Page 10 - Synapse Life Sciences Consortium
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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.

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