OBERLIN – An assistant professor of chemistry at Oberlin College has received a $345,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute to assist her and her team in searching for clues to detect deadly ovarian cancer.

The grant to Dr. Rebecca Jean Whelan and her team was announced by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo.

“We’re all rooting for Dr. Whelan and her team at Oberlin,” Kaptur said. “Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women in the United States and claims approximately 15,000 lives each year.”

Whelan will oversee a three-year research project titled “Development of Aptamer-Based Detection and Therapy Strategies for Ovarian Cancer.”

Aptamers are molecules that bind to a specific target molecule and help facilitate research.

“The research that I’m engaged in now is invested in finding new ways of detecting ovarian cancer by looking at blood samples and searching within those blood samples for telltale indicators that the disease is present, even if it’s at a very early stage,” she said in a video posted on the Oberlin College website.

In an email Friday, Whelan said the research project is motivated by the need to develop reliable noninvasive tests for early stage ovarian cancer, since treatment is most effective when the disease is diagnosed early. Tests for biomarkers found in the blood of women with ovarian cancer are widely used by physicians, according to Whelan.

“Our goal is to develop new ways of measuring the amounts of three important cancer biomarkers,” Whelan wrote. “We also seek to develop new methods for looking at the surfaces of tumors and selectively killing cancer cells.”

Whelan’s funding comes from the Academic Research Enhancement Awards program that is administered by the NCI.

The NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health, which is one of 11 agencies that compose the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The NCI was established under the National Cancer Institute Act of 1937 and is the federal government’s principal agency for cancer research and training.

Winds of up to 75 miles per hour whipped through Lorain County on Wednesday night, toppling trees and power lines ahead of a severe thunderstorm. The winds even tipped over a plane at the Lorain County Regional Airport.

This home on state Route 83 took a big hit from the wind that came through Wednesday.

Kristen Schuler, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Cleveland, said the thunderstorm hit Lorain County shortly before 11 p.m. Wednesday.

The weather service issued a tornado watch until 5 a.m. but canceled it about 2:30 a.m. Thursday.

Tom Kelley, Lorain County emergency management director, said the worst of the storm’s damage occurred in Eaton and Carlisle townships. Kelley said he did not hear any reports of anyone injured during the storm.

Marlene Oliver, who lives at the corner of Chestnut Ridge and Bender roads in Eaton Township, said she thought a tornado might have touched down, because damage to her house and yard appeared to be in a straight line.

She described what sounded like “a big motor on the ground, and it caused the ground to tremble.”

“I thought the windows in my bedroom were going to implode,” Oliver said.

She said the storm damaged the fence around her pool and ripped shingles off her roof. Also, a tree in her front yard had been completely uprooted.

“I have a crater in my front yard now,” Oliver said.

Kelley said the National Weather Service would be surveying the damage Monday morning to determine whether a tornado had in fact touched down, but from looking at it himself, he said he didn’t think it was a tornado.

Gary Mortus, area manager for Ohio Edison, said 1,100 customers in Lorain County remained without power early Thursday evening, including 675 in Elyria. He estimated that about 3,000 customers in the county had lost power because of the storm. Mortus said all Lorain County customers should have electricity by about 11 a.m. today.

Spokesman Mark Durbin said Ohio Edison crews were working as quickly as possible to restore power to everyone.

“It might end up being well into tomorrow before everyone’s back on,” Durbin said Thursday.

A helicopter crew from Haverfield Aviation Inc. of Gettysburg, Pa., was contracted to survey damage to FirstEnergy power lines, according to employee Jeff Fluharty.

Fluharty, who landed late Thursday afternoon, said there was not widespread damage because of the storm.

Lorain County sheriff’s Capt. Jim Drozdowski said the Sheriff’s Office helped out with several road closures. Also, he said some tents blew over at the Lorain County Fair and the wind knocked over one vendor’s stand, breaking some glass shelves.

Elyria police Sgt. Lee Frank said the department responded to 18 calls for service related to the storm, including seven reports of downed power lines and two unconfirmed reports of blown transformers. Other calls included downed trees and material in the road.

The strong winds even overturned a Piper Cherokee single-engine plane at the county airport.

“There was severe damage,” said George Fuge, manager of the fixed-base operation at the airport.

He said the plane, which was tethered, is owned by Paul Armbruster, who could not be reached for comment.

The plane was removed by a wrecker from Dunlap’s Garage while crews from the Oberlin Fire Department stood by in the event of a fuel spill.

Contact Kiera Manion-Fischer at 329-7123 or kfischer@chroniclet.com.

Staff writer Cindy Leise also contributed to this story.

An Avon Lake man was formally charged Thursday for allegedly spying on his fellow employees using a pen camera placed in the women’s restroom.

