4th Annual PRiME Symposium

Building Community for Therapeutics Discovery and Precision Medicine

---

AGENDA INCLUDES:

Academic and Industry Keynote Speakers

Lightning talks from our 2022 Fellows

Early, Mid & Senior Career faculty talks

Lunch & poster session

Panel discussion with key opinion leaders

Networking with academic & industry professionals

---

POSTER SESSION

Submit Abstract by Tuesday, October 13th, 2022, 11:59PM EST

PRiME member and new PI labs can showcase research

*Symposium registration is automatic with abstract submission

Event Details

Tuesday, October 25th, 2022 9:00AM - 5:00PM EST

MaRS Discovery Centre Auditorium

In-Person Event

Doors open at 8AM EST for badge pick-up and poster assembly

---

Academic Keynote Speaker

Dr. Bradley Pentelute

Professor, Department of Chemistry

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

“Rapid response technologies for drug discovery, delivery and manufacturing”

---

Lightning Talks from 2022 PRiME Fellows

---

Early Career PRiME Researchers

Dr. Alana Ogata

Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences

University of Toronto Mississauga​

“How to learn the secrets of diseases: ultrasensitive protein detection using single-molecule arrays”

Dr. Basil Hubbard

Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

“Precision gene editing using Cas proteins guided by crXNAs"

---

PRiME Faculty Researchers

Dr. Scott Prosser

Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences

University of Toronto Mississauga​

“Understanding Allosteric Response in Designing Next Generation Drugs for GPCRs; An Update on the Centre for Medicinal Chemistry & Drug Discovery Translation”

Dr. Frederick Roth

Department of Molecular Genetics

Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Bimolecular Research

“Proactive precision medicine for acute porphyria by testing every missense variant”

---

Industry Speakers

Dr. Derek Newton

Assistant Vice-President, Innovation, Partnerships and Entrepreneurship

University of Toronto

Moderator

Dr. Jennifer Hamilton

President

Hamilton Biosciences

Scientific Advisory Board Member, CQDM

“Industry Research Collaborations: Setting up for Success”

---

Panel Discussion - Build Something Big: From Idea to Impact

---

PRiME Participates in the 42nd Annual Terry Fox Run

On Sunday, September 18th, 2022 members and supporters of PRiME participated virtually in the 42nd annual Terry Fox Run by running, walking and biking in various locations around Ontario.

In 1980, Terry said, "Nobody is ever going to call me a quitter”. Terry Fox, after being diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma and receiving initial treatment and an artificial leg, decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research in a Marathon of Hope. He wanted to create change and fund a cure for all cancers. He ran a total of 5373 km and he never quit on his dream.

Today, Canadians all across the country participate every year to keep Terry’s dream alive and raise funds for cancer research. This year, Team PRiME successfully raised $1500!

To continue supporting the Terry Fox Foundation and Team PRiME click here

2022 PRiME Fellowship Awardees Announced

Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 PRiME Fellowship Competition! PRiME Fellows represent the next generation of scientific leaders, testing bold ideas that enable interdisciplinary research in precision medicine. The 2022 cohort of awardees are exceptional trainees working on projects that combine expertise across the four PRiME Faculties, applying molecular biology, genomics, computational biology, and bioengineering towards diagnostic and therapeutic solutions.  

The new cohort of fellows this year will lead diverse research projects from identifying novel therapeutics (cancer, atherosclerosis, muscle disease), designing DNA nanotechnology and omics approaches to creating novel intranasal vaccine for COVID-19. 

The annual PRiME Fellowship competition provides funding to PhD students or postdoctoral fellows with innovative ideas that enable high-risk, high-reward research. Projects are collaborative, with co-supervision by PRiME investigators across the Faculties of Arts & Science, Applied Science & Engineering, Medicine, and Pharmacy. Fellows will be provided stipend support by PRiME for one year and assisted in leveraging their scientific progress to obtain further funding for the next stage of research activity in the lab and technology development.  

