2010 Team NEO Awards: Asset Creation

It’s a perfect convergence of resources for biomedical innovation: a leading academic research program, a strong base of industry to take that research to market and a well-trained pool of local university graduates.

That’s exactly what Northeast Ohio possesses in the field of biomedical imaging, and at the center of it all is Case Western Reserve University’s Center for Imaging Research and related academic departments.

“Having those three things is what makes us unique,” says Jeffery Duerk, chairman of CWRU’s department of biomedical engineering. “I don’t know of any other region [in the country] that has all three assets [in biomedical imaging].”

CWRU has been involved in biomedical imaging research since the early 1980s, when magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was a relatively new tool, and has been on the forefront of the field’s development since.

Case in point: This summer marks 25 years that Duerk’s team has maintained a research relationship with Siemens USA, where many new technologies developed at CWRU and University Hospitals, such as an MRI that can take a clear picture of a heart beating out of rhythm, have been commercialized.

Today, the Ohio Department of Development estimates that employment within the biomedical imaging sector increased 86 percent from 2004 to 2008 alone. Two-thirds of Ohio’s imaging companies are located in Northeast Ohio, and many have links to Case Western Reserve University.

Last year, CWRU graduate and professor Hiroyuki Fujita expanded his 3-year-old MRI-related startup Quality Electrodynamics (QED) from a tiny room on campus to a 27,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. He’s grown to 50 employees — up to half of whom, Duerk estimates, are CWRU grads — and was named one of Forbes’ 2009 Most Promising Companies.

Other companies, such as radiotherapy manufacturer ViewRay, which secured $5 million in Third Frontier funding last year, have moved their manufacturing facilities here, in part to have access to local funding, skilled professionals and research taking place in biomedical imaging at CWRU.

“We’re at the cutting edge of defining what imaging is going to be in the next three to five years and creating the kind of work force these companies need in order to sustain their competitive advantage,” Duerk says. “Everything from startups to the largest companies are hiring our students because they know they’re coming from these labs at the cutting edge.”

As the field of biomedical imaging enters the new frontier of theragnostics, which combines imaging with therapeutic delivery, CWRU is at the forefront. And it’s attracting top talent from such institutions as Harvard and Yale to become part of its research powerhouse.

“People recognize what a special place this is,” Duerk says, “and they’re excited about starting or relocating their research here.”