Cincinnati/Southwest Ohio : Innovation + Job News

Innotech Products Ltd., already known to scores of soldiers and survivalists as the Heater Meals company, has begun offering a self-heating beverage kit.

Cafe2Go enables people to make 18 servings of hot coffee, tea or cocoa without striking a match or turning on an appliance. Its target users are police and firefighters, Red Cross workers and the disaster victims they assist, and even, on a lesser but albeit happier note, campers and tailgaters. Now, at any hour and under any circumstances, you can get the comfort that only a steaming jolt of joe can bring, says Dave Blandford, marketing director for the privately owned Cincinnati-area company.

Heat for the drinks and meals is produced when the user mixes salted water with a patented packet of powdered iron and magnesium. The simple exothermic reaction raises the existing temperature of the products around it by 100 degrees within about 10 minutes. In the case of Heater Meals for consumer use, that's enough warmth to turn an envelope of preserved food (tasty offerings like green pepper steak with rice or vegetarian pasta fagioli) into a decent dish.

Meals for military personnel are formulated with different calorie and nutrient contents for their special needs. For those purposes, Innotech provides the heater packets but not the food, Blandford notes. The company estimates its packets have heated about 1.5 billion meals. The used packets are biodegradable.

HeaterMeals are intended for a long shelf life. The "EX" line for extended storage last up to five years.

Innotech/HeaterMeals was founded in 1990. Blandford says the largest group of customers are military/government agencies; the earliest and longest-running fans of Heater Meals are truckers. Other buyers: hospitals, and social service agencies that aid homeless and elderly people. (HeaterMeals are donated to a local foodbank, too.)

The company employs 50 in Hamilton County.

Source: Dave Blandford, Innotech Products/Heater Meals
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Schools face a tough dilemma these days: how to integrate educational programs into the vast resources the Internet provides while minimizing the chances that their young students will zoom off to some undesirable website.

A Sharonville company has solved part of the problem by developing netTrekker, a "safe surfing" tool that has caught on with thousands of schools across the country.

Founded as Thinkronize in 1999 at the Hamilton County Business Center incubator, the company now does business under the name of its most successful product. The growth of the company, which recently moved to spacious new digs in Sharonville, was never a sure thing, says Joe Vallo, the company's Chief Operating Officer.

"We were formed in 1999 in the middle of the dot-com boom," he says. "It all went bust, but we didn't. We saw a great opportunity to help kids with netTrekker, which started as an educational search engine that was safe and fast and could be used to do their homework."

A great idea, he says, "but we weren't sure people would pay for it."

But pay for it they have. In droves. Today, netTrekker is used in all 50 states, by hundreds of schools around the world and by more than 10 million students globally. In the United States alone, the product is used by 21,000 schools -- or one out of every five.

One of the keys is the company's constant updating of the original product. Nettrekker, which provides content that correlates with each state's standards of instruction, has branched out into partnerships that capitalize on its use as a platform for all kinds of educational digital content.

The company employs 75, but plans to expand within the next year or two.

Source: Joe Vallo, netTrekker
Writer: Gene Monteith

CKS Solution, Inc. in southwest Ohio's Batavia Township is a story of a fast-growing, innovative manufacturing startup founded in February 2008.

Since its founding, CKS has more than doubled its U.S. workforce from 26 earlier this year to 57 today. That kind of growth earned it Cincy Magazine's Manny Award for job growth. The Manny's celebrate growth and innovation in manufacturing.

CKS high-tech video display service provider repairs and services plasma televisions for well-known companies like Samsung SDI and LG and Dell. The company also customizes video displays, and provides warehouse, warranty and software application services to customers.

Housed in a 72,000-square-foot space, including a 20,000-square-foot environmentally controlled repair area, and 30,000-square-foot warehouse, CKS also has a branch in Seoul, Korea to make it highly accessible to its Asian client base.

"If something happens to your display, it will come here and we'll remanufacture it. And when you receive a replacement product, many of its pieces come from here," said CKS co-founder James Braun, who has worked in the remanufacturing industry for 15 years. "There are some companies that do a portion of what we do however our methods and machinery are one-of-a-kind -- we custom designed and built them for efficiency and we are the only independent plasma remanufacturing company in the U.S."

CKS chose to locate in Cincinnati because of its proximity to a majority of the U.S. population, the site selection help of Clermont County economic development officials and the region's workforce skill level.

Source: James Braun, CKS Solution
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Can you have the best of both worlds? Kaivac thinks so.

The Butler County-based company has found a way for janitors and other personnel to not just clean but sanitize the most grungy items without directly touching them -- all with use of "green" chemicals. The key is a high-pressure fan spray, then vacuum extraction and a recovery tank.