Introducing the 2022 Awardees (in alphabetical order): 

Rebecca Allan, PhD Candidate 

Supervisors: Drs. Patrick Gunning & Leonardo Salmena 

“Novel Allosteric First in Class DNAJ-PRKACA Inhibitors for the Treatment of Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma” 

Travis Douglas, PhD Candidate 

Supervisors: Drs. Leo Chou & Omar Khan 

“Spatially defined and decorated DNA nanoparticles to investigate macrophage polarization” 

Yechen Hu, Postdoctorate Fellow 

Supervisors: Drs. Aaron Wheeler & Penney Gilbert 

“Multi-Omics Analysis of Muscle Stem Cell Induced Muscle Disease” 

Funing Lin, PhD Candidate 

Supervisors: Drs. Rob Batey & Walid Houry 

“Synthesis and characterization of biorelevant ADEP conjugates that target the human ClpP protease to develop novel anticancer therapeutics” 

Dominic Owens, Postdoctorate Fellow 

Supervisors: Drs. Cheryl Arrowsmith & Gary Bader 

“Targeting nucleotide stress responses and ribosome biogenesis in cancer through inhibition of the CTLH complex” 

Sarah Shawky, PhD Candidate 

Supervisors: Drs. Carolyn Cummins & Milica Radisic 

“Vasculature- and heart-on-a-chip platforms to investigate novel anti-atherosclerotic proteins secreted by liver X receptor (LXR)-modified endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs)” 

Daniel Tabet, PhD Candidate 

Supervisors: Drs. Frederick Roth & Michael Garton 

“Modeling the LDL-LDLR interaction with comprehensive sequence-function data” 

Andrew Varley, Postdoctorate Fellow 

Supervisors: Drs. Bowen Li, Scott Gray-Owen & Jennifer Gommerman 

“A novel intranasal vaccine based on bivalent circular RNA for mucosal immunity against COVID-19” 

Jump Start Workshop: Lumira Venture Innovation Program - How to meet and work with investors

Event Date: Wednesday, August 31st, 2022; 12:00 - 1:00 pm

This event is online, and will be taking place on Zoom

Registration required.

During this session our panelists will discuss early activities that researchers should engage in to meet and work with investors in life science technologies. The Lumira Venture Innovation Program, open for PhD, MBA and MD students, will be introduced and followed by a discussion panel. You will learn from real-world examples about how to gain exposure to life science venture capital, where to start and how to work with investors to build your technology and accelerate innovation in academic settings. You will learn about what to expect from an investor and how to gain an access to the investor community, professionals-in-residence, and funding. This session aims to stimulate commercial thinking during the 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 Staff, Trainees and Faculty at UofT.

Speakers

Baye Galligan, MA
Associate, Lumira Ventures

Baye Galligan joined Lumira Ventures’ Toronto office as an analyst in 2017. She focuses on business and technical due diligence and analyses of investment opportunities, as well as financial analysis and proactive industry research.

Prior to joining Lumira, Baye was Research Manager at the National Angel Capital Organization and Associate Director of Maple Leaf Angels, the largest network of angel investors in Toronto, where she evaluated applications for early-stage investment, conducted due diligence, and organized community building initiatives. Baye holds a M.A. in organic chemistry from Harvard University, where she was an executive member of the Harvard Women in Chemistry. She also holds an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business and a B.Sc. in chemistry from Western University.

Nikhil Thatte, BSChE
Principal, Lumira Ventures

Nikhil joined Lumira Ventures in March 2019. As Principal, Nikhil focuses on business development, investment due diligence and technical analysis including forecasting and financial modeling.

Prior to Lumira, Nikhil worked as a Director with DRI Capital, a pioneer in royalty monetization solutions, where he managed relationships with inventors, academics and companies, and supported in the investment due diligence process. Prior to DRI Capital, Nikhil was a Consultant with ZS Associates, a global marketing and sales consulting firm where he provided expertise to over 20 pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients across a broad range of projects and therapeutic areas. Nikhil holds a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from McGill University.

Alice Luo, PhD
Analyst, Lumira Ventures

Alice joined the Lumira Ventures as a full-time member in January 2022, following her successful experience of being selected in 2021 as part of the inaugural class of the Lumira Venture Innovation Program. During her tenure as a VIP she worked closely with the Lumira team. Alice’s current focus is on conducting scientific and technical diligence of investment opportunities. She strongly believes that biomedical innovations hold the key to better healthcare delivery and treatments that will lead to better lives for patients and through her work at Lumira Ventures she hopes to help accelerate the development of novel therapeutics.

