Innovation Park Recognized for Employee Engagement
Just last month, The Centre Daily Times recognized the coolBLUE community, along with Restek and Videon Central, for focusing on not just business, but employee wellness. Restek is set to open up a 17,000-square-foot wellness center in April of 2016, while Videon Central has rewards-based biking and running summer fitness programs.
Innovation Park’s coolBLUE Community hosts employee events year round—from opportunities for networking and fitness program to tours, seminars, and even concerts. The coolBLUE community is designed to encourage networking and bring companies together as part of a larger business community.
Welcoming New Tenants to the Park’s Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
On Tuesday, October 20, 2015, Innovation Park at Penn State, with Baltimore-based Innovation Capital Partners, celebrated the grand opening for 331 Innovation Boulevard almost exactly one year after breaking ground. The four-story facility boasts 82,000 square feet of leasable space and is the park’s first LEED-designed building.
Read more: Innovation Park Holds Grand Opening for 331 Innovation Boulevard
Since John Ikenberry, President and Co Founder of HigherEdJobs, and his partners founded the company in 1996, it’s seen steady growth each and every year.
In nearly two decades, Ikenberry’s company has expanded and now boasts over a million unique visitors to its website each month, and just last year posted almost 160,000 jobs for over 2,000 college universities. And while many think there’s a secret to success in the world of business, John recounts a cautious and straightforward approach to growth.
When they founded the company in 1996, John and his two business partners were working for the development office at Penn State. In their search for next steps in their careers, they recognized that the web would be a much easier way to communicate job openings to potential applicants. “We identified a need,” said John. “Instead of flipping through hundreds of pages of leafy ads, you could go through quickly [on the web] and find what you’re looking for.”
Read more: Attentiveness to Customer Needs Brings HigherEdJobs Steady Growth
Biotech Companies Will Save Millions of Dollars
Innovation Park at Penn State Helps Transform Company
The technology created by Oleg Shinkazh, founder and CEO of Chromatan, is saving biotech companies – especially pharmaceutical producers – millions of dollars. The soft-spoken Shinkazh is proud that a process he developed is contributing to real advances in the production of important medicines that save human lives.
“I have created a new chromatography method that eliminates many of the problems that are currently faced in the industries we serve,” Shinkazh said. “It allows our customers to cut costs by at least 50 percent.”
Founded in Boston in 2008, Chromatan really started to experience success in 2012 from its new home at Innovation Park at Penn State.
Phase One Clinical Trial Set to Begin in Early 2016
Keystone Nano, a company located in the incubator in Innovation Park, received a $2 million grant from The National Cancer Institute (NCI) to support the phase one clinical trial of Ceramide NanoLiposome (CNL), a potential cancer therapy.
Most current chemotherapy treatments have little to no selectivity for cancerous tissue, resulting in damage to healthy tissues. That, in turn, can lead to uncomfortable and intolerable toxic side effects that limit the dosage of treatments a patient can have.
Read more: Keystone Nano Receives $2 Million Grant for Trial of New Cancer Therapy