Principal Investigators

CREATE Leader

Milica Radisic, PhD, PEng, FCAE, FAIMBE

Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier 2)

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

Heart & Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence

University of Toronto

Senior Scientist, Toronto General Research Institute

Penney Gilbert, PhD

Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair (Tier II), Endogenous Repair

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research

Department of Biochemistry

University of Toronto

 

Axel Guenther, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Wallace G. Chalmers Chair

University of Toronto

Scientific Director Centre for Microfluidic Systems in Chemistry and Biology

Eugenia Kumacheva, PhD

Professor

Department of Chemistry University of Toronto

Alison McGuigan, PhD

Erwin Edward Hart Professor of Chemical Engineering

Associate Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

University of Toronto

Arun Ramchandran, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry

University of Toronto

J Paul Santerre, PhD, FAAAS, FAIMBE, FBSE, PEng

Professor

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Faculty of Dentistry

Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

Translational Biology and Engineering Program

University of Toronto

Craig Simmons, PhD, FCSME, PEng

Distinguished Professor of Mechanobiology

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Faculty of Dentistry

University of Toronto

Scientific Director, U of T Translational Biology & Engineering Program (TBEP), Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

Sara Vasconcelos, PhD

Assistant Professor

Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering

University of Toronto

Assistant Scientist, Division of Experimental Therapeutics, Toronto General Research Institute, University Health Network

Assistant Scientist, Heart & Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence (HSRLCE), Faculty of Medicine

Assistant Scientist, Ontario Stem Cell Initiative

Aaron Wheeler, PhD

Professor, Dept of Chemistry

Canada Research Chair of Bioanalytical Chemistry

University of Toronto

Edmond Young, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering

Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering

University of Toronto

Program Committee Members ( in addition to Dr. Radisic)

 

 

 

Mr Ian Goodman         Chair of Program Committee   

Barrister & Solicitor / Patent & Trade-mark Agent, Marks & Clerk Canada | Marks & Clerk Law LLP

Ian is a registered Canadian Patent Agent with particular expertise in the prosecution of patents in the fields of biotechnology, chemistry, and pharmaceuticals. Ian received a Bachelor of Science specializing in Cell Biology and Genetics from the University of British Columbia and is a graduate of the joint Canadian-American law program at the University of Windsor and University of Detroit Mercy.

 

Misti Ushio, Ph.D.

Misti Ushio is the CEO of TARA Biosystems. TARA Biosystems develops physiologically relevant 3D tissue models for drug discovery and development applications. The company’s Biowire™ II platform enables generation of large amounts of human relevant data for predictive drug development.  TARA also evaluates early cardiac risk assessment of drug discovery candidates and accelerates discovery efforts for novel heart medicines via its disease modeling and phenotypic screening capabilities.                                                                                                              Dr. Ushio has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, and early stage life science company building. Dr. Ushio has served most recently as Chief Strategy Officer and Managing Director of Harris & Harris Group, where she advised and invested in life science companies to help them translate their transformational science into commercially successful companies.                              Earlier in her career, Dr. Ushio held management roles at Merck & Company, where she developed vaccines and biologics products, and Columbia University, where she managed the intellectual property of several scientific and engineering portfolios.                                              She graduated from Johns Hopkins University (B.S., Chemical Engineering), Lehigh University (M.S., Chemical Engineering) and University College London (Ph.D., Biochemical Engineering).  She also serves as a Director on the Boards of private and public life science companies.

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Ph.D., University Professor

Dr. Vunjak-Novakovic is University Professor, the highest academic rank at Columbia University reserved for only a few active faculty out of 4,000, as the first engineer in history of Columbia to receive this highest distinction. She is also the Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences, faculty in the Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center and in the Center for Human Development, and director of the Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering. The focus of her research is on engineering functional human tissues for regenerative medicine and studies of development and disease. With over 40,000 citations and h=115, she is one of the most highly cited individuals of all times in all disciplines. With her students, Dr Vunjak-Novakovic has 95 licensed, issued and pending patents and has founded four biotech companies that are all based in New York City.                                                                                                                             Among her many recognitions, Dr Vunjak-Novakovic is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, a Fellow of the AAAS, a Founding Fellow of the International Society for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, one of the Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers for 2014, and the recipient of the Pritzker Award of the Biomedical Engineering Society. She was elected to the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the New York Academy of Sciences, Academia Europaea, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the National Academy of Engineering (the first women at Columbia University), the National Academy of Medicine (the first engineering faculty at Columbia University), and the National Academy of Inventors.

Blake L. Stevens, Ph.D.

Blake is an Assistant Vice President at Alexandria Real Estate Equities and the Head of Alexandria LaunchLabs® – New York City, the premier life science start-up platform.  Blake specializes in assisting early-stage companies accelerate their growth and has worked as both an entrepreneur and a venture investor.  At LaunchLabs, Blake works closely with LaunchLab’s members on company building activities and ecosystem building.  Blake is also involved with Red Bear Angels and serves as the secretary of HALE.life Corp.  Blake formerly served as Vice President at Harris & Harris Group, Inc., an early-stage venture capital firm. He also sat on the Board of TARA Biosystems, Inc.; Promuc, Inc.; Interome, Inc.; and Synglyco, Inc.  Blake was the 7th employee at HZO, Inc., leading their R&D, commercialization and technical business development efforts. He holds degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University (B.Sc.) and Northwestern University (Ph.D.) and a Certificate in Management for Scientists and Engineers from the Kellogg Business School.

Anastasia Korolj

Anastasia is a third-year PhD student in Prof. Milica Radisic’s lab working on developing a kidney-on-a-chip platform. Her work merited several awards including the Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship, and a patent application. She graduated from the University of Toronto (B.A.Sc., Chemical Engineering) in 2015 with honours, and completed internships in Sweden, Belgium, and Hong Kong. She is a teaching assistant for Process Modeling and Dynamics, as well as a series of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship courses, to support her interest in business development. She strives to use the TOeP program to develop her research into a commercial technology by the time she earns her doctorate.

Program Coordinator

 

 

Christopher Dixon, PhD

University of Toronto

Collaborators

Collaborator Organization
R. Fernandez-Gonzalez, PhDIBBME, U of T
Y. Sun, PhDMIE, U of T
J. Rocheleau, PhDIBBME, U of T
S. Willerth, PhDMechanical Engineering, U Vic
J. Greener, PhDChimie, Laval
J. Frampton, PhDBiomedical Engineering, Dalhousie
W. Stanford, PhDCellular and Molecular Medicine, U of Ottawa
C. Moraes, PhDChemical Engineering, McGill
D.K. Hwang, PhDChemical Engineering, Ryerson
S. TsaiMechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson
T. Waddell, PhD, MD, FRCSC.Surgery, TGRI
A. Sayani, PhDGlaxo Smith Kline
K. SievewrightBanting and Best Center for Innovation and Entrepeneurship
M. Ushio, PhDTara Biosytems
B. Amsden, PhDChemical Engineering , Queens U
H. StoverChemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster
G. Laroche, PhDGenie des mines, metallurgie et materiaux, Laval
C. Yip, PhDIBBME, U of T