Alice holds a Ph.D. in pulmonary regenerative medicine from the University of Toronto. She has also completed an M.Sc. and B.Sc. in immunology and medical sciences from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining Lumira Ventures VIP, Alice was a Fellow with HaloHealth, a Canadian physician angel group where she evaluated investment opportunities in Canadian and U.S. based health technology start-up companies.

---

MODERATOR

Milica Vukmirovic
Director, External Programs & Partnerships, PRiME

PRiME Partners with Let’s Talk Science to Host Medical Innovation Discovery Day

On April 8, 2022, PRiME and Let’s Talk Science (LTS) hosted the first annual Medical Innovation and Discovery Day for over 30 grade 10 students from schools across Toronto.

One of PRiME’s central tenets is the training of the next generation of scientists to develop new solutions that address unmet needs in the treatment of human disease. Expanding on PRiME’s track record of developing training opportunities at the university-level, we are keen to provide interdisciplinary, application-based, hands-on learning opportunities to foster STEM engagement in high school classrooms. Leveraging the PRiME faculty and trainee community’s research expertise, we collaborated with Let’s Talk Science (LTS) to bring hands-on, minds-on activities that connect principles taught in the Ontario high school science curriculum to real world applied solutions in health and disease.

While we were remiss that we cannot hold these activities in-person, the virtual platform allowed for greater access for students, some of whom were joining us through Zoom from their classrooms and others logging in at home - in different parts of the city who may not have easy access to the downtown core and the campus.

Through this event, PRiME aimed to showcase technologies and applications, breaking down silos in science education as individual subjects and emphasizing the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration between biologists, chemists, and engineers in creating innovative solutions to healthcare. This is perfectly embodied in the career panel to kick off the afternoon – a lineup of outstanding PRiME scientists at different career stages featuring PhD students Valerie Facca (Dr. Ray Reilly’s lab) and Travis Douglas (Dr. Leo Chou’s lab), postdoctoral fellow Dr. Wendy Wang (Dr. Leo Chou’s lab), Assistant Professor Dr. Omar Khan from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. The panel provided insight on a day in the life of a scientist and what got them interested in biomedical research and designing therapeutics. They also provided great advice for those feeling stressed about not knowing what to pursue for their careers (don’t worry!), emphasizing the importance of following what excites you and working hard to do the best you can in that.

The hands-on activities, developed and delivered by PRiME trainees, introduced nanomedicines to students and technologies in drug design and delivery. Drawing from their own research, the team of PhD students Valerie Facca, Constantine Georgiou (Dr. Ray Reilly’s lab), and Jack Bufton (Dr. Christine Allen’s lab) designed a stimulating lesson on nanoparticles and how to design drugs to target specific tissues and molecules in the body. In breakout rooms, volunteers helped teams of students design their own nanomedicine and discuss strategies in pairing different components to meet their need in treating a specific disease. They then learned about medical imaging and how their nanomedicines can be tracked to make sure that it reaches the destination that it’s designed to target.

The next lesson was designed by Dr. Wendy Wang and Travis Douglas, who brought the concept of DNA origami – a technology that the Chou lab is using as a platform of drug delivery – to the students using household items. In breakout rooms, students were introduced to the idea of folding, first using paper origami, before trying to fold shapes using string and pipe cleaners. This activity exemplified the integrity of double-stranded DNA to fold into different shapes more easily than single-stranded DNA, which is a lot flimsier. Through this technology, scientists have been able to create all sorts of different shapes out of DNA from letters of the alphabet to happy faces at the microscopic level. The application of this technology in building 3D nanostructures for delivery was demonstrated by using the same pipe cleaners to scaffold around different shapes, such as a virus made out of a Styrofoam ball and playdoh.

