Innovation + Job News

IR Diagnostyx is working to develop fast, accurate and painless diagnosis techniques for a variety of functional diseases like irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis (painful bladder syndrome) fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Formed last year and based at TechColumbus, the company grew out of Ohio State University's Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Institute at the Fisher College of Business.

Company founders -- OSU graduate students in OSU's Fisher College -- won third place in the 2008 Fisher business plan competition, says president and CEO Gary Smith. Since then, IR Diagnostyx has received a $50,000 TechGenesis grant and is currently under consideration for an additional $250,000 in funding through the TechColumbus Pre-Seed Fund.

While the company is looking for new diagnostic techniques for a variety of ailments, "we're really focused on interstitial cystitis," Smith says. "The technology's based on work done in Tony Buffington's laboratory in veterinary medicine, and that of Luis E. Rodriguez-Saona. Ironically, Luis is a food scientist, but his competency, his research area, is in infrared micro-spectroscopy."

How does that relate to the diagnosis of functional ailments?

"We take a blood sample and we're developing an algorithm, and using some complicated software we can take a look at a serum sample and see a characteristic signal generated from patients with these specific diseases," Smith explains. "And we take that diagnostic information and compare it with others and provide the physician with some feedback on the health of the patient."

The company is still in the early stages of its product development, having completed feasibility work and now preparing to launch regulatory research, Smith says.

"We're going to collect data from about 500 patients to submit to the FDA later this year," he says.

Source: Gary Smith, IR Diagnostyx
Writer: Gene Monteith

While deep thinkers continue to debate whether the chicken or the egg came first, one thing's for sure. In the biomass research business, AdvanceBio Systems of Milford is a leader. Two big deals this summer are proof.

On Aug. 2 the company announced the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., is acquiring a Biomass Pretreatment Reactor System. Experts at the 27,000-square-foot Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility there will use the AdvanceBio system for projects to make fuel ethanol from cellulosic biomass cost-competitive.

And on July 19 Penn State University awarded AdvanceBio a contract to supply a Bench Scale Hydrolyzer System for its Shared Fermentation Facility in University Park, Penn. The equipment will be used for research, development and demonstration of technology related to production of biomass-based fuels and chemicals from feedstocks. The company and school intended to collaborate on related research and development projects.

Earlier this year the company released The Bench Scale System, designed for university and corporate R&D personnel working on pre-treatment of biomass for next-generation fuels. AdvanceBio's other products are the lab, pilot and commercial scale systems � each escalating in the volume of material to be studied. All can be used on things such as sugar cane, corn cobs, corn stalks, switchgrass and wood chips, says Richard C. Agar, P.E., a senior associate at the company.

AdvanceBio's fuel and chemical consulting business began in 2007; the systems business began in '09, Agar says.

Source: Richard C. Agar, P.E., AdvanceBio Systems
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Get the winter blues? Have trouble waking up in the morning or falling asleep at night?

You may not be getting enough blue light -- or, you may be getting too much. Lowbluelights.com, a company formed five years ago as a spinoff from research conducted at John Carroll University, says it has products for all of those situations.

Richard L. Hansler, co-owner of Lowbluelights.com and director of the Lighting Innovations Institute at John Carroll, says the power of blue light came to, um, light in 2001 when scientists discovered that the blue part of the spectrum can affect the production of melatonin -- a hormone that helps you sleep.

Hansler, a retired veteran of the lighting industry, says the company was formed after he was approached to develop an LED light to treat seasonal affective disorder, or SAD -- a sometimes debilitating bout of winter depression. There is some medical evidence that exposure to blue light can help lessen the problem, he explains.

Likewise, blue light can suppress melatonin, causing a person exposed to the light in the evening to have trouble falling asleep -- just as it can help erase grogginess in the morning, he says. There is circumstancial evidence that melatonin suppresses some forms of cancer, Hansler says. To those ends, the company sells a host of products to either boost more blue light or filter it out.

Lowbluelights.com's most recent product, a filter placed over the screen of the iPad, was launched after some users complained of insomnia after using the iPad, Hansler says. The company's most popular products, however, are glasses worn before bedtime to filter out blue light, allowing the natural production of melatonin.

The company has three employees and is headquartered in University Heights.

Source: Richard Hansler, Lowbluelights.com
Writer: Gene Monteith

Chris Melkonian, the CEO and founder of Midwest MicroDevices, says if you don't know too much about micro-electro mechanical systems, that's OK. He thinks you will soon enough.

