Lorain County Community College, Austen BioInnovation Institute Join to Advance Medical Technologies

ELYRIA, Ohio, May 2, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lorain County Community College (LCCC) and the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) are leveraging their complementary strengths to build a partnership to accelerate the commercialization of novel medical technologies that can advance economic growth, stimulate job creation, foster talent development, enrich patient care and improve community health in Northeast Ohio.

"At the national, state and regional levels, commercializing new technologies at a reduced cost and risk has been identified as the crux to fueling economic vitality and competitiveness in the global innovation economy," said LCCC President Roy A. Church.

Nationally, the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), created as a collaborative led by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), cited the "missing middle" as the gap between research and market, and as a primary barrier of moving new inventions to market and creating jobs.

"This partnership will seek to specifically address this gap in Northeast Ohio to move additional innovations created here to the medical technologies market," said ABIA President and CEO Dr. Frank Douglas.  "Dr. Church and his team know that the process to bring ideas to life must be deliberate and this agreement allows us to further the interlocking of ideas, people and resources that will help fuel the economy."

The initial focus of the partnership between LCCC and ABIA will be to create meaningful economic impact by:

• Serving as an intermediary for enhanced technical solutions by leveraging the technical capabilities and expertise of the two organizations to develop and deliver industry-friendly "technical solutions" services that advance novel medical technologies from research to market.  Together, the organizations will fill a need in the region for commercializing medical technologies through prototyping, testing, development, regulatory compliance and low volume production. 
• Expanding access to capital to rapidly move medical discoveries to market by exploring the creation of a pre-seed fund, built on the success of LCCC's founding of the Innovation Fund, to strategically and proactively foster the transfer of technology from the lab to the market as a start-up enterprise or open innovations solution for existing industry.  The fund would provide capital to qualifying technologies developed through the research and development work of the two organizations.
• Delivering targeted business mentoring and support using the business support services of the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE) and other partners in the region's entrepreneurial support ecosystem to assess market opportunities for targeted technologies.
• Developing talent using Allied Health training systems like LCCC's new Patient Simulation Learning Center and ABIA's new simulation and product development facility to provide hands-on experience.

About Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron
The Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) – an exceptional collaboration of Akron Children's Hospital, Akron General Health System, FirstEnergy, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Summa Health System and The University of Akron – brings innovative minds together to create economic and personal vitality by inspiring patient-centered discovery and invention. The ABIA partnership accelerates the time from idea to commercialization of new technologies and solutions by bringing together world-class scientists, physicians, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs in the biomedical product and polymer science industries. ABIA works to secure Ohio's economic future through its patient-centered product innovation, cutting-edge workforce training and inclusionary approach to community health improvement. For more information about ABIA, please visit www.abiakron.org.

About Lorain County Community College
Lorain County Community College is part of The University System of Ohio, one of the largest comprehensive public systems of higher education in the nation. LCCC is one of Ohio's fastest-growing community colleges because of the variety of learning opportunities it provides. LCCC offers an array of programs and services and is the first college in the state to build an advanced technologies center for business and industry. The Aspen Institute named LCCC as one of the top 120 community colleges in the United States – and the only one in Ohio. LCCC's Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE) assists entrepreneurs with counseling and business-support services. The Innovation Fund of the LCCC Foundation is a regional fund focused on supporting technology-based entrepreneurial endeavors and emerging technology-based businesses. LCCC's Richard Desich SMART Commercialization Center for Microsystems provides packaging, testing and simulation services and expertise for sensors/MEMS technologies in a wide variety of products and industries.  The SMART Center is a MEMS packaging, assembly and test development facility serving needs of industry and start-ups with a unique set of tools and expertise delivered in a shared use facility equipped with Class 1000 and Class 100 clean rooms.  SMART's capability is complemented by LCCC's Rapid Prototyping Center, the FAB LAB with 3D printing capabilities and services.

Media Contacts
Scott Rainone
Austen BioInnovation Institute
330-572-7581, [email protected]

Steve Sefchik
Lorain County Community College
440-366-7601, [email protected]

SOURCE Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron