Cyclica and Oncocross announce partnership to develop therapeutics in oncology

news source:https://cyclicarx.com/press-releases/cyclica-and-oncocross-announce-partnership/

Toronto, Canada and Seoul, Korea – Cyclica Inc. (“Cyclica”), a neo-biotech with the vision to advance the most robust and sustainable drug discovery pipeline, and Oncocross Co., Ltd. (“Oncocross”), a biotech  revolutionizing the drug development process through its unique AI approach based on transcriptome database, announce a drug discovery partnership to advance the development of oncology therapeutics. The partnership will initially focus on discovery and developing treatments for Myelofibrosis, with plans to expand to additional oncology areas. 

“Combining forces with world class companies with complementary capabilities to ours is at the heart of Cyclica’s strategy. The combined strengths of the teams and platforms at Cyclica and Oncocross will lead to promising outcomes for the future of oncology medications, and we’re very enthusiastic about what this has the chance to mean for cancer patients”, shares Naheed Kurji, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Cyclica.

“We are very excited about this partnership with Cyclica, a global frontier in AI biotech space, where we put together innovative AI technologies that complement each other to yield a stronger outcome.  This underlines our shared commitment to bring breakthrough solutions to cancer patients”, added Yi Rang KIM, Medical Oncologist, Founder and CEO of Oncocross.

“There is no “silver bullet” in AI drug discovery & development – a deep empathy for the complexity of biology and chemistry is required to achieve top results.


About Cyclica
Cyclica advances molecules that embrace the complexity of the disease. Our work spans dozens of collaborations with large pharma and biotech and several joint ventures. We are a passionate team of biotech and pharma professionals, biologists, chemists, and computer scientists who live and labour at the intersection of our collective expertise. To learn more about Cyclica and how we partner, please visit www.cyclicarx.com.

About Oncocross
Oncocross is a Seoul based AI biotech company focused on drug development based on transcriptome database.  Oncocross partners with pharmaceutical companies to develop treatments for intractable and rare disease both in oncology and non-oncology space by i) identifying the optimal indications of NCE under development, ii) identifying the proper indications for clinical stage failed compounds, iii) screening combination drugs that can significantly increase the efficacy synergistically, iv) finding the optimal cancer biomarker, and v) screening the optimal drug candidate for selected disease indication.  For more information, please visit www.oncocross.com or www.linkedin.com/company/oncocross-co-ltd 

Forward Looking Information
This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information which include, among other things, plans to advance one or more drug discovery programs by Cyclica and Oncocross. Such statements and information are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management, and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results performance or achievements to be materially different from that expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and information. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement and forward-looking information contained in this press release, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information in this press release will prove to be accurate.

ACTO Secures $18M Financing to Accelerate Growth and Strengthen Position as #1 Learning Platform in Life Sciences

new source:https://acto.com/news/press-releases/acto-closes-18m-series-b-financing-to-become-the-1-learning-platform-in-life-sciences/

TORONTO, July 7, 2022 – ACTO, the omnichannel learning and enablement platform for life sciences, today announced the closing of a US$18 million equity financing. The investment was led by Questa Capital, a healthcare venture growth equity firm that actively invests in healthcare and life sciences software. With this investment, Questa joins ACTO’s existing investors: Resolve Growth Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Panache Ventures, and MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund1

This investment by Questa Capital validates the large market opportunity to transform critical learning experiences and sales enablement approaches in the life sciences industry. The company will use the proceeds of the investment to accelerate the growth and scale of ACTO and explore potential business and partnership opportunities.

“The rapid growth of our customer community demonstrates the industry’s interest and hunger for a new way of delivering commercial learning and development. Trends driving this shift include the increase in clinical data and the demand for flexible access to information in the flow of work. We are happy to meet these needs with the only omnichannel learning platform for the life sciences industry,” says Parth Khanna, CEO of ACTO. He added, “We are thrilled to have Questa Capital join us on this journey and look forward to delighting our customers with innovative solutions, such as our recently announced conversational assistant LAICA™, to make commercial learning in Life Sciences easier and more engaging.”

ACTO is disrupting the learning experience and sales enablement landscape in life sciences, which is primed for a new, modern and user-accessible solution to training and enabling learners in pharma. This round of funding allows ACTO to expand and enhance capabilities to accelerate its technology as the #1 life sciences-focused learning enablement platform. 

“At Questa, we are passionate about investing in innovative and well-positioned companies that empower the healthcare and life sciences industries to improve patient outcomes. We are excited to partner with Parth and the outstanding management team at ACTO to invest in the company’s strategic growth plan. With experienced leadership and cutting-edge SaaS technology, ACTO is serving a market ripe for a better approach,” says Ryan Drant, Founder and Managing Partner at Questa Capital, who was recently recognized as a top healthcare investor of 2022 by GrowthCap Advisory2.

The current financing brings ACTO’s total invested capital to more than US$30 million. ACTO continues to experience robust user and revenue growth, including a 500% increase in annual recurring revenue since 2018.

About ACTO

Global life science companies rely on ACTO’s AI-powered SaaS platform to transform their field teams’ learning journey and experience at scale. Commercial and clinical leaders leverage ACTO’s omnichannel learning platform to educate and engage learners through unified educational experiences across the care continuum. Building an ecosystem for life sciences, ACTO maintains a network of partnerships with content agencies, data providers, technology companies, and more. To learn more about ACTO, please visit acto.com.

