biomedical : Innovation + Job News

Arteriocyte, a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company with offices in Cleveland and Hopkinton, Mass., has been awarded a $1 million grant by the Ohio Department of Development's Third Frontier Commission. The company, which develops proprietary stem cell and tissue engineering based therapies, will use the grant for the development and commercialization of hematopoietic stem cell expansion for clinical applications.

The move is part of the Ohio Third Frontier Biomedical Program to accelerate the company's Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) of its NANEX technology for clinical use under the product name HemaEx.

"The technology takes a small amount of stem cells and gets a large amount of stem cells," explains Adam Sorkin, Arteriocyte's director of research and development. "We are converting our existing process that is suitable for research to a process that is suitable for use in humans."

Arteriocyte's therapies help find cures for chronic heart disease and peripheral artery disease, among other diseases.

The company, which was founded in 2004 as a spin-off out of Case Western Reserve University, has seen rapid growth in the past couple of years, going from four employees to 80. The expansion will create between 15 and 20 jobs in the production facility.

Source: Adam Sorkin
Writer: Karin Connelly

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication, Fresh Water Cleveland.

Fifteen years after opening its doors, BIOSTART, Cincinnati's life sciences start-up center, is changing the way it does business. In order to remain competitive in a fast-changing business market, it is closing its lab space and moving from its location near the University of Cincinnati.

BIOSTART President Carol Frankenstein says the organization will focus exclusively on business services, making the hard shift as its closes its current facility at the Hoxworth Blood Center in September. She says the change was both a business and a strategic decision.

"Today, companies, even at the very early stages, are outsourcing their commercialization and development activity. That includes clinical and preclinical work, development and manufacturing," Frankenstein says. "That increase in outsourcing reduces the cost of getting a product to market. That makes lab space less necessary. Because of the economy, there is so much low-cost and even free space available; our companies have the ability to benefit from that."

BIOSTART serves life sciences entrepreneurs in health care service and product development. Since 1996, it's helped 125 companies launch their business and raise $180 million. Three-fourths of those businesses have had successful exits or are currently in business, the organization reports.

BIOSTART is working with local business advocates, including the Hamilton County Business Center, Uptown Consortium and CincinnatiUSA Regional Chamber to help its 18 tenant companies (which occupy about 65 percent of its space) to relocate.

Frankenstein said BIOSTART is looking for a new space downtown. She will remain with the organization as will three entrepreneurs in residence. The organization has received $500,000 in funding, half from the Ohio Department of Development and half from private sources, to aid in the transition.

"We're using the grant for the next 12 months to explore new service delivery models," she says.

BIOSTART's current business services include helping companies put together a management team and connecting with and applying for funding sources.

Source: Carol Frankenstein, BIOSTART
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication, Soapbox.

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

From food service equipment and industrial cutting products to the world of bioscience innovation seems an unlikely leap for a business to make. But Birmingham-based Bettcher Industries is about to accomplish just that, awarded a $1 million Ohio Third Frontier grant to launch a new biomedical product line.

The grant, among $13 million announced on July 15, pairs Bettcher with Community Tissue Services, a Dayton non-profit tissue bank. The partners' $1 million will fund an initial 18-month project to launch Bettcher Medical Debridement Technologies, adapting current products for use in the biomedical field.

"We've been working with Community Tissue for about three years already, but in a very limited way" explains Bettcher president and COO Don Esch. "We recognized early on that a lot of our products were not entirely dissimilar from the kinds of things that were needed in their field. (The grant) is going to open a whole new world for us."

Founded as a machine shop in Cleveland in 1944, Bettcher has become an international business with offices in Switzerland, Brazil and China, among others, and sales to more than 50 countries worldwide. The company moved to Birmingham in the early 1970s, becoming a local landmark with its signature red-barn corporate headquarters just south of the Ohio Turnpike.

The new biomedical line will put existing products -- ranging from precision circular knives to pneumatic cutting tools -- to use in tissue and bone recovery. The powered circular knives already used in meat processing and taxidermy can also be used to harvest layers of skin for use in the treatment of burn patients. Meanwhile, other Bettcher products are ideally suited to harvesting bone and marrow for other transplant surgeries.

Initially, it will also mean 11 new jobs for Bettcher during the run of the 18-month launch, with the possibility of another 40-50 new jobs once the product line gains momentum, adds Esch.

