Fall 2009

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Bio-Matrix n Fall 2009

We’re growing into the future Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network and its partners in Hamilton, Halton, and Niagara hope to be expanding their role and services as we head into 2010. While GHBN will remain, it will be allied with an innovation centre, a virtual factory that is clientmanagement centred. It would focus on small and entrepreneurial businesses, helping to move their innovative products and services closer to market. The centre will play a leadership role in humancapital development, training and mentoring innovators and leaders of the knowledge-based economy. This is all part of an Ontario innovation and commercialization agenda as the government seeks gains in industries, jobs, and social and economic prosperity for the province’s leading-edge technology and services. We hope to have word soon on how we’ll move boldly into the future.

Inside – n Cleanfield  turbines [page 2]

n RoboDoctor will see you now [page 3]

n An Achilles heel [page 4]

n Worrisome signs in biotech [page 5]

n v o l u me 3

Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network

n issue 3

Farncombe head ‘positive’ about research spinoffs The new head of McMaster University’s digestive health centre – an entrepreneur noted for taking research to market – is “very positive” about similar spinoffs for Hamilton. John Wallace says the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute has great potential, both for commercial success and for partnerships with life sciences companies. “We are already moving forward on a number of initiatives,” said Dr. Wallace, recent winner of a Premier’s Summit Award, given to exceptional medical researchers. “I hope that there will be an announcement in the fall of a partnership that will involve development of some compounds based on research in our institute.“ Upon his appointment in March, he told The Globe and Mail: “I’m very keen on the notion that research doesn’t stop when we publish a paper. What we really need to do is focus on taking what we find, and both informing the public and translating that into meaningful changes in how health care is delivered.” Summit Award winners receive up to $5 million over a five-year period, based on a $2.5 million contribution from the provincial program, matched by an equal amount from their sponsoring institution. The institute itself was launched with a $15-million donation from the Farncombe family in Oakville. Dr. Wallace, who has been called “a superstar” in the field of gastrointestinal research, has been involved in at least three start-up bioscience firms, most recently GInova Pharma, a Montreal-based company that is developing novel therapies for digestive disorders. McMaster’s centre is one of the pre-eminent digestive health research institutes in the world. The facility includes the only gnotobiotic (germ-free) animal facility in a Canadian

university and a Roche 454 high-throughput DNA sequencer, used to genetically identify bacteria in the GI tract. Global research has intensified into the role of the human GI tract, and into the bacteria that colonize the tract. Scientists are increasingly making connections between the state of the intestinal system and a wide range of disorders, including depression, obesity, and diabetes, as well as illnesses directly tied to the gut, such as Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Among other research studies, Farncombe is involved in an AFM (Advanced Foods and Materials Network, a national body headquartered at University of Guelph) study looking at the impact of diet and the intestinal microbiome on gut health and general well-being. That work may lead to outside partners developing new commercial products, said Dr. Wallace, inaugural director of the institute. A professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster, his area of special interest is mediators of inflammation and their contribution to mucosal injury and dysfunction. Much of the inflammation and ulceration research is focused on the gastrointestinal tract, although his study areas also take in cardiovascular inflammation and platelet function. He has published more than 350 peer-reviewed papers and is among the top 0.5 per cent of biomedical scientists in the world in terms of citations. Among Farncombe’s research themes are inflammation, infection and mucosal immunology, molecular microbiology, gut-brain interactions (leading to emotional stress and depression, for example), and hepatic blood flow and vascular adhesion molecule expression in sepsis and multi-organ failure. Researchers estimate that irritable bowel syndrome affects up to 20 per cent of Canadians. In some countries, the figure is as high as 30 per cent of the population. In Canada and most Western nations, IBS occurs significantly more often in women than in men. IBS can have a significant effect on quality of life and has been identified as the second-leading cause of absenteeism from work or school. n

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Cleanfield turbines – a small wonder in the wind As wind turbines go, they’re a somewhat odd shape, they’re relatively small and they are almost unobtrusive. Which is why a lot of attention is blowing their way.

