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The Stephen Hawking Centre is now open at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) in Ontario, Canada.The Phase II of the MaRS Discovery District construction is just one in a series of recent, major investments that are increasing Ontario's innovation, research and development capacities.

People with mental health challenges can run viable businesses. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) did an experiment with to see if microcredit could make a difference and it did. Rise Asset Development was created.The MaRS centre, which incubates innovative businesses, is providin support.

MaRS  is expected to announce the creation of a new Pecaut Centre for Social Enterprise - in honour of the late David Pecaut. Allyson Hewitt, MaRS Director of Social Entrepreneurship said "the new centre would leverage off her organization's current activities, using the expertise of groups like Boston Consulting to develop social impact metrics."

MaRS Discovery District is expanding. MaRS' Phase 2 development will be completed in 2013. Don Duval, Vice President of Advisory Services states " Our mandate is to work with early stage ventures and help these companies grow ... The program's success, he says, is measured by "the amount of jobs and wealth our companies notable successes.

Greg Meckback, Digital Media Editor from Daily Commercial News states "Toronto real estate developer Tridel is partnering with Cisco Systems Inc. to use Internet Protocol (IP) technology to improve energy efficiency, security and entertainment systems in its buildings....TowerLabs with Tridel co-founded with the MaRS Discovery District, is getting feedback from focus groups on devices such as programmable thermostats or the possibility of putting programmable thermostat functions on a portable electronic device such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone."

400 of the world's leading medical and scientific artists, game developers, simulation experts, researchers, animators and innovators will gather in Toronto and will prevail the stereotype of the left-brain/right-brain predominance. The exhibit will also be held at the MaRS Centre from July 23 to August 6, 2012.

"Lauren Flynn, Queen's University chemical engineer pioneered the process for transforming discarded human fat into a soft-tissue substitute for use in reconstructive surgery... Further development of the technology is possible through $192,500 in funding from MaRS Innovation Medical Sciences Competitive Proof of Principle. The program is part of the Ontario Centres of Excellence Institutional Proof of Principle program." 

The three founders of startup tech company Nevex Virtual Technologies Inc. who have been working together for about 20 years and have successfully developed, grown and sold several businesses between them, netting stakeholders more than $300-million in value.

MaRS Discovery District Phase II Development is progressing well. PCL Constructors Canada Inc is a general contractor that is constructing a 21-storey building that will add one million square feet to the existing 750,000 square foot facility and is scheduled for completion for late 2013. 

RIC Centre, Peel Region hosted it's fourth annual Innovator Idol competition for a $50,000 prize. The four finalists were: Emcara Gas Development, PACTS Cultural Transformations, CHAR Technologies and SMARTeacher. The event was held June 13th, 2012. The panel included William White a Director at MaRS Discovery District. 

According to James Martin, reporter, The Globe and Mail, "businesses looking to become innovators might even consider hiring an MFA instead of an MBA.". "David Dobson, Director of business development for Victoria-based StarFish Medical, art school gives him a simple business edge: "It changed the way I think." "Dobson often travels to Toronto and to the MaRS Discovery District."

A local affordable condominium development partners with SiG@MaRS client Home Ownership Alternatives, a non-profit financial company that potential homebuyers on the edge of the market

Dale Zak's presentation from Net Change Week on Mobile Volunteerism. It profiles Extraordinaries, Ushahidi, Samasource, VMConnect, Causeworld - social ventures that are helping volunteers do meaningful work by using technology. Dale is a mobile software developer passionate about social change.

Operating out of Toronto's MaRS Discovery Centre, Arctic DX's seven employees take existing research on genetic markers and develop diagnostic tests for disease.

Adult digital artery imaged with a conventional high frequency linear transducer (200 micron resolution). Image Source: SonoSite SonoSite, a developer of point-of-care ultrasound systems, today signed an agreement to acquire privately held Visualsonics, a Toronto-based company focused on high-frequency micro-ultrasound technology, in a transaction approximately valued at $71 million net of cash and debt.

The Ontario Genomics Institute (OGI) teamed up with Invitrogen Corporation, a California-based global leader in providing life sciences technology, recently to host Genome 2.0: New Frontiers in Epigenomics, a one-day symposium addressing epigenetic regulation of gene expression with a special focus on chromatin biology, DNA methylation, non-coding RNAs and technology development.

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.

MaRS Innovation (MI) has signed a co-funding agreement with the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Office of Science and Technology to capitalize and accelerate the use of Toronto-based life-sciences technologies during the early stages of pharmaceutical and medical device development.

Documents the development of Social Entrepreneurship in Canada.

The NIH Partner Collaboration slideshow from the MaRS Best Practices event. Speaker/Presenter: Mukul Ranjan, Ph.D, Office of Technology Development, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland