Claudia Zylberberg began her biotech firm in a one-room office in Boca Raton more than eight years ago.

Today Akron Biotech, which produces cell cultures and other raw materials for government and pharmaceutical company research, is moving to a 10,000-square-foot laboratory and manufacturing space. Akron also is collaborating on research, including with a noted scientist from Florida Atlantic University in Jupiter.

"I don't want to be just a manufacturer of products, but an innovator as well," Zylberberg said.

Akron Biotech was recently noted by Palm Beach County's Business Development Board as one of the county's longest-running biotech startups. And last year, Akron was named among 50 "Companies to Watch" in the state, by the economic development organization GrowFL.

With a doctorate in immunology and background in hematology, Zylberberg is passionate about the cell therapy industry. In the coming years, she expects that the field, called "regenerative medicine," will help reduce health care costs by giving alternatives to patients whose organs are failing.

If new cell therapies are approved, "we're not looking for an organ, but to fix an organ," she said.

Physicians in South Florida and elsewhere are already using patients' own stem cells for certain treatments, such as repairing knees. Other stem cells are being used in FDA-approved research on leukemia, bone marrow disease and other blood disorders. New types of stem cells, such as those from fat, are being explored.

Revenues increased 50 percent in 2014 from 2013, and Zylberberg expects them to double this year.

Akron Biotech was awarded a small business research grant in 2014 from the National Institutes of Health to develop a method to isolate stem cells from various tissues. The project is in collaboration with top researcher Gregg Fields, who chairs FAU's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the director of the Center of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. He recently was named a National Academy of Inventors Fellow.

"She's a very dynamic person. When she's serious about something, it will get done," said Fields, who added that's why he decided to work with Zylberberg on the project.

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Akron Biotech of Boca Raton poised for growth