Our province continues to shine on the world stage, and each week we are pleased to share the innovations and milestones within the sector. For example, it was announced last week that BC Cancer researchers - including distinguished scientist Dr. Samuel Aparicio - are playing a key role in a new international collaboration aimed at developing innovative treatments for osteosarcoma — a highly malignant bone cancer that commonly affects children and adolescents.
Registration is still open for UBC’s Academy of Translational Medicine and UBC Extended Learning's new micro-certificate in Regulatory Affairs in the Life Sciences, which starts this fall. As home to the fastest growing life sciences sector in Canada, this program addresses the need for more skilled labour with regulatory and translational medicine expertise, which will further fuel our growth. Learn more and register here!
On the note of programs to support sector growth, the Canadian B2B SaaS Market Accelerator is accepting applications to help 10 Canadian startups evaluate and prepare for expansion into Washington state and the United States markets. Interested parties can apply online until August 14th, with a program kick-off date in September.
Similarly, our own Investor Readiness Program (IRP) is set to begin again this October, and we have extended the application deadline. If you are a small or midsize enterprise (SME), don't miss your chance to apply - by August 12th - for the opportunity to be mentored by one of our entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) to become investor ready!
Kudos
Congratulations to Derrick Kim who is starting a new position as Managing Director at Trade and Invest British Columbia in South Korea. Congratulations also to Daniel Wattier, who is now supporting Creative Destruction Lab as an Associate and Mentor. Kudos to Dr. Nadine Caron, a UBC faculty of medicine professor and internationally renowned health leader committed to addressing inequities in access to health care and improving clinical outcomes for Indigenous Peoples, for being among the new appointees to the Order of B.C. for 2022. UBC’s Sudip Shekhar was also recently recognized with the Schmidt Science Polymath award, which includes his team receiving $3 million over five years to support their work of developing a credit-card-sized test for a variety of conditions. Sudip is the first Canadian to receive this award! And congratulations to VoxCell BioInnovation for being named to New Ventures BC’s Top 25 2022 list.
In closing, August marks Immunization Awareness Month. The month highlights the importance of raising awareness for vaccines and celebrates vaccine successes to protect and immunize against many diseases - including COVID-19, which has been top of mind for most of us over the last couple years and will continue to be a focus as we move into the fall to keep our communities safe.
Until next week,
Wendy and the LSBC team
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Top 25 Spotlight: VoxCell BioInnovations
VoxCell aims to provide a new platform for oncology drug screening. Their tissues are designed to mimic human-like cancer tissues that are used during drug preclinical testing. The goal with this approach is to increase the accuracy between lab data and clinical trials, decreasing the time and costs related to drug development processes. VoxCell is initially focusing on four types of cancer: breast, ovarian, lung, and prostate. The standard models will allow drug testing for chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and radiation enhancers... READ MORE
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Sanofi and Innovent Biologics Enter Strategic Collaboration to Accelerate Development of Oncology Medicines and Expand Presence in China
Sanofi and Innovent Biologics announced a collaboration to bring innovative medicines to patients in China with difficult-to-treat cancers. Innovent is a leading biopharmaceutical company with strong clinical development capabilities and a broad commercial footprint in China. Both companies are committed to accelerating the development and commercialization of two Sanofi key clinical stage oncology assets: Phase III SAR408701 (tusamitamab ravtansine; anti-CEACAM5 antibody-drug conjugate) and Phase II SAR444245 (non-alpha IL-2)... READ MORE
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Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Embarks in New Licensing Agreement for Creating Innovative Vaccine Technologies
Eyam Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics has announced a new licensing agreement for innovative vaccine technologies from the University of British Columbia, and The James Hutton Institute. The news comes with the recent development and advancements of new technologies for two novel vaccine vector platforms led by Professor Wilfred Jefferies of Michael Smith Laboratories in Vancouver, Canada, and Dr. Paolo Ribeca at JHI’s Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland... READ MORE
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AbCellera and Atlas Venture Collaborate to Empower the Development of Impactful Medicines for Patients
AbCellera and Atlas Venture announced a multi-target partnership to discover therapeutic antibodies for up to three drug targets that can be developed and commercialized by a stealth-stage Atlas-backed company. The collaboration leverages Atlas’ proven track record in forming innovative biotechnology companies and AbCellera’s ability to quickly deliver lead drug candidates to bring transformational new medicines to patients faster... READ MORE
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Receptor FIBCD1 Newly Identified in Neuro-Developmental Disorders
A multidisciplinary study led by Vanja Nagy (LBI-RUD/CeMM/Medical University of Vienna) and Josef Penninger (UBC/IMBA) characterized a novel gene, known as FIBCD1, to be likely causative of a new and rare neurodevelopmental disorder. Using data from two young patients with neurological symptoms, the researchers from both groups found evidence of a novel function for the FIBCD1 gene in the brain, and a potentially pivotal role in diseases such as autism, ADHD, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s... READ MORE
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Roche’s Subcutaneous Formulation of Tecentriq Demonstrates Positive Phase III Results