As the school day came to a close, we concluded our event with a Kahoot quiz that allowed the students to test their knowledge and win science prizes. A big thank you to all of our volunteers and panelists mentioned above, as well as PhD students from the PRiME community Karishma Kailass (Dr. Andrew Beharry’s lab) and Lauren Baerg (Dr. Radhakrishnan Mahadevan’s lab), and Brahmdeep Saini from LTS for leading breakout room activities. Lastly, this event would not have been possible without the efforts of Sandhya Mylabathula, LTS’s Coordinator of Large Events and Partnership Development, who not only moderated this event but has been working tirelessly with us in the months leading up to develop these activities.

Studies have shown that instilling engagement and interest in science at an early age is key to having more students choose these disciplines in senior high school grades, post-secondary education, and future career paths. PRiME hopes to further develop outreach programming, working with LTS on this event annually and future in-class modules and virtual toolkits that can facilitate critical thinking and demonstrate the practical application of science and engineering. It is our hope that we can develop programming to reach students across the city and beyond, particularly in under-resourced and remote communities, engaging more students in applied research and creating future leaders in academia and biotech in Canada.

Jump Start Workshop: Accelerate Innovation in Precision Medicine

Event Date: Wednesday, May 18th, 2022; 4:00 - 5:00 pm

This event is hybrid, and will be taking place on Zoom, as well as in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy Building in Room 850.

Registration required.

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.

---

MODERATOR

Milica Vukmirovic
Director, External Programs & Partnerships, PRiME

Jump Start Workshop: Demystifying early-stage drug, device and platform development in academic settings

Event Date: March 16th, 2022 - 3-4pm

During this session our panelists will present and discuss the scientific and business activities that can transform an invention developed during academic research into a business opportunity that can attract investment and industry partnerships. You will learn from real-world examples about the steps that increase likelihood of success of technology development, important considerations during discovery phase, and the added value of building the intellectual property and business strategy in an academic settings. This session aims to stimulate the idea of “thinking commercially” during the 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.

SPEAKERS

Cheryl Reicin, JD
Partner, Torys LLP
Cheryl Reicin is the practice leader of Torys’ Life Science Group, a cross-border group in both Canada and New York. Her group is the only legal group in Canada that is fully dedicated to life science in the financing and corporate area and is consistently ranked as the No 1 life science group in Canada. Cheryl represents the whole spectrum of biotech, medical device and health technology companies, from start-ups to multi- billion public companies, as well as venture capitalists, investment banks and academic medical centers. She advises companies, in joint ventures and licensing transactions, financing and mergers and acquisitions throughout the world. She has the sole distinction of being ranked in international and national rankings as a leading lawyer in life sciences in both the US and Canada and has received numerous recognitions and awards, including, among others, LMG Life Science’s Finance & Transactional Lawyer of the Year; Best Lawyers in Canada – Life Science Lawyer of the Year and Best of the Best – Leading Lawyer in Life Science,  Canada’s Top 25 Women of Influence and the Hall of Fame of  Canada's 100 Most Powerful Women. She is involved in numerous charitable endeavors, including, among others, serving as a trustee for The Hospital for Sick Children and as founder of Canadian Women in Life Sciences. Cheryl is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Parimal Nathwani, MSc, MBA
President & CEO, TIAP
Parimal Nathwani has over 15 years of experience in various aspects of the biotechnology industry including corporate finance, business development, transactions, intellectual property management, technology development and operations. He has been actively involved in forming and managing start-ups, preparing and executing on business plans, raising early-stage capital and in- and out-licensing activities. Before joining Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners, Parimal was a healthcare analyst with a boutique investment bank, where he conducted equity research on publicly-traded biotechnology companies in Canada and the U.S. He has also led commercialization activities out of BC Women’s and Children’s Hospital as part of his role at the University of British Columbia’s Industry Liaison Office, and was a research scientist at a start-up biotechnology company involved in drug discovery targeting ABC Transporters. Parimal received his MBA from Simon Fraser University and his M.Sc. from the University of British Columbia.  He currently sits on the boards of TRIUMF Innovations, Zucara Therapeutics, Cohesys Inc. and Vasomune Therapeutics and is an observer on the board of Encycle Therapeutics.