The downtown-Toledo-based company has continued to grow at a steady pace since its founding in 2004. Melkonian says Midwest's niche is a new and emerging MEMs market, focusing on unusual materials and incredibly tiny wafers � but the company can just about do it all.

There are a dozen employees at Midwest MicroDevices. Most of them suit up head-to-toe in a "bunny suit" in what's known as a clean room. These employees work on devices often smaller than a human hair (think miniscule sensor of a car's airbag).

"You won't find too many companies doing the kind of hi-tech work we're doing here in Northwest Ohio," Melkonian says. "I am very proud of that."

The company has received a healthy dose of support from area and state institutions. Melkonian and Co. are graduates of the Regional Growth Partnership, which offered support, marketing and financing. The Ohio Department of Development provided an Ohio Innovation Loan to the company. The University of Toledo's Science, Technology and Innovation Enterprises have also partnered with the startup. "We've gotten a lot of support from University of Toledo," he says. "We collaborate with professors, we select students for internships and we hire graduates."

Melkonian says he hopes to considerably ramp up business in the next couple of years, adding two more shifts and as many as 10 skilled positions.

"I started a startup company at possibly one of the worst times you can," he says. "If the economy can start to turn around, and as we add more business, we'll definitely have a real jump in employees."

Source: Chris Melkonian, Midwest MicroDevices 
Writer: Colin McEwen

A solar array gathers sunlight for electricity. But something has to convert that energy from direct current to alternating current before it can be fed into an electric power grid. Toledo-based Nextronex Power Systems says it has come up with a simpler and more efficient way of doing that..

Nextronex's target customers are utility-size solar installations. While competition is stiff, Peter Gerhardinger, the company's chief technology officer, says Nextronex has an advantage over suppliers that provide only inverters -- the box that converts DC to AC.
 
"They rely on the integrator to determine how he's going to wire it, how he's going to lay it out. And so there's spawned a whole lot of intermediate type products," he says. "We took a fresh approach and, based on customer feedback, decided there's a need for a wiring kit that is not only the inverter, but that combines all the switch gear, all the fusing, all the monitoring into an easy-to-assemble system."

The resulting cabinet is smaller than most in the industry, he says, and can be easily installed. Not just that, but rather than relying on only one big inverter, the Nextronex system uses multiple inverters that switch on and off as energy from the sun ebbs and flows during the day, resulting in less loss of power than typical one-box systems.

Nextronex's system is in use currently at the 180th Air National Guard base in Toledo and at a site in Roswell New Mexico, with another three projects nearing implementation. The company has received $1.4 million local investments, including those from the Science, Technology and Innovation Enterprises and Rocket Ventures, the venture capital arm of the Regional Growth Partnership.

The company was formed in 2008 and currently employs 10, says company founder James Olzak. But Olczak says Netronex expects to have "greater than several dozen people next year at this time."

Sources: James Olzak, Peter Gerhardinger and Scott Thompson, Nextronex
Writer: Gene Monteith

The earth pulls in more energy from the sun in one hour than is consumed in one year. That's an estimated 970 trillion kilowatt hours of energy every day. But solar power contributes less than one-half of 1 percent of the world's daily power generation.

Solargystics, a Sylvania-based startup solar company with lofty goals, would like to change that by making solar energy more affordable for everyone.

Solargystics has developed patent-pending technology aimed at lowering the cost of thin film photovoltaic production. The company would like to see nothing more than people ditching the shingles on top of their homes in favor of cost-efficient solar panels.

The idea � while not yet on the market � certainly has generated some interest. The company is working on its process with the Wright Center for Photovoltaic Innovation and Commercialization at the University of Toledo � where the company has access to testing equipment it couldn't obtain on its own. The researchers, originally from Michigan, moved the company to Ohio in 2007, hoping to obtain funding from the state's Third Frontier program.

Even though that grant proposal was denied, David Hiatt, the company's chief financial officer, says Solargystics is still seeking funding. And company officials are still optimistic.

"We're like everybody else," he says. "It's tough to be a startup with limited funding."

The company currently employs four people, but contracts a number of people in the Toledo area, Hiatt says, adding that more employees will be added when the product reaches commercialization.

"It's coming along � just slowly," he adds.

