Innovation + Job News

A million times each year in this country a pregnant woman who is not remotely ready for a healthy delivery believes she is entering preterm labor. The best way to determine if the expecting mother is in fact in labor is to take an accurate measurement of cervical length. To do this requires an expensive transvaginal ultrasound performed by a trained professional.

Chagrin Falls-based CerviLenz is marketing an inexpensive, easy-to-use disposable device that quickly and accurately measures vaginal cervical length. Invented by a practicing obstetrician, the device is the first and only of its kind.

"Because the interventions to prevent or delay preterm birth are very toxic, dangerous and expensive since they require a two- to three-day hospital stay, you want to be careful not to misdiagnose," explains Dean Koch, CerviLenz president. "Our device allows for easy and objective measurement of the cervix to allow for a better selection of who is likely to benefit from intervention and who is not really in labor. By managing the situation effectively, we can make sure the mother is in the right setting, maximizing the baby's chances for a good outcome."

Down the road, adds Koch, the devices can be used throughout a woman's pregnancy to screen for those who are at risk for premature pregnancies. New findings prove that by administering progesterone therapy, doctors can cut the risk of early births by half.

CerviLenz, which has received financial backing from JumpStart, North Coast Angel Fund, Chrysalis Ventures, Aboretum Ventures and others, is adding staffers in the field and will soon reach 12 employees. The devices are manufactured in Ohio.

Source: Dean Koch, CerviLenz
Writer: Douglas Trattner

When it was approved by the FDA in 1985, Seldane was the first non-sedating antihistamine to relieve the symptoms of allergies. In very rare instances � about once in a million � the drug caused sudden cardiac death in users. That may not sound like a lot, until you learn that billions of prescriptions were written for this blockbuster drug, resulting in hundreds of deaths.

"Early on, we identified the ion channel target that was being adversely affected by drugs like Seldane. That was the basis for starting our company," explains ChanTest CEO Arthur "Buzz" Brown. Today, the Cleveland-based medical company is regarded as the leader in preclinical cardiac safety testing. Seldane, by the way, was withdrawn from the market in 1997.

As a contract research organization, ChanTest provides pharmaceutical research services to drug companies, speeding the drug discovery process while making those drugs safer and more effective. "Our customers say, 'We have this drug and we want to make sure it has these beneficial effects and doesn't have these adverse cardiac effects,'" adds Brown.

The recipient of two rounds of Ohio Third Frontier funding, ChanTest is growing by leaps and bounds. These grants have allowed the company to add some 50 jobs in recent years, bringing the payroll up to approximately 70.

"The pharmaceutical market is in great turmoil right now," says Brown. "But this can be very good for us as drug companies reduce their R and D departments and outsource the work to firms like ours."

Source: Arthur "Buzz" Brown, ChanTest
Writer: Douglas Trattner

If you've got a complex system -- a jet engine, for example -- the last thing you can afford is for it to fail at a crucial time. Frontier Technology says it has a way to predict those failures well before they can happen.

Frontier, whose top executives are based in Dayton, is commercializing a pattern recognition system called NormNet, which can analyze any system that uses sensors and predict when a component will fail, says Frontier senior scientist Sam Boykin.

Boykin says the technology began as a project with the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Along the way, the company has benefited from several Ohio Third Frontier grants and is nearing the end of a two-year, $350,000 commercialization grant.

Boykin says the technology has been successfully demonstrated to a number of companies, including Caterpillar, Parker Hannifin and General Electric Aviation. NormNet has also been tested at wind farm companies in Texas and on jet engines for the British Air Force.

"It's a software solution," Boykin says, and works "as long as there are some kind of sensors on the system. So when the system is operating healthy, the system creates relationships between each sensor and all the others. That's really how (NormNet) is able then to predict -- when it sees the degradation, it sees one of these relationships start to change."

He adds that "in all cases, we've been able to predict these failures -- sometimes days and weeks ahead of where they actually occurred."

Frontier's Dayton operations employ 20, including the addition of two to three new jobs over the past two years.

Source: Sam Boykin, Frontier Technology
Writer: Gene Monteith

Jerrold L. Hutton became dean of the Hocking College Energy Institute in 2003 "with a briefcase and three students."

Today, the Institute has a brand-new green building, 131 students and hopes to add two new associate degrees next fall.

The new building in Logan was deliberately built next to the Logan-Hocking Industrial Park Hutton says. The facility, which opened last September, serves as a hands-on learning lab for students studying in energy programs such as alternative energy, fuel cells, and vehicular hybrids

The Institute currently offers two associate degrees: one in applied science and advanced energy and fuel cells; the other in vehicular hybrids and electrics and fuel cells.

"Starting this fall, if everything goes well with the (Board of) Regents . . .we will start two new agriculture-focused programs which will be under our advanced energy but it will be a major in regenerative design for sustainable development with a specialization in energy production -- and the other major will be a specialization in bioproduct production."

The $3.4-million building on 15 acres allows students to work hand-in-hand with nearby companies within the industrial park, Hutton says. In December, the Institute was awarded $498,000 as part of a $1.49-million Ohio Third Frontier grant for a collaborative project with Lewis Center-based fuel cell manufacturer NexTech Materials.

The Institute has plans to install a tape casting line in a building leased within the industrial park for production of anodes, cathodes and electrolyte for solid oxide fuel cells, Hutton says.

Meanwhile, the Institute building -- powered by geothermal, photovoltaics and wind -- is awaiting word on a LEED Platinum designation for its green building design -- an honor that would make it the first Ohio college or university building to win such a designation, Hutton says.

Source: Jerrold L. Hutton, Ph.D., Hocking College
Writer: Gene Monteith

The presence of mercury, as well as other heavy metals, in our drinking water can lead to serious physical injury over time. Fortunately, new regulations are strictly limiting the quantities of these metals that companies can discharge into waterways. And fortunately for MAR Systems, the Cleveland-based enterprise has developed a "faster, cheaper and greener" way to strip these contaminants from water.

Made from highly engineered but readily available materials, Sorbster is a granular media that removes heavy metals from any aqueous stream. As water percolates through the substance, mercury, arsenic and other metals chemically bond with the media, making conventional disposal safe, explains Melissa Hayes, business development manager.

"Because our product is extremely fast-acting, it requires a smaller footprint," adds Hayes. "And because it is so inexpensive and easy to use, it helps companies solve the conflict between industry and the environment."

MAR Systems, which was founded in 2008, is benefitting not only from more stringent drinking water standards, but also new testing procedures. "Mercury was always a difficult thing to measure in water," notes Hayes. "And if you can't measure it, you don't have to treat it. Now companies have to address mercury discharge."

The product is manufactured at the company's Solon lab, which will be in full commercial production sometime this year. At present, MAR Systems employs eight people, but that number is likely to jump to 15 by year's end. Hayes estimates that within a few years, the company will climb to 50 employees.

Source: Melissa Hayes, MAR Systems
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Most wide-eyed college freshmen, venturing from dorm to classroom to lab to library, think their campus � whatever its location � is a huge, immersive environment.

But at Miami University in Oxford, the Huge Immersive Virtual Environment is, truly, boundless.

The HIVE is a facility where high-tech hardware and software enable researchers to work in a simulated space ("virtual environment"). The computer science and psychology departments collaborate on it.

The National Science Foundation recently gave HIVE's creators, David Waller, associate professor of psychology, and Eric Bachmann, associate professor of computer science and software engineering, $312,672 to upgrade the facility to support multiple users.

For the computer science side, the upgraded HIVE will let researchers develop, evaluate and compare 3D user interfaces, develop algorithms for collision detection and multi-user redirected walking, explore the use of inertial sensors for position tracking in portable virtual environments; and develop tools for collaborative computing environments.

For the behavioral research side, HIVE will help researchers improve understanding of how humans learn and remember large spaces and of the social dynamics of users who cohabit a computer simulation.

Why is a virtual environment better than the real one for such work? Well, as Waller, Bachmann and colleague Andrew C. Beall of the University of California write in a technical paper about HIVE, virtual environments "are not bound by the constraints of the real world, such as three-dimensionality, Euclidean geometry, and adherence to the law of gravity."

Besides the NSF and the university, previous support has come from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program at the Army Research Office.

Sources: Miami University, National Science Foundation
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Does a metal stamping tool with the potential to revolutionize an industry sound ambitious? Maybe. Is it possible? Absolutely.

That's exactly what the founders of M.O.M. Tools have in mind for the metal fabrication business.

M.O.M. (Men of Miami) Tools was established in 2003 by two Miami University graduates, Anthony Lockhart and John Collier. The pair created a patented "Dual-Head" punch for the metal fabrication and fastener industries, with the idea to improve productivity and reduce tooling, maintenance and scrap expenses.

With their innovative product, Collier and Lockhart believe the industry can be revived � with jobs that will stay in Ohio.

Lockhart says the Cleveland-based company found a niche, offering a product that has a longer life and better quality of a "punched" hole than the current tools on the market.

Typically, when a hole is punched through metal, it wants to close itself. The entire process takes "just a milli-fraction of a second," not visible to the naked eye. M.O.M. Tools' Dual-Head system has two cutting mechanisms and a groove to catch excess "flow." And the tool can last up to 15 times longer then conventional tools on the market.

"We want to revolutionize the metal stamping industry," Lockhart says. "Hopefully, by our efforts, we can retain some of the business in this country."

That type of innovation is bound to attract some attention. The Great Lakes Innovation & Development Enterprise (GLIDE) grant program awarded the company $25,000.

"Our goal is to continue to add jobs and continue to grow," Lockhart says. "And these are not minimum wage jobs by any stretch of the imagination."

Source: Anthony Lockhart, M.O.M. Tools
Writer: Colin McEwen

Nexergy is on the cutting edge of advanced battery technology -- a niche that helped the company add nearly 20 jobs between 2009 and early 2010.

The Columbus-based company is working on some of the technological challenges of building lithium ion battery packs -- a battery that produces more energy per weight and size than anything else on the market.

Lithium ion batteries today are used in many consumer products, like notebook computers and cell phones (by contrast, Nexergy builds battery packs for high-value portable electronics like medical instruments and tools, safety and security equipment). But they have a couple of problems when battery size increases -- they can generate a lot of heat and they have to be carefully controlled with electronics. That makes developing a large lithium ion battery that can be used in such things as electric vehicles a major technological challenge.

"One of the big issues that the industry is dealing with in kind of moving up the food chain in getting lithium ion used in bigger and bigger packs for things like wheelchair batteries or lawnmower batteries or electric vehicle batteries," says company founder Phil Glandon.

Nexergy is helping to solve that problem in a collaboration with GrafTech, Mobius Power, and the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State University. The companies are receiving $965,000 from the Ohio Third Frontier to build a next generation of applications for lithium ion power.

Overcoming those challenges could mean tremendous growth for a company like Nexergy if it's able to convert its large lead-acid battery business to lithium, Glandon says. The company, which also has operations in California and Colorado, employs 165 in Ohio.

Sources: Phil Glandon, founder, and Sean Harrigan, president and CEO, Nexergy
Writer: Gene Monteith

When life gives you lemons, make shampoo. That seems to be the motto of Gay and Buz Fifer, a Wooster couple working to take their pet care company to the next level by focusing on a line of all-natural products.

Parsley Hollow, which began selling its products in 2005, grew from an all-too-common circumstance in today's economy: Both she and her husband had been laid off from their jobs.

"I'm 63, Buz is 65, we had good careers, we had good jobs, we have good resumes, but nobody wants to hire people who are our age," Gay says. "And so we started a business."

Gay says that before Parsley Hollow sold its first product, she already had been "making these organic, all natural products for my own animals, which had skin problems." One day, she asked her vet if he thought she could make something that might be as effective as the expensive stuff sold commercially. "And he said 'yeah, I think you could.'"

In fact, that vet carried the Parsley Hollow line until his recent retirement, the Fifers say.

Today, the company sells six products, all of which the Fifers say differ from most mainstream pet products because they are "completely all natural and organic." Additionally, each product includes a natural antibacterial agent, Gay says.

The company has some celebrity endorsements, including legendary Miami Dolphins running back Larry Csonka and country artist Kasey Lansdale. Three veterinarians, 10 specialty pet stores and 12 groceries are actively selling the products, Buz says.

While an economic downturn has affected sales, the Fifers say they are negotiating a national deal that could put their products on shelves nationally -- though under a different name -- late this year.

Sources: Gay and Buz Fifer, Parsley Hollow
Writer: Gene Monteith

The neon signs and posters at the bar? Those kitschy grocery store displays that highlight your favorite brew? They're often paid for by the beverage distributors.

Though all part of the cost of doing business, they can be pricey. So, it was only a matter of time before an entrepreneur found a way for businesses to recoup some of their expenses.

SignTrak, a Cincinnati software development company funded in part by CincyTech and Ohio Third Frontier money, has put the web to work to that end. The point-of-sale promotional items are often ordered by the same sales people who meet with bar owners, restaurateurs and grocery store buyers to take their beverage orders; they then relay sign orders to largely in-house print shops.

Before SignTrak, that sometimes left a long and error-prone paper trail.

"Without our software, it's a very manual process. Everything's on paper, which the salesperson has to take back and stuff into a slot, the print shop prints it and sends it out. 'Oops, there's an error.' And back it goes to the print shop," says SignTrak Executive Vice President Denis Clark.

Using SignTrak's web-based service, the customer can proof the point-of-sale promotional items online, cutting down on errors, and print shops can manage their workload better, boosting production by up to 20 percent, Clark adds.

The company's founder, Mark Fullerton, designed the first system in 2004 for Walton, Ky.-based Chas. Seligman Distributing Co. The distributorship's president, Jennifer Doering, was so impressed with the results, Clark says, she took it to an industry conference to show it to others.

SignTrak launched in 2007 and now counts seven of the 25-largest beer distributorships in the nation among its clients. It employs ten.

Source: Denis Clark, SignTrak
Writer: Dave Malaska

A new Ohio high-tech company aimed at helping osteoporosis patients soon will launch at Cincinnati's life science company incubator  BIOSTART.

OsteoDynamics, a partnership of Integrated BioScience Solutions, and BIOSTART, will build on new technology that two University of Cincinnati professors created to test bone strength.

Professors Amit Bhattacharya and Nelson Watts, who developed the technology based on the concept of "Bone Shock Absorbance," plan to advance a new diagnostic tool testing a patient's bone fracture risk.

In February, OsteoDynamics, which will be managed by Integrated BioScience Solutions, signed an agreement to license Bone Shock Absorbance technology from UC. OsteoDynamics also received $125,000 in seed financing from Southern Ohio Creates Companies. The company will be based at BIOSTART.

"This is a promising technology, developed through a productive partnership between Drs. Watts (M.D.) and Bhattacharya (Ph.D.) that draws on their respective clinical and engineering experience," says Carol Frankenstein, president of BIOSTART. "Their invention has the potential to improve treatment for women who suffer bone loss following menopause. BIOSTART is pleased to play a part in developing OsteoDynamics."

The noninvasive test measures how the energy from a heel strike is absorbed and dissipated. It's a new way of testing that measures bone quality and appears to be a better indicator of fracture risk than traditional tests.

"With that information, we can then provide them with more effective medications and other interventions that have already been proven to reduce fracture risk. Initial clinical data indicates that Bone Shock Absorbance may be the diagnostic technology that can achieve this goal," said Bhattacharya, a professor in the Department of Environmental Health.

Sources: University of Cincinnati, BIOSTART
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Pop quiz: Frogs are good for making (choose one): (A) Handsome princes, (B) Muppets
(C)Biofuel. The answer, according to a University of Cincinnati research team, is (C). Sorry, Kermit.

The Cincinnati team used plant, bacterial, and fungal enzymes to make a special foam � like that made by the semi-tropical Tungara frog to develop tadpoles � to produce sugars from sunlight and carbon dioxide. Those sugars can be converted to ethanol.

This procedure may trump plant photosynthesis to create sugars because it uses no soil, and it can be used in highly enriched carbon dioxide environments.

The journal Nano Letters published these findings of UC College of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Carlo Montemagno, Research Assistant Professor David Wendell and student Jacob Todd online last month and plans to use it for a cover story this fall.

Other media attention is starting to steamroll. The research also has been featured on HeatingOil.com, PhysOrg.com and BioFuels Watch.com, to name a few.

Science blogger David Bois, writing on Tonic, called it "a breakthrough."

"The innovation, astonishingly, appears to be even more efficient than nature itself, at least in terms of the amount of solar energy going in compared to the amount of energy contained by the output hydrocarbons. . . . Actual plants are required to expend energy for reproduction and survival. The lab creation doesn't have such requirements, and accordingly can put all of the incoming solar energy work into making hydrocarbons."

Maybe it's easy being green after all.

