Research & Entrepreneurship

Creative Destruction Lab launches new program focused on innovations that tackle cancer

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 16:20:56 +0000

Creative Destruction Lab launches new program focused on innovations that tackle cancer

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 04/14/2022 - 12:20

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(photo by Geoffrey Vendeville)

Topic

Our Community

Cancer

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurship

Research & Entrepreneurship

Rotman School of Management

The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is partnering with the Canadian Cancer Society to launch a new program called CDL Cancer that will support efforts to commercialize cancer research.

The seed-stage accelerator, which was conceived at the ��Ƶ’s Rotman School of Management and boasts a global network of investors, mentors, scientists and inventors, is accepting applications from founders who are developing tools and technologies pertinent to cancer research, prevention and potential cures – as well as innovations that improve patient quality of life.

The program will run through CDL’s Health and Neuro streams, based in CDL-Toronto at Rotman and CDL-Vancouver at the University of British Columbia.

“Companies accepted to the CDL Cancer program benefit from trusted expertise in cancer control and a national view of gaps and opportunities in cancer care that should be addressed to benefit the health of people in Canada, in particular underserved populations,” CDL stated in a press release. “This could include new ways to detect cancer earlier, screening methods tailored to communities and advancements in precision medicine.”

The Logic reported that CDL Cancer is the accelerator’s most specialized program to date, and adds to a roster of streams that run the gamut from AI and fintech to energy and agriculture. “Like its other cohorts, CDL Cancer will run over nine months, and participating companies will get access to mentorship to hone their business strategies and ideally land investment deals by the end of the program,” The Logic noted.

Read the CDL press release

Read the story in The Logic

Turning CO2 into shampoo and lawn furniture? U of T startup doing what ‘no one has done before’

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 17:07:09 +0000

Turning CO2 into shampoo and lawn furniture? U of T startup doing what ‘no one has done before’

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 03/08/2022 - 12:07

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Christine Gabardo, co-founder and technology director at U of T startup CERT Systems, is using electrochemistry "to tackle one of our world’s biggest challenges, which is climate change” (photo by Schatzypants Inc)

Tina Adamopoulos

Topic

Our Community

Climate Positive Campus

Entrepreneurship Week

Climate Change

Entrepreneurship

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Research & Entrepreneurship

Research & Innovation

Startups

Sustainability

ThisIsThePlace

When Christine Gabardo joined CERT Systems in 2019, she found herself in the midst of a five-year global competition to address rising greenhouse gas with breakthrough technologies.

The team had reached the semi-finals of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE thanks to a process that fuses chemistry, materials science and mechanical engineering to transform CO2 into ethylene – used to make an assortment of everyday items, from shampoo to fabricated plastics and mattresses.

Gabardo took a lead role in helping CERT – which grew out of research in the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – advance all the way to the finals by scaling up their reactor, originally the size of a Rubik’s cube cell, by more than 10,000 times to process 100 kilograms of CO2 per day.

“I found it really interesting that electrochemistry could be used to tackle one of our world’s biggest challenges, which is climate change,” says Gabardo, the co-founder and director of technology at CERT and a former U of T post-doctoral researcher.

“It’s exciting to get to work with cutting-edge technology, especially on something no one has done before.”

At present, fossil fuels are used to produce an estimated 158,000,000 tons of ethylene per year.

CERT, by contrast, uses water and electricity to turn waste CO2 into ethylene and other carbon-based fuels using an electrocatalyst operating at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The catalyst is able to break and reform CO2 into larger, valuable molecules with electricity and protons from water. The process allows CERT to make a chemically identical ethylene otherwise produced from fossil fuels.

“If we can decarbonize ethylene production, then we can decarbonize all of the materials that are downstream from it,” says Gabardo, who is also a research associate in the Sinton Group.

“That will help tackle CO2 emissions from the chemical industry all the way down to consumer goods.”

Co-founded by Gabardo and Alex Ip, CERT is backed by research from two engineering lab groups; the Sinton Group, led by David Sinton, a professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering, and the Sargent Group's Ted Sargent, who was then based in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering.

CERT is also supported by Breakthrough Energy Solutions Canada, which brings some of the nation’s top clean energy leaders and investors together to accelerate companies offering new solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For Gabardo, balancing the worlds of science, technology and entrepreneurship has always been in the cards. She says she’s been fascinated with the idea of inventing things since childhood.

“I’ve always been interested in starting a company,” says Gabardo. “I just didn’t know when in my career that would happen.”

“I thought, ‘I just want to join a startup,’” Gabardo says.

Like fellow co-founder Ip, Gabardo came from a technical background. She studied electrical and biomedical engineering at McMaster University, where she developed electrochemical devices for point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases. While her technical skills were transferable to scaling CERT’s CO2 conversion technology during the XPRIZE competition, the company also needed support to grow the business beyond academia and into commercialization.

So, CERT leaned on U of T's entrepreneurship community – in particular, the ��Ƶ Early Stage Technology Program (UTEST). The program supports U of T entrepreneurs who are building research-based companies and offers a range of services, including investment capital, business strategy and mentoring. That includes providing startups with educational and networking support through MaRS, an intensive entrepreneurial education program that connects entrepreneurs with a range of local professionals and investors.

“It’s not obvious how you even start a company,” Gabardo says. “We were able to tap into the startup community at U of T and ask valuable questions. Just being honest about what you need help with and asking for resources will accelerate how you can get started.”

With a lab currently under construction on U of T’s downtown campus, CERT will soon be able to continue their work where their journey first began. The pilot unit will allow CERT to continue to refine their process in order to improve their efficiency and produce ethylene and other products (such as ethanol) at a meaningful scale.

For Sinton, the move couldn’t come at a better time, particularly with the university’s plan to achieve a climate positive St. George campus by 2050.

“U of T has been hugely supportive of the project,” Sinton says. “They’ve embraced us and looked at this pilot plant as a U of T facility – and one that is now coming home.

“CERT and the team are in an exciting place. They’re really mature for a startup company and have the opportunity to grow quickly because of all the work they’ve done with their technology.”

Gabardo says CERT is currently focused on growing its team, exploring raising seed funding, as well as forging more strategic partnerships. In the next five years, Gabardo hopes to increase the capacity of CO2 that CERT’s pilot reactor can process per day, scale into a commercial unit and work with industrial partners to produce valuable products.

She makes it a priority to mentor and support other women in the lab and co-op students who work for CERT, saying it is important to ensure women see themselves in leadership roles.

“It’s hard to enter a field where it’s typically male-dominated and there aren't that many people you can relate to,” Gabardo says. “Trying to be that example for other people is something that I think is important.

“If you’re interested in something and have the passion to pursue it, don’t let people’s opinions stop you. Continue working on it no matter what.”

U of T drug discovery startup BenchSci raises $63 million in funding: The Globe and Mail, Betakit

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 21:05:23 +0000

U of T drug discovery startup BenchSci raises $63 million in funding: The Globe and Mail, Betakit

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 01/24/2022 - 16:05

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Clockwise from top left: BenchSci co-founders and U of T alumni Liran Belenzon, Elvis Wianda, David Chen and Tom Leung (photo courtesy of BenchSci)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Our Community

Alumni

Creative Destruction Lab

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship Hatchery

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Health Innovation Hub

Research & Entrepreneurship

Research & Innovation

Startups

BenchSci, a ��Ƶ startup that uses machine learning to help scientists speed up the process of drug development, has raised $63 million from investors as it looks to expand its platform, The Globe and Mail and Betakit reported.

The latest round of funding was led by Montreal-based Inovia Capital and American private equity firm TCV alongside BenchSci’s previous investors, which include Google’s Gradient Ventures.

CEO Liran Belenzon told the Globe that the company will use the money to double its 200-strong workforce and expand beyond its initial focus – helping scientists find and purchase antibodies for preclinical biomedical research – to more broadly “leverage the history of science to make better decisions.” That includes using AI to help scientists craft hypotheses and experimental designs and make other key decisions in their experiments.

