Author Archives: theprossman

Update from Austin on the STEM Solutions Conference

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By Justin Driscoll, Director, STEM Talent Acquisition

Greetings from Austin TX!  I have the privilege of attending the national STEM Solutions Conference hosted by U.S. News and World Report this week.

One of the most interesting sessions I have attended so far is on Meetings Industry Talent Needs.  The panel discussion was based on a report published by the University of Phoenix, STEM Connector and U.S. News and World Report.  Here are the findings from the executive summery of that report.

Below are a few suggestions that education and industry can focus on to help solve the STEM workforce shortage.

From an educational perspective, companies are focusing their efforts on:

  • Cultivate the future workforce by attracting K-12 students to STEM fields via mentorships, internships, and after school programs.
  • Working with postsecondary institution to develop the STEM competences of near-term hires, future graduates, and career changers.
  • Partnering with certification bodies to ensure educational programs deliver up-to-date skills training for current and incoming workers.
  • Funding worker certifications and advanced education.

From a corporate perspective, employers are:

  • Coordinating internal company initiatives to build and sustain a stem capable workforce.
  • Prioritizing certification training and continuous learning.
  • Applying metrics to determine the effectiveness of talent development spending and workforce recruitment partners, and
  • Hiring and cultivating STEM talent during lean times to minimize worker shortages and ensure a sufficient workforce when growth resumes.

The report also focused on how K-12, post secondary and industry can cultivate the next generation of STEM workers:

  • Enhance relations with community colleges, four-year universities, graduate programs, and other talent development entities.
  • Work more closely with partners responsible for updating the skills of the current workforce and professional organizations or government agencies to ensure that certifications match current industry needs.
  • Address the diversion of capable students from STEM career tracks by creating pathways from grade school to graduate school.
  • Increase workforce diversity by expanding outreach efforts to women, Hispanics, and African Americans.
  • Use metrics more assertively to evaluate the effectiveness of talent development partners, corporate funding and other STEM initiative spending.

Stay tuned for more updates from the STEM Solutions Conference in Austin.

Qrono Receives National Institutes of Health Award to Improve
Treatment of Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Posted on by theprossman

 

Qrono

Qrono

Qrono Inc., today announced that the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), awarded Qrono a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I grant for $256,000 to improve the treatment options for wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD) and fund further development of the company’s predictive modeling technology for the design of long-acting injectable (LAI) drug formulations. The research will be conducted in collaboration with The Little Lab at the Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Wet AMD is a leading cause of vision loss among older adults and can progress very quickly due to abnormal blood vessel growth behind the retina. Ranibizumab and bevacizumab are two drugs that target the proteins that cause this abnormal growth. However, because treatments with these drugs require a monthly eye injection, patient non-adherence (up to 67 percent) is a major problem. Qrono’s new LAI formulation for these drugs will reduce the injection frequency to once every three months or even six months which should improve patient adherence and thereby enable better patient outcomes

“We are grateful that the grant reviewers recognized the potential of our technology,” said Larry Zana, Qrono CEO & Co-Founder, “and we appreciate the support of NIGMS for this research.”

The grant will also enable Qrono to demonstrate that its predictive modeling technology, called QronoMetrics™, can be used to produce LAI formulations for a wide range of target pharmaceuticals in an unprecedented, rapid period of time. In Phase I, Qrono will develop LAI formulations for ranibizumab, bevacizumab, and two other active pharmaceutical ingredients. Upon successful completion of Phase I, Qrono will be eligible to apply for Phase II funding that will extend its predictive models to cover preclinical and clinical pharmacokinetic data.

QronoMetrics™ offers three key advantages in the production of custom controlled-release and microencapsulated systems:

• Removes the trial and error required by traditional design techniques, resulting in faster time-to-market, reduced development cost and reduced risk.
• Reduced active pharmaceutical ingredient costs, up to 60% less.
• Critical parameters automatically identified for quality by design (QbD) manufacture

Dr. Steven Little, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, said “This grant will further enable research that builds upon our ongoing collaboration with Qrono. It is an excellent example of how an academic-industry collaboration can enable better medications.”

