Ohio's high-tech development leaders want to pump nearly $7 million in awards into cutting-edge projects at medical-imaging and biomedical companies in Northeast Ohio.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ohio's high-tech development leaders want to pump nearly $7 million in awards into cutting-edge projects at medical-imaging and biomedical companies in Northeast Ohio.
And the Ohio Third Frontier Commission is recommending more than $1.1 million for advanced-energy efforts and new-company incubators in the region.
The commission doled out about $17 million in awards statewide today, about half going to companies and economic development groups in Northeast Ohio.
The State Controlling Board must approve the awards. They flow from Third Frontier's ongoing $2.1 billion effort to boost Ohio's most promising technologies and get them to market.
In medical imaging, Third Frontier "is further positioning the state as a global leader," Gov. Ted Strickland said in a press release. Some $4.8 million in Third Frontier money will go to companies that are stalwarts in the region's medical-imaging cluster, comprising about 50 companies and 8,000 workers.
The commission's awards included:
• $1 million to CardioInsight Technologies Inc., of Cleveland. It will work with University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic and others to market a technology that images electrical activity on the surface of the heart.
• $1 million to GE Healthcare Technologies, of Aurora. It will collaborate on a project to develop new imaging coils for use with pediatric patients, the state reported.
• $1 million to Philips Healthcare, in Highland Heights. Philips will partner with Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals on a project that would upgrade scanners to measure the absolute amount of blood flow to the heart.
• $812,000 to InfraRed Imaging Systems Inc., of Eastlake. The company wants to move manufacturing and engineering of its vascular-imaging technology from a California site.
• $1 million to Quality Electrodynamics LLC, in Mayfield. It will partner with others to customize next-generation technology, known as 7-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging, for knee and breast scanning.
The commission's awards for biomedical development included:
• $1 million to CWRU. The university will join Athersys Inc., of Cleveland, in a project to advance a stem-cell treatment for spinal cord injuries.
• $1 million to OrthoHelix Surgical Designs Inc., of Medina. It will collaborate to advance a technology that serves as an option for orthopedic surgeons who use screws and plates for broken hands, feet and ankles.
To bolster entrepreneurial efforts in the region, the commission approved two awards to JumpStart, Inc., a nonprofit venture-development organization based in Cleveland.
On award, for $300,000, will go to two "entrepreneurs in residence," who will look to foster growth of new, advanced-energy companies in the region.
The other, for $865,000, will go toward new-company incubators in Akron, Mansfield, Cleveland and Youngstown.