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Assunta Krehl

Pharmafocus.com - 0 views

  • Canada has always had to fight hard to attract talent and investment
  • MaRS Vital to Toronto's life sciences vision is MaRS (derived from Medical and Related Sciences) a non-profit organisation and business centre located in the heart of the city. Its core function is as a biotech incubator and business park, known as MaRS Discovery District. The venture was first established in 2000 to help foster and accelerate the growth of successful Canadian businesses and, after some uncertain times, it is now gathering momentum. A separate technology transfer office, MaRS Innovation, has also been established that, it is hoped, can be a world beater in its own right (see Turning good ideas into world beaters below). The location of the MaRS building in central Toronto is important, as it is just a stone's throw away from an existing cluster of universities and academic hospitals. MaRS has many links with other research-based organisations, including collaborations with three local universities, 10 academic teaching hospitals and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. MaRS occupies the Old Toronto general hospital, where insulin was first discovered by Best and Banting in 1921 and then developed for use in human trials. The 21st Century organisation can build on this heritage in patient-focused discovery and development. Formerly the head of venture capital firm Primaxis, Ilse Treurnicht is chief executive of MaRS Discovery District. She acknowledges the crisis in venture capital funding, and says Canada's sector has always had less access funds through this route than other countries. This is one of the drivers behind the search for a new approach. Treurnicht says the old models of building biotech and life sciences businesses have to be discarded, as they have failed to build companies with critical mass. She says MaRS' new 'Convergence Innovation' strategy of bringing science, capital and business together will pay off.
  • "We call our strategy 'Convergence Innovation' and what we are trying to do is move away from the old linear model of academics struggling in their spare time to build companies or entrepreneurs doing this in a very incremental way."It takes time and it has many risk points along the way. So using this Convergence centre model to create a much more dynamic organisation which can help accelerate good ideas towards the commercialisation." But she says Canada's geography and demographics are always going to be a challenge. "This is a very large country with a small population. If you think in terms of clusters and hub regions, Canada's business hubs are separated geographically, and there is not much in between in terms of people."That means we can't try to be a little United States, because we just won't show up on the radar. We have to take a different approach. We have to think about collaboration as our potential competitive advantage - that means using networks and associations to solve problems and build businesses."So as new opportunities emerge, we can take them to market faster and hopefully with a higher success rate." The centre currently accommodates numerous start up companies, as well as those providing legal and financial services to them. AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline also have offices on site. In all, MaRS provides mentoring for over 200 different companies across Ontario, and runs courses on entrepreneurship and preparing products for market.
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  • Transition Therapeutics is one of the companies based at MaRS, and is an example of a biopharmaceutical company that is taking a new approach to the science and business of drug development.
  • Now Toronto's MaRS Innovation (MI) has been launched to try to guide and accelerate these promising ideas out of the wilderness and onto the market. MI is a not-for-profit technology transfer company that will channel all the best ideas to come out of Toronto's renowned academic centres. In the Toronto and Ontario area there were between 14-16 different technology transfer offices in the different institutions, and MaRS Innovation resolved to bring these interests together into a single entity after industry partners told them it was an inefficient way to do business. Bringing together the different institutions under one umbrella organisation has been an arduous task for MaRS, but the reward could be considerable for all parties. MI now oversees probably the largest intellectual property pipeline of its kind, representing about $1 billion in annual research spending. This means MI will be a unified route for all of Toronto's academics and their institutions when they want to develop and commercialise a bright idea. Most importantly, investors from industry who are looking to collaborate will now be able to deal with just organisation and one IP process. MI will cover patentable ideas across a broad range of areas, and not just life sciences - the discovery pipeline in physical sciences, information and communication technology, and green technology ('cleantech') will all be funnelled through MI. MI now represents three universities, 10 academic teaching hospitals and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. MaRS Innovation, with support from MaRS and BioDiscovery Toronto, will advance commercialisation through industry partnerships, licensing and company creation.
  • ts chief executive is Dr Rafi Hofstein. Hofstein has been headhunted from Israel where he was chief executive of Hadasit, the technology transfer company of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem and chair of the publicly-traded company Hadasit BioHolding. He brings this considerable experience in technology transfer to what he thinks is a groundbreaking enterprise."MaRS Innovation is a unique global initiative, and I must commend the institutional leaders in Toronto for pulling this innovation powerhouse together to strengthen commercialisation output." He adds: "I believe this is going to modernise the whole notion of tech transfer." He says the scale and diversity of MaRS Innovation's remit puts it into a league of its own. Other research clusters elsewhere in the world have attempted similar projects before, but have been thwarted by the difficulty in bringing parties together. MaRS Innovation will also help launch and grow new spin-off companies and incubate them for 2-3 years to ensure a strong commercial footing. Hofstein says MI will also fund proof of concept trials which will persuade major pharma companies to invest in their development.
  • MI has just announced its first two commercialisation deals with academic partners in the city. The first is with the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital to develop stem cell from umbilical cords to treat cardiovascular disease, diabetes and neurological disorders. "With the Toronto area identified as a world-leading cluster in stem cell research, we are extremely excited to have identified this technology as our first commercialisation opportunity," said Dr Hofstein.
  • "Our partnership with MaRS Innovation on developing methods for using stem cells for diseases such as diabetes will allow us to work towards advancing care for these critical conditions."
  • The second collaboration is between MI and The University of Toronto (U of T) and involves a novel sustained release formulation of nitric oxide (NO) for applications in wound healing, including diabetic ulcers. "There are 300 million diabetics worldwide, of which some 15% develop troublesome foot ulcers. This wound healing technology is extremely exciting, making it an early commercialisation opportunity that MaRS Innovation has identified as being a potential win for some 45 million diabetics globally," said Dr Hofstein.
  • "This is one of many new commercialisation ventures that will be initiated by MaRS Innovation, our partner in commercialisation of research with 13 other academic institutions across the Greater Toronto Area," said Paul Young, U of T's vice-president, Research. "We at U of T are delighted that this innovation from Dr Lee will be taken to the marketplace to the benefit of society and the economy of Ontario and Canada." By aggregating the leading edge science of its institutional members and being a one-stop commercialisation centre for industry, entrepreneurs and investors, MI could really help put Toronto and Canada on the map."MaRS Innovation is deeply committed to facilitating strategic research collaborations with industry partners, strengthening the innovation capacity of Canadian industry through adoption of new technologies, and launching a new generation of robust, high-growth Canadian companies that will become global market leaders," added Dr Hofstein. "We look forward to working closely with all of our institutional members and to continue to jointly announce exciting commercial opportunities."
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    Canada has always had to fight hard to attract talent and investment. As stated in Pharmafocus.com, "MaRS Discovery District helps to foster and accelerate the growth of successful Canadian businesses." MaRS Innovation has also been launched to accelerate ideas onto the market.
Assunta Krehl

