Accelerate Innovation in Precision Medicine – May 18, 2022

Session Description

During this session our panelists will discuss early activities that researchers should engage to accelerate innovation into technology development. Programs from Health Innovation Hub (H2I), University of Toronto Early-Stage Technology (UTEST) and Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) will be introduced and followed by a discussion panel. You will learn from real-world examples about where to start and how to build a technology development plan to accelerate your path towards successful fundraising and venture formation in academic settings. This session will provide insight on what to expect from an incubator or accelerator at UofT and how to gain an access to coaching, professionals-in-residence, and investors. This session aims to stimulate commercial thinking during research and discovery phase for everyone interested in drug, device and platform development at UofT. 
The goal of PRiME's Jump Start series is to provide a comprehensive look into the essential steps involved in development of pre-clinical drugs, devices, and platform technologies. In the series we engage with experts to discuss important considerations to ensure success at each step of the development process.

These workshops are open to all Trainees and Principal Investigators at UofT. 

Speakers

Hassan Jaferi, MSc
Co-Director, UTEST
Hassan Jaferi is the Co-Director of the UTEST incubator jointly run by the University of Toronto and the Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners. Hassan has been involved in the creation of multiple university startups and IP acquisition/acqui-hire deals. While working at UTEST, Hassan is also the Chief Executive officer of Bitnobi, Inc. which is a startup that has designed and developed a privacy protected, data sharing platform. At Bitnobi, Hassan manages all day-to-day business affairs for the company in order to help commercialize their solution. He holds an M.Sc from the International Space University and a BASc in Computer Engineering from the University of Ottawa.

Mathew Platt, PhD
Associate Director, Creative Destruction Lab
Mathew got his start at the University of Guelph with a PhD in Human Health and Nutritional Sciences following an undergraduate honors degree in Biomedical Sciences. A scientist by training, his passions evolved through graduate school towards entrepreneurship and business development. These passions lead him to found the Guelph Chapter of the non-profit event-driven group called the Science to Business Network in the fall of 2018. After defending his PhD in early 2019, Mathew explored his passion further as the Director of Business Development for the National Chapter of the Science to Business Network. It was through this position that he first learned about the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) in Toronto. Hired first as a Venture Manager for the Health stream in February of 2020, Mathew went on to hold positions as the Recruitment Lead for Health at Toronto, the Site Venture Recruitment Lead, the Stream Lead and Senior Venture Manager for Health, and now the Associate Director of Health. Passionate about building bridges between academia and industry, Mathew now leads the CDL-Toronto's Health strategy for how to recruit and support science and technology-based health-tech startups.

J. Paul Santerre, PhD
Co-director of the Health Innovation Hub (H2i)
Professor J. Paul Santerre has published >200 peer reviewed publications and is a listed inventor on >70 patents in the area of medical polymers, biodegradation, protein and blood interactions with surfaces, surface modification, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery. He is co-founder and current director of the Health Innovation Hub at the University of Toronto (a student focused entrepreneur training co-curricular program with > 500 client health science and biomedical engineering start-up companies to date that have generated > $109MCdn). He is a co-founder of Interface Biologics and current CSO for the company, along with being a co-founder of five other start-up companies, and has won multiple national awards for his achievements in enabling entrepreneurship. These awards have included Canada’s Governor General award for Innovation, and the Professional Engineers of Ontario Entrepreneurship Award in 2017. He has been awarded with the Baxter Chair for Health Technology & Commercialization at the University Hospital Network. He was president of the 2016 World Biomaterials Congress held in Montreal Canada, and has received multiple awards for his community activity including the 2016 Community award from the Canadian Biomaterials, the 2018 President’s Impact Award from the University of Toronto.

Jennifer Doucet, PhD
Co-Founder, Glusyn
Jennifer joined Dr. Keith Pardee's lab in October 2020 to work on the pandemic response projects to help automate the glucose meter sensing technology for point-of-need use in collaboration with NRC-CRAFT. Prior to joining the Pardee lab, she was working as an industry scientist on validation of new In-vitro diagnostics (IVD) products and completed a PhD in the Cell and Systems Biology department at University of Toronto in 2018. Using the technology developed in the Pardee lab, Jennifer co-founded Glusyn, a company developing accurate and low-burden diagnostics through cell-free synthetic biology-based technology that allows for on-site testing of infectious diseases using a repurposed glucose meter as a convenient and universal reader for gene circuit sensor outputs. Glusyn has been a part of the UTEST 2021 cohort and became an H2i company through PRiME and Medicine By Design's Building a Biotech Venture program in early 2022. The company is co-lead by Jennifer herself, along with Evan Amalficano (PhD Candidate), Dr. Moiz Charania (Research Associate) and Dr. Keith Pardee in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto.