Yura was one of around 100 CEOs under the age of 30 invited to attend the “Buy Young” campaign, which aims to gain support for young entrepreneurs and their businesses.

The young Americans met with members of Congress and the White House.  Yura represented his company SustainU, which makes clothing from recycled materials.

Read the full story here.

Protea Biosciences’ new technology uses LAESI imagining mass spectrometry, which allows for rapid and comprehensive identification of biomolecules in tissues and biofluids.

Read more here.

The company is testing the safety and effectiveness of a genetically engineered enzyme that would be used to treat a condition common in people who have cystic fibrosis and pancreatic cancer.

A second human clinical trial for the drug is expected to start next year.

Read the full story here.

Appleseed’s grows and distributes its own fresh fruits and vegetables through direct marketing outlets. The members are John Elias and Stephen Redmon.

Cardrecs is a company that will scan documents for military veterans and keep them on a verRecs card.

Grant Bayerle is the lone member of the Cardecs team.

Both businesses won the $10,000 grand prize and space in the WVU Business Incubator.

Both winning teams were from WVU.

The Competition received entries from 115 teams at 10 colleges and universities across the state.

View the original story on WBOY’s website.

Stage 2 will be a coding workshop beginning Friday, April 15 at 5:00 pm and continuing on Saturday, April 16. Students will instructed by Mark Dalrymple, the principal author of ” Learn Objective-C on the Macintosh” and ” Advanced Mac OS X Programming” He is a veteran of several startups and has been a technical reviewer for several iPhone/iPad programming books. Students will learn the coding necessary for app development. The workshop will take place in the Mac lab in 116 Woodburn so it is not necessary to have your own Mac to attend. Registration is necessary as space is limited. Registration is $10.00 but lunch on Saturday, is included.

Stage 3 will be an App Challenge. Students either individually or with a partner, who participated in at least one of the previous stages, may submit a video of their completed or nearly completed app. The winning student or team will receive an iPad 2. Challenge details and rules will be provided at the earlier workshops. Deadline for submission May 13th.

Contact Christine.Feathers@mail.wvu.edu for more information.

In 2001, Stephen Turner started a company called Protea Biosciences with just a few employees and no office desk to sit in.

Ten years later, the company has grown to 45 employees, nearly all of them West Virginia University graduates.

It sells 100 products to 400 different types of customers.

Turner says he knew his company had this type of potential.

“The thing you keep your eye on is the enormity of the need. Every medical researcher needs to do a better job identifying proteins,” Turner said.

“If you take a tissue sample today, less than 10 percent of the proteins can be identified.”

Protea markets products that are used to study and take samples of cells, and everything in them, including proteins.

Its newest technology is called Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization.

It was invented by a George Washington University professor, and Protea obtained the rights to sell it.

It’s an instrument that analyzes samples of blood and tissue in a matter of a few minutes.

“There are three basic things we’ll do with the instrument. One, we’ll sell the instrument. The second is offering services, for people that can send us their samples, and we can provide databases to them,” Turner said.

“The third is to create our own databases.”

The machine uses a laser to help analyze the samples.

When the laser’s working, it sounds like a ticking clock.

Brent Reschke is a senior scientist at Protea that works with the ionization technology.

He says one interesting aspect of the machine is a built-in cooler.

“It will cool your sample, if you are looking at a tissue sample, it will keep it frozen, or if you just want to try and minimize losses due to evaporation from your sample,” Reschke said.

“It’s a button on the software, we click it, you set your temperature, and then it will control it to whatever temperature you want it.”

Turner hopes with this laser technology, scientists can learn more about proteins and develop drugs that can combat the bad ones.

“Everything that happens biologically in our body happens by way of the protein. They’re doing everything that happens, the good and bad,” Turner said.

“If you add up all the FDA approved drugs on the market, they target a common pool of 600 proteins. 600 out of hundreds of thousands,” he said, “if we can find new targets for development of better drugs, that opens the way for the next generation of drug development.”

Ryan Dunkerley works in Protea’s marketing department and has been with the company for four years.

He’s a native West Virginian and says he’s excited about the work the company does.

“As somebody from West Virginia, it’s heart-filling. We’re creating an industry,” he said.