Source: David Hiatt, Solargystics
Writer: Colin McEwen

Nearly 5 million people in the last month have logged onto SparkPeople, a free, Cincinnati-based web site designed help people connect with like-minded folks pushing toward their life goals, from weight loss to stress management to fit pregnancy.

SparkPeople was founded in 2001 by University of Cincinnati graduate and former Procter & Gamble employee, Chris Downie, with central mission: to spark millions of people to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. The site does this in a myriad of ways: through nutrition, health and fitness tools, and maybe most importantly, through personal support with online message boards, blogs and social networking groups.

"You can look at just at the name and see how we are different. We try to tap into positive thinking and making a true lifestyle change. So it's not just about health. Using these same techniques, people have told us they got a promotion at job, or are being a better parent. They take small steps and get huge life breakthroughs," Downie said.

Downie started SparkPeople.com with the proceeds of Up4Sale.com, which he sold to Ebay in 1998. It was the online auction site's first acquisition. And though SparkPeople's thrust is health, fitness and weight loss, for some the site has affected their lives in other ways.
SparkPeople has 26 full-time and 6 part-time employees. The company plans to hire several more in the near future.

The site has a total of 8.5 million registered users. Many will use it for a short period of time, leave, then come back months or several years later when they need a refresher.

Within the last year the site has launched SparkAmerica.com, a national campaign to help people of all ages exercise more, eat better, make healthier choices and enjoy active, healthy lives. The company also has launched a section devoted to people with Type II Diabetes and now you can Spark on the go with free mobile apps.

Sources: Chris Downie and Tim Metzner, SparkPeople
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Those who run customer contact centers are constantly challenged with scheduling scores of agents to handle calls. While they may have a good idea of how many agents they'll need tomorrow, most can't predict with any accuracy how many they will need a week or two from now.

WorkFlex Solutions has developed software to do just that, says Larry Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of the Montgomery-based firm.
Schwartz formed the company last year with Mitesh Desai, two years after leaving Convergys to open a consulting firm.

The company's signature product, WorkFlex Manager, is based on the manufacturing industry's concept of real-time supply chain management. The turning point in forming the company was the convergence of Schwartz's idea with an application built earlier by Desai that was helping the hotel industry schedule rooms and rates. WorkFlex Manager is now in service with a major outsourcer, and a number of other clients are preparing to implement it, Schwartz says.

WorkFlex's potential has been recognized by the venture capital community, which has invested $1.5 million in the young company. CincyTech, which invested $250,000, led the round, making WorkFlex its 16th portfolio company.

The company currently employs two in North America, and another dozen in India. But as it grows, Schwartz says the company will add business development and marketing jobs, primarily in the Cincinnati area.

There also is the potential to leverage the company's workforce solution to create more call-center jobs here in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States, he says.

Source: Larry Schwartz, WorkFlex Solutions
Writer: Gene Monteith

Keeping tabs on company productivity and efficiency isn't just good business for the big guys. When every dollar counts, smaller companies can benefit from a system that tracks productivity and sales numbers too.

That's why Cincinnati entrepreneur Ben Moore created xRP, an online productivity tool for small- and medium-sized manufactures that quickly tracks a host of important numbers aimed at cutting the fat, managing resources and boosting sales.

Ben Moore, president of Agent Technologies, launched xRP in 2007 in West Chester as a tool to help save Ohio manufacturing jobs.

"The basic purpose of xRP is to help companies become more productive and profitable. Companies typically have to invest tens of thousands of dollars and months of time and effort with software before they start getting any benefit. My goal was to build software that worked over the Internet through an Internet browser that these companies could subscribe to and begin getting benefit from immediately," says Moore, an electrical engineer, and a former Procter & Gamble and U.S. Department of Defense contactor.

xRP can be integrated with popular financial management systems including QuickBooks. The system includes sales contact management, task management, knowledge management an Inventory, Production or eCommerce management among other systems.
"xRP is about saving and creating jobs in manufacturing. Manufacturing has slid to about 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S., and manufacturing has traditionally been one of the biggest creators of a Middle Class in any country," Moore said.

Source: Ben Moore, Agent Technologies
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Muscles and money have joined forces in Toledo to create a success story with a company named Turning Point.

Turning Point's CEO, F. Alan Schultheis invented an exercise conditioning machine � the Core Trainer � and received important input from University of Toledo Engineering Professor Vijay K. Goel, Ph.D., in designing the final, working model.

