Show Notes
Allison Brown is the site head of BioLabs University of Toronto, the first Canadian location in a global network of shared lab and office facilities spanning twenty biotech innovation clusters around the world. Located in the MaRS Discovery District, it puts her at the epicentre of innovation and commercialization in Canadian life sciences.
In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with Allison about a journey that began in the Rouge Valley in Scarborough and took an unexpected turn when her father, a chemical engineer, arranged a meeting with a University of Toronto engineering professor. That single conversation changed the course of her life.
Allison talks about her PhD in chemical engineering, life as employee number four at a scrappy startup operating out of the corner of an academic lab, and the leap out of the lab and into management consulting that shaped the rest of her career. She has since worked in pharmaceutical marketing, at CCRM, and at Medicine by Design, spending her career at what she calls the commercialization spectrum.
Allison also explains how the BioLabs model works, why Toronto is coming into its own as a global life sciences hub, and the areas of convergence she believes will define the next wave of innovation.
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Andrea Ladouceur is President and CEO of the Biosciences Association of Manitoba, or BAM, a not-for-profit industry association based in Winnipeg that is focused on growing the province's life sciences sector.
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