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Encycle investigators receive CQDM investment

CQDM invests $1.5 million in two collaborative projects within the Québec/Ontario Life Sciences Corridor

Toronto, December 6, 2011 —  The Québec Consortium for Drug Discovery (CQDM) is pleased to announce $1.5 million in funding for two joint Québec/Ontario research projects in biomedical research.

The news was released today at the conference, Connecting Life Sciences Across the Ontario-Québec Corridor, which was held in Toronto.

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MaRS Innovation and GlaxoSmithKline Announce Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Translational Research in Health Sciences

TORONTO (May 31, 2011) — MaRS Innovation (MI) and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. (GSK) today announced a new development fund — the GSK-MaRS Innovation Fund — that will support and fast-track the commercialization of some of the country’s most promising translational research coming from 16 leading academic health sciences centres, hospitals and universities derived from MI’s member institutions.

Raphael Hofstein
Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation.

“From the discovery of insulin in 1922 to the discovery of stem cells, Ontario has a rich, proud history of world-class medical and scientific breakthroughs,” said Raphael Hofstein, president and CEO of MaRS Innovation. “Our partnership with GSK Canada furthers Ontario’s position as a major international research hub by providing much needed capital to fund exciting drug discovery and development technologies and bridging the gap to successful commercialization.

“Launching this development fund is also part of a global trend where government, researchers and industry are partnering at the early stage of translational research with an eye to achieving global impact and improving patient care,” Hofstein added.

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York University becomes 17th Member of MaRS Innovation

MaRS Innovation to act as commercialization agent for York’s life sciences and technology discoveries, leveraging new potential for York’s existing $70 million in research initiatives

TORONTO, May 9, 2011 York University has become the latest member of MaRS Innovation, the commercialization agent for many leading Toronto-based universities, hospitals and research institutes.

Stan Shapson, vice-president Research & Innovation, York University
Stan Shapson, Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University

“York has become one of Canada’s fastest-growing centres for research and innovation,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president Research & Innovation at York University. “We typically get 10 to 20 discovery disclosures a year. Joining MaRS Innovation allows us to deliver the most competitive commercialization services to the researchers making these discoveries. We’re confident that membership in MaRS Innovation will boost that number and accelerate the commercialization of York’s most promising research.”

Earlier this year, York University launched its Innovation York office. Based in York Region, Innovation York works with other partner organizations in the Markham Convergence Centre to build upon research partnerships between York researchers and life science and technology companies based in York Region and the Greater Toronto Area. It’s also making York’s research and infrastructure more accessible to industry, government agencies and community partners.

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$15M Funding announcement for CCRM

Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative MedicineAs part of MaRS Innovation’s strategy to bundle technologies, our first initiative focused on regenerative medicine and creating the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) located in Toronto, Ontario.

We are pleased that these efforts have been recognized by the Government of Canada‘s National Centres of Excellence (NCE) program, which recently announced a $15 million funding grant for CCRM through the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research.

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Wound Healing Technology Exclusive Rights Deal with Cardium Therapeutics

TORONTO
 (October
 14,
 2010)
 –
 Of
 the
 approximately
 300
 million
 people
 around
 the
 world
 who
 are
 diabetics,
 45
 million
 of
 them
 develop 
foot
 ulcers 
that 
bleed
 – 
and 
the 
infection
 from
 those 
ulcers
 can 
spread.

University of Toronto
University of Toronto

Working
 to
 halt
 this
 is
 Dr.
 Ping
 Lee,
 a
 professor
 at
 the
 University
 of
 Toronto’s (U of T)
 Leslie
 Dan
 Faculty
 of
 Pharmacy and
 GlaxoSmithKline chair
 in
 Pharmaceutics
 and 
Drug 
Delivery.
 He 
and 
his
 team
 have 
created 
a 
new 
sustained‐release
 form
 of
 nitric 
oxide 
(NO) 
that
 can
 not
 only
 stop 
the 
infections 
at
 wound
sites, 
but
 also
 has
 the
 potential 
to
speed
 up
 wound‐healing.

Still,
 the
 technology
 may
 have
 stayed
 on
 the
 shelf,
 even
 with
 three
 years
 worth
 of
 data
 demonstrating
 therapeutic
 relevance.
 The
 ultimate
 success
 of
 the
 technology
 is
 due
 to
 an
 effective
 collaboration
 between
 Dr.
 Lee,
 the
 Innovations
 and
 Partnerships
 Office
 (IPO)
 at
 U
 of
 T
 and
 MaRS
 Innovation (MI).
 Lee
 worked
 with
 IPO
 and
 MI to
 formulate
 a
 development
 plan
 in
 consultation
 with 
numerous 
industry
 advisors.

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Federal and Provincial Proof of Principle Programs Support Translational Technology Development

Ontario Centres of Excellence--Where Next HappensTORONTO (August 16, 2010) – MaRS Innovation (MI) is pleased to announce that translational funding to support product development for early-stage technologies from its members has been successfully deployed from federal and provincial sources. At the federal level, three of MI’s commercialization projects have recently received notification of funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Proof of Principle (PoP) program, amounting to approximately $470,000.

Moreover, MI has successfully deployed about $1 million in proof of principle funding received from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (MRI) through the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). This provincial program was previously managed by the MI founding commercialization partners in the life and physical sciences, BioDiscovery Toronto (BDT) and Technology Transfer Toronto (TTT). MI is grateful that these organizations laid the foundation for provincial proof of principle funding and looks forward to continuing a successful provincial PoP program.

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