Manning Wood October 2008

Manning Wood continues to expand and explore new areas. While teaching General, Organic, and Biochemistry I (130 students) at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Akron, I had the opportunity to upgrade a gel permeation chromatograph in the Polymer Science Department and draft an operator's manual for this student GPC instrument that utilized four unique detectors.
I also had the opportunity to teach General Chemistry at Kent State University - Stark (35 students) and the General Chemistry lab (24 students).
I expanded my consulting work with the addition of a couple of new healthcare/pharma companies working in the area of polymers, elastomers, and extractables. I also had the opportunity to present a half-day seminar entitled Pharmaceutical Elastomer University which covers the basics of rubber formulations, mixing, molding, and finishing as well as analytical chemistry of these components i.e. extractables, reverse formulation, and regulatory concerns.
I continued my efforts to expand my knowledge and understaning in the medical area by giving a seminar of polymers used in medical applications to the Wound Healing Consortium at Akron General Hospital. Subsequent to that presentation I attended Heal Ohio which was sponsored by the Consortium.
Finally I wrote a proposal for a solicited program from the US Army on a method to diagnose the malaria parasite in human blood and was awarded a Phase I SBIR grant to conduct this research.

March 2008

Manning Wood has been expanding over the past several months. I am currently working closely with two companies to assist them in expanding their business into the pharmaceutical and medical areas. I attended the PDA (Parenteral Drug Assn) Extractables/Leachables Forum in Bethesda, MD in November 2007 to learn about the latest developments in that area.

I continue to develop contacts in many new areas including:

Pharmaceutical companies - Pharmaceutical rubber/polymer chemistry/ manufacturing support / analytical services / pre-formulation drug development support / GMP/GLP procedures and support
Wound Healing Consortium (Akron General Hospital)
NEOUCOM Northeast Ohio University Colleges of Medicine
Malaria diagnostic research
DNA sequencing research
Rubber manufacturing
Recycled rubber materials
Fuel cell research/ analytical science support
Entreprenurial start-up company support

In addition to these activities I have also begun teaching chemistry at the University of Akron - Department of chemistry to pre-nursing students. I am exploring research opportunities within the academy in related disciplines i.e. polymer science, engineering, biomedical research.