Four Centres of Excellence in Commercialization and Research Present Opportunities for Collaboration to Life Sciences CommunityLifeSciences BC's Breakfast Speaking Series is generously sponsored by McCarthy Tétrault and KPMG LLPMay 7, 2009 LifeSciences BC's most recent Breakfast Speaking Series featured four Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). The CECR program was founded by the federal government to create world-class centres to advance life sciences research and facilitate commercialization of technologies, products and services. This was an excellent opportunity to learn how your company or organization can benefit from working with the CECRs. Executives from four CECRs in BC shared their insights on their research, and on the potential partnership opportunities for BC life sciences companies to work with and utilize the expertise and infrastructure of the CECRs to further their own R&D - especially in this challenging economic climate. The morning concluded with a panel discussion featuring Genome British Columbia and each of the four presenting CECRs.
At this special breakfast event were:
Dr. Bruce McManus As Director of PROOF, Dr. Bruce McManus brings broad skills and leadership qualities to the Centre. Dr. McManus is a Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He serves as Director of the UBC James Hogg iCAPTURE Centre for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research located at St. Paul’s Hospital and since 2007, he has served as the inaugural Director of the Providence Heart + Lung Institute at St. Paul’s Hospital. From 2000 until 2006, Dr. McManus served as the inaugural Scientific Director of the Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He joined the Faculty of Medicine, the University of British Columbia, in July 1993 as Department Head of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, bringing 11 years of experience on the faculty at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre, including a sabbatical as John F. Fogarty Senior International Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. Dr. McManus received the MD degree from the University of Saskatchewan, residency in medicine and pathology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, the PhD at the University of Toledo, and post-doctoral fellowships at the University of California and the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, NIH. Ann Fong, Corporate Secretary, Advanced Applied Physics Solutions (AAPS)Ann Fong received her B.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1991 and her M.B.A. from Queen’s University in 2005. Prior to joining AAPS, Ann Fong was involved with Technology Transfer at TRIUMF for 12 years. She was most recently the Manager of Intellectual Property and Technology Commercialization. She was responsible for the management of TRIUMF’s patent portfolio and commercial contracts. She also has experience assisting start-ups/spin-offs with patent protection, company formation, identification of management needs and business plan writing. While at TRIUMF, Mrs. Fong was involved in garnering two NSERC Synergy Awards for TRIUMF and its licensees. Mrs. Fong has served on a number of TRIUMF internal committees, including an employee representative committee, the TRIUMF Board of Management Technology Transfer Sub-committee, a TRIUMF Re-Organization Task Group, and the 2010-2015 Five-Year Plan Steering Committee. Mrs. Fong is a member of several professional associations. Dr. Pieter R. Cullis Pieter R. Cullis, Ph.D., Founding Director, Centre for Drug Research and Development; Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of British Columbia. Dr. Cullis was a Scholar of the Canadian Medical Research Council (MRC) (1978-1983) and subsequently an MRC Scientist (1983-1988). His laboratory has been responsible for fundamental advances in the generation, loading and targeting of liposomal systems for intravenous delivery of conventional and genetic drugs. This work has led to two products that have been approved by regulatory agencies in the U.S. and Europe for the treatment of cancer and its complications. From 1987 to 1991, Dr. Cullis was President and Director of The Canadian Liposome Company Inc. (CLC), a company he co-founded. Dr. Cullis has also played a founding role in Inex Pharmaceuticals Corp. (Director and CSO 1992-2004), Lipex Biomembranes Inc. (Director and Chairman, 1985-2000), Northern Lipids Inc. (Director and Chairman, 2005 onwards) and Protiva Biotherapeutics Ltd. (Director 2001-2005 and Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board). He has published over 260 scientific articles and is an inventor on over 35 patents. Dr. Cullis was awarded the Ayerst Award by the Canadian Biochemical Society in 1986, the B.C. Science Council Gold Medal for Health Sciences in 1991, the Alec D. Bangham Award for contributions to liposome science and technology in 2000, the B.C. Biotechnology Association award for Innovation and Achievement in 2002, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2004 and was awarded the Barre award for contributions to Pharmaceutical Sciences by the University of Montreal in 2005. Graeme Boniface B.Pharm, PhD Dr. Graeme Boniface is Chief Operating Officer of the Vancouver Prostate Centre at VGH, where he currently oversees the operational and commercialization activities of the multifunctional translational research programs. Prior to joining Vancouver Prostate Centre in 2008, Dr. Boniface was with QLT Inc in Vancouver (1998 – 2007) where he held the position of Senior Director of Clinical Research. He was responsible for the global clinical development of the company's numerous products, in areas of oncology, dermatology, urology and endocrinology. In addition he led the clinical evaluation of in-licensing candidates for pipeline management in these clinical fields. During his tenure at QLT he helped gain regulatory approval of two new drug entities. Dr Boniface was born and educated in NewZealand. Following received his B.Pharm degree from the University of Otago, Dunedin, he specialised in clinical radiopharmacy, and held a number of clinical positions as a Radiopharmacist in Nuclear Medicine in hospitals in Dunedin and Christchurch, New Zealand. He was awarded an AHFMR scholarship from the University of Alberta, where he pursued graduate studies in the development of tumour-seeking proteins and monoclonal antibodies for diagnosis and therapy of cancer. |
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