MaRS Innovation appoints president and CEO - University of Toronto -- News@UofT - 0 views

  • MaRS Innovation appoints president and CEO
  • A research commercialization leader from Israel, Dr. Raphael Hofstein, has been named president and CEO of the new MaRS Innovation initiative.
  • MI was created as a single, market-facing commercialization storefront for Toronto's university and health research institutions. Located in the MaRS Discovery District complex, with business development and administrative support from MaRS, MI will advance commercialization through industry partnerships, licensing and company creation. MaRS Innovation (MI) was founded in 2008 with $14.95 million in funding from the Government of Canada's Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) Programme, matched by $10 million from the research partners. The MI partnership includes U of T, the 10 partner hospitals and health research institutes affiliated with the university, Ryerson University, the Ontario College of Art & Design, BioDisocovery Toronto, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and MaRS. Hofstein joins MaRS Innovation from his previous position as president and CEO of Hadasit Ltd., the technology transfer company of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem.
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  • "MaRS Innovation is a unique global initiative, and I must commend the institutional leaders in Toronto for pulling this innovation powerhouse together to strengthen commercialization output. In my experience, good science is the single most important ingredient for success in this business. Toronto is already known as one of the strongest science cities in the world, and it continues to grow. Leading MaRS Innovation is a wonderful opportunity to do something remarkable."
  • Dr. Tim McTiernan, assistant vice-president (research) and executive director of The Innovations Group (TIG), U of T's research commercialization operation, said Mars Innovation will provide significant benefits to U of T.
  • And he said that MI's role as a resource "is like putting a turbo charger on an engine. Having MI working with us and the other member organizations is a huge step in taking advantage of the enormous potential in the Toronto research community. Commercialization offices acting independently will not be able to manage in nearly as effective a manner as will be possible with the expertise of MaRS Innovation."
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    Dr. Raphael Hofstein named president and CEO of the new MaRS Innovation initiative.
Assunta Krehl

The Big Apple's 'silicon alley' architect comes to Toronto - IT Business.ca - July 17, ... - 0 views

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    According to IT Business, "Seth Pinsky who is spearheading the construction of a new $2-billion tech engineering campus in New York City ... shared his vision of cities as innovation hubs at the Innovation City conference that was held at the MaRS Centre, July 18 & 19 in Toronto.
Assunta Krehl

Want to learn about innovation? Head to Toronto - Business Innovation Factory - 0 views

  • Probably most impressive was The MaRS Centre - an old hospital converted into a non-profit innovation centre connecting science, technology and social entrepreneurs with business skills, networks and capital. The building is undeniably cool. Located in Toronto’s “Discovery District” -- two square kilometres have been designated as the city’s center of innovation. The MaRS Centre is a gateway of sorts to Canada’s largest concentration of scientific research. It’s anchored by major teaching hospitals, the University of Toronto and more than two dozen affiliated research institutes.
  • MaRS Centre from the outside
  • MaRS was created in 2000. The founding group raised significant capital (almost $100 million from all three levels of government and both institutional and individual private sector donors and an additional $130 million of debt and credit lease instruments were also secured) to support the development. What’s so clear is that leadership to drive public/private sector collaboration is required to effect real change. Many credit Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty for helping to not only create the MaRS Centre but also invigorate the region as a whole.
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  • Martin has transformed the Rotman School from a mediocre Canadian business school to a world-class institution. It’s one of the few business schools around with an innovative curriculum built around the fundamentals of design thinking. Martin believes designers approaches to thinking and problem-solving can and should be applied to all components of business (He calls it integrative thinking and business design.) Most of our own processes here at the Business Innovation Factory are firmly rooted in design thinking principles.
  • Martin also managed to lure Richard Florida to Toronto in 2007 to direct the Rotman School's new $120-million Martin Prosperity Institute. Spinning off from much of Florida's research, the institute's goal is to build a leading think-tank on the role of sub-national factors – location, place and city-regions – in global economic prosperity. By taking an integrated view of prosperity, the institute will look beyond economic measures to include the importance of quality of place and the development of people’s creative potential. I'm looking forward to ongoing conversations with our new friends at the Rotman school. I suspect there might even be a collaboration or two about to happen as well. Bottom line: if you want to learn about innovation, Toronto is the place to be.
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    Chris Flanagan talks about the benefits of moving to Toronto and the great work happening at the MaRS Centre. Mention of Martin transforming the Rotman School to a "world-class institution" ... that has "an innovative curriculum built around the fundamentals of design thinking." There is also a mention of the Martin Prosperity Institute spin off.
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    Chris Flanagan talks about the benefits of moving to Toronto and the great work happening at the MaRS Centre. Mention of Martin transforming the Rotman School to a "world-class institution" ... that has "an innovative curriculum built around the fundamentals of design thinking." There is also a mention of the Martin Prosperity Institute spin off. Oct 30, 2008
Assunta Krehl

Which city's residents report having the best quality of life? - The Globe and Mail - J... - 1 views

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    According to an Angus Reid public opinion poll, Calgary is reported to have the best quality of life out of Canada's four largest cities. Acording to Jane Switzer, a report from The Globe and Mail, the "Angus Reid poll was commissioned for CityAge Media's The Innovation City summit." The summit will take place at the MaRS Centre, July 18 and 19th and will explore the new ideas, technologies and partnerships that will build the 21st century city, and why - and how - Metro Toronto and Canada will be a leader in this urban century.
Assunta Krehl

The collector vs. the director: Bob Rennie and the VAG - The Globe and Mail - August 11... - 0 views

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    Bob Rennie is among the most powerful people in Vancouver and is an art collector, a provocateur and a condo king. Rennie spoke at the Innovation City event that was held at the MaRS Centre. Rennie is interested in the health of a city and wants to city-build.
Assunta Krehl

The digital city: IBM's Guru Banavar on traffic, politics and Toronto - The Globe and M... - 0 views

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    Guru Banavar, CTO, Global Public Sector, IBM spoke at the Innovation City conference at the MaRS Centre on July 18 & 19, 2012 where he talked about how using data can help the physical infrastructure of a city.
Cathy Bogaart

Building New York City's Innovation Economy - Center for an Urban Future - 1 views

