Show Notes
Claudia Krywiak is President and CEO of the Ontario Centre of Innovation which is a government-funded organization that helps small and medium-sized enterprises commercialize research by connecting industry, academic, and government partners to drive innovation across the province. In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with Claudia Krywiak about her journey that began in a small town in Poland, wound through Dubai and Toronto, and eventually lead her to the heart of Ontario's innovation ecosystem. Jim speaks with Claudia talks about growing up between cultures, finding her footing in Canada, and how curiosity has been the common thread in her career. Claudia also shares her perspective on what is on the horizon in quantum computing and AI, why she believes the next two years will bring more technological change than the last decade, and why there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur in Ontario.
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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.
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.
Trigger warning: This episode touches on themes of mental health and loss of life. Listener discretion is advised. Neil Fraser is one of the most respected leaders in Canada's medtech sector. He spent 38 years at Medtronic Canada, serving as president from 2004 to 2022, and has been a longtime advisor on health innovation policy and a director on numerous boards.
Greg Wolfond is the founder of the Give Back Health Innovation Foundation, a Canadian philanthropic network working to advance public health through innovation and technology. It tackles one of the most persistent problems in Canadian life sciences: the country does world-class research yet ranks near the bottom when it comes to commercializing it.
Dr. Michael Rudnicki is co-founder and Chief Discovery Officer of Satellos Bioscience in Ottawa, and one of the most accomplished stem cell scientists in the world. A member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, his work sits at the leading edge of regenerative medicine. In this episode, host Jim Wilson speaks with Michael about a life shaped by science, family, and curiosity, from taking apart the family car as a kid in Ottawa to building some of the first knockout mice at MIT's Whitehead Institute. Michael reflects on the mentors and moments that shaped his path, the founding of Canada's Stem Cell Network, and the discoveries in his lab that led to Satellos. At the heart of the conversation is the company's mission: a paradigm-shifting approach to Duchenne muscular dystrophy that treats the disease as a stem cell signaling problem rather than simply a structural one, and the hope that it could change the lives of patients living with this devastating condition.