Roche announced that the Phase III IMscin001 study evaluating a subcutaneous formulation of Tecentriq® (atezolizumab) met its co-primary endpoints. The study showed non-inferior levels of Tecentriq in the blood (pharmacokinetics), when injected subcutaneously, compared with intravenous infusion, in cancer immunotherapy-naïve patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer for whom prior platinum therapy has failed... READ MORE
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Versant Ventures Collaborates with AbCellera to Accelerate Drug Development for its Portfolio of Biotech Companies
AbCellera and Versant Ventures announced a multi-year collaboration to discover therapeutic antibodies for multiple targets selected by Versant’s portfolio of biologics-focused biotechs. Versant and AbCellera already have enabled three of the firm’s stealth-stage companies under previous partnerships... READ MORE
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Asahi Kasei Pharma Corporation- Call for Collaboration
Asahi Kasei Pharma aims to expand and enrich the lives of people around the world through the research and development of new drugs and pharmaceutical technologies. To achieve these goals, they have been promoting and strengthening open innovation activities worldwide. These activities include the introduction of cutting-edge technologies, partnership formation, and research collaboration. As described below, they are focused on facilitating the discovery of preclinical lead compounds and improving the efficiency of the drug development process... READ MORE
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22nd Annual Healthcare Summit: The Future of Innovation, Personalized Medicine and Genomics
The 22nd Annual Healthcare Summit: The Future of Innovation, Personalized Medicine and Genomics, bringing together over 50 national and international subject matter experts and leaders in digital health technology, personalized medicine, health innovation, value-based healthcare and genomics.
There is a 15% Discount Available for LSBC Members. Email membership@lifesciencesbc.ca to get a promo code... READ MORE
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UBC Prof Wins Award to Develop Health Biosensor
University of British Columbia professor Sudip Shekhar is the first Canadian to receive the Schmidt Science Polymath award, which will grant his team roughly $3 million over a five-year period to develop an accurate, small and accessible test for various health problems. As a researcher, Shekhar has multiple focuses including communications systems and medical technologies, which requires a lot of collaboration with his colleagues... READ MORE
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Cytiva Opens New Vancouver Manufacturing Site
Global life sciences leader Cytiva opened a new 126 200 ft2 (11 724 m2) site in the greater Vancouver area to expand manufacturing capacity of aseptic filling machines by over 200%. The machines, known as workcells, provide gloveless, robotic aseptic filling capability for final drug product into vials, syringes, and cartridges. The site will serve as a Center of Excellence for Cytiva’s Aseptic Filling business, housing R&D and service, and will be a base for the global customer user group... READ MORE
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Manager, Marketing and Communications
Do you excel at corporate communications? Do you have a passion for event marketing? Are you digitally savvy and excited by the power of social media? Would building a community and assisting in growing an ecosystem for Canada’s fast growing life sciences sector motivate you? Does creating compelling messaging and editorial content, as well as media outreach with leading publications energize you? You may be Life Sciences BC’s next Manager of Marketing & Communications! Please click here for more information.
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Scientist, Chemistry
We are a team of passionate scientists who believe that excellent ideas and hard work will bring meaningful change to our world. We are seeking a research scientist to join our Chemistry team. The scientist will contribute to our R&D programs by applying synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry skills. This individual possesses the ability to design and execute the synthesis of challenging targets. They are also curious, have strong problem-solving skills and work ethics, and are able to work independently in a dynamic team environment. This position reports to the Director of Chemistry.
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Quality Scientist
Under the supervision of the Process Development Senior Scientist, the Quality Scientist is responsible for performing testing to support manufacturing process development. Testing typically includes samples from raw materials, in-process samples, final product, and stability samples. This position will also support equipment calibration and maintenance as well as various validation activities. The ideal candidate is familiar with GLP and GDP and knowledge of GMP is an asset. This position requires experience with aseptic technique, and knowledge of standard processes in microbial fermentation, cell culture, cell harvesting, downstream processing & formulation for bacterial vaccine production, and standard analytical methods for QA/QC of bacterial vaccines.
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As a construction company working exclusively in commercial and industrial sectors, they design and develop highly specialized buildings to meet the unique demands of each industry. There are many challenges in this field, and they always aim to provide innovative solutions that fit their clients' diverse needs. They proudly employ a highly experienced team and hire industry-leading trade partners and consultants, so their clients know they’re working with the best when they partner with Wales McLelland.
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Mesintel has developed a proprietary target discovery platform that incorporates their extensive knowledge of mesenchymal progenitor (MP) biology, coupled with disease-specific datasets mined by state-of-the-art AI/ML capabilities. The platform is designed to accelerate the development of therapeutics centered around the key role MPs play in driving disease. They are seeking opportunities to propel collaborative discovery and development partnerships, and seed funding to advance internal programs and platform capabilities.
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