Molly Shoichet, PhD
University Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, UofT
Professor Molly Shoichet is University Professor, a distinction held by less than 2% of the faculty, at the University of Toronto. She served as Ontario’s first Chief Scientist in 2018 where she worked to enhance the culture of science. Dr. Shoichet has published over 650 papers, patents and abstracts and has given over 420 lectures worldwide. She currently leads a laboratory of 30 and has graduated 220 researchers. Her research is focused on drug and cell delivery strategies in the central nervous system (brain, spinal cord, retina) and 3D hydrogel culture systems to model cancer. Dr. Shoichet co-founded four spin-off companies, is actively engaged in translational research and science outreach. Dr. Shoichet is the recipient of many prestigious distinctions and the only person to be inducted into all three of Canada’s National Academies of Science of the Royal Society of Canada, Engineering and Health Sciences. In 2018, Professor Shoichet was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2011, she was awarded the Order of Ontario. Dr. Shoichet was the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Laureate for North America in 2015, elected Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 2016, won the Killam Prize in Engineering in 2017 and elected to the Royal Society (UK) in 2019. In 2020, Dr. Shoichet was awarded the NSERC Herzberg Gold Medal and won the Margolese National Brain Disorders Prize. Dr. Shoichet received her SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1987) and her PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Polymer Science and Engineering (1992).

Jennifer Fraser, MSc, MBA
Director, Innovation, UofT
Jennifer Fraser is a business professional focused for the last 20 years on commercializing early stage technology. Whether the work has been for a start-up company, a venture capital firm or a university, the goal has always been the same; ensure promising technologies have the resources and a plan to make it to the market. She received her MSc. In Microbiology and Immunology from Western University in 1994 and her MBA from the prestigious Ivey School of Business in 2002. She has developed her own inventions for the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. She has performed technology and business due diligence on investment opportunities and built an extensive network of industry experts to advise her. She is currently leading a team of excellent innovation and entrepreneurship professionals as the Director of Innovation at the University of Toronto.

Charles Andres, PhD, RAC
Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig, LLP
Charles J. Andres, Ph.D., RAC, is an award winning author and attorney working in the intellectual property, FDA and transactional spaces. Charlie works with clients to build integrated legal and regulatory strategies that mirror business plans and best position companies for success. Acting as investor counsel, Charlie’s diligence work has resulted in greenlighting over $9B in investments. Charlie has also built and sold patent portfolios and their associated companies, and facilitated licensing and partnership deals, worth approximately $8B in aggregate. Charlie has obtained patents and built patent portfolios covering three FDA approved drugs, as well as drug candidates currently in phase I, phase II and phase III clinical trials. A trusted advisor, Charlie has been invited to speak at conferences and programs worldwide. In addition, he has co-authored over 100 legal publications and three Supreme Court amicus briefs.

---

MODERATOR

Milica Vukmirovic
Director, External Programs & Partnerships, PRiME

Jump Start Workshop: Leveraging target validation data to create valuable partnerships

Event Date: February 16th, 2022 - 1-2pm

During this session our speakers will present and discuss the significance of target validation for early-stage drug discovery and development in academic settings using adMare BioInnovations and U of T IPO and TIAP approaches (e.g., Bright Angel Therapeutics, Encycle Therapeutics, Zucara Therapeutics). You will learn how target validation increases likelihood of success in the clinic, important considerations during early-stage drug discovery, and the added value of bringing in valuable partnerships with Industry. This session aims to stimulate commercial thinking during research and discovery phase.

The goal of PRiME's Jump Start series is to provide a deep dive into all steps in development of pre-clinical drugs, devices and platforms. We plan to invite experts who will discuss their views on the importance of each step. 

These workshops are open to all Trainees and Principal Investigators.

SPEAKERS

Amie Phinney, PhD, MBA
Senior Director, Partnerships, adMare BioInnovations

As the Sr. Director for the Program Development and Partnership team at adMare BioInnovations, Amie Phinney uses her biomedical research and business background to create and guide scientific collaborations. Most recently, Amie was at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she led an academic-VC partnership aimed at translating academic discoveries into novel therapeutics. Prior to Northwestern University, she gained extensive experience managing academic-pharma collaborations and biotech-pharma alliances at Abbott and AbbVie Labs in Chicago. Amie first transitioned into pharma following post-docs at the University of Toronto and Free University of Amsterdam, as a Sr. Scientist at Solvay Pharmaceuticals in the Netherlands. After five years leading pre-clinical research teams, she transitioned to specialize in managing partnered scientific teams. Amie received her BSc at University of Guelph, her PhD in Biomedical Research at the University of Basel in Switzerland, and her MBA at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Chicago.

Ido Kaminsky, MSc
Manager, Technology & Venture Development, TIAP

Ido is a Technology & Venture Manager with Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners (TIAP). Prior to joining TIAP, he served as the Director of Business Development at FutuRx, a biotech incubator jointly established by J&J (JJDC), Takeda Ventures, and Orbimed Israel. During his time with FutuRx he took part in the inception of over 10 biotechnology start-ups founded on academic IP. Prior to that, Ido spent several years in the life-science ecosystem working as a consultant, investment banker, and VC across pharma, biotechnology, and medical-devices. He worked on corporate strategy and financing with global clients from the US, Israel, and Korea. Ido holds a M.Sc. in biochemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel.

Jae-Ho Yoo, PhD
Commercialization Manager- Life Sciences, Innovations and Partnerships, UofT

Jae-Ho Yoo is a Commercialization Manager in the Innovations and Partnerships Office (IPO) at the University of Toronto. Jae-Ho completed a PhD in Biochemistry from McMaster and held Post-Doctoral and Research Scientist positions at MIT. His background includes business and corporate development roles at Fermentas and Thermo Fischer Scientific implementing new product and M&A strategies. For the past ten years, Jae-Ho has managed several research projects previously at McMaster and now at UofT working with researchers and development partners on early-stage small molecule and biologic drug discovery programs. Some of these projects resulted in licensing to start-ups that proceeded to successfully secure investment or exit through an acquisition.

---

MODERATOR

Milica Vukmirovic
Director, External Programs & Partnerships, PRiME

---

Jump Start Workshop: How to do market research and why this is important?

Kicking off 2022, we would like to invite you to PRiME's Jump Start Market Research Workshop in Precision Medicine, taking place on Thursday, January 20th.

The goal of PRiME's Jump Start: Early-Stage Technology Development in Precision Medicine" Workshop Series is to provide a deep dive into all steps in development of pre-clinical drugs, devices and platforms. We plan to invite experts who will discuss their views on the importance of each step.

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

How to do market research and why this is important?

Thursday, January 20th, 2021 | 4:00 - 5:30 pm

During this session our speakers will present and discuss how to perform market research for your invention, what to consider in the process of analyzing the market and what is the added value of understanding the target market and competitive advantage of your discovery, invention and technology. We will feature speakers from NSERC, IPO, and Lab2Market who can advise on the process. This session aims to stimulate commercial thinking during research and discovery phase.

SPEAKERS:

Gary Svoboda
CEO, Adventus Research + Consulting Inc.
Gary Svoboda is Founder and CEO of Adventus Research + Consulting, a market research, strategy and management consultancy with offices in Guelph & Hamilton. His firm serves a wide range of clients with comprehensive market research/strategy and management consulting services. Gary has over 30 years of experience and has provided market research validation to hundreds of inventors, innovative companies and entrepreneurs launching new technologies, products and services. Prior to Adventus, he was a senior manager at the Canadian Innovation Centre in Waterloo. In addition to his market research experience, Gary Svoboda has served extensively as a corporate and industry spokesperson on the subject of invention, innovation and market research. Gary is a frequent conference presenter, and has appeared in over 100 print, radio and television spots over the past 20 years, including CBC Radio Noon, CBC News Channel, the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.

Wesley Kosiba
Learning and Recruitment Specialist, Lab2Market
As the Learning and Recruitment Specialist for Canada’s new research commercialization program —Lab2Market, Wesley supports some of Canada’s most promising researchers in assessing the commercial potential of their innovations. With over four years of experience in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, as a founder, program developer, and administrator at Ryerson, Wesley has situated himself at the forefront of research commercialization programming. Wesley is an alumnus of Ryerson’s Master of Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship program and a Lean Startup and Customer Discovery lecturer.