An independent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-certified lab recently confirmed two Kaivac products are effective sanitizing devices that, when used as directed, reduce E. coli, C. difficile, MRSA, pseudomonas, and salmonella bacteria by 99.9 percent.

"To date, we've sold approximately 30,000 units on every inhabitable continent. The vast majority of the business is in North America," says spokesman Robert Kravitz. "The primary segments are: K-12 schools (approximately 65 percent), higher education (approximately 10 percent), and building service contractors (approximately 10 percent)."

Business has risen since summer, as the public becomes more aware of the threat of a flu pandemic, he said.

Kaivac has 40 full-time employees. Last year, the company purchased a larger facility and moved its manufacturing and R&D functions there; the rest of the Kaivac will follow in the next year or two, according to Kravitz. "Kaivac will remain in Hamilton," he said.

CEO Robert Robinson is among executives included in the book, "The Success Effect: Uncommon Conversations with America's Business Trailblazers" by Cincinnati-area author John Eckberg. It is available on Amazon.com

Robertson and his wife, Carlene, are also majority owners of Hamilton-based Valley Janitor Supply Co.

Source: Robert Kravitz, Kaivac
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Deploying new technology for growing the world's longest carbon nanotubes has created a world of possibilities for Cincinnati-based General Nano LLC in the aerospace/defense, biomedical, electronics and sensor industries.

Created in 2007 to advance the commercial application of groundbreaking research at the University of Cincinnati Nanoworld and Smart Materials and Devices Laboratory, General Nano is hoping to tap into the commercial market for the lab's creation of the world's longest carbon nanotubes, 18 mm.

Because of their excellent properties of electrical conductivity, heat resistance and extremely light weight, the nanotubes have tremendous commercial potential in such industries as aerospace, where lightweight conductive devices are highly desirable, says General Nano President and CEO Joe Sprengard, Jr.

In fact, General Nano has received phase I and II grants from the U.S. Air Force Small Business and Innovation Research Program of $400,000, plus an Imagining Grant of $25,000 from CincyTech.

The nanotubes, which are less than the thickness of human hair and float on ambient air, could eventually replace copper wire on aircraft and satellites, making them much lighter and more efficient, says Sprengard.

"About 4,000 pounds of the weight of a jet fighter is copper wire. Nanotubes would be a small fraction of that weight."

General Nano has four employees now and expects to double that number next year as it begins commercial manufacturing of the nanotubes. Sprengard said in addition to the jobs created at General Nano itself, there will be many more jobs created through the contract manufacturers that are chosen for the project, although he cannot name them yet.

Source: Joe Sprengard, General Nano
Writer: Val Prevish

As Greater Cincinnati's first brand new, full service hospital built in 25 years, West Chester Medical Center has not only brought good-paying medical jobs to the area, but a patient-centered approach to care.

West Chester Medical Center opened in May 2009, and is part of the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, in the same company as the Queen City's University Hospital and Jewish Hospital. The state-of-the art medical center sits in West Chester Township, one of Ohio's fastest growing areas, just off Interstate 75 between Cincinnati and Dayton.

West Chester Medical opened with 160 beds, and 500 employees, but was designed with future growth in mind. Plans call for it to accommodate 300 beds, an additional medical office building and parking garage.

"West Chester and the surrounding communities are growing rapidly, with both businesses and population booming. With this expansion comes an increased need for close-to-home health care services," said Jennifer Garcia, West Chester Medical Center spokeswoman.

Thirty-six design teams worked on the hospital's features, which include private rooms with visitor sleeper sofas, open visiting hours, on-demand room service, and mini-nurse stations between every two rooms.

"Our family-centered care means that patients and families won't have a long wait to be seen, won't get lost navigating confusing floor plans, and will be made as comfortable as if they were staying at a hotel," said hospital Senior Vice President, Carol King, RN.

Source: Jennifer Garcia, West Chester Medical Center
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says Meridian Bioscience can market two new tests for upper respiratory diseases. That means more health care providers can detect more problems faster.

Meridian makes, markets and distributes a broad range of diagnostic test kits, purified reagents and related products and technologies. Its customers are hospitals, reference laboratories, research centers, veterinary testing centers, physician offices and diagnostics manufacturers in more than 60 countries.

Fiscal 2009 net sales were $148.3 million, up six percent from the previous year. Operating income was of $48.8 million, up 10 percent.

The first half of '09 was "challenging," CEO Jack Kraeutler says. However, during the second half, "Our respiratory sales were robust as shipments of our rapid influenza tests, driven by the H1N1 pandemic, drove a major portion of the growth of our diagnostics business units." Flu test sales outside of the U.S., especially in Europe, were key.

"Rapid tests for foodborne diseases, such as toxigenic E. coli, also grew double digits in (the fourth quarter) and are expected to be a major contributor to fiscal 2010 sales increases," Kraeutler says.

For fiscal 2010, the company expects its revenue to come mostly from tests for C. difficile, H. pylori (stomach bacterias), upper respiratory infections and foodborne disease.

Founded in 1977, the company employs about 400 people worldwide. R&D, manufacturing and warehousing are at corporate headquarters in Hamilton County.

Meridian has been named to Fortune magazine's list of Fastest Growing Small Companies four times.

Source: Jack Kraeutler, Meridian Bioscience
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

 

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

They're lean. They're green. They're cleaning machines, made by Cold Jet of Loveland, Ohio.

The company specializes in dry ice blasting systems. These machines make carbon dioxide pellets and shoot them through special nozzles at high pressure to remove unwanted material from a wide array of surfaces. Upon impact, the pellets return to gas and dissipate.

Applications include general maintenance, mold remediation, manufacturing environments, aerospace and power generation projects and historical landmarks.

According to company spokesman Kevin Wilson, many users prefer this process because it's simple and environmentally responsible � no chemicals or water are used. And there's no secondary waste. The process is especially useful in commercial bakeries and other sites where moisture from traditional cleaning can affect product outcomes. Customers in EPA-, FDA- and USDA- inspected facilities across the country use it, Wilson says.

Another market is finishing medical devices; pressurized CO2 smoothes edges without abrasion, making it superior to traditional techniques.

Recently, Cold Jet received a five-year General Services Administration contract, enabling use of dry ice blast cleaning and production systems for certain government buildings and equipment.

Cold Jet is headquartered in Ohio and has operations in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Canada and Mexico. Next month, in Frankfurt, Germany, the company will exhibit its products at EuroMold, an expo for the injection molding industry. It employs 75 locally and 110 globally.

Source: Kevin Wilson, Cold Jet
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

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

With all of the gains made in advanced manufacturing, some work still can be dirty, expensive and dangerous. But a Cincinnati area company is working to make manufacturing and medical processes safer, cleaner and less costly.

Brighton Technologies Group, in St. Bernard, has developed nearly a dozen new technologies including pretreatment, coatings and films for metals and wood. They include Oleophic Thin Films that prevent oil from clogging industrial filters, Water Resistant Thin Films that protect decorative metal surface finishes and Polymer Surface Treatment for tough-to-bond materials. All are designed to be cleaner and less hazardous to workers and the environment.

Brighton was founded in 1997 as an independent research and development consulting firm, but eventually evolved to improve and develop coatings for medical and airplane parts. BTG changed course when it invented a viable high performance alternative to the toxic, hazardous, and expensive chromate metal pretreatment processes most commonly used, the company says. Recognizing the gravity of the problem, the EPA and NSF provided substantial financial support for development of BTG's technology.

In June, Brighton was awarded $748,000 in Ohio Department of Development and Ohio Third Frontier grants to bring its Surface Energy Probe, or SEP, to market. The hand-held SEP assesses a surface's readiness for coating, printing and bonding to reduce work failure and rework costs. The automobile and packaging film industries are among those excited by this new technology.

"We plan to deliver beta versions to Lockheed-Martin, Boeing and the US Air Force before the end of the year," says Eric Oseas, BTG's Chief Operating Officer.

Brighton also is developing an anti-microbial coating for medical devices aimed at reducing infections that patients acquire in hospitals.

Source: Brighton Technologies Group news and Eric Oseas, Chief Operating Officer
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

When Mike Cardarelli was a University of Cincinnati mechanical engineering technology major, he only hoped that he could design a good salami-rolling machine for his senior project.

Now? He's the man behind the HERO � a Hazardous Environment Robot Observer being used by authorities all across the country.

Cardarelli's Amelia, Ohio-based company, First-Response Robotics, produces agile, mobile robots that are special not only because they detect chemical and biological hazards, but because they can transmit their data and video live. Previously, robots had to be decontaminated and their data downloaded for analysis before authorities could proceed.

A HERO is not like what we've seen in movies. For example, "Bomb disposal robots are large; they grab the threat and dispose it," Cardarelli says. These robots are more sophisticated.

The HERO can lift more than 100 pounds and travel 10 feet per second. It can climb stairs. If it topples over, it can right itself. Features include night-vision cameras, arms that extend to 35 inches, and two-way communication. One even has been adapted with a special shelf, enabling it to safely deliver pizza to hostages.

Customers include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and numerous law enforcement departments. Plus, a construction company has been looking into using one of Cardarelli's robots to more safety and accurately make chalk lines for placing main support beams on high-rise buildings. Human error was 1/8 of an inch; HERO error was 1/16 in a test, Cardarelli says.

"And the unions approved of the idea."

Source: Mike Cardarelli, First-Response Robotics
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

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