Mac leads eyeresearch team A McMaster Universitybased network will lead inter-university research on biomaterials, medical devices and drug-delivery devices that are designed to seek treatment answers to vision problems. Researchers at McMaster, the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, and Queen’s University in Kingston will collaborate on the project. Private-sector involvement includes 10 industry partners who will work to take new products to market. The collaboration is called: 20/20 - the National Science and Education Ophthalmic Materials Network. Eye-related diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration, are a growing health concern as much of Canada’s population ages.

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The V3.5 vertical-axis turbines made by Cleanfield Energy can sit on top of a roof or a ground mount, catch wind from any direction, and operate with a minimum of audible noise. Favourable reviews – the company was chosen a ‘Mind to Market’ finalist last year in an Ontario Centres of Excellence competition – have led to sales in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and even China. “We’ve done about 50 sales and installations,” says president and CEO Tony Verrelli. “But our pipeline is substantial so we have a backlog which is increasing in revenues.” With recent regulatory approval of its V3.5 turbine inverter by UL (Underwriters Laboratory), the company expects the U.S. soon to be “our primary market”, he said. In the U.S., investment tax credits loom large for buyers of small turbines as the Obama government pushes green energy initiatives and greater energy self-reliance. Located in an Ancaster industrial park, Cleanfield has avoided the NIMBY syndrome with its discreet systems – although talk at the provincial level of setback requirements from residential areas, a limit normally imposed on large-tower turbines, is unnerving. The units are small enough that installations can start at $45,000 or so, including turbine, mounting, inverter and any required drawings. In the Hamilton area, Cleanfield turbines can be found on the roof at Mohawk College’s campus in Stoney Creek and at the technology park at Highways 5 and 6. Cleanfield is also looking to larger turbine products, to exploitation of a 250 kW universal inverter (making electricity grid-friendly by converting it from direct to alternating current), and to development of nanowire solar technology.

But for now, the 3.5 kW units remain the bread and butter focus. The OCE believes that, “under favourable conditions”, a Cleanfield unit can provide 9,000 kW over a year. If an average Ontario home consumes about 10,000 kW a year, that means Cleanfield’s turbines might provide more than 80 per cent of that home’s needs. While the company – the operating arm of a publicly traded enterprise on the TSX Venture Exchange based in Vancouver – has its own in-house and also contract engineering expertise, Cleanfield has partnered with public-sector researchers at universities, the National Research Council, and Ontario Centres of Excellence as it moves through design stages and wind tunnel testing. McMaster University has been a longtime research and development partner. “This is a great place to be because we’ve got a great university partner there,” says Verrelli, part of a management team that holds a stake of just over 25 per cent in the company. “McMaster has some outstanding professors and students.” It is with OCE’s photonics centre and McMaster’s engineering physics people that Cleanfield is working on the commercialization of semiconductor nanowire photovoltaics technology in solar cells. Verrelli believes the company may be at least five years away from a commercial solar product. But the idea is to reduce the cost of solar power by using semiconductor nanowires to bump up the efficiency of photovoltaic technology. That would bring such systems closer in cost line to fossil fuels. Nanowires are ultra-thin structures with controlled lengths of one to five microns and diameters of 10 to 100 nanometres (a thousand times thinner than a human hair). A McMaster 2008 news release noted that, among advantages over thin film and crystal silicon, nanowires required lower-cost substrates and had strong light-trapping and absorption qualities. The company has received investment capital, including from OCE, from private equity raisings, and late last year from a private placement of about $1 million by a Chinese investorcompany. n

V3.5 Installation at McMaster Innovation Park in Hamilton.

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RoboDoctor will see you now

Dr. Mehran Anvari

Hamilton doctors and scientists are entering a bold new era in healthcare with a plan to offer personalized medicine where one of the caregivers is not a person. They hope to provide not only world-class service but also to create a new industry and jobs as well. The key behind the initiative is the newly created Centre for Surgical Invention and Innovation (CSII). The centre plans to design and develop medical robots for sale to clinics, hospitals, and other centres, both at home and abroad. The program would take advantage of the expertise of personnel at McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences, and of scientists with MDA Corporation, the company behind the telescoping Canadarm spaceshuttle robotic arm. “Canada is at the leading edge in space robotics with Canadarm and so on,” says Dr. Mehran Anvari, one of the world’s most prominent pioneers in robotic surgery and current president of the international Minimally Invasive Robotic Association. “We’re now trying to translate that edge into the medical field.” It’s very early days for the $30 million undertaking. But Dr. Anvari, CSII scientific director, believes the project could design and build lightweight systems that would incorporate high-resolution imaging guidance, such as magnetic resonance (MRI) or computed tomography (CT). Doctors would operate in “augmented reality”, seeing “around the corner”, says Dr. Anvari. They would use superhaptic sensing, with pressure-touch capability finer than that of a human hand. Surgeons would get the benefits of motion scaling down to the level of a micron – one-millionth of a metre or so. Robotic systems in hospitals are not new and have been used in cardiothoracic surgery, cancer therapies, even organ transplants. They assist doctors in minimally invasive surgeries, involving small keyhole entries into the body – an area where Hamilton doctors have developed great expertise. Anvari and others hope their systems might take on other roles, such as assisting in tough procedures, such as pedicle screw drilling (in spinal fusions) or biopsies. Minimally invasive surgery leads to shorter hospital stays. It also leaves smaller scars and results in fewer infection complications and it promotes faster recovery times and reduced emotional impact on patients. The global market for surgical robots is big. Some estimates put it at more than $10 billion by 2014. But it is a busy market, with many players in the field for a product that only large clinics and hospitals can afford.

– continued on page 6

Doctors sit at a control console, directing a surgical robot during an operation.

McMaster heads huge heart study McMaster University is part of a team of international researchers that has come up with a new medication to reduce strokes and bleeding complications in patients with the heart rhythm disorder, atrial fibrillation, at risk for stroke. Warfarin has been the gold standard up to now. But the huge study shows that oral blood thinner, dabigatran, is safer and more effective than the existing therapy. Professor of medicine Stuart Connolly, in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and also the Population Health Research Institute, was co-principal investigator of the RE-LY (Randomized Evaluation of Longterm anticoagulant therapY) study, which involved 18,000 patients in 44 countries.

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An Achilles heel for bacteria?

Salim Yusuf

Hamilton helps India’s heart problems The Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) in Hamilton is partnering with an Indian institute to prevent and control chronic diseases in developing nations. The U.S.-based National Institutes of Health is partially funding the study to create a research platform in India to address cardiovascular disease. The PHRI, based at Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University, has worked in 80 countries on reducing cardiovascular disease. In this case, it is partner for five years with St. John’s Research Institute in Bangalore, India. PHRI director Salim Yusuf hopes to reduce CV incidence by 50 per cent in the next quarter-century.

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Scientists from McMaster University and India may have found an Achilles heel in potentially deadly bacteria with their discovery of a new compound that interrupts development of some pathogens that have proven highly resistant to long-established antibiotic compounds. The naturally occurring molecule appears to be a good starting point to look at how bacterial cell development and molecular activity can be interrupted. The hope is that the discovery – published in September in the journal, Nature Chemical Biology – could lead to new treatments that target a growing legion of drug-resistant bacteria.

“. . . We’re excited about finding a new (chemical) probe of a relatively uncharted part of bacterial physiology, It’s a new way of thinking about the problem. Who knows, could this chemical become a drug? Anything’s possible.”

“Really what we’re trying to do is understand whether or not there are new ways to tackle this problem,” Eric Brown, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, said in a university news release. “. . . We’re excited about finding a new (chemical) probe of a relatively uncharted part of bacterial physiology, It’s a new way of thinking about the problem. Who knows, could this chemical become a drug? Anything’s possible. But at the very least we’ve advanced the field and created some tools that people can use now to try to better understand this pathway.” Bacteria are highly adaptive microorganisms and, over time, naturally develop resistance to compounds that kill them. So, for example, repeated use of amoxicillin in cases of strep throat can lead to bacteria that shield strep germs from antibiotic actions.