"It's pretty sophisticated stuff, coming from a little red barn in the middle of a cornfield in Ohio," he chuckles.

Source: Don Esch, Bettcher Industries
Writer: Dave Malaska

Imagine how frustrating it would be if you could not let family members and friends know that you understood what they were saying to you.

That is the dilemma that many stroke and brain injury victims face each day.

Brooke Hallowell, a professor of communications sciences and disorders at Ohio University in Athens, is working to make it possible for medical professionals and communication therapists to assess a person's language comprehension even when the individual cannot speak or move.

She is working with Hans Kruse, professor of information and telecommunication systems, and LC Technologies to produce technology known as Eyetracking Comprehension Assessment System, or ECAS, that allows a clinician to evaluate a person's ability to understand questions or commands based on eye movement.

Twenty years in development, ECAS has just completed a phase I project with $700,000 in funding from the National Institutes for Health. The research is about to enter phase II and could be ready for commercial application within a few years, says Hallowell.

This technology could provide significant quality of life boosts for victims of stroke, brain injuries or individuals with congenital brain dysfunctions by allowing them to participate more fully in their treatment, to live at home instead of in an institution or to socialize more.

The system works by using infrared light to monitor eye movement and check for fixation on certain images shown on a screen while a clinician communicates questions or commands.

"When the eyes remain focused on a particular area you can measure comprehension," says Hallowell. "You have to have stable eye movement to see things."

Although eye tracking technology has been used in other areas, such as research on how healthy individuals perform tasks, such as driving, piloting a plane or using certain products, it has not been developed to help with victims of brain injuries before now.

"Knowing how much a person understands is critical for many things in their life," says Hallowell. "Now we can get a better picture of that."

Source: Brooke Hallowell, Ohio University
Writer: Val Prevish

A pair of Ohio University professors who turned their academic pursuits into a drug discovery company are getting closer to their goals.

Chemistry Professors Stephen Bergmeier and Mark McMills launched Promiliad Biopharma in 2002 after failing to get a National Institute of Health research grant for similar work they were doing at the university. Their research looked at ways to combat antibiotic resistance to so-called "superbugs." One of the most commonly known is MRSA or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, an infection is caused by a staph bacteria that has become resistant to traditional antibiotics.

"We were doing academic research and applied for an NIH grant to help fund it. We failed to get the grant, but when the reviews came back a couple of reviewers said our application sounded more like a business plan than an academic research grant," says Bergmeier.

An idea was born.

"We said, Let's make a go of it," Bergmeier says.

The company is currently in preclinical trials. Its technology works by stopping a process bacteria needs to grow. If that process is hindered, the bacteria die. Antibiotic resistant indirections have become a growing international health problem, with a lack of new drugs to treat them.

Promiliad Biopharma is located in Ohio University's Innovation Center, an incubator which recently opened the Biotechnology Research and Development Facility to support the region's biotech research community.

Promiliad Biopharma has six employees and a part-time secretary. It's been awarded about $4 million in funding through the NIH's Small Business Technology Transfer program. It recently received a $100,000 grant from TechGrowth Ohio, an Athens-based development organization that receives funding from Ohio Third Frontier.

Promiliad Biopharma will continue its preclinical testing for the next couple of years, and will file an Investigational New Drug application with the U.S. Food and Drug Adminstration, Bergmeier says.

Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Stephen Bergmeier, Promiliad Biopharma

What's really going on with that knee that's giving you trouble? A new device from JointVue, with headquarters in the TechColumbus incubator, may soon give your orthopedic surgeon the ability to see and hear the problem.

JointVue Vision-D Plus, a medical device that combines 3-D ultrasound and Joint Sound (vibration analysis) allows analysis of joint abnormalities through the use of vision and sound -- in real time. The company says a major benefit of the technology will be the capture of 3-D dynamic joint motion, without exposure of the patient to radiation. In addition to competing against X-ray, 3-D computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and fluoroscopy, JointVue is maintaining 3-D anatomic joint databases expected to be of interest to orthopedic companies.

JointVue Vision-D is one of four tools under development to make treatment of joint abnormalities simpler and more precise. Joint Guide, will allow scanning of the joint to allow more precise placement of injectables.

The venture is lead locally by Chief Medical Officer Ray Wasielewski, M.D., a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who specializes in minimally invasive hip and knee replacement.

