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Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

Johnson & Johnson Innovation Opens JLABS @ Toronto

TORONTO (May 11, 2016) –  Johnson & Johnson Innovation LLC, today announced the opening of JLABS @ Toronto, a new 40,000-square-foot life sciences incubator, providing entrepreneurs shared lab space and offices, modular lab suites and access to scientific, industry and capital funding experts as they work to build important and successful early-stage companies. The new JLABS facility can accommodate up to 50 start-ups and opens with 22 companies that represent a range of sectors including therapeutics, medical devices and consumer health ... Read more

LegWorks takes top spot at Parapan Am accessibility tech pitch contest

BresoTec, formerly known as ApneaDx, also among top five finalists TORONTO, August 11, 2015 – Legworks' next-generation prosthetic knee took first place in Ontario Centres of Excellence’s (OCE’s) Parapan Am Games-affiliated Accessibility Tech Pitch competition. The company immediately said it would use the $20,000 award to fit 200 amputees in developing countries with its device. Legworks was selected from 18 participants in a two-day elimination pitch competition – one of the features of the Government of Ontario’s Accessibility Innovation Showcase held at MaRS ... Read more

MaRS Innovation featured in International Innovation magazine

MaRS Innovation and its member institutions are is profiled in International Innovation's July issue (#191) in a feature interview with Dr. Rafi Hofstein, MI's president and CEO, written by Rosemary Peters. The article is posted on the publication's website and viewable through a digital interface (pages 80 and 81). Here's an excerpt from Dr. Hofstein's comments: "Canada's academic research community is internationally highly competitive, but it has been argued that its scientific commercial success tags behind other countries such as the U.S. and the ... Read more

LegWorks developing better, more affordable prosthetic knees for developing world

TORONTO (May 27, 2015)  – LegWorks Inc., backed with a $2 million blend of private and Government of Canada investments catalyzed by Grand Challenges Canada, is a new Toronto-based company that will contribute to a better life for amputees in developing countries. The LegWorks AT-knee was covered in the Toronto Star on June 1, 2015 in "Great advances being made in assistive technology" by Kate Allen and in Healio Orthotics & Prosthetics News on June 2. The LegWorks “All-Terrain Knee” (AT-Knee) is a ... Read more

Holland Bloorview’s Anxiety Meter included in Globe and Mail’s neuroscience feature

"Research labs across Ontario are full of ingenious – and even life-saving – inventions. Unfortunately, many of them never make it to market," writes Wendy Leung in "These six great neuroscience ideas could make the leap from lab to market" in the November 20, 2014 edition of the Globe and Mail. MaRS Innovation, which was created to help researchers solve exactly this problem, has a project with Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital that was featured in Leung's article. Asim Siddiqi founded the anxiety ... Read more

Dr. Hofstein’s Op-Ed for The Hill-Times, “Biotechnology research: A knowledge economy”

This op-ed on Canadian biotechnology and the knowledge economy appeared in The Hill-Times (subscription required), Canada's politics and government newsweekly, September 9: Obesity, cancer, heart disease and stroke, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, or the more general stresses of an aging population: no matter which area of concern holds our collective gaze from moment to moment, improving health outcomes and healthcare is the No. 1 challenge for the world’s economy. Canada has the holistic approach and translational research necessary to address health care’s pervasive ... Read more

What does MaRS Innovation’s funding extension mean for Toronto’s academic entrepreneurs?

Every six weeks, MaRS Innovation's marketing and communications manager writes a guest post for the MaRS Discovery District blog profiling MI's activities or one of our start-up companies. You can read the original post on the MaRS blog. Created in 2008, MaRS Innovation (MI) bridges the chasm between the early-stage technologies emerging from its 16 member institutions and successful startup companies and licensable technologies. By offering early-stage funding in tandem with hands-on management, business development, mentorship and intellectual property protection strategy, MI acts as ... Read more

MaRS Innovation awarded $15 million to further commercialize world-leading Canadian innovations

Networks of Centres of Excellence recognizes strength of partnership between MI and its 16 member institutions TORONTO, February 5, 2013 — How do you make sure the brilliant ideas emerging from Toronto’s academic research community get the best possible chance to succeed? MaRS Innovation (MI), created in 2008, bridges the chasm between these early-stage technologies and successful start-up companies and licensable technologies. By offering early-stage funding in tandem with hands-on management, mentorship and IP strategy protection, MI acts as a commercialization agent for ... Read more