One estimate is that methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE), and other harmful bacteria that have proven in the last few years to be able to survive commonly used antibiotics infect more than 260,000 Canadians a year. Using high-throughput screening technology, the work done by the DeGroote Institute of Infectious Disease Research turned up a new chemical class and a small molecule, named MAC13243. The actions of that molecule showed promise in combatting the multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Common symptoms of infection by that bacterium in people with weakened resistance are generalized inflammation and sepsis. However, if pseudomonas colonizes in critical body organs such as the lungs or kidneys, the infection can be fatal. It multiplies on moist surfaces and is often found in hospitals and clinics where it grows on equipment, such as catheters. The scientists used the gram-negative bacterium, Escherichia coli (E. coli), as their working platform, running systematic screens and looking for compounds that suppressed development of bacterial cells and inhibited molecular pathways. (E. coli is often the culprit in food poisoning outbreaks in humans.) The research showed that the small molecule MAC13243 inhibited the LolA protein in bacterial cell development. LolA, a key protein in gram-negative bacteria, plays a role in transporting lipoproteins from inner to outer membranes of a cell. The McMaster-discovered compound was shown to block the LolA protein’s role in developing the bacteria’s cell surface. In this latest research, McMaster researchers worked with colleagues at the Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, in Roorkee Uttaranchal, India. At McMaster, much of the bacterial detective work occurs within the recently completed Centre for Microbial Chemical Biology. Founded about four years ago, the centre utilizes crossdisciplinary research among several departments, much of it designed to develop leads to new drug-like molecules from both synthetic and natural sources. Earlier this year, McMaster scientists worked in concert with colleagues in Germany and Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, to come up with new findings on genetic links among three cell-wall processes: teichoic acid, peptidoglycan and poly-isoprenoid synthesis. n

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Worrisome signs in biotech country Canada’s biotech and venture capital industries continue to warn against alarming trends that threaten to undermine the future of the country’s life-sciences sector and the equity-raising needed to help it, and other technology sectors, continue to survive and grow. Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association called upon Ottawa in September to commit to a national technology strategy to address what the CVCA saw as a “technology-policy deficit”. President Gregory Smith said falling levels of venture capital availability presented “a very real risk that Canada will not be able to fully capitalize on its multi-billion dollar investment in R & D”. Among other things, the CVCA asked all senior levels of government to set up and grow fund of funds structures, to improve the national Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credit program, and to improve incentives for companies to invest in VC funds. The current economic downturn and the tightening noose for funding were among the reasons behind some biotech companies taking drastic steps this year, such as laying off employees, including executives, halting some clinical trials, retreating from markets, or postponing bids to seek regulatory approvals. The dismal picture was painted earlier in a survey study by BIOTECanada which predicted in July that up to 70 per cent of companies will be out of cash and unable to continue their current research operations within a year. The survey indicated that companies would manage cash by chopping staff and ending programs. Without shortterm bridge financing, said BIOTECanada, job cuts might exceed 7,000 within a year. Falling off that corporate cliff would mean Canada “may be going down a path where it is unable to provide the necessary environment a stable knowledgebased economy needs to retain this talent,” said Brad Thompson, president and CEO of Calgary’s Oncolytics, a cancer biotech drug developer, and chair of BIOTECanada Board of Directors. The biotech lobby group asked Ottawa for a “temporary loan program” to stave off further cutbacks, exits, and bankruptcies in the industry. BIOTECanada proposed that loans be set up for qualifying companies without interest or payments for the first two years, converting at that time to debt with a 6 per cent interest rate for the following three years.

Even with all this bad news, some good stories did break out during the summer in the way of new financings, new joint ventures or more government aid for technology-oriented companies. MaRS tenant BioQuest Innovations and investment firm LOM Bancorp formed a joint venture designed to nurture likely life sciences successes. And some firms scored big money in the summer. Montreal firm Enobia Pharma raised $50 million from existing VC investors. Another Montreal firm, Allostera Pharma, said it had secured $17 million from four VC investors and the public-private Fonds Bio-Innovation Ontario’s $250 million Emerging Technologies Fund became the latest provincial fund aimed at providing equity to early-stage innovation companies. Two of the fund’s three targeted sectors are life sciences and clean technologies. The fund is meant to “act as a catalyst to leverage private sector capital”, according to fund guidelines. And Ontario announced a $100 million genomics fund earlier this year. Ontario’s Venture Capital Fund had about $200 million available in money linked to co-investments – although early indications were that the money was going to information, communications, and technology firms and that cash allocated to biotech and clean-tech opportunities seemed slow in coming. Another good sign was the rise of risk-capital angel investor companies and collaborations, whose capital is meant for innovative start-ups. But much of that sector’s money seems destined for so-called clean-tech investments, technologies that benefit the environment while also increasing the performance of businesses.n

