In past news OBIC featured Doug O'Brien in our collaborator profile. O'Brien has now joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture as Chief of Staff for USDA Deputy Director, Kathleen Merrigan.

As a major manufacturing state, Ohio is a significant user of energy and materials. Ohio farmers and agribusinesses can produce and convert biomass to supply major portions of this material demand as a substitute for petroleum. To enhance Ohio's position as a leader in bioproducts innovation, OBIC fosters discovery and use of new technologies via a market needs model, thereby accelerating bioproducts commercialization.

This month, OBIC features Deborah Cummings, Assistant Director for the Ohio Department of Development's Technology and Innovation Division. Cummings helps oversee the states technology-based economic development portfolio. The emergence of the bioproducts industrial cluster in the State of Ohio is a perfect example of this economic convergence of industrial strengths, and this is possible with the work that Cummings is doing with ODOD.

With the help of OBIC, Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio has made major advancements in their combinatorial chemistry facilities. Three new machines have been added to the facility. These new devises vary and collect data on multiple reaction parameters.Now, the laboratory is able to draw upon complementary functions at Battelle for product isolation and chemical analysis, process modeling, and chemical property prediction.