05
Aug-2025

Taking Research Beyond the Paper with McMaster’s Nexus Health

A recap of the May Monthly Hamilton Health Check-up

How many brilliant health discoveries stay trapped in the lab, never reaching the patients who desperately need them? This “valley of death” between groundbreaking research and real-world impact is a challenge Dr. Matt Miller and McMaster University‘s Nexus Health initiative are determined to conquer.

The latest Hamilton Health Innovation Check-up hosted by Synapse Life Science Consortium offered an insightful deep dive into this program. Dr. Miller provided valuable insights into the evolution of health innovation at McMaster, particularly highlighting the strategic initiatives that are shaping the future of the sector. The session also covered the urgent need for cross-sector collaboration and exciting infrastructure developments.

Addressing the “Valley of Death” in Health Innovation

Dr. Miller began by explaining the evolution of Global Nexus into the newly rebranded Nexus Health, now the foremost priority of McMaster’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Born during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nexus Health was established to address the “massive valley” separating academic discoveries from real-world application. Dr. Miller highlighted that this gap is predominantly a systemic issue related to the lack of seamless collaboration between academia and crucial external partners.

“We are really focused on everything beyond the paper,” Dr. Miller emphasized. “We’re really good in the university space of publishing great papers, but a lot of great ideas die there because of a lack of support to move things from that discovery phase into tangible, real-world impact. And that’s the gap that we’re really focused on filling.”

Strategic Collaborations: Breaking Down Silos Across Sectors

A core belief of Nexus Health is its outward-facing mandate, aiming to serve as the vital connection between McMaster’s health sciences operations and partners from industry, government, public health, and the community. 

Dr. Miller stressed that the goal is not merely to push out internal academic discoveries but also to act as a receptor, providing external partners with access to McMaster’s unique expertise and infrastructure.

This “ethos of co-design” ensures that stakeholders from all sectors have input at every stage of research and development, dramatically shortening the pathway from ideation to implementation. 

The COVID-19 pandemic, with its rapid design, approval, and implementation of new health technologies, served as a powerful template for what can be achieved when these silos are broken down.

Core Resources and Priority Areas

Nexus Health leverages McMaster’s world-renowned Faculty of Health Sciences and its researchers, while actively bringing together diverse partners. Key resources and areas of strength include:

  • Preclinical Facilities: Supporting IND (Investigational New Drug) and CTA (Clinical Trial Application) packages.
  • Medicinal Chemistry & Synthetic Biology: Robust platforms for drug discovery.
  • GMP-Compliant Biomanufacturing: New capabilities to produce biologics.
  • Clinical Trials & Commercialization Support: Facilitating the journey from lab to market.
  • Expertise in Uptake, Access, and Equity: Ensuring new solutions benefit all.

The initiative is strategically focused on McMaster’s core research strengths, including infectious diseases (e.g., antibiotic resistance and H5N1 avian flu), respiratory health, digestive diseases, allergy and immunology, metabolism and cancer.

Training the Next Generation of Innovators

A crucial aspect of Nexus Health is its commitment to a new way of training learners. By partnering with external sectors, Nexus Health provides students with experiential opportunities that better prepare them for careers in real-world science, breaking away from the traditional, purely academic training model.

Current projects exemplify this breadth, ranging from AI-guided drug discovery and aptamer-based therapeutics to inhaled pan-coronavirus vaccines and partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Miller also highlighted his role as co-director of the Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Hub, a national network of biomanufacturing facilities.

The Vision Ahead: A New Bioinnovation Building

To fully realize its ambitious vision, Nexus Health has raised significant funding (over $70 million raised in three years) and is currently planning for construction of new Bioinnovation Building at McMaster. This cutting-edge facility, linked to McMaster University Hospital, will house:

  • Expanded Biomanufacturing Containment Lab (CL3)
  • The Center for Collaborative Chemistry and Drug Development
  • New central animal facilities with GLP (Good Laboratory Practice) compliance space
  • A consolidated early-phase clinical trials platform
  • Support for radiopharmaceutical development and clinical testing

This “one-stop shop” aims to consolidate the entire innovation pipeline – from idea to prototype manufacturing to clinical trials – all within a single ecosystem.

During the Q&A, Dr. Miller addressed the crucial role of community engagement. When asked what Nexus Health needs from the community outside McMaster, his answer was clear, “We really want to create a diverse ecosystem and we want to help nucleate that ecosystem.”  He emphasized that McMaster is not looking to duplicate existing competencies but rather to integrate them, fostering an environment where Canadian companies can grow and thrive.

Dr. Miller concluded with an invitation: “What we want to do is make it possible for anyone who has an idea to make sure that idea has legs and that it gets to the people who need it.”

Each month, the Synapse Life Science Consortium hosts a virtual session to bring the life science community together to share updates, explore collaboration opportunities, and discuss the development and deployment of health innovations, called the Monthly Hamilton Health Check-up. Stay connected with future sessions to be part of the ongoing conversation that is driving health innovation in Hamilton and beyond. 

Attend the next virtual meeting by signing up here. 

To learn how you can leverage the ecosystem and get connected with industry leaders, connect with us today!

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