VC activity tumbles Canada’s venture capital and private equity association reported more dismal numbers for the second quarter of the year. The CVCA said $179 million was invested nationwide in the quarter – down 42 per cent from the $309 million invested last year. For the first six months, the amount invested was $452 million – the lowest total in 13 years. “The data conclusively demonstrates that there is a venture capital crisis in Canada,” said Gregory Smith, president of the CVCA. That will mean “Canada’s ability to drive innovation will weaken”, he said. The VC weakness hit all sectors. In clean-tech, only $9 million went to four companies. As a result, clean-tech sectors captured only 5 per cent of total activity.

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Mac doctors in the peninsula McMaster University’s new family health centre in St. Catharines is providing not only care for the community but also training and experience for family physicians and medical students.

Events listing

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The centre has close ties to the Niagara Regional campus of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, whose medical students will take part in clinical rotations at the centre.

MEEI/GHBN Entrepreneurship 101 series Date: November 18, December 2,9, 2009 Location: McMaster Innovation Park City: Hamilton, ON For more information visit: www.businessinnovation.ca/entrepreneurship101

Research to receptor series Agricultural Solutions for Energy: BioMass Date: November 17, 19, 24, 26, 2009 Locations: Ridgetown, Guelph, Burlington, Kingston For more information: www.research2receptor.com

Grow Niagara industry think tank & marketplance Date: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Location: Niagara College City: Niagara-on-the-Lake For more information visit: www.niagaracollege.ca/researchnews

GHBN/GHMN Innovation breakfast series Date: Tuesday November 24, 2009 Location: McMaster Innovation Park City: Hamilton, ON Speaker: Patricia Hoogendoorn CFO and Co-Owner, Affinity Biologicals Location: McMaster Innovation Park For more information visit: www.ghbn.org Future dates: Jan 26, Feb 23, Mar 30, April 27, May 25

The McMaster Niagara Family Health Centre, at 22 Ontario Street, opened in January. It is staffed by an interprofessional team, including nurses, doctors and residents, mental health workers and others.

n RoboDoctor will see you now (continued from page 3) Hamilton innovates

The centre’s patients also have access to interdisciplinary professionals, including an adult and child psychiatrist, nurse practitioners, dieticians and social workers.

Innovation Café series Innovation in Cinematography Date: Thursday, December 3, 2009 Location: McMaster Innovation Park City: Hamilton, ON For more information visit: www.ghbn.org Future dates: February 24, 2010

In Canada, probably the lead university-industry consortium behind a robotic system is the University of Calgary and MD Robotics, part of the same MDA Corporation that is partnering with McMaster. Calgary’s robot, the MRI-compatible neuroArm, made international headlines last year when it operated on a patient’s brain tumour. But neuroArm, while close to commercialization, is still not at market despite eight years or so in development. So, Hamilton’s big idea has many years before it gets there. Doug Barber, chair of CSII’s board of directors and a past chair of McMaster’s board of governors, has high hopes for the project. But Barber, a co-founder of semiconductor company, Gennum Inc., poses the perennial big question: If you build it, will they come? Who are the customers, who is asking them what they need and want? Even with his hard scrutiny, the specialist in innovation and commercialization does have an answer. Barber feels good about Dr. Anvari’s long history with robots: “The thing that gives me some real hope and expectation . . . is that he is a user, he is an end-customer. So (the initiative) has a huge leg up in that, if it doesn’t work for him, it doesn’t work.” n

Contact

Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network McMaster University, Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning & Discovery 5105-1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA L8N 3Z5

n Ana Paredes Office Administrator/Incubator Assistant – Tel: 905-525-9140 Ext. 26602 Fax: 905-528-3999 n Darlene Homonko Executive Director – Tel: 905-525-9140 Ext. 26609 Web: www.ghbn.org 6

Bio-Matrix is a quarterly newsletter published by GHBN. Director and editor: Darlene Homonko Writer: Mike Pettapiece

Graphic Design: Nadia DiTraglia