BenchSci's platform is used by 4,500 research institutions and 49,000 scientists around the world, according to Betakit, and its clients include several leading pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Moderna and Sanofi. Founded in 2015, BenchSci received support from the Creative Destruction Lab at U of T's Rotman School of Management, having previously worked with the Entrepreneurship Hatchery and Health Innovation Hub (H2i).

Read the story in The Globe and Mail

Read the story on Betakit

Reuters ranks U of T as most innovative university in Canada, 27th in the world

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 20:11:17 +0000

Reuters ranks U of T as most innovative university in Canada, 27th in the world

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 10/24/2019 - 16:11

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(photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Topic

Research & Entrepreneurship

Research & Innovation

A new international ranking by Reuters places the ��Ƶ first in Canada and among the world’s top 30 universities for efforts to “advance science, invent new technologies and power new markets and industries.”

The World’s Most Innovative Universities 2019 ranking, released Wednesday, saw U of T move into 27^th place globally. That’s up eight spots from last year and 19 places from 2017.

“This ranking reflects the growing recognition of the ��Ƶ as a major global hub of discovery and innovation across a wide range of fields,” said U of T President Meric Gertler. “It is a tribute to the ingenuity of U of T researchers and their success in addressing pressing problems with practical solutions.

“It also affirms the university’s efforts over many years to maximize the social and economic impact of the brilliant research produced on our three campuses.”

Read about this week's U.S. News & World Report global university rankings

The Reuters ranking, first launched five years ago, relies on 10 patent and research-related indicators to evaluate hundreds of universities around the world. That includes looking at metrics such as patent volume, patent success, global patents, patent citations and “patent citation impact.”

U of T’s climb up the Reuters ranking – moving to 27^thplace from 46^th in just two years – coincides with ongoing efforts by the university to assist researchers who want to patent and commercialize their discoveries. With the support of the Innovations & Partnerships Office, over the past decade U of T has filed hundreds of patent applications on behalf of researchers – all in an effort to turn ideas and innovations into new products and services with socioeconomic benefits in Canada and around the world.

The top-ranked schools in Reuters’ innovation 2019 ranking were Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, which have all held their positions since the ranking first launched in 2015.

The University of British Columbia was the only other Canadian university to make Reuters’ list of most innovative universities. It ranked 53^rdthis year, up eight spots from 2018.

Overall, U of T continues to be the highest ranked Canadian university and one of the top ranked public universities in the five most closely watched international rankings: Times Higher Education, QS World University Rankings, Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities and National Taiwan University World University Rankings.

U of T 'bone tape' startup takes home international prize

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 17 May 2019 17:28:15 +0000

U of T 'bone tape' startup takes home international prize

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 05/17/2019 - 13:28

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Michael Floros, the CEO of Cohesys and a recent IBBME post-doctoral researcher, hopes the startup's 'bone tape' will one day replace the metal plates and screws used to heal facial fractures (photo by Erin Vollick)

Topic

Health Innovation Hub

Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering

Research & Entrepreneurship

Startups

Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research

ThisIsThePlace

A ��Ƶ startup that makes a biodegradable “bone tape” to help heal facial fractures recently took home US$20,000 at an international competition.

Cohesys, a biomedical device business spun out from the lab of Professor Paul Santerre of the Faculty of Dentistry and the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), received first prize at the annual Venture Cup in April at Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon.

The startup’s bone tape is non-toxic and breaks down gradually in the body. The hope is that it will one day replace the current tools of facial surgeons: metal plates and screws, improving both surgical times and outcomes for facial surgery patients.

“This is the only adhesive that sticks to wet bone,” says Michael Floros, the CEO of Cohesys and a recent IBBME post-doctoral researcher.

“There is no other tape for bones or anything similar out there.”

Accompanying Floros at the competition were two fellow scientist-entrepreneurs from the company: post-doctoral researcher Alex Lausch, a recent IBBME graduate; and post-doctoral researcher Michael Tessier, a recent MBA graduate from the Ivey Business School at Western University.