“It’s a really fulfilling place to be.”

Turner says the Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization technology will make its debut to the public in Atlanta in March.

He says the company’s getting interest from pharmaceutical companies and labs all over the world for the machine.

Turner says the instrument will probably cost $250,000.

This article was originally published on the WV Public Broadcast website. The audio can also be downloaded there.

West Virginia University helps its students get in shape for spring break with a fitness competition. But the contest formally known as Body for Break has now been completely revamped.

Patrick Henry said spring break is drawing near, and it’s time to get in shape. “Once you get to college and you don’t have the motivation of sports to push you, sometimes you need a little something extra to get you motivated to come into the gym,” he said.

He is participating in WVU’s new program to help students get fit. It’s called Physique 7, and it stresses the importance of overall fitness, not just weight loss. It also tracks your progress online to measure your success.

The students seem to like it. “They can actually see their changes, kind of have an idea of where they are compared to everybody else,” said Nancy Oliverio, manager for fitness and wellness at WVU’s recreation center. “And I think they like the fact they just don’t have to worry about their body fat. because you can’t go down a lot of body fat in seven weeks.”

The process is easy. Once you finish your workout, you step onto the body composition scale, and your body mass index is sent right to Physique 7’s website. There you can track your personal fitness, and also see how you rank among other participants. After seven weeks, the top participants get a prize.

“Your progress is tracked every day, and I think that’s a lot more convenient . Also, just to see other people that are coming in and getting theirs tracked is a huge motivator,” Henry said.

Physique 7’s fitness tracker was created by the local software company Videntity. They said tracking your health online is an up and coming trend. “When you see the data, it’s more effective in behavior change than just saying ‘hey you should eat broccoli, hey you should work out’ to actually say ‘here’s where you are, here’s the results of what you’re doing,’” said the company’s president and founder, Alan Viares. “Being able to see that visual feedback is shown to be more effective in causing healthy behavior change.”

Many students like Patrick said Physique 7 is not only a healthy competition, but also a way to keep them coming back to the gym.

This article was originally posted on WDTV’s website.

Physique7, formerly known as Body for Break, has returned to help students use fitness to get into shape within seven weeks.

Nancy Oliverio, Fitness and Wellness Director for the WVU Student Recreation Center, said the program has been revamped in order to make it a total fitness assessment.

She said the previous program measured only a person’s body fat, which she said is not always the most accurate reading.

“This new program will measure students’ body fat, weight, body mass index and have them log their nutrition habits to work toward a better diet,” Oliverio said.

Oliverio said the program is more about participation, rather than just losing weight.

She said students will be logging their activities online through a system developed by Alan Viars, WVU alumnus and President of Videntity Systems, Inc.

Oliverio said students will be logging their gym sessions and daily nutrition information via the website online.

She said students can also tweet to Twitter using the hashtag “wvu7″ to gain more points toward a prize.

“It’s not just about who loses the most weight,” Oliverio said.

She said weight will be factored in, however, students looking to claim the prizes are the ones who are going to participate most with the program.

She said participation in the program means students will be logging all information, attending “boot camp” sessions and meeting with personal trainers at the Rec Center.

“I think fitness is important to students and that this program is motivational,” said Jake Lambuth, senior pre-chemistry major. “It’s good to have something to motivate people, especially with spring break coming up. Who doesn’t want to look good?”

Oliverio said an estimated 600 students are competing in the program this year. Registration for the program has already closed.
She said she sees some students lose an exceptional amount of weight.

“It’s hard to lose weight, and it’s even harder when there is a lot of it,” she said. “This program is designed just to reward students for coming out and working out and hopefully motivating them to be more active, as well as healthy and hydrated.”

Physique7 has weekly prizes, which include two grand prizes, one for a male and one for a female.

The grand prize for males is a River Expeditions whitewater rafting trip for four, including a two-night stay in a rustic cabin. For females, it is a personal shopper and spray tan at Lavish Boutique, a facial and make-up application at BellaRosa skincare, a hair cut and color and a manicure and pedicure at the Morgantown Beauty College.

Find out more by visiting the website at http://studentreccenter.wvu.edu/physique7. This article was originally published on the Daily Athanaeum’s website.

U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller had a simple question for local business leaders, higher education officials and WVU students Friday: “How do you turn the light bulb on?”

He asked how to get young people interested in the science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — fields during a roundtable discussion at the Erickson Alumni Center. The two-hour talk highlighted the importance of the America COMPETES Act recently approved by Congress.

The legislation provides support for STEM education and research programs at WVU and other schools, including the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program.

WVU Board of Governors chairwoman Carolyn Long said it’s important for educators to begin teaching students math and science at a young age and build on that foundation through college.

“We have to make sure everybody is working toward the same goal,” said Long, who added that communication is essential.

Steve Turner, founder and CEO of Protea Biosciences, suggested exposing kids to scientific equipment and facilities at a younger age.

“Those can be game-changers,” Turner said, noting how a visit to Protea’s offices affected high school students in WVU’s Health Sciences Technology Academy program. “You could tell. For some of them, it changed the way they thought about themselves.”

WVU officials noted that state laws, school policies and parents reluctant to see their kids leave home can sometimes prevent students from developing their math and science skills. But WVU is working to find creative ways — online and through outreach programs — to conquer those barriers.

This article was originally published on the Charleston Daily Mail website.

Michelle Richards-Babb, an assistant professor at WVU, said she has conducted scientific demonstrations for county 4-H clubs to reach out to K-12 students. Meanwhile, the chemistry department at WVU has successfully encouraged students to pursue careers in science by pointing out their strengths and providing additional information.

“Those are life-changing comments if they’re reinforced,” Rockefeller said.

He also noted the important role mentors play in attracting students to West Virginia and keeping them in the state. David Dittenber, a graduate research fellow from Ohio, said he came to WVU to study civil engineering because he wanted to work with Hota GangaRao, a professor in the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources.

Paul Hill, West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission vice chancellor for science and research, noted that EPSCoR has helped bring top-quality educators to West Virginia, and WVU has worked to add STEM faculty. However, Earl Scime, chairman of WVU’s physics department, said “It’s all for naught if there’s not jobs.”

Rockefeller said it’s important to bring businesses to West Virginia that will provide jobs for STEM graduates who aren’t interested in teaching. Otherwise, college students won’t want to go into those fields.

But he said the state’s education system plays a role, as well.

“We have to do our part, educating people for the types of skills you require,” Rockefeller said, addressing Turner and Azimuth Inc. President and CEO Craig Hartzell. “That’s our obligation.”

West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) is looking for qualified business
vendors, especially minority and women owned small businesses, to fulfill various opportunities
throughout the state. This workshop will discuss contracting opportunities up to $5,000 that may not require a bid or only a verbal bid to Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs) or Women Business Enterprises (WBEs). Jamie Lenore Chambers, Accountant/Auditor of the WVDEP’s Grant Management Section, will present an overview of the State purchasing procedures and provide information on how small businesses can get involved. A question and answer session will follow. There is no charge for the event sponsored by the West Virginia Small Business Development Center. Please call 304-293-5839 and leave a message to reserve your seat.

You Are Your Business Seminar – December 14, 2010

Topics of the business seminar are choosing legal structure, choosing a location, selecting insurance,
knowing your market, advertising, keeping your books, developing a business plan, taxes and financing your business. The finance section will be facilitated by a highly experienced lender who is our SBA microloan lender. The event is underwritten by the WV SBDC and Pierpont C&TC. Held at the FSU Caperton Center in Clarksburg the event is from 1 to 4 pm. Call the WV SBDC in Fairmont for Registration: 304-367-4931.

OSHA 10-Hour General Industry Course – December 28 and 29, 2010

Instructed by Ron Gacek, WV Department of Labor, the 2-day class is intended to provide a variety of general industry safety and health training to workers of all levels. Successful completion will result in the issuance of a certificate and a 10 hour OSHA card. $49.00 per person - registration is necessary. Call 800-766-4556. Morgantown Location.

2011 WV Small Farm Conference – February 15—19, 2011

The annual event features information about fruit and vegetable production, energy, agritourism,
farmers market management, animal production and marketing. Held at Lakeview Resort in Morgantown, WV. Call West Virginia University Extension Service 304-293-2565 for Registration and information.