In the current panoply of referenda facing us this fall, there is probably no issue more divisive to Cincinistas, no issue more emotional or heated, no issue more misinterpreted and mangled, than the anti-rail charter amendment currently known as Issue 48.
The Cincinnati Art Museum awarded the contract for the renovation of its former Art Academy building to Dayton-based Danis Building Construction Company Read the full story here.
Students from war-torn Afghanistan are hoping to find solutions to that country's social and economic problems with help from a southwest Ohio university's business school. Read the full story here.
Our Bodies, Ourselves was the kind of book that libraries banned and women stashed under their beds like pornography—a fixture of college dorm rooms that shocked conservatives with its candid discussion. UC's Wendy Kline even wrote a book about its influence. Read the full story here.
FotoFocus, a nonprofit arts organization, announces the October 2012 launch of its first biennial month-long regional celebration of historical and contemporary photography and lens-based art. On Friday, Oct. 14, 2011, 7 to 10 p.m., in collaboration with 3CDC’s Fountain Square Rocktober Series, FotoFocus will preview highlights of the October 2012 upcoming event with video works and still images from featured exhibitions. Read the full story here.
At the latest gathering of 140 local sustainability advocates, members of the newly forming group known as the Green Umbrella shared best practices, brainstormed ideas for the future and experienced fellowship in the first Gold LEED certified Red Cross headquarters in the country. Located in Keystone Park in Evanston, and clearly visible from I-71, the Red Cross headquarters has a rooftop garden that, along with a bioswale, helps the nonprofit reuse 90 percent of the water that falls on the property. “They also add beauty to our building,” says Sara Peller, CEO of the Cincinnati Area Chapter of the American Red Cross. The building, which came in $1 million under budget, was a joint project between the Red Cross, Neyer Properties and emersion DESIGN. “It’s functioning extremely well for us,” says Peller, who notes that 120 volunteers helped with the building design process. In addition to energy-efficiency elements and minimizing construction waste, the building allowed for the Red Cross to incorporate a Disaster Operations Center, a long-time community need that could not be met at the old headquarters downtown. Now the Cincinnati area Red Cross, which services 36 counties, can serve as the information hub in case of emergency or disaster. “Many ills have been cured by this building,” Peller says. As for the Green Umbrella, the ongoing initiative to create a comprehensive network of sustainability initiatives around Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky continues to gain steam and support. Working groups focus on areas as diverse as urban agriculture and corporate sustainability. The ultimate goal, to create a single resource from which all sustainability-minded residents can learn, moves ever closer to reality with website development and continued cooperation between local businesses, nonprofits and educational institutions. By Elissa Yancey
Jan Rosenbaum creates bioscience matches made in heaven. As an executive-in-residence with Cincinnati-based seed-stage investor CincyTech, Rosenbaum matches up physicians with medical-device engineers, therapeutics companies with molecular pharmacologists, and diagnostics makers with target markets. Rosenbaum’s role is to look for opportunities to create companies – or commercialize research – out of health care and biotechnology work being done at local research institutions. For the last 12 months, that work has included three trips to Israel to form connections with its dynamic and prolific medical research and biotechnology industries. Rosenbaum’s work comes as the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber makes a big push to create strong business relationships with Israel. A delegation of about 30 business leaders led by the Chamber traveled to Israel last November to learn how the Israelis fund, promote and advance high-tech startups. Rosenbaum’s trips have provided a deeper dive into medical technology and biotech. Among other things, she has found a potential distributor for a CincyTech portfolio company’s product and helped form a medical device development and commercialization program between Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Ben Gurion University in Israel. She also has helped create a collaboration with a medicinal chemistry company based in Israel. The goal is to further develop compounds that have been identified by one of Children's leading oncology researchers, who has taken a novel approach in the treatment of leukemia and Crohn's disease. “All of these are examples of opportunities that lead to economic development in both Israel and Cincinnati through creation of startup companies, driven by the attraction of Cincinnati Children’s,” says Rosenbaum. “The impetus for relocation to our region occurs once the company reaches the point of needing clinical development, market penetration, and sales and marketing distribution through a U.S. presence.” Rick Schottenstein, the managing director for the state of Ohio’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office in Tel Aviv, calls Rosenbaum “an extraordinary asset to the state”. “It takes someone of Jan’s caliber to analyze these very sophisticated opportunities,” he says. “She has the business background and the scientific background to do that.” A native of Buffalo, New York, Rosenbaum came to Cincinnati in 1986 after a post-doc fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine doing cardiovascular research and clinical pharmacology. For 23 years, she worked as a principal scientist at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, evaluating licensing opportunities, helping to take internal research to the marketplace, and conducting and coordinating internal and external pre-clinical research. Since joining CincyTech in January 2009, Rosenbaum has worked closely with Nicole Robinson, executive director of the Center for Technology Commercialization at Cincinnati Children’s, and Dr. Dorothy Air, associate vice president of entrepreneurial affairs and technology commercialization at the University of Cincinnati. Rosenbaum delves into research underway at both institutions and pairs researchers and opportunities with strategic partners. She has been instrumental in the formation of a number of CincyTech client companies, including Airway Therapeutics, which is based on 10 years of research at Cincinnati Children’s and will develop surfactant proteins to help premature infants’ lung development; and CardioCeption, a University of Cincinnati spinout that is creating non-traumatic heart therapies. In Israel, Rosenbaum finds cultural affinity as well as professional affinity: prolific researchers aggressively looking for Ohio expertise on taking products to market. “They are hungry to create and eager to innovate,” she says. “It is an extremely entrepreneurial culture. I absolutely love the work we are doing there.” By Sarah Blazak for CincyTech
When they aren’t fighting crime or protecting the universe from evil of unknown and potentially catastrophic proportions, the superheroes of Greater Cincinnati are – supporting the arts. Thanks to Enjoy the Arts, Cincinnatians will have the opportunity to channel their inner superhero at the organization’s annual fundraiser and Halloween Bash at Cincinnati Museum Center’s Union Terminal. This year’s theme, Return to the Hall of Justice, is a throwback to the local legend of the terminal’s role as inspiration for the grand headquarters of DC Comics’ Super Friends. As the program in residence at Cincinnati Museum Center, Enjoy the Arts connects audiences, particularly young professionals, to the arts community and encourages lifelong patronage. “The goal is to make the arts more accessible by making people aware of the many opportunities to experience them in our area,” says Laura Partridge of Cincinnati Museum Center. For more than three decades, Enjoy the Arts has been doing just that. Members enjoy free and discounted tickets, upgrades and other benefits from partner organizations such as the Cincinnati Ballet, the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Contemporary Art Center, the Taft Museum and many others. Membership is $50, or $35 for full-time students. For individuals 35 or younger, the Orange Membership provides opportunities for free and/or deeply discounted tickets and one-time use vouchers. For those older than 35, the Noir Membership provides discounts, upgrades and other benefits meant to enhance arts experiences. Samantha Robinson, program coordinator says, “Enjoy the Arts encourages young professionals to become more involved in the arts community.” While the benefits of each membership type are similar, Orange members receive offers that introduce them to arts events that might not otherwise be accessible. There are several ways to connect with Enjoy the Arts. Hip Tips, the organization’s email news, functions as a central listing of events happening around the city. Enjoy the Arts also partners with community arts centers in the area through month-long promotions aimed at reaching out into neighboring communities. In October, Enjoy the Arts partners with the Baker-Hunt Art and Cultural Center in Covington, KY. The Clifton Cultural Arts Center serves as partner through the month of November and the Kennedy Heights Arts Center in December. On Oct. 28, Enjoy the Arts will host its annual Halloween bash and signature fundraiser. Return to the Hall of Justice will feature a DJ, Superman cocktails and a raffle including superhero themed packages. “We encourage the community to come out and support Enjoy the Arts – you won’t want to miss this,” says Partridge. Do Good: • Purchase a ticket to Return to the Hall of Justice Halloween bash. • Become a member of Enjoy the Arts. • Like Enjoy the Arts on Facebook and become part of their social media community. By Deidra Wiley Necco
Tucked away in Clifton on the medical side of UC's campus, researchers at the nation’s first Center for Environmental Genetics continue groundbreaking work, but with a new twist. Their latest research game-changer involves decades worth of carefully documented biological samples now available for use by their peers all over the world. If you have never heard of the Center for Environmental Genetics, you are not alone. Housed within the largest department of UC’s College of Medicine, the Department of Environmental Health, the CEG funds research on genetic (your personal script, already written at birth) and epigenetic (beyond genetics – how what you are exposed to today may impact your children’s genes and even further down the line) levels. Conducting epigenetic studies can be particularly challenging, since multiple generations and variations of exposures are involved. That’s where a long-term human cohort study, started years ago as part of a $78 million settlement at the Fernald Feed Materials Processing Center, comes into play. For years, residents around the Fernald plant had no idea that their neighbor was manufacturing uranium, not livestock feed. The long-term drama that ensued as the plant was shut down became the stuff of class action lawsuit history. What many residents wanted as much as restitution for their poisoned property was medical help and advice about how their homes might have made them, and their children, and their children’s children, sick. So the settlement included an important stipulation: the largest medical monitoring project of its kind. From 1990 until 2008, residents were monitored and samples collected from all ages and all backgrounds. The cohort included multi-generational families, with sample collections coded to reflect their relationships. At the end of the monitoring period, 160,000 biological samples from more than 9,500 participants are now stored at UC’s CEG. Not only can they be used to help examine and improve the lives of the participants and their families, but they can also be sent to researchers around the world who need stable, high-quality samples for their own genetic and epigenetic research. Locally, doctors found evidence of increased cancer risk among residents, but they also were able to suggest opportunities that might help lower residents’ other risk factors, including the incidence of diabetes and heart disease. As researchers and community members gathered on UC’s campus last month to discuss the decades-long project, participants and researchers agreed that, when done correctly and comprehensively, medical monitoring leads to both better health and better research. By Elissa Yancey
Instead of giving Cincinnatians a delicious meal, local celebrity chef Jean-Robert de Cavel is serving up a newly reinvigorated fundraiser he hopes satisfies more than appetites. For the nine years since Jean-Robert de Cavel’s and his wife Annette lost their daughter, Tatiana, to SIDS, they have been organized fundraisers to benefit the SIDS network. This year, the fundraiser, now called Eat, Play, Give, will be held in October, in conjunction with National SIDS Awareness Month. For the first time, the money raised will go to the newly created de Cavel Family SIDS Foundation. “They way things were working with the SIDS network, we realized we could decide more where the funds go if we had our own non-profit,” says Annette de Cavel, wife of Jean-Robert. “Brunch is a good family event and a way to turn something tragic into something positive.” The de Cavel’s are partnering with sponsor Cincinnati Children’s Hospital this year because of the hospital’s work to lower the city’s infant mortality rate. Each year, around 200 guests come to the brunch. Since its inception, the event has raised more than $600,000. Some of the money raised goes to the Tatiana de Cavel Scholarship Fund at the Midwest Culinary Institute, which is where the brunch takes place. In the past, the brunch was just one part of the week-long 7 Days for SIDS fundraiser. This year, the brunch becomes its own event, while the de Cavel’s plan on hosting other events throughout the year. They know first-hand how SIDS can affect families in devastating ways, so they wanted to create a family-friendly fundraising event. Several top local chefs will be on-site preparing kid-friendly meals and children will be able to make their own cookies. Adults can enjoy a silent auction. Jean-Robert chose brunch to allow his fellow chefs to maintain time with their families. It also gives chefs a chance to create different kinds of meals, since many of the restaurants participating don’t serve brunch. “It’s something very different and fun for the chefs,” says Jean-Robert de Cavel. “We want everyone to be relaxed and enjoy themselves.” Do Good: Attend: the Brunch on October 9 to eat for a good cause Donate: to the de Cavel family SIDS foundation and help save a life Check back: to Eat, Play, Give for more events in the future By Evan Wallis
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