Newsletter, May 2019

State Approves Round 2 of Kent State-Cleveland State Innovation Partnership

State of Ohio officials have renewed a $600,000 technology commercialization partnership between Kent State University and Cleveland State University.

Centuries of research and discovery have given scientists a fairly comprehensive understanding of human biology, but many mysteries remain about some of the body’s most fundamental processes.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded a three-year, $423,000 grant to two of Kent State University’s most prolific researchers to study one of those biological fundamentals in depth.

A federal grant will help a Kent State researcher bring a new approach to the problem of obesity in teens — mindfulness.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that about 21 percent of children aged 12-19 are obese, and those from lower socio-economic groups are more likely to suffer from obesity.

A team of Kent State researchers took top prize at the Burton D. Morgan Foundation’s LAUNCHTOWN SOARTM Competition, held at Baldwin Wallace University in April, beating teams from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, and the University of Akron.
Their winnings ($7,000) will allow the team to further develop a device which could solve an age-old problem for diabetics.

Four Kent State University students have been chosen to compete in the German pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA’s International Protein Production Cell Line Challenge.

The student team, composed of biotechnology students Mitchell Lesko, Eric Veverka, Allison Davis, and Joram Rana, are one out of twelve teams from around the world. To compete, the team will seek to find what methods encourage antibody expression in a Chinese Hamster Ovarian (CHO) cell. Whichever team’s cell line produces the most antibodies wins the competition.