Cohesys was chosen as one of sixteen finalists at the competition, which drew teams from as far away as the Philippines. The competition involved six separate pitches to a jury of engineers, business people and medical experts, including a one minute “elevator pitch,” a business plan pitch and a “30 minute pitch.”

Winning the Venture Cup was the latest achievement for the Cohesys team.

They recently took a $10,000 first-place spot at the RBC Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, held at U of T’s True Blue Expo earlier this year.

In fact, the one-year-old startup’s team has been so successful in raising cash they’ve already reached their first major funding milestone: US$1 million of investment capital, which will enable them to make progress on obtaining FDA approval for their product.

The team hopes to hit the U.S. biomedical market in a year and a half.

“It has been impressive to see the advancements made by Michael Floros and his entrepreneurial team at Cohesys as they have continued to hit critical milestones needed to advance this paradigm shifting technology,” says Santerre, who is also a co-director of U of T’s Health Innovation Hub, or H2i, accelerator and a principal investigator in the Translational Biology and Engineering Program at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.

So what’s the secret to Cohesys’s success?

“Find a way to communicate your idea to a very general and broad audience while still acknowledging the significance of it,” Floros says.

Like TIFF for tech: Collision conference shines a spotlight on city’s booming innovation scene

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 16 May 2019 16:26:48 +0000

Like TIFF for tech: Collision conference shines a spotlight on city’s booming innovation scene

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 05/16/2019 - 12:26

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U of T President Meric Gertler and alumnus Allen Lau, the CEO of Wattpad, will be among the conference's more than 600 speakers, while several U of T startups will be in attendance (photo courtesy of Collision)

Rahul Kalvapalle

Topic

Global Lens

Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre

Alumni

Artificial Intelligence

Creative Destruction Lab

Impact Centre

President Gertler

Research & Entrepreneurship

Research & Innovation

Rotman School of Management

Roberto Cervantes and his team at CryptoNumerics are keen to take advantage of next week’s giant Collision tech conference to put the startup co-founded by ��Ƶ alumni on the map.

One of the world’s fastest-growing and most influential technology conferences, Collision’s arrival in Toronto speaks to the rising importance of the city’s thriving tech and startup scene – not to mention the support it has received from U of T and its various innovation partners.

The three-day affair, which has relocated to Toronto from New Orleans for the next three years, will feature over 600 speakers as well as exhibits catering to the startup and tech sectors. It kicks off on Monday and wraps up on Thursday.

“We’re going to use Collision to talk to people and spread the word about who we are,” said Cervantes, a co-founder of CryptoNumerics, which uses artificial intelligence, or AI, to help companies in the financial and medical sectors crunch people’s data without compromising privacy.

“We want to talk to the corporate ventures and the innovation departments of companies to see how we can get in.”

Cervantes adds that Collision’s move to Toronto will give startups like CryptoNumerics, which received support from U of T’s Creative Destructive Lab, an unprecedented degree of global exposure. “Collision will bring a lot of people who might not have come to Canada and Toronto otherwise,” he said. “It’s a very positive thing for Toronto startups because it will offer access to other startups, investors and different ways of thinking and doing things.”

“Collision will bring a lot of people who might not have come to Canada and Toronto otherwise,” said Roberto Cervantes (second from right), one of CryptoNumerics' co-founders (photo courtesy of CryptoNumerics)

Collision arrives in Toronto at a time when the city’s tech and startup scene has plenty of momentum behind it. Just last year, for example, commercial real-estate firm CBRE said Toronto added more tech jobs than San Francisco, Washington and Seattle combined, and now ranks among North America’s top five tech talent markets. Meantime, a recent report by Silicon Valley think-tank Startup Genome ranked the Toronto-Waterloo region 13^th globally, and number one in Canada.

As for U of T, the university recently announced plans for the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Centre, a 750,000-square-foot complex designed to anchor U of T’s unique cluster of world-leading artificial intelligence scientists and biomedical experts, its world-class entrepreneurship network, and the country’s largest concentration of student- and faculty-led startups. The centre was made possible by a $100 million gift to the university from Canadian business luminaries Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman.

