Principal Investigators

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 7^th 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.

Collaborator	Organization
R. Fernandez-Gonzalez, PhD	IBBME, U of T
Y. Sun, PhD	MIE, U of T
J. Rocheleau, PhD	IBBME, U of T
S. Willerth, PhD	Mechanical Engineering, U Vic
J. Greener, PhD	Chimie, Laval
J. Frampton, PhD	Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie
W. Stanford, PhD	Cellular and Molecular Medicine, U of Ottawa
C. Moraes, PhD	Chemical Engineering, McGill
D.K. Hwang, PhD	Chemical Engineering, Ryerson
S. Tsai	Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Ryerson
T. Waddell, PhD, MD, FRCSC.	Surgery, TGRI
A. Sayani, PhD	Glaxo Smith Kline
K. Sievewright	Banting and Best Center for Innovation and Entrepeneurship
M. Ushio, PhD	Tara Biosytems
B. Amsden, PhD	Chemical Engineering , Queens U
H. Stover	Chemistry and Chemical Biology, McMaster
G. Laroche, PhD	Genie des mines, metallurgie et materiaux, Laval
C. Yip, PhD	IBBME, U of T

Principal Investigators

Program Committee Members ( in addition to Dr. Radisic)

Program Coordinator

Collaborators