Source: Wendy Beckman, University of Cincinnati
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Wright State University is putting a new place on the map: Calamityville.

The threat of danger � made by man or Mother Nature � always looms in Calamityville. Weather forecasts are dire. Security reports are worse. It sounds like a place from which people would escape.

Instead, it's a place the Dayton-area school says will attractive medical, public health, public safety and civilian and military disaster response decision-makers from around the world for state-of-the-art training.

Calamityville is part of The National Center for Medical Readiness at WSU, an Ohio Center of Excellence. It's being funded from state and federal sources, as well as a wide range of businesses. WSU and the cities of Dayton and are providing support, too.

Among the features on the site plan: an urban destruction zone, transportation mishaps, and water environments. Site preparation has begun, and a virtual version exists here. 

Dr. Mark E. Gebhart, associate professor at Wright State's Boonshoft School of Medicine and director of the NCMR, estimates that over a five-year period Calamityville will directly and indirectly generate $374 million for the Miami Valley region. It will directly and indirectly create approximately 35 new jobs and when calculating the construction components will impact another 344 jobs. Plus, he says in an economic impact assessment, there will be spin-off revenue to the region from increased tourism and overnight stays, increased sales and income tax revenues, and related growth.

On a related note, this month, the NCMR became one of six emergency preparedness training facilities in the U.S. to test the American Medical Association's Core Disaster Life Support Course, an introduction to "all hazards" preparedness for first responders, local officials and the public.

Source: Cindy Young, Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Austin Allison began selling real estate in high school, and by 24, anticipated a technological need in his business that soon could pay big dividends.

Allison, CEO and co-founder of DotLoop, launched a software product that takes the real estate transaction process online. The Blue Ash-based company's namesake software was developed by Allison and tech expert Matt Vorst, another Cincinnati area entrepreneur and another company co-founder.

DotLoop is an online, collaborative transaction environment for brokers, realtors, buyers and sellers. Among its features is utilizing electronic signatures and storing and making easily available documents in a secure space. It's designed to eliminate mounds of paperwork, be user friendly and simple for everyone to use.

"Why hasn't anyone done this yet? I don't know. I'm glad they haven't. My guess is nobody has yet been able to do it right. You can't say the money isn't there," said Allison about the product.

The company was launched in 2008 with four people; today the company employs 20. After a short time in Beta, the company launched the software at the National Association of Realtors Convention in San Diego. Back then, Allison projected $500,000 in revenues for 2010. But this spring he revised those revenues slightly upward -- from $2 million to $5 million.

"We are the iPhone of real estate. The differentiator with DotLoop is our collaborative environment, merging three web commerce disciplines into one service: online forms, transaction management and electronic signatures," Vorst said.

DotLoop has 500 registered agents and contracts with more than 30 brokerage firms.

Source: Austin Allison, CEO and co-founder of DotLoop.com
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

The prevention of tooth decay � rather than its treatment � is the drive behind Toledo-based Branam Oral Health Technologies. But it's the company's innovative line of products toward that goal that's getting all the attention.

Developed two years ago by Dr. Stephen R. Branam, a local dentist with a big idea and 30 years of experience, the company is poised to smile in the face of tooth decay nationwide.

"Treatment is of course reactive and impacts the healthcare system in a dramatic fashion � not to mention the health implications on the affected child," says Branam CEO Mick Janness.

By using Xylitol � a natural sweetener and a proven inhibitor of tooth decay � Branam has developed a suite of naturally formulated products giving children and their parents an alternative to the mass-marketed products currently on the shelves. Branam's line includes toothpaste, mouthwash, gum and mints � all free of detergents, artificial dyes, saccharin and fluoride.

Ortho-Gibby, Branam's orthodontic pacifier, is geared to cut out jaw deformities associated with traditional pacifiers. The Ortho-Gibby was designed to reduce pressure that causes ear infections while also promoting proper oral development.

The company shipped its first order of products in March and is expected to make millions in sales. Janness says the company's launch is now official.

With some financial backing from the Regional Growth Partnership, the company focused on research and development of the products. Branam received a $1million investment from the RGP and $250,000 grant from Rocket Ventures to launch the company.

Three people are currently employed with the company, but Janness says more people (in marketing, compliance and administration) will be hired within a year.

Source: Mick Janness, Branham Oral Health Technologies
Writer: Colin McEwen