Marilee Krinsky
Senior Commercialization Manager- Biomedical Life Sciences, Innovations and Partnerships, UofT
Marilee Krinsky is a Senior Commercialization Manager in the Innovations and Partnerships Office, Vice President Research and Innovation, at the University of Toronto. Marilee has over fifteen years of experience in managing the evaluation and commercialization of scientific research opportunities within academic, hospital, government and industrial settings. In her role at IPO, she manages the commercialization plans for a large portfolio of diverse biomedical and life science-based technologies including intellectual property protection, technology marketing and the negotiation of partnership and licensing agreements. Marilee has extensive experience in preparing IPO and NSERC market assessment "Idea to Innovation" grants. She has successfully raised funding for large-scale research projects and has fostered partnerships with industry stakeholders. She has also facilitated and supported the creation and strategic management of several UofT start-up companies.

Rohan Alvares
Life Science Technology Analyst, UofT IPO
Rohan is a Life Science Technology Analyst at The Innovations & Partnerships Office (IPO) at the University of Toronto. He has a PhD. in Chemistry from the University of Toronto and has recently transitioned into positions related to technology transfer. At the IPO, he assists the Life Sciences team in the assessment of market and commercialization of emerging technologies. Part of his work involves analysing and performing due diligence on technologies related to therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics, while also assisting marketing efforts.

MODERATOR:

Milica Vukmirovic
Director, External Programs & Partnerships, PRiME

PRiME Trainees Awarded Industry-Partnered Fellowships

Dr. Louis-Philippe Picard (left), a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Scott Prosser’s lab, and Dr. Jiaxi Peng (right), a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Aaron Wheeler’s lab, are recipients of the PRiME Industry-Partnered Fellowship Program.

The PRiME research community is working on cutting edge technologies to advance drug discovery and therapeutic development. Partnerships and internships for trainees are a key step to supporting this aim, as well as to cultivating transferable skills in the next generation of scientists. Through the PRiME Industry-Partnered Fellowship Program, two exceptional trainees have been recipients of funding to further their research projects with industry collaborators.

Dr. Louis-Philippe Picard, a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Scott Prosser’s lab in the Chemistry department at UTM, is working on a protocol for the rapid discovery of nanobodies as next generation therapeutics for G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs). In the Fall 2020 competition of the Mitacs Elevate Program , Dr. Picard was awarded a two year fellowship for this project. The work is an exciting hybrid of chemistry, molecular and cell biology, and animal work and the bi-weekly team meetings have been eye opening for both the academic and industry scientists involved.

In the span of a few months, the collaboration has completed an initial panning of first-generation molecules and is now refining the approach to find enhancers and inhibitors of signalling. Using the unique models developed at KisoJi Biotechnology, the team is hoping to demonstrate the application of bivalent nanobodies for a number of applications in GPCR pharmacology that were formerly the domain of small molecules only.

In the recent Spring 2021 Elevate competition, another PRiME trainee, Dr. Jiaxi Peng, was also awarded an Elevate fellowship.  Dr. Peng is a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Aaron Wheeler’s lab, previously funded through PRiME’s Fellowship Program in a collaboration with Profs. Hui Peng and Cindi Morshead to analyze neural stem cell aging through single-cell proteomics using the Wheeler lab’s DISCO (Digital microfluidic Isolation of Single Cells for -Omics) platform. In his current Elevate project with SCIEX , Dr. Peng aims to develop a next generation of DISCO for analyzing proteome dynamics and networks at the single cell level in stem cell reprogramming. These capabilities are crucial in understanding stem cell biology especially in the early stages of cell induction where protein expression and abundance are rapidly changing.

Prof. Wheeler commented, “I am thrilled that Dr. Peng is being recognized in this way – he is working on cutting-edge technology, and I look forward to seeing what we will do with our new collaborators at SCIEX. I am also grateful for how PRiME supported Dr. Peng and facilitated our connection to SCIEX through the MITACS Elevate Program”.

The Industry-Partnered Fellowship Program leverages funding from Mitacs Programs to help provide graduate students and postdoctoral fellows the opportunity to work with industry partners of PRiME. In addition to funding, the Elevate Program provides research management training for awardees.  Further information about Mitacs suite of programs can be found here.