Ideas and innovations, research and commercialization will flow seamlessly throughout a new complex set to open on 海角社区app鈥檚 Carleton Campus in 2011.
The complex will be home to the Life Sciences Research Institute 鈥� designated by the federal government as a centre of excellence for commercialization and research 鈥� InNOVAcorp鈥檚 BioScience Enterprise Centre, 海角社区app鈥檚 Industry Liaison and Innovation (ILI) office and others.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a perfect combination from our point of view,鈥� says 海角社区app president Tom Traves about those who will be occupying the complex to be located on the corner of College and Summer Streets, behind the Sir Charles Tupper Medical Building.聽
Research is intrinsic to a university where expert knowledge and passion for learning are in abundance and interdisciplinarity is fostered. Commercialization can be a natural extension of this research.
Dr. Traves likens the process to a relay race. 海角社区app leads off the first leg 鈥� developing the science, identifying commercial potential, assisting creators of the intellectual property to protect their interests and helping to explore the possibilities for development and potential partnerships.聽
鈥淭hen it鈥檚 time to pass the baton to the next player and the next player here is InNOVAcorp,鈥� Dr. Traves says. 鈥淎nd InNOVAcorp鈥檚 strategy is at some point to pass the baton ultimately to the private sector. If this company鈥檚 up and running and if it鈥檚 going to be a big success it will go out into the wider world and it鈥檚 not going to need a provincial development agency to carry it further. So it鈥檚 a multistage development process from idea creation through early stage development through mature commercial organization.鈥�
The decision by InNOVAcorp, whose clients include early stage companies working in drug development, nutraceuticals and biomedical engineering, to relocate its BioScience Enterprise Centre was carefully weighed. President and CEO Dan MacDonald says the key advantage of the move from its prime downtown waterfront location is greater proximity to the university鈥檚 talent, expertise and services.
He adds, 鈥淭here wouldn鈥檛 be too many life science companies that didn鈥檛 have a connection with 海角社区app. 海角社区app would be, without a doubt, the largest producer of qualified people to work in life science companies in Atlantic Canada.鈥�
海角社区app鈥檚 ILI counts life sciences among the research areas it serves across the university. Executive director Ronald Layden describes ILI鈥檚 mandates as commercializing research discoveries, attracting and working with businesses that want to do R&D work at 海角社区app or engage university researchers, and helping to create economic development opportunities.聽聽
鈥淚 think one of our biggest success stories is the development of a medical device company called Thorasys,鈥� Dr. Layden says. The company was founded jointly by the university, Geoffrey Maksym, associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, and an industrial partner.
One of the devices that will be commercialized is an oscillation spirometer, which, according to a release, 鈥渨ill aid doctors both in diagnosing asthma and in monitoring how well a patient鈥檚 asthma is controlled. It will be particularly helpful in diagnosing asthma in children 鈥� an important advance as asthma most frequently emerges in childhood.鈥�
Is having a positive impact on the health and wellness of society perhaps the true value of bringing research and commercialization together in the life sciences? When Barbara Campbell, associate director at ILI specializing in health sciences technology and licensing, is asked what 海角社区app is doing to make a difference for the end user or patient, she replies: 鈥淓xcellence in research and a cross-disciplinary, inter-institutional approach. Clinical scientists interacting with their pure research science counterparts, doctors interacting with engineers to build better devices, geneticists interacting with bioinformaticians to scan through masses of genetic data. That all happens here. All of those things eventually affect patient outcome.鈥�
ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc.聽Developing vaccines for infectious disease and cancer therapy is the focus of Halifax鈥檚 ImmunoVaccine Technologies Inc. (IVT), named one of Canada鈥檚 Top TenTM life sciences companies for 2008/09. 鈥淲e have already started the development for the clinical trial which we are hoping is going to be in 2009 鈥� a clinical trial for a cancer formulation that works for prostate, breast and ovarian cancers,鈥� says Marc Mansour, vice president R&D. The formulations are delivered using the company鈥檚 DepoVaxTM platform, a vaccine delivery system which slowly, over time, releases the vaccine at the injection site resulting in a long-term effect without requiring multiple immunizations 鈥� a feature of particular value in a developing country where compliance may be difficult, or in a case of pandemic flu. DepoVaxTM is the second generation of VacciMaxTM, which was developed by a 海角社区app team of researchers who went on to found IVT: the late Drs. Warwick Kimmins and Michael Mezei, and Drs. Robert Brown and Bill Pohajdak. As Dr. Mansour explains, the platform originally delivered an immunocontraceptive vaccine to control the seal population. 鈥淭his depot formulation, when they tested it in seals, worked tremendously well,鈥� Dr. Mansour says. After 10 years, 90 per cent of the seals vaccinated still did not Dr. Mansour says in 2008 IVT signed a licensing agreement with Pfizer Animal Health for commercialization of two animal vaccines and an option on a third. By licensing this veterinary application, IVT can dedicate its efforts to human health. IVT, whose research connection with 海角社区app continues, doesn鈥檛 forget its roots. 鈥満＝巧缜鴄pp鈥檚 been really instrumental in getting the technology off the ground,鈥� Dr. Mansour says. 鈥淭hey have been very supportive over the years of IVT, helping IVT get where it is today.鈥� |
Ocean Nutrition CanadaOcean Nutrition Canada Ltd. (ONC) is a Nova Scotia company with a global presence. As president and CEO Robert Orr explains, ONC is the largest refiner and producer worldwide of Omega-3 from fish. The business began in 1997 with a handful of people. Today ONC, which has Clearwater Fine Foods Inc. as its primary shareholder, employs about 350 and has sales of over $125 million. Mr. Orr sees ONC foremost as a technology and marketing company in the life sciences field. Its patented microencapsulation technology turns fish oil into an odorless and tasteless powder with a consistency and appearance similar to flour. The powder is added to everything from orange juice to peanut butter. It鈥檚 a significant innovation, especially since, as he says, 鈥淥mega-3 fatty acids have been identified as the largest, most significant nutritional deficiency in the western diet.鈥澛犅� Director of chemistry Jaroslav Kralovec, has been with ONC since its early days when it rented lab space from 海角社区app Medical School. (ONC also made use of a pilot plant within the Faculty of Engineering.)聽聽 鈥淚 would say that 海角社区app played a major role, because at the beginning you need lots of help鈥�, says Dr. Kralovec, who was a post-doctoral fellow at 海角社区app and still actively collaborates with the university. 鈥淲ithout 海角社区app I think that the progress would have been much, much, much slower.鈥� Mr. Orr agrees. 鈥淗aving a university like 海角社区app with the infrastructure that it has in the community is essential to emerging life science companies and their ability to grow |