About Qrono:
Fully operational since 2012, Qrono Inc. is a specialty pharmaceutical company enabling better medications, stronger patient adherence, improved patient outcomes, and faster time-to-market for new medications using an innovative technology to create long-acting injectable (LAI) formulations. These long-acting drug formulations enable a single administration of active pharmaceutical ingredient to provide a therapeutic effect ranging from several days to many weeks or months. Our pipeline strategy focuses on LAI controlled release formulations of drugs with known safety profiles in therapeutic areas with either high non-adherence (e.g., antipsychotics and ophthalmology), or where LAIs can add therapeutic value (e.g., medical countermeasures and oncology).

About The Little Lab:
The Little Lab explores synthetic drug delivery strategies that mimic those of cells and tissues in order to enhance (or alternatively endow new) biological functionality. To this end, researchers explore new ways to produce complex presentations of bio-active molecules over time and space. The mission is twofold. Specifically, researchers aim to utilize biomimetic delivery systems to achieve both: 1) enhanced therapeutic efficiency for future drug formulations (e.g. “medicine that imitates life”) as well as 2) understanding of basic biological processes that are otherwise obscured without engineering tools that can be tuned to replicate multi-modal cellular “language”.

ExOne Collaborates With Vacuum Furnace Manufacturer to Offer Complete 3D Printing Solution

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The ExOne Company

The ExOne Company

The ExOne Company (Nasdaq:XONE), a global provider of three-dimensional (“3D”) printing machines and printed products to industrial customers, has teamed with Ipsen, a designer and manufacturer of industrial vacuum furnaces, to provide customers with a complete 3D printing package.

ExOne expects its collaboration with Ipsen to strengthen the level of support offered to customers throughout the entire development and production process. Providing a packaged turn-key solution to our customers enables them to materialize new concepts, designs, prototypes and production parts with virtually unlimited design complexity.

David J. Burns, ExOne’s President and COO, noted, “As our pipeline of opportunities is building we have simplified the purchasing process for 3D printers by offering a complete printer-furnace package. Ipsen is ideal for us to collaborate with given their industrial focus and global presence.”

“As technical experts dedicated to lean manufacturing, Ipsen was chosen due to our industry-wide reputation for custom innovations and forward-thinking research and development focus,” explained Mark Heninger, Ipsen’s Vacuum Product Manager. “We are excited about this collaboration, and the opportunity to pool our knowledge with ExOne to provide a reliable solution for customers.”

About Ipsen

Ipsen designs and manufactures industrial vacuum furnaces, atmosphere furnaces and supervisory control systems for a wide variety of thermal processing markets including: Aerospace, Commercial Heat Treating, Medical, Energy and Automotive. With production locations in Europe, America and Asia, along with representation in 34 countries, choosing Ipsen means choosing a partner in success. For more information, visit www.IpsenUSA.com.

About ExOne

ExOne is a global provider of 3D printing machines and printed products to industrial customers. ExOne’s business primarily consists of manufacturing and selling 3D printing machines and printing products to specification for its customers using its in‐house 3D printing machines. ExOne offers pre‐production collaboration and prints products through Production Service Centers, which are located in the United States, Germany and Japan. ExOne builds 3D printing machines at its facilities in the United States and Germany. ExOne also supplies the associated products, including consumables and replacement parts, and services, including training and technical support, necessary for purchasers of its machines to print products. For more information, visit www.exone.com.

Tech 50 Nomination Deadline Extended to June 28

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The nomination deadline for Tech 50 has been extended until Friday, June 28 at 5 p.m.

The nomination deadline for Tech 50 has been extended until Friday, June 28 at 5 p.m.

This year, the Pittsburgh Technology Council has made major changes to both the Tech 50 nominations and the judging process.

As a key priority for this year’s Tech 50, we are looking to honor businesses that are creating the biggest economic impact in our region, but who are also using innovation to solve big problems. As such, past requirements for businesses to submit financial data are being lifted in favor of a more open process.

Nominate your company as part of this year’s Tech 50. This year’s Awards program will be held on October 10th.

The Tech 50 categories follow below. Forms and full details can be found online.

Send the completed form to Michele Greenway via email to mgreenway@pghtech.org or mail Pittsburgh technology Council, 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA  15219.  The deadline is June 28 at 5:00 p.m. 

Why Nominate?

We encourage all tech companies to enter a nomination. Not a tech company? Nominate a client or business associate. Tech 50 has competitive categories no matter a company’s size or industry niche.

Here are this year’s categories:

Solution Provider of the Year

The finalists in this category assist companies with the integration and adoption of technologies that support their operations, improve their custom­er experience, and ultimately improve the production of an organization. Among examples of qualified businesses include integrators and hardware producers/distributors. Companies will be evaluated on growth and the impact of their products or services.

Advanced Manufacturer of the Year
These companies manufacture advanced components and products for use in all industries. Companies will be judged on their economic contribution to the region and how they are using innovation to increase productivity.

Innovator of the Year
These companies have developed unique technologies and solutions that have the potential of changing global marketplaces and to generate sub­stantial regional economic impact. Companies can be from any core technology cluster (health care, advanced manufacturing, information technology, energy, creative technology etc.) Companies can be any size in revenue or employee count.

Tech Titan of the Year
This category is designed for companies generating more than $50 million in revenue. These businesses span the fields of manufacturing, life sciences, green technology and information technology but are recognized in their own category as regional leaders in revenue generation.

Life Sciences Company of the Year
Life Sciences category companies improve our health and environment. Candidates deliver medical equipment; pharmaceuticals; health services; and biomedical, agricultural and environmental products and services.

Start-Up of the Year
Start-Up of the Year candidates are the future of southwestern Pennsylvania. Burgeoning entrepreneurial firms no more than five years old are eligible. Entrants should offer innovative products or unique services and show promise of becoming major economic forces.

Interactive and Application Developer of the Year
This category is open to any company that develops or designs applications, software, branding, games, media production and/or social media and web design as part of their business.

CEO of the Year
These are the people in the corner office who everyone looks to for direction. Entrants should be CEOs of tech companies in any cluster who make sub­stantial contributions to company performance and demonstrate outstanding leadership and high levels of peer esteem.

Benefits

There are so many benefits of submitting a nomination.  If you’re selected as a finalist you’ll enjoy:

  • Pre and post-event media coverage in TEQ, TechVibe Radio, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and more
  • Networking with more than 600 top tech execs/stakeholders
  • Presentation booth at Tech 50 Expo
  • Time to celebrate your achievements

Have a say in where your tax dollars are allocated: Leverage PA’s Education Improvement Tax Credit program

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Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development

Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development

Last July, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development announced a major expansion of the Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) Program, which provides incentives for businesses to contribute to scholarship organizations, educational improvement organizations, and/or pre-kindergarten scholarship organizations.  As a result of the credit, according to the Patriot News, more than 44,000 students have benefited from assistance under this program.

This morning, the Pittsburgh Technology Council hosted an event to educate its members on how to take advantage of this tax credit program offered by the state of Pennsylvania. Through the EITC program, Pennsylvania companies can offset a substantial portion of their PA tax liability by donating to an eligible educational improvement or scholarship organization. The EITC program applies to the following state taxes:

  • Corporate Net Income Tax
  • Capital Stock Franchise Tax
  • Bank and Trust Company Shares Tax
  • Title Insurance Companies Shares Tax
  • Insurance Premiums Tax
  • Mutual Thrift Institution Tax
  • Insurance Company Law of 1921
  • Personal Income Tax of S corporation shareholders or Partnership partners

Companies who participate in the EITC program can also claim their donation as a charitable deduction on their Federal tax returns as well.

Have a say in where your company’s tax dollars are allocated. Leverage the state’s EITC program to support the development of the next generation of the STEM (Science, Technology, Education, Math) workforce. Each year, $60 million is available through the EITC program. The deadline to apply is July 1.

For more information on approved uses, rules on maximum contributions and how to apply for the EITC program, visit www.newpa.com/EITC. Lists of eligible recipients for EITC funding are available on this page as well.

The event was sponsored by The Challenge Program, Inc., a non-profit organization that exposes high school students to career opportunities and motivates them to create good habits in high school which translate into good habits in the workforce.  TCP is currently operating in more than 100 schools in Pennsylvania.