Page 5 - Synapse Life Sciences Consortium
P. 5

Empirica
                                                                     Therapeutics:
                                                                     Translational
                                                                     Cancer Discoveries


                                                                     Empirica Therapeutics was founded
                                                                     in 2018 on the ground-breaking
                                                                     work of Dr. Sheila Singh, a pediatric
                                                                     neurosurgeon at McMaster Children’s
                                                                     Hospital and Canada Research Chair
                                                                     in Human Cancer Stem Cell Biology at
          the research institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton               McMaster University.
          operates across five research pillars with an
          annual budget exceeding $28 million and
          oversees the work of more than 700 researchers,            Her lab, which brings together
          staff, students and fellows.                               multidisciplinary scientists from several
                                                                     Canadian universities, has become a
          mohawk College is the fourth-largest research              discovery engine and a translational
          college in Canada in 2020 and a leading specialist         pipeline for therapies aimed at
          in digital and mobile health. mEDiC (mHealth &             aggressive and treatment-resistant
          eHealth Development and innovation Centre) is              cancers. With the help of the McMaster
          Canada’s only technology access Centre with a              Industry Liaison Office, Singh has
          focus on digital health, including an e-health “living     secured patents, found commercial
          lab” that enables mEDiC to support digital health          partners and attracted the attention of
          companies from design to deployment.                       the global biotech sector.

          With a strong foundation in place, key additions           In June 2020, Empirica was acquired
          have solidified Hamilton’s place as a life sciences        by Philadelphia-based Century
          powerhouse. innovation Factory, a regional                 Therapeutics and the company has
          accelerator; the Forge, a business incubator               maintained an important presence at
          funded by mcmaster University; and the Bay area            McMaster Innovation Park as Century
          Health Trust, a unique arm’s length for-profit entity      Therapeutics Canada.
          that benefits McMaster and HHS, have built an
          ecosystem that nurtures the commercialization of           “We have a very differentiated set of
          ideas.                                                     skills in Hamilton that have poised
                                                                     us for success in the biomedical and
          the Synapse Pitch Competition, founded in 2013 by          biotechnology sector,” said Singh.
          innovation Factory, has become ontario’s premier
          life science pitch competition. through training and
          mentorship the competition assists innovators to           “The good news is that the scientists
          bring their ideas to market, leverage Hamilton’s           who have made the seminal discoveries
          research infrastructure and intellectual property,         and spun out companies currently
          and attract investment. more than 100 companies            at MIP are here training the next
          have come through the Synapse Competition,                 generation of research scientists at
          winning $500,000+ in funding from the competition          McMaster University.”
          and have gone on to raise $50+ million.

                                       [Continued on next page]                                  5
   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10