2010 – Page 29 of 78

EMU becomes first Michigan university to receive DART mass spectrometer

By Newsroom

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July 28, 2010

Michigan's first spectrometer is heading to Eastern Michigan University, an addition that is making chemistry researchers green with envy across the Midwest."The Michigan State Police Lab is in the process of purchasing one now," says Ruth Ann Armitage, an associate professor of chemistry at Eastern Michigan University who quarterbacked the effort to attain the $200,000 National Science Foundation grant for the spectrometer. "I have a friend in the U.S. Customs office in Chicago that said, 'I am so jealous you have one of those."A spectrometer provides the shortcut to discovering the chemical makeup of a substance. Currently chemists have to go through an extensive, time-consuming process to learn this. The spectrometer allows them to put the substance in a chamber and get the chemical makeup within a few minutes. For instance, the chemists could put a mystery pill into the spectrometer and know whether it's Vicodin or Viagra or aspirin without the fuss and muss of physically breaking it down. EMU plans to use the spectrometer to research historical artifacts, looking for chemical clues about life centuries ago. They will be able to put a dish from a primitive culture into the spectrometer and be able to learn the composition of not only the dish but any food residue it contains."Finding out what these residues are tells us a lot of about life back then," Armitage says.Source: Ruth Ann Armitage, an associate professor of chemistry at Eastern Michigan UniversityWriter: Jon Zemke

Endra hires 6, expects to double life sciences staff

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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July 28, 2010

For Endra, moving from Boston to Ann Arbor made good money sense.The 3-year-old life sciences start-up set up shop in Ann Arbor last year with five people. It now employs 11 and expects to double its staff again in the next year. Ann Arbor's low cost of doing business is a big reason why that growth is possible."Operating here is less expensive," says Michael Thornton, COO & president of Endra. "Everything from salaries to office space is cheaper."And then there is the talent pool. Endra also choose Ann Arbor because of its proximity to the University of Michigan and a steady stream of local graduate students. Endra, which develops a preclinical product for small animal imaging (think lab rats), plans to expand its office space within the next year to accommodate its growth."We're basically building out the team here," Thornton says.Source: Michael Thornton, COO and president of EndraWriter: Jon Zemke

ICON Creative Technologies Group plans for 20% growth

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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July 28, 2010

ICON Creative Technologies Group is literally growing into its new home on the outskirts of downtown Ann Arbor, hiring four new people over the last year.The interactive marketing agency moved to the former second home of the Ann Arbor Art Center last year. It now has a staff of 25 people and a handful of independent contractors focusing on Internet marketing for firms in the bio-tech, automotive, and service industries."We're doing well," says Rob Cleveland, CEO of ICON Creative Technologies Group. "The year is going pretty much as planned."The 15-year-old company is focusing on a hybrid of 20 percent organic growth and mergers/acquisitions to expand its business over the next year. "Our top priority is people in the business development field," Cleveland says.Source: Rob Cleveland, CEO of ICON Creative Technologies GroupWriter: Jon Zemke

U-M’s North Campus Research Center attracts first start-up, BoroPharm

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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July 28, 2010

Private enterprise is moving back to the old Pfizer campus in Ann Arbor, albeit in just a small corner of the complex for now.BoroPharm, a chemical development and manufacturing start-up from East Lansing, is moving into what is now called the North Campus Research Center, along with a growing army of researchers from the University of Michigan. The university bought the 174-acre campus and its 30 buildings last year."We're a small-but-growing company," says Todd Zahn, president and CEO of BoroPharm. "We are looking for new hires. The company has been profitable and we're doing well. That's why we moved to the NCRC, because we can grow without building or renovating space."BoroPharm was founded in 2005 by two Michigan State University professors. It's moving into Building 40, a specialized free-standing chemical production building.The company recently hired an ex-Pfizer employee who worked on the campus before the drug-maker pulled up stakes in 2007. BoroPharm expects to hire about 3-5 people over the next year. "We'd also like to bring on some students as well," Zahn says.Source: Todd Zahn, president and CEO of BoroPharmWriter: Jon Zemke

Video Growing Hope

By Keith Jefferies

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Community Development

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July 21, 2010

From bees to broccoli, Growing Hope is determined to bring locally grown produce to the masses. Between its urban gardens, hoop house and hives, running the downtown Ypsilanti Farmers' Market, and providing community education, this urban farming advocate has developed a little slice of sustainable heaven on Michigan Ave.

Delphinus moves to Ann Arbor, invests $6.4M, to create 107 jobs

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Community Development

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July 21, 2010

Delphinus Medical Solutions continues its rapid march from research spin-off to high-powered start-up. Last we heard, it had collected $8 million in venture capital earlier this year. Within the last week, it scored six-figures' worth of state tax credits, enabling it to invest $6.4 million and create 107 jobs over the next five years."We plan on hiring between 10-20 people in the first year," says Bill Greenway, CEO of Delphinus Medical Solutions.The Michigan Economic Development Corp has agreed to grant the Karmanos Cancer Institute spin-off a five-year tax credit worth $779,118 to move to the Michigan Life Science & Innovation Center in Plymouth. That gave the Ann Arbor SPARK-run wet lab incubator the edge over competing sites in Boston and Chicago. Delphinus Medical Solutions' principal product is SoftVue, an alternative to mammography for breast cancer detection, risk evaluation, and treatment monitoring. SoftVue can effectively differentiate benign from malignant masses in breasts, helping eliminate false positives and reducing unnecessary biopsies. It can also accurately measure breast density, a known risk factor for developing breast cancer, as well as detect many early stages of cancer in women with dense breast tissue, which is often not picked up by mammography. SoftVue works by surrounding a breast submerged in warm water with an ultrasound ring that captures detailed, three-dimensional images with sound waves. The results are similar to an MRI, but the procedure takes only a few minutes and costs much less. The procedure was the inspiration for the company's name, which is Latin for dolphins."Because our system uses sound waves and happens in water we thought it was a neat name," Greenway says.Source: Bill Greenway, CEO of Delphinus Medical TechnologiesWriter: Jon Zemke