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    Looks like Toronto/Ontario/Canada is not the only place having problems... A report released by the Center for an Urban Future, a Manhattan-based think tank, finds that while New York City is home to several of the world's leading scientific research institutions, these universities and research centers have not yet become powerful catalysts for entrepreneurship and local economic development the way similar institutions have in a number of other regions. The study concludes that New York has long failed to harness the full potential of its pre-eminent academic research institutions to build a meaningful innovation economy; an enormous missed opportunity given that the city desperately needs to diversify its economy and cultivate new engines of job growth.
Assunta Krehl

MaRS Discovery District - News - News Releases - 2009 - Toronto's MaRS Discovery Distri... - 0 views

  • Toronto’s MaRS Discovery District has combined the creative genius of science and technology with the drive of entrepreneurs and capital to create a marriage that will see more Canadian ideas commercialized in this country and for those efforts it has won the Canadian Urban Institute’s 2009 Creative City Award to be granted to MaRS on June 5 at the Urban Leadership Awards in Toronto.
  • “MaRS has found a creative way for science and business to collaborate rather than compete and to help Canada become a knowledge-based economy. This award recognizes them as a leader in stimulating the creative capacity of the city and advancing entrepreneurship, not only in science and technology but also in social ventures. 
  • Located in the Discovery District of Toronto, where billions of dollars of creative capital are created every year, the MaRS Centre first opened in 2005 in two new towers that bookend a heritage building that once housed the Toronto General Hospital. The three buildings, that total 700,000 sq. ft, house labs, companies of all sizes, business advisors and investors. Its professional services include hands-on advisory services, entrepreneurial programming and both structured and electronic networking. A second building phase of the MaRS Centre will add 750,000 sq ft and is planned to open in the next few years. “The underlining reason for creating MaRS is to capture the value of Canadian discoveries and to better commercialize these innovations at home in Canada,” said MaRS CEO Ilse Treurnicht. “Hub cities like Toronto are key drivers in shaping Canada’s innovation economy. MaRS works to strengthen the pull of that hub, acting as an accelerator and building the best ideas into companies that can compete on the world stage but are anchored here,” said Treurnicht.
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    "Mention of the the Canadian Urban Institute's 2009 Creative City Award being granted to MaRS on June 5 at the Urban Leadership Awards in Toronto."
Sarah Hickman

Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City: Amazon.ca: Pier Giorgio Di Cicco: Books - 0 views

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    In Municipal Mind, Toronto's Poet Laureate offers a blueprint for building sustainable cities in a global era, predicated on city soul. By weaving bold and savvy strategies for urban creativity and civic prosperity together with a reasoned appeal for mutual respect, understanding and interaction among citizens, he persuades us that - in the delicate balancing of universal values and individual needs - cities can do far, far, better. Municipal Mind offers up a whole new way of civic being and thinking that puts wonder before commerce and nothing before human encounter.
Cathy Bogaart

The Path to Prosperity - Creative Class - 0 views

  • How do we create the climate for innovation that will lead to new industries and jobs based on new goods and services we can sell the rest of the world?
  • We are not just calling for more creative class jobs, but for increasing the creativity content of all jobs - service as well as manufacturing and agriculture too
  • 3Ts of economic development. Technology is the first T
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  • wo other Ts - talent as Romer’s work points out and tolerance - or openness to new people and new ideas.
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    The Martin Prosperity institute believes that an innovation strategy has to be tied to creativity and place and the ecosystem ("city"). Here they critique a blog by David Crane which critiques the recent MPI report.
Assunta Krehl

Calgary boasts highest quality of life - 50plus - July 14, 2012 - 1 views

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    Calgary ranks as the number one spot in terms of quality of life according to the new poll commissioned for CityAge Media's The Innovation City Summit. The summit will take place at the MaRS Centre, on July 18 & 19.
Assunta Krehl

Creativity, innovation and film festivals - The Star - 0 views

  • At the corner of College St. and University Ave. sits a growing monument to this kind of original thinking. MaRS – short for Medical and Related Sciences – is all about a building becoming much more than the sum of its users and programming. Already, MaRS has become a global leader in biotech research; it has certainly become a city builder, creating jobs and spawning companies; and, of course, it does all this by being a creative cauldron – just like the film festival.
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    TIFF is essential for Toronto's future but corporate support lags for its new home. Small mention of MaRS becoming a great global leader in biotech research, a great city building and creating new jobs. Sept 24, 2009
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    TIFF is essential for Toronto's future but corporate support lags for its new home. Small mention of MaRS becoming a great global leader in biotech research, a great city building and creating new jobs.
Cathy Bogaart