In 2017, U of T also made headlines for partnering with government and industry to launch the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, which counts deep-learning pioneer and University Professor Emeritus ��Ƶ as its chief scientific adviser.

Charles Plant, a longtime tech entrepreneur and investor who is at U of T’s Impact Centre accelerator, said landing Collision could give the city an extra push to launch it into the top echelon of tech ecosystems.

“Collision is a great opportunity for us to make a bigger impact to show the world what we’re doing,” Plant said, adding that the conference has the potential to do for Toronto’s tech industry what the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) did for the city’s film scene.

“TIFF put Toronto on the map and associated Toronto with the film industry in a way that enabled it to grow more effectively. I think that’s what Collision can do for the tech industry. It can put Toronto in a place in the world that’s more prominent.”

The speakers announced for this year’s summit include leading figures from Fortune 500 companies, heads of some of the world’s most exciting startups and influential figures from media, entertainment and sport.

U of T President Meric Gertler will speak to the challenge of scaling up companies and innovation ecosystems during a panel discussion titled “Managing Unexpected Growth,” scheduled for May 23 at Collision’s Startup University stage. U of T alum Allen Lau, CEO of self-publishing startup Wattpad, will also be on the panel.

Alumnus Allen Lau, who is co-founder and CEO of the story-telling platform Wattpad, will be on a panel with U of T President Meric Gertler (photo courtesy of Wattpad)

“Toronto is fast becoming one of the top global cities for technology innovation, so it’s only fitting that one of the world’s most influential technology conferences should move to our city,” said Derek Newton, U of T’s assistant vice-president of innovation, partnerships and entrepreneurship.

“U of T is proud to be one of the pillars of Toronto’s startup ecosystem, with our world-class research, talent production pipeline, assortment of accelerators and the university’s leadership role as a founding partner of innovation organizations like the MaRS Discovery District and the Vector Institute, which are crucial to making this city the vibrant technology hub that it is today.

“We look forward to Collision’s speakers, events and workshops energizing and inspiring the next generation of innovators from U of T.”

U of T will have a strong presence at Collision and will maintain a booth near the conference’s main stage, with a rotating cast of university-linked startups, incubators, co-op programs and alumni given the chance to engage with attendees.

Among the 15 or so startups to be featured at U of T’s booth is Blue J Legal, which uses AI to predict the outcomes of tax and employment law cases.

“We see Collision as an excellent opportunity to share our vision of bringing absolute clarity to the law, everywhere and on demand,” said Michael Rodgers, director of marketing at Blue J Legal, which received support from U of T’s UTEST program and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), a seed-stage accelerator affiliated with the Rotman School of Management.

“It’s a chance for us to showcase our one-of-a-kind technology and connect with innovative companies and professionals pushing the envelope of what’s possible in their respective fields.”

U of T will also host innovation tours during the conference, giving attendees the chance to learn about opportunities to collaborate with the university’s vibrant research and entrepreneurship community.

“We’ve heard from Silicon Valley alumni of ours, investors, potential corporate partners and startups looking for talent,” said Keri Damen, managing director of U of T Entrepreneurship. “It’s a great opportunity to showcase U of T, Toronto and Canada at large to the global tech community.

“Collision will bring in hundreds of global media, so it’s a great opportunity for us to reach a wider audience and let them know about the fantastic work being done here at U of T.”

U of T entrepreneurs have created over 500 startups over the past decade and have generated more than $1 billion in investment. The university’s innovation network – which includes 10 campus-linked accelerators – is ranked among the world’s top five university-based incubators in the world, according to UBI Global.

Plant said U of T’s world-leading leading research makes it perfectly placed to produce new tech companies. He hailed the impact of U of T Entrepreneurship in fostering a community of innovators and entrepreneurs – something he said didn’t exist during his early days as an entrepreneur.

“We’ve now acquired a community of people who know each other, that work together, that see each other at events,” he said. “That’s fundamental to establishing a successful tech economy.”

However, Plant said several challenges remain, particularly related to the scaling up of promising startups into world-leading companies.

“If we can figure out how to scale companies, our potential is limitless,” he said. “U of T has raw potential like you wouldn’t believe.”