Not only did the site immediately improve a consumer's experience, it allowed the business owners to concentrate on other tasks. "To reach a highly fragmented audience, an operator constantly has to promote their events in print, on air, and on Facebook, Metromix, Twitter, and whatever the next thing to come along is," says Mungur. "Zipscene takes care of the things they don't have time to do."

Once Zipscene found its groove in Cincinnati, the owners focused their efforts on building a scalable solution that could be exported to additional markets. By developing a better platform and teaming up with media partners in other cities, Zipscene has already expanded into 15 new markets. The goal, adds Mungur, is to have a presence in the top 30 U.S. cities.

Source: Sameer Mungur, Zipscene
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Just a few years into its founding, AssureRx, a Mason-based personalized medicine company, has brought on a new president and CEO with more than 30 years of strategic executive experience to grow the company.

James Burns was most recently president and CEO of Maryland-based EntreMed Inc., a public, clinical-stage pharmaceuticals company that develops cancer and inflammatory disease drug treatments.

Burns now is bringing that expertise to AssureRx, founded in 2006, through a joint investment of Queen City Angels, CincyTech, Blue Chip Venture Co., Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center Tomorrow Fund, Ohio Tech Angels, DHC Tech and private investors. The company was formed to license and commercialize personalized medicine technology research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Mayo Clinic.

AssureRx is developing the next generation of medicines, recently bringing to market its first product GeneSightRx, a lab-developed test that will measure and analyze genetic variants in psychiatric medicine -- in other words, how individuals respond to the drugs they get. The test will help doctors determine the appropriate drug and dosage for each patient's individual needs, which could lessen side effects in patients taking them.

"I believe that this technology has the potential to place AssureRx on the forefront of the emerging personalized medicine market. I look forward to leading the company during this exciting period of its development," Burns says.

The test is based on pharmacogenetics, or the study of how a person's genetic makeup influences his or her body's reaction to drug treatments.

Source: Carolyn Pione of CincyTech USA, and AssureRx
Writer: Feoshia Henderson