Page 10 - Synapse Life Sciences Consortium
P. 10
Bay Area Health
Trust: Nurturing Innovation Starts
Green Shoots
in Hamilton
Bay Area Health Trust (BAHT) operates
a business development arm that
operates life science businesses and
invests in growth oriented opportunities When it comes to commercialization of research,
with the goal of returning value to its supporting first- and second-generation companies,
beneficiaries, Hamilton Health Sciences and nurturing green-shoots, Hamilton is a
and McMaster University. “Goldilocks”sized city.
“We are small enough to all know each other and
BAHT’s Green Shoot Healthcare work together and pull in the same direction,”
Innovation Program was launched in said Jeff mcisaac, Dean of research at mohawk
late summer 2020 in collaboration College. “But there is also a critical mass of world-
with Synapse. Its goal is to support the class facilities and assets here.”
commercialization of novel innovation
emerging from HHS through non- Doors open quickly and easily in Hamilton,
controlling investments from BAHT. facilitated by the Synapse life Science Consortium.
It has provided key support to Mariner “the community-oriented vision of Synapse
Endosurgery, which has developed an is catalyzing results”, says Darren lawless,
advanced surgical navigation system, assistant Vice-President, research, innovation &
and neurotechnology developer Partnerships at mcmaster.
VoxNeuro, among others.
“there is no doubt that Hamilton is the place to go
for start-ups, scale-ups and world-class companies
It has also licensed the McMaster
Molecular Medium, a temperature- of all sizes. With mcmaster University, Hamilton
stable storage medium for viral Health Sciences, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, mohawk
samples that inactivates and stabilizes College and other key players all working together
in a blended ecosystem, why would innovators and
coronavirus specimens. BAHT has
submitted the technology for regulatory researchers go elsewhere?”
approvals in Canada and the U.S. and mcmaster innovation Park (miP) shines as
is working to secure a patent.
the crowing jewel in Hamilton’s life sciences
ecosystem.
In 2021, BAHT moved into a larger,
dedicated building in the Hamilton Situated on 58 acres near the university, miP
innovation district that will serve its offers everything from a desk in an incubator to
future growth. wet lab space to build-to-suit opportunities for
biomanufacturing.
10