That local help prompted Schulteheis to establish Turning Point in Toledo rather than in his home base of Connecticut.

Schultheis named his machine the Core Trainer because it conditions 28 muscles, as well as numerous tendons and ligaments. Turning Point recently received a $50,000 initial grant to design and refine the prototype, as well as an additional $450,000 to market and develop the equipment. The grants are from Rocket Ventures, the venture capital program of Toledo's Regional Growth Partnership.

Even though Schulteis will be returning to Connecticut, Turning Point now has an advisory board as well as a board of directors and will remain and grow in Toledo. According to Greg Knudson, vice president with Toledo's Regional Growth Partnership, the city's Lockery Manufacturing will manufacture the machine, and local Pinnacle Technologies is making its electronics parts.

Turning Point is gearing up to produce two models of the Core Trainer this fall � a professional model for approximately $1,000 and a consumer model for $600.

Goiel, PhD., is now the company's vice president of Research and Development.

Source: Turning Point and Greg Knudson, Regional Growth Partnership
Writer: Lynne Meyer

Take a quick look around you. Chances are good that something you'll see has a part in it made by Ferro in Cleveland. That's because Ferro is almost everywhere. In fact, the computer on which you're reading this issue of hiVelocity probably contains some Ferro parts. Ferro parts are also in your cell phone and in your car.

Ferro was established in 1919 to produce porcelain enamel frit. Today, Ferro is a leading global supplier of advanced materials for a broad range of manufacturers. What Ferro makes today enhances the performance of products in the electronics, major appliances, building and renovation, pharmaceuticals and industrial markets.

Ferro manufacturers and markets electronic materials in the form of high-purity powders, pastes, and tapes for many electronic applications. It also supplies innovative glass colors and coatings, which add value to automotive, flat and container glass in the global market.

Ferro's Pfanstaiehl Laboratories produce high purity chemistry for health and beauty products. Polymer additives by Ferro improve the characteristics of plastics. Ferro is one of the world's largest suppliers of porcelain enamel, which protects cookware, small and large appliances, and building panels.

Ferro also makes liquid colors, dispersions, gelcoats and CordoBond plastic colorants for filled and reinforced plastics. Finally, Ferro is the world's leading supplier of ceramic glaze coating and a major supplier of ceramic color.

The company has grown to 5,200 employees around the world.

Source: Ferro
Writer: Lynne Meyer

Cincinnati attorney Candace Klein is a good girl gone bad, and she wants to take other women with her.

That's exactly why she launched Bad Girl Ventures early this year. But really, it's not as bad as you might think. Bad Girl wants to help fill the gap between small women-owned startups looking for loans and funders who want to help create jobs.

"It's really difficult for women-owned startups right now," says Klein. "Personally, I've given to so many charities, political causes and organizations. I thought, 'If there was a way I could give just a portion of that to a startup company that would create jobs, I would.' I think we're really missing the boat on supporting women-owned startups."

Bad Girl Ventures is based on the micro-financing model of international organizations like Kiva, where small loans from individuals are bundled. It's also a nonprofit, so contributions are tax deductible.

Klein believes BGV is the first of its kind in the nation because it pairs the micro-lending model with a curriculum and a focus on women. Five chosen startups will undergo a six-week entrepreneur curriculum, where they will learn the building blocks to starting a business and be responsible for submitting a business plan, WBE application, etc. While one of the five entrepreneurs will receive a $25,000 low interest loan from Bad Girl Ventures, other partner banks will be approached to finance the other participants.

Eligible businesses must be at least 51 percent women-owned and in the sectors of retail, restaurant or professional services. The first Bad Girl class has recently applied for loans in a competitive application process that will allow them to get their businesses off the ground. The chosen businesses will be announced later this month.

So how does Klein define a bad girl? Bad Girl (Bad gurl) n. -- A female with an inner voice urging her to start something. Typically adverse to authority, she creates energy with her ideas and is a natural born leader. Peers admire her grace and intellect and the community is stronger as a result of her presence.

Source: Candace Klein, founder Bad Girl Ventures
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Who knew that radioactivity could actually save your life?

Thanks to some very smart people at Neoprobe, a Dublin-based company specializing in the development of diagnostic systems for cancer patients, gamma detection treatments in tracking the spread of cancer are becoming more effective.