"These new technologies will allow us to move treatment of joint abnormalities into the offices of medical practitioners and away from the offices of specialists and hospitals, says Wasielewski, "and that will reduce costs."

Clinical trials of parts of the system are currently under way at Grant Hospital in Columbus, Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

Sources: Ray Wasielewski, JointVue; company and industry websites
Writer: Dana Griffith

Scientists have long recognized nitric oxide as an important building block of human life. Arguably as critical as oxygen, the blood-born compound is critical in transmitting information between cells within our bodies. It's key to vasoregulation, as well as the immune system and neurological processes. But because it's hard to isolate from blood, all of its functions aren't fully understood.

An Ohio company, Accord Biosciences Inc., hopes to change that.

The three-year-old company, based in Sylvania, is advancing the field of study to develop practical sensor systems to measure nitric oxide. Using a proprietary membrane and stabilization techniques allows them to separate nitric oxide from its protein carriers, giving researchers its best look yet at the compound.

"Up until now, it's been very difficult to study nitric oxide and its carriers because we haven't had the right tools," says Accord president Kristyn Aalto. "Based on that need and the criticality for better tools, out reception has been overwhelming."

Last year, the company roped in $3.8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Cleveland Clinic and venture capitalists. While currently focused primarily on the research applications of their work, Aalto says Accord's work will eventually find its way to clinical use, leading to earlier diagnosis and treatment for a range of hyper- and hypotensive diseases, such as pulmonary hypertension, preeclampsia in pregnant women and sepsis. It could also head to market as a hand-held, glucose meter-type self-diagnostic tool.

"There's unlimited potential," Aalto adds.

Incorporated in 2008, Accord spun out from research conducted at the University of Michigan.  Late last year, the company moved its administrative headquarters to Sylvania in northwest Ohio to take advantage of new partnerships and opportunities, but also took an office in Cleveland's Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center, home to a technology commercialization consortium of 20 emerging cardiovascular companies.

With seven employees split between Sylvania and the lab back in Ann Arbor, Aalto says major growth is expected for the company over the next 18 months. By the end of this year, its lab will move to Ohio. By the end of 2012, Accord's staff is expected to double, as they continue their work, she says.

"We've already had a very positive response from the research community," she explains. "It's not too hard to anticipate just as positive a response from the clinical community, too."

Source: Kristyn Aalto, Accord Biosciences
Writer: Dave Malaska

Any sober driver knows you can see better in dark places with your headlights on. Akron based LifeSaving Medical Solutions is applying the same principle to tricky emergency and surgical intubations. And their device was new-tech enough to land on a 2009 episode of NBC's ER.

Developed by physician Noam Gavriely and manufactured in Israel in response to the sometimes difficult intubations of wounded military personnel, ETView's Tracheoscopic Ventilation Tube incorporates a video camera and lighted tip to allow medical personnel to see, on any connected monitor, the pathway the device is traveling -- making certain the tube arrives in the appropriate place. Once ETView is in place, the system allows ongoing visual monitoring of the airway, which, it turns out, is very important.

Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) can occur when excess excretions build up in airways. In addition to making patients very ill, VAP creates millions of dollars each year in additional hospital costs. ETView's ongoing airway visualization allows hospital staff to determine when removal of secretions is needed to avoid this complication.

LifeSaving Medical Solutions CEO, Eric Cooper, says growth of the company, since it's founding in 2009 has been slow -- about 2 percent per year -- as the sales force works its way through hospital purchasing committees. But several current studies -- and the fact that the company has been able to reduce the core cost of the device by nearly 50 percent -- should begin to spur growth in the near future.

"We're the only one with this technology," Cooper says, "and several doctors want to get involved with us and champion its use."

Source: Eric Cooper, LifeSaving Medical Solutions
Writer: Dana Griffith

A University of Cincinnati neurobiologist may soon help mental health researchers understand depression at a more effective level than ever before, thanks to an innovative research method and a nearly-quarter-million-dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health.

James Herman, PhD, received a two-year NIH grant worth $248,159 in its first year to fund research into the role that microRNA (miRNA) - molecular-level controllers that help regulate the brain's chemistry -- play in how the brain reacts to stress.

"We're attempting to develop this as a discovery platform to understand what's going on in the brain," Herman says. He explains that this research, in which scientists analyze how miRNA in mice affect the brain's mood-regulating prefrontal cortex, is very early-stage work in the exploration of the molecular process behind depression.