Champions Oncology Announces a Partnership with Cyclica to Develop Small Molecule Therapeutics

news source:https://cyclicarx.com/press-releases/champions-oncology-announces-partnership-with-cyclica/

HACKENSACK, NJ and Toronto, Canada – Champions Oncology, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSBR), a leading global technology-enabled biotech that is transforming drug discovery through innovative AI-driven pharmaco-pheno-multiomic integration, and Cyclica Inc. (“Cyclica”), a neo-biotech with the vision to advance the most robust and sustainable drug discovery pipeline, announced today a therapeutic development partnership.

The partnership will combine two therapeutic targets identified and validated within Champions’ Lumin platform with Cyclica’s drug discovery platform to establish a new therapeutic program.  The planned partnership will initiate with a single program focused on previously unexplored targets present in tumor indications such as non-small cell lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and other solid tumors.  The partnership will also leverage the unique experimental platforms available at Champions to ensure rapid and efficient development towards clinical evaluation.  Under the terms of this agreement, Champions will co-own the program with Cyclica and take lead in advancing the program, and, upon achievement of specified milestones and events, will be obligated to make milestone and royalty payments to Cyclica.  Should Champions decide not to continue development, Cyclica has the option to carry forward the program in exchange for milestone and royalty payments to Champions.

Ronnie Morris, MD, President and CEO of Champions Oncology, said “We’re excited to announce our first partnership in small molecule drug discovery and development, following two development partnerships with other companies involving large molecules. This partnership with Cyclica is a continued validation of the power of our experimental and digital research platforms.  With deeply characterized datasets including our world-leading PDX models and Pharmaco-Pheno-Multi Omic (PPMO) workflows, we can better understand what drives growth and survival of a tumor.  These specific targets have been interesting ones for Champions, and we are excited to establish a pipeline program in partnership with Cyclica.”

Naheed Kurji, President and CEO of Cyclica, shares “Cyclica’s unique ability to address low data targets combined with Champions’ oncology-focused platform has groundbreaking therapeutic potential. Most importantly, by exploiting novel targets with strong disease linkage, we aspire to improve patient outcomes significantly.”


About Champions Oncology
Champions Oncology is a technology-driven research organization that develops innovative therapeutics against cancer targets, offers groundbreaking research software as a service, and provides end-to-end R&D services to biopharma organizations. Champions Oncology is actively engaged in the transformation of drug discovery through a novel approach of pharmaco-pheno-multiomic integration. For more information, please visit www.ChampionsOncology.com.

Media Contact:
Rachel Bunting, MS, MBA
Sr. Director, Head of Marketing
Marketing@ChampionsOncology.com

Website: www.championsoncology.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/championsoncology/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/champions-oncology-inc-/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChampionsOncol1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/championsoncology/

About Cyclica
Cyclica is a neo-biotech. We advance molecules that embrace the complexity of the disease. Our work spans dozens of collaborations with large pharma, biotech and several joint ventures. We are a passionate team of biotech and pharma professionals, biologists, chemists, and computer scientists who live and labour at the intersection of our collective expertise. To learn more about Cyclica and how we partner, please visit www.cyclicarx.com.

Connect and follow our drug discovery journey.

Media Contact:
Jennifer Sacco
VP, Marketing and Communications
Jennifer.sacco@cyclicarx.com

Forward Looking Information
This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information which include, among other things, plans to advance one or more drug discovery programs by Cyclica and Champions Oncology. Such statements and information are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management, and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results performance or achievements to be materially different from that expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and information. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement and forward-looking information contained in this press release, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information in this press release will prove to be accurate.

$1.5 billion! Wyre was acquired by Bolt, an American financial technology enterprise

Recently, the payment platform Wyre, an early investment enterprise of China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, was acquired by the US financial technology enterprise Bolt for US $1.5 billion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the transaction is one of the largest acquisitions of encryption companies in terms of financial settlement scale this year.

Wyre is a digital asset infrastructure developer, located in San Francisco, USA. It was jointly founded by Michael Dunworth and Ioannis Giannoras in 2013. In 2016, Wyre received investment from China Canada Angel Alliance.

As a leading payment infrastructure in the industry, Wyre provides developers with simple, efficient and powerful APIs, supports a series of financial, cryptocurrency, authentication and other services, and is an important circulation channel between real assets and crypto assets. Wyre also ensures asset security with its globally leading risk control and compliance.

Wyre has made full use of its first mover advantage to achieve deep cultivation in the field of encryption. As of today, Wyre has obtained legal business licenses in 48 states in the United States and 55 countries around the world, and supports more than 30 currencies to conduct cryptocurrency transactions in all mainstream payment channels. More than 500 platforms use Wyre to provide encrypted asset services for consumers, and the number of end users of Wyre has exceeded 4.8 million.

With its powerful and efficient encryption asset service capability, Wyre has built an active Web3.0 cooperation ecosystem, covering many institutions in the fields of MetaMask/BRD, Ledger, Coinify/TRANSAK, NFT (Opensea), DeFi (Maker/Component), etc. At the same time, Wyre has reached strategic cooperation with Visa and Lithium (the card issuing API platform) to make it easier for users to use cryptocurrency for payment and transaction.

In 2021, Wyre’s annual revenue will grow nearly 10 times year-on-year, with gross profit margin exceeding 50%. With the gradual increase of mainstream public acceptance of encryption assets, Wyre will gain more development space in the future and achieve rapid growth with the whole industry.

According to the announcement, both entities plan to complete the transaction and fully integrate before the end of this year. After the acquisition, the transaction protocol will bring the encryption industry with the powerful functions of Bolt CheckoutOS, one click checkout, payment, authentication and fraud protection.

Ioannis Giannaros, CEO of Wyre, said that in a mediocre environment, working with Bolt to expand its powerful CheckoutOS into the field of encryption would set a new standard and create new opportunities worldwide. They just