Jove telecommuter lands in downtown Ann Arbor

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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July 21, 2010

Jove shouldn't have anything to do with downtown Ann Arbor, but the Massachusetts-based firm does so because of the city's high quality of urban life.Jove stands for Journal of Visualized Experiments. The start-up creates and hosts video journals for biological research, meaning it shows how experiments are done in a peer-reviewed, YouTube-style Internet video. It draws top talent from across North America to its staff, one of whom landed in Michigan and choose downtown Ann Arbor.Mark Shalinsky, one of Jove's first employees, moved to Ann Arbor with his wife when she took a job at the University of Michigan. They choose to live in downtown Ann Arbor because it provided a quality urban experience where they could live practically car-free. As Mark puts it, "not having a vehicle is awesome.""That's why Ann Arbor," Shalinsky says. "We like being in the center of things."This also helps him telecommute for his job from various downtown hotspots. The close proximity to Metro Airport allows him to be anywhere in the world within a matter of hours, and also enables him to pitch Jove's products and attributes at a number of Ann Arbor's entrepreneurial meetings, such as those hosted by Ann Arbor SPARK. That helps the local entrepreneurial ecosystem make one more connection to one of the world's hottest economies, and all because the city created a dense, vibrant city center that new economy workers wanted to be a part of.Source: Mark Shalinsky, Science Editor for JoveWriter: Jon Zemke

Ann Arbor’s Accio Energy scores $250K from Automation Alley

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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July 21, 2010

Accio Energy is raking in big checks from some recognizable names now that Automation Alley has invested $250,000 in the alternative energy start-up.The 3-year-old firm has made six hires in the last year, bringing its staff to 10 people. It hopes to continue expanding by using the $250,000 and other seed capital it has collected to continue developing its principal product and readying it for commercialization."We will continue to hire technologically strong individuals to help us develop the technology," says Jeff Basch, general manager for Accio Energy.The Ann Arbor-based company is building a wind turbine without the rotation. The new technology, aerovoltaic, harnesses the electrokinetic energy of the wind. The system doesn't have turbine blades and instead is silent and stationary. Source: Jeff Basch, general manager for Accio EnergyWriter: Jon Zemke

Accuri Cytometers locks down $6M in financing, adds 25 positions

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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July 21, 2010

Accuri Cytometers, an A-list start-up from Ann Arbor, is pulling in seven figures' worth of seed capital this month.The company is bringing in $6 million in financing to be used to take its Accuri C6 Flow Cytometer into clinical trials and push it towards commercialization. That should allow it to continue growing at a rapid clip. The company has hired about 25 people over the last year, expanding its staff to 87 employees and a few independent contractors and interns. "Our revenue is growing rapidly," says Jeff Williams, CEO of Accuri Cytometers. "Our sales are growing rapidly."Accuri Cytometers, a University of Michigan spin-off, specializes in making the cytometer systems that measure T-cell counts (among other things), which is an instrumental tool in tracking and treating diseases like AIDS and cancer. It is a research field with lots of room to grow in both the near and long term.The firm has been on a tear in recent months, selling its products worldwide. It has attracted a number of new customers."We expects our growth rate to continue," Williams says.Source: Jeff Williams, CEO of Accuri CytometersWriter: Jon Zemke

Quantum Signal invests $1.29M, plans 47 hires

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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July 21, 2010

Quantum Signal is sending all of the right messages these days - hiring half a dozen people, about to hire another 47, and making a $1.29 million investment in the Ann Arbor community.The 10-year-old firm recently added six people, rounding out its staff to 35 with another 2-3 interns. That's up from a headcount of just under 30 when we checked in with the company in January. The Ann Arbor-based firm plans to hire 9-10 people per year over the next five years so it can hit its target of 47 new employees in that same time period."We're very much in growth mode right now," says Mitch Rohde, COO of Quantum Signal. "We have a lot of projects in the pipeline so we have to expand our facilities. We're constantly understaffed."Quantum Signal uses high-end engineering mathematics and algorithms to extract information from visual data. Think the type of software used in face-recognition devices. It also develops military training simulations and commercial video games under its Reactor Zero subsidiary. It took a lot of these algorithms from the likes of the University of Michigan."We wanted to take something out of the ivory tower and apply it worldwide," Rohde says.The Michigan Economic Development Corp gave Quantum Signal a $206,083 tax credit over five years, helping it make the choice to expand in Michigan instead of Washington, D.C. The firm also plans to move to Saline as part of its expansion.Source: Mitch Rohde, COO of Quantum SignalWriter: Jon Zemke