Neoprobe is about to begin a third multi-center Phase 3 clinical study of Lymphoseek®, which has received investigational review board approval and begun enrollment of subjects diagnosed with breast cancer or melanoma, says Brent Larson, senior vice president and CFO.

Lymphoseek® is an injectable radiopharmaceutical used by surgeons as a sentinel node targeting agent in intra-operative lymphatic mapping (ILM) procedures for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and related diseases.

ILM procedures provide useful information to avoid the unnecessary removal of non-cancerous lymph nodes and surrounding tissue. The Lymphoseek® technology enhances the determination of cancer stage and may help improve the complete diagnosis of disease, says Larson.

In an ILM procedure, a radioactive tracing agent is injected at the site of the primary tumor. Following injection, the tracing agent follows the drainage path of the tumor to the nearest lymph node or nodes. A gamma detection device is used to detect the path of the tracing agent. Since the lymph nodes are connected, oncologists believe that if the sentinel nodes show no sign of malignancy, then the downstream nodes in the pathway are likely to be clear of disease.

If approved, Lymphoseek® will be the first tracing agent specifically labeled for lymph node detection.

Neoprobe was founded in 1983 and is considered a leader in gamma detection systems. Earlier this month, Neoprobe initiated the application process for listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The company currently has 35 employees and expects to add as many as 10 new jobs in the next year, says Larson.

Source: Brent Larson, Neoprobe
Writer: Val Prevish

In the world of Internet security, there's bravado . . . then there's Wiresoft's brand of bravado.

The Cincinnati-based network security provider, which markets its Firegate security platform as "the world's leading network security platform providing enterprise-level security at an affordable price," recently backed up those claims with a challenge.

Last December, the company made itself a target to hackers with its "Hack Us If You Can" dare, offering a $24,000 prize if anyone could break into their systems within a 24-hour period. If that wasn't gutsy enough, the company then kept the challenge going for 90 days.

In the end, no one � including former National Security Agency employees who tackled the challenge � was able to claim the prize money.

Wiresoft President and CEO Tom Schram says the contest proved Firegate was proven everything Wiresoft said it was � complete network protection at a price affordable enough for small- to mid-size companies.

"If you're not willing to put your money where your mouth is in this business, you should rethink what you're doing," Schram, a former Navy cryptologist, explains.

Launched in 2008 in the Cincinnati suburb of East Walnut Hills, Wiresoft is focused on network security and disaster recovery products. With prices that make the protection available to even small businesses, Wiresoft's client list is already into the "hundreds" according to Schram, with more signing on every day.

"What really sets us aside is that we a firewall that's never been broken. We've never had a virus get through, if its signature was known anywhere in the world. We offer a spam wall, content filtering and disaster recovery of information from an online archive. We've got 24-hour tech support doing constant updates," explains Schram. "Our competition can't say that. We can."

Source: Tom Schram, Wiresoft
Writer: Dave Malaska

Mitch McLeod established ARCOS as a custom software company in 1993 in the basement of his home. Little did he know that a one-off software request would eventually propel the Columbus-based firm into 23 states.

In 1997, Wisconsin-based Alliant Energy approached McLeod about building an application to help manage crews called out to repair lines during power outages. The problem: Dragging line crews out of bed in the middle of the night can be hit or miss without an organized way of doing it.

"In 1999, two more companies came to us and they said 'we want what Alliant Energy has,'" McLeod recalls. "So we built a little more general purpose version of the product."

Unprepared to market the product full-force, "I went to the Ohio Foundation for Entrepreneurial Education and rewrote the business plan," McLeod says.

The market research conducted as part of his plan revealed that most utility companies were using manual call-out processes using notebooks and spreadsheets, or home-grown systems that left a lot to be desired.

With four more utilities in the pipeline for his software, McLeod's company dove headlong into fully developing a marketable product. The resulting solution automates the process for identifying available line crews, contacts utility workers at home and allows them to electronically report into work. It then tracks their work so "we know that they have been called out, we know not to notify them again, and then when they're released from work we know not to call them again."

Today, the Columbus-based firm serves utilities all across the country. Company revenues have been growing at about 20 percent a year during the past two years, and McLeod is projecting 30 percent growth in 2010.

At the same time, the company has nearly doubled headcount in the last year, with 18 employees now compared to 10 in January 2009.

Source: Mitch McLeod, ARCOS
Writer: Gene Monteith