T. Toronto. Period. - 1 views

shared by Cathy Bogaart on 16 Dec 09 - Cached
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    T. the City Blog features articles about -- surprise, surprise -- the city of Toronto. Captures the innovations, the news, the culture, the people.
Assunta Krehl

Day Two at Creative Places and Spaces: Collaborative City Conference - Spacing Toronto - 1 views

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    Creative Places and Spaces: Collaborative City Conference, day two was held at the MaRS building. Participants heard about the difference between invention and innovation. A strategy for implementation needs to be the next steps. Oct 30, 2009
Assunta Krehl

Science City - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

  • This is Toronto's research district, a maze of concrete and glass where the finest minds collaborate, turning the city into a global centre of biomedical discovery.
  • Nine research institutes employing 5,000 university faculty members, 2,000 graduate students and 1,100 postdoctoral and clinical fellows lie within a 20-minute walk of each other. This biomedical cluster at the heart of Toronto is one of the largest on the continent, and is one of the 10 largest in the world.
  • Tom Hudson from Montreal; cell biologist Ben Neel from Boston; and stem-cell biologist Gordon Keller, who came to Toronto in 2006, just months after New York magazine named him one of the scientists that city could not afford to lose. Toronto is also home to Tak Mak, who discovered the "key to the immune system" T-cell receptor, and John Dick, who discovered the first cancer stem cell in 1994 and last year grew a human cancer in a lab mouse for the first time.
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  • "There's an enthusiasm in the research community that's very exciting to be part of," says Dr. Keller, who now heads the McEwan Centre for Regenerative Medicine.
  • Dr. Hudson, who left Quebec to head the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, says the city's "tremendous power" is built on a strong history: Stem-cell research began here. "It's innovative," he says of Toronto. "I've never felt closer in my research career to thinking we will have an impact. I feel my goals are going to happen here."
  • Still, John Evans, board chairman of the non-profit MaRS Centre, which helps to turn research into viable businesses, envisages a day when research is seen as a social and economic driver, and the city shines as brightly as better-known centres such as Boston and Palo Alto.
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    Tenille Bonoguore, Globe and Mail features the MaRS Centre and meets 12 of its' "best specimens." MaRS is one of the 10 largest biomedical clusters in the continent.
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    Tenille Bonoguore, Globe and Mail features the MaRS Centre and meets 12 of its' "best specimens." Bonoguore states "MaRS Centre is one of the 10 largest biomedical clusters in the continent." Jan 5, 2008
Cathy Bogaart

Planet Traveler: Green & Clean in the Heart of the City - Toronto Is Awesome, July 25, ... - 0 views

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    Planet Traveler is a Toronto-based cleantech innovation - backed by our own cleantech advisor, Tom Rand. Find out about the innovations that make this hotel the carbon-saving destination of the future!
Cathy Bogaart

Canadian Immigrant : Top 25 Canadian Immigrants - 0 views

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    Tomorrow, MaRS hosts our 2nd extended citizenship ceremony. Sixty New Canadians along with their family and friends will take their oath right here in the MaRS Auditorium. Interesting to hear from one of our own community, Dr. Rosalind Silverman, a postdoctoral fellow with TGH and UofT Medicine, who won first-ever Top 25 Canadian Immigrants awards. Read her (and her sister, a a postdoc at UofT Medicine) story. This is why MaRS is involved in stuff like this: culturally diverse cities are also the most innovative (or so says Richard Florida). If we want to excel in the knowledge economy, we should all celebrate our cultural diversity!
Cathy Bogaart

"Social Good" In Business - CBC Metro Morning, Feb 22, 2011 - 0 views

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    Social innovation practice lead, Allyson Hewitt was on Metro Morning February 22, in a discussion on "social good in business". This segment was inspired by the Civic Action forum about a week ago, in which MaRS was mentioned many times. Fitting, as the forum's focus on building a prosperous and engaged city.
Sarah Hickman

Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important D... - 0 views

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    Globalization does not make the world flat. Richard Florida believes place matters when it comes to innovation: place affects our daily lives as well as the overall global economy, place determines the people we come in contact with, place determines our career paths and options, and place influences the markets we participate in. In Who's Your City? Richard Florida believes place determines where good ideas come from and offers fresh views of its economic role.
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