Akron named hub; BioInnovation Institute gets new home

By SHANNON MORTLAND

Crain’s Cleveland Business

July 19, 2010

The Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron today announced the location of its new home while the state designated the city of Akron the Ohio Hub of Innovation and Opportunity.

The Akron Biomaterials Commercialization Hub will receive a $250,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development to create new technologies and prototypes in biomaterials for orthopedics and wound healing. In addition, it will work with the city and the Greater Akron Chamber to establish and bring to the area U.S. and international companies that will focus on wound healing and orthopedics.

The city of Akron will collaborate with the University Park Alliance to create jobs and support urban development around the hub, which will be located at the BioInnovation Institute.

The institute next summer will move into 40,000 square feet of space on the first three floors of Summit County's Department of Job and Family Services building at Main Street and Perkins Avenue in Akron. The centerpiece of that location will be the institute's Center for Simulation and Integrated Healthcare Education, but the institute overall will serve as a health care training facility.

The building will undergo a $10 million renovation after it is sold to the Summit County Port Authority. While the state provided a $2.5 million loan to the port to help fund the renovations, the port will raise money and sell an undisclosed amount in bonds to finance the rest.

The updated site will house an auditorium, public lecture halls, the institute’s Center for Clinical and Community Health Improvement, and community-based health initiatives and education programs run by the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, a partner in the institute.

The institute will have room to grow in the new location and eventually will move its biomedical incubator and Medical Device Development Center there. The Medical Device Development Center now is housed at the Akron Global Business Accelerator, a business incubator.

“We are creating more than just office space,” said Dr. Frank Douglas, the institute's president and CEO. “We are building a 21st-century hub allowing us to recruit great talent and to provide an environment that will push discovery and commercialization forward.”