Mucha

James Mucha, 43, an employee of Catania Medallic, a supplier of metal awards and pins, was arraigned Thursday morning in Avon Lake Municipal Court on three counts of voyeurism, a third-degree misdemeanor, for allegedly putting a pen camera in a restroom at the company.

Mucha was also charged with possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony, that was found during a search of his home.

Avon Lake police began the investigation March 25, after someone from the business, located at 668 Moore Road in Avon Lake, reported finding the camera.

Police Lt. Duane Streator said Mucha could be seen in video from the camera.

“He was observed in the camera repositioning it,” Streator said.

Analysis of video from the camera revealed three female employees using the restroom.

Contact Kiera Manion-Fischer at 329-7123 or kfischer@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA – The assault charge against Elyria police Officer Jay Loesch – who is accused of punching a suspect handcuffed to a hospital bed – will be dropped if he completes a court-ordered diversion program.

Johnny Smith Jr., right, apologized to Elyria police Officer Jay Loesch, left, in court Thursday.

Johnny Smith Jr., the man Loesch is accused of hitting at EMH Medical Center in Elyria on Jan. 27, asked for the charges to be dropped during both a July 31 call to Elyria police and again Thursday during a hearing in Elyria Municipal Court.

“I just want to go on with my life and I don’t want anything bad to happen to this guy,” Smith told visiting Judge Michael Weigand on Thursday.

Smith said during the call to Elyria police that he believes Loesch may need counseling to deal with the events of March 15, 2010, when Elyria police Officer James Kersetter was gunned down by Ronald Palmer while responding to a call on 18th Street.

Loesch and Officer Donald Moss shot and killed Palmer when he refused orders to surrender and charged at Loesch.

Special Prosecutor John Reulbach Jr. said that counseling and sensitivity training is exactly what Loesch would get under the diversion program, which Weigand agreed to place the veteran officer in. If Loesch successfully completes the program, the charges against him will be dropped.

According to an internal police investigation, Smith was struck by Loesch after making a comment about Kerstetter’s death while he was being treated for injuries he received during his arrest earlier in the evening of Jan. 27.

Smith – who had a blood-alcohol level of 0.355, more than four times the legal limit for driving – told officers he wished Palmer had killed more officers the night Kerstetter died.

A nurse who watched the incident on a monitor connected to a video camera in Smith’s hospital room told police that Loesch and Officer Richard Walker shut the door after the comment. She told officers that Loesch then walked over to Smith and struck him once on the left side of his face.

Although Smith has said the blow nearly knocked him unconscious, Walker told police it wouldn’t have harmed his 10-year-old and was meant to get Smith’s attention.

“I didn’t deserve everything, but I deserved what he did to me,” Smith said during his call to police last month. “So I would just like to make right. I’m trying to be a better person.”

Smith apologized to Loesch on Thursday for the comment.

“I made an inappropriate comment, which was totally out of line and I’d like to apologize to you again,” Smith said during the hearing. “I forgive you. I hope you forgive me for what I said.”

“I appreciate it, man,” Loesch replied.

Following an internal police investigation Loesch was given a 10-day suspension for the incident, although he served only five days of it. He won’t have to serve the remaining five days if he doesn’t get in any further trouble for a year.

The city’s insurance company paid Smith $50,000 to avoid a lawsuit he had planned to file.

Loesch declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing, but his lawyer, Bob Phillips, said he believed justice was served in the case.

“He, too, is sorry that happened,” Phillips told Weigand. “In that sense we can forgive and forget and move forward.”

Before he was taken to the hospital on Jan. 27, Smith was arrested after police were called to Apples grocery store when Jeff Marcum stole beer and steaks and loaded them in the cab of the tractor-trailer Smith was driving.

Elyria police tracked the truck to a nearby parking lot and tried to get the men to get out. According to police reports, Smith nearly ran over Officer James Rider as he was trying to flag down the truck. Smith, however, insists he didn’t see Rider.

Police surrounded the truck on Cleveland Street and ordered the men out of the truck. Smith refused to get out, according to officers, who reported they had to forcibly remove him.

After he was pulled from the truck, Smith continued to struggle with officers until he was subdued and handcuffed, officers and witnesses said. Smith has said that he wasn’t resisting and was beaten by officers and that Rider struck him twice in the head with a flashlight.

The internal police probe and Reulbach’s investigation determined the allegations against Rider and other officers didn’t have any merit.

Marcum pleaded no contest to theft in the case, while Smith pleaded out to charges of failure to comply, obstructing official business and DUI. He served six months in the county jail before being released on probation in July.

Smith was arrested again earlier this month after testing positive for cocaine. Elyria Municipal Court Judge Lisa Locke Graves ordered him to serve a 120-day jail sentence because the failed drug test violated the terms of a plea agreement in a 2010 case in which he pleaded no contest to attempted unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Smith is due back before Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery next month for allegedly violating the conditions of his probation in the case stemming from his January arrest after testing positive for cocaine.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.