But the ultimate implications of Herman's work could be significant. He explained that miRNA in mice function the same as miRNA in humans: identify a link between mouse miRNA and a brain dysfunction, and there's good reason to look for a similar relationship in the human brain. Beyond this tantalizing fact, though, scientists don't completely understand how miRNA works, or even how many types of miRNA exist in the brain.

Herman's team is tackling this hurdle with a new analysis technique, called deep sequencing, to analyze miRNA at a high level of detail.

"The method is really, really powerful," he says. Processing one set of data from a sample, for example, can keep lab computers running nonstop for a weekend. Thanks to a collaboration with informatics researchers at the University of Michigan, Herman's team can spot relationships and patterns in this sea of data, results that could help scientists link certain miRNA function -- or dysfunction -- to the stress-processing problems underlying depression and mood disorders.

These results could eventually give psychiatrists a new weapon against mood disorders. Rather than giving a patient medicine that floods the brain with mood-altering chemicals - a practice that often comes with severe side effects - physicians could one day provide treatment that fixes the way the brain controls its own chemistry. Medicine has a long way to go to reach that point, but the work Herman's team is undertaking at UC could be a major step in the right direction.

Source: James Herman, University of Cincinnati
Writer: Matt Cunningham

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication, Soapbox.

For people who suffer from tinnitus, or an uncontrollable ringing in the ears, finding relief from the disorder can be frustrating and expensive.

That frustration is something Ohio University clinical affairs director Jeffery DiGiovanni and Chillicothe VA Chief Audiologist Stephen Rizzo Jr., know well through their work with sufferers. The duo's compassion and ingenuity led them to create a new device that uses readily available MP3 technology to alleviate the ringing.

They have created wireless ear buds -- that also double as a hearing aid device -- that wirelessly streams sounds from an iPod-like player designed to play customized sounds that counteracts the buzz.

"We're deeply entrenched in hearing aid technology," DiGiovanni said. "Many people who suffer from tinnitus also use hearing aids, and we were both disappointed in the inability for manufacturers to come up with a device that would serve the needs of tinnitus sufferers in an elegant manner."

The ear buds have been developed through DiGiovanni's and Rizzo's company Sanuthera. DiGiovanni is understandably vague on the types of sounds developed, but says it's an improvement on traditional music or other generated sounds. They were created with the specific knowledge of the human auditory system to maximize the therapeutic effect The sounds can be customized to individuals, and downloaded through an audiologist to a user's personal MP3 device.

This spring the company received a boost with $337,000 in VC funds from TechGROWTH Ohio, an entrepreneur service provider and investor organization created through Ohio Third Frontier.

The funds will allow Sanuthera to speed up its prototype manufacturing, which is in process now. The company will soon under FDA testing and hopes to have the product to market by the second quarter of 2012.

Source: Jeffery DiGiovanni, Sanuthera
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites http://www.twitter.com/feoshiawrites

Fluence Therapeutics believes it's found a better way to treat skin ailments like psoriasis using a new light therapy.

The Akron company formed in 2009 to commercialize photodynamic therapy technology developed at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

"We are commercializing photodynamic therapy using Pc 4, a novel photosensitizer," says CEO Warren Goldenberg. "Our initial application is the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis." 

Goldenberg explains that "photodynamic therapy involves both a pharmaceutical (the photosensitizer) and a light source which activates the photosensitizer to kill certain cells. We are developing two products: a photosensitizer containing Pc 4 as its active ingredient and a light source (device)."

Current treatment for moderate to severe psoriasis is light therapy and systemic pharmaceuticals. Light therapy can involve the use of ultraviolet light B (UVB) alone or a combination of ultraviolet light A (UVA) combined with systemically or topically administered psoralen (PUVA).

"We believe our products will have higher efficacy than current light-based therapies and, since they use red light, they do not create the cancer risk of current UV therapies," Goldenberg says.

"Moderate to severe psoriasis is also treated with systemic (i.e., taken orally or by injection) pharmaceuticals distributed by major pharmaceutical companies and generic manufacturers. Many of these medications are used for other diseases, including arthritis. Biological therapies, however, do not work in all patients. They suppress the immune system and have been shown to have a number of side effects including increased rates of infections and potentially increased rates of certain kinds of cancers (particularly lymphomas). They are contraindicated in many cases (e.g., for patients with infections or compromised immune systems) and they are very expensive," he says.

Human clinical trials are underway at University Hospitals Case Medical Center with support from the National Institutes of Health. The technology has been developed with over $32,000,000 of funding from the NIH.

Fluence has three part-time employees. Provided it obtains sufficient funding, the company hopes to grow to 40 employees over five years, including management, product development (engineers and chemists), clinical, regulatory and business development.

Source: Warren Goldenberg, Fluence Therapeutics
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney

Endosphere was formed in 2006 to meet an urgent need for a less invasive, safer and more physiologic treatment for the growing problem of obesity.

Today, the Columbus-based company is attracting plenty of investors based on the promise of its SatiSphere duodenal insert, which company Chairman Christopher Thorne describes as "a breakthrough technology offering a safer and more effective solution for appetite regulation and weight loss compared to the market's currently available alternatives."

Thorne says current treatments involve potentially harmful chemical medications, invasive surgical procedures, or dramatic lifestyle changes that are difficult to maintain.

"The SatiSphere device is a small, non-invasive, pre-formed memory wire that uses the body's natural physiology to regulate appetite and satiation mechanisms which slow digestion and deter excessive eating," he says. Unlike other devices, it is not attached to the body but stays in place by conforming to the natural shape of the duodenum.

The device is inserted endoscopically in a 15-minute outpatient procedure. SatiSphere slows the passage of food through the duodenum and enables stimulation of the neurons along the duodenal walls, causing them to release the body's natural appetite-suppressing hormones. This enables an earlier feeling of fullness and extends the feeling of satisfaction between meals, Thorne says.

He lists its advantages as "its safety profile, patient tolerability, affordability, ease of reversibility and repeatability, and method for achieving satiation."

EndoSphere Inc. completed a clinical trial in patients in 2008. All of the patients lost weight, with an average excess weight loss of 12 percent during the first month. The company has been approved for an expanded multi-center clinical trial in Europe.

Earlier this month, the company announced completion of an oversubscribed Series A financing round led by Broadline Capital. Investors also include Glengary LLC, Physician Investment Group LLC, Ohio TechAngels, North Coast Angel Fund and Queen City Angels.

The company, which also focuses on innovative treatments for type 2 diabetes, has added two new Ohio employees in the past six months and plans to further expand in 2011.

Source: Christopher Thorne, EndoSphere
Writer: Gene Monteith

A team of recent University of Cincinnati grads hope to commercialize a portable stroke detection device created in the Medical Device Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program (MDIEP) at UC's Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The device, Ischiban, has the potential to be a game-changer in the early detection and treatment of strokes, a life-threatening condition where minutes can make a difference in a successful recovery, disability or death.

Ischiban was developed by a group of UC student biomedical and computer engineers and an industrial designer: Pooja Kadambi, Joe Lovelace, Scott Robinson and Alex Androski. They developed the device, comprised of an elastic headband connected to an electronic diagnostic device, which can quickly determine the type of stroke a patient is suffering from. This allows for quick diagnosis and faster treatment for better recovery rates, according to the developers.

Ischiban relies on Impedance Spectroscopy, which can measure electrical property changes in the brain associated with strokes.

"We received the idea to use Impedance Spectroscopy from a group in Massachusetts General Hospital doing research in this area. We developed the device, made prototypes of the parts and built it by ourselves," explained Kadambi, a biomedical engineer.

Strokes are caused by a blood clot in the brain, or bleeding in the brain. Treatment is different based on the type of stroke.

Currently, such stoke differentiation is done by a CT scan, which is costly and time consuming. Ischiban can be used by EMTs at a patient's home or during the ambulance ride. Early detection is important because patients whose stoke is caused by a blood clot who are treated within three hours of symptoms are significantly more likely to survive and recover.

Ischiban is one of 90 entries in the ongoing Cincinnati Innovates contest. The third annual competition offers nearly $90,000 in prizes designed to push forward groundbreaking products and services. It ends July 15, and all entries are posted online. Kadambi said the competition could help Ischiban garner attention and investment.

"Medical device research and development is an expensive, complicated and long drawn out process. We are a passionate team but do not have the funds to carry this forward alone. Winning this competition would open doors for us, help us make great contacts and keep our project alive and on track. Putting Ischiban on the market will help save lives and prevent disability globally and that is a fact," she said.

Source: Pooja Kadambi, Ischiban co-developer
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication Soapbox.

A new Cincinnati company is hoping to give premature babies a better chance of growing healthy lungs.

Airway Therapeutics, formed earlier this month, is working to commercialize research begun at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center into why so many premature babies develop chronic lung disease.

Extremely premature babies -- those born before the seventh month of gestation -- come into the world without surfactant, a natural substance found in animal lungs that keeps the lungs inflated. The remedy is to replace the baby's natural surfactant with one made from animal lung tissue, says Steven Linberg, Airway's CEO.

"But part of the process of giving them the surfactant involves either mechanically ventilating the baby or hand bagging the baby just to force some air into their lungs, and also giving them higher than normal amounts of oxygen," Linberg says.

That often causes trauma and chronic lung disease for as many as 30 percent to 40 percent of such babies. Now, research by Jeffrey Whitsett, chief of Cincinnati Children's Section of Neonatology, Perinatal and Pulmonary Biology, indicates inflammation may be worsened because of a lack of Surfactant Protein D, which occurs in normal surfactant but is missing in replacement surfactant. Airway is working on a recombinant human Surfactant Protein D with the goal of adding it to replacement surfactant as nature intended. If shown to reduce or prevent chronic lung disease in preemies, all makers of surfactant would like add the protein to their products, Linberg says.

The next step for Airway is to meet with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, possibly in August, for validation of its development plan, Linberg says. Because of the number of both non-clinical and clinical studies to be done, the earliest Linberg expects to see Surfactant Protein D on the market is 2016.

"Our next goal beyond this is to move into cystic fibrosis," Linberg says. "It's likely that because this Surfactant Protein D is both anti-inflammatory and anti-infective, it will have a positive role in treating cystic fibrosis patients."

The company currently has a number of consultants but only one employee -- Linberg. It is housed at BioStart and recently received $500,000 from CincyTech and Cincinnati Children's Tomorrow Fund as part of a projected $1.2-million seed-stage funding round led by CincyTech.

Source: Steven Linberg, Airway Therapeutics
Writer: Gene Monteith

Former dermatology resident Keoni Nguyen fully intends to practice medicine someday. But right now, all his time is taken up with his invention: an innovative synthetic skin that has a number of large biomedical companies chomping at the bit.

Dayton-based Dermsurg Scientific is working feverishly to fill orders for the Il Duomo, a model of a human head over which is laid Nguyen's patented, human-like system of synthetic skin, muscles, nerves, fat and cartilage.

Using an assembly team of five, the company is building models for elite clients like the Mayo Clinic, Walter Reed Hospital and Ethicon, Nguyen says. He adds that Johnson & Johnson has asked for a custom model that can be used with a new facelift device the company is planning to debut in Europe later this year.

Heady stuff for the former Ohio University medical resident who got tired of doing sutures on pigs feet.

As students and well into the residency of most dermatologists, getting a chance to to work on real human skin is rare, Nguyen says. Other synthetics are also a poor substitute for real skin, he says. He sees his product as ideal for training the next generation of dermatologists and surgeons.

"I took the last three years off," he says. "The first year I did a lot of research on the properties of the skin and got a provisional patent. But I needed more money because I was running out and couldn't sell any more of my toys."

Nguyen says he financed his patent application by selling his prized carbon-frame time trial bike, and researched and wrote the provisional patent himself because he couldn't afford a lawyer. Eventually, Dr. Thomas Olsen, a Wright State University dermatology professor who also runs the Dermatopathology Laboratory of Central States learned about his work.

"So he gave me a grant to provide me with what I needed to get this thing to where it is today."

Other help has come from the Dayton Development Coalition, which has provided funding to help Dermsurg finish demonstration units, hire employees to evolve its management team, move from its current location to its own space and develop better molds for the Il Duomo. The Coalition also provided funds to embed an entrepreneur in residents to help Nguyen develop a business plan and investment summary.

As for practicing medicine someday, Nguyen says, "that's the whole point, I want to go back. This whole thing started because of my passion for it. If I didn't have the passion for it it never would have been created. My passion is to teach and contribute something to medicine."

Source: Keoni Nguyen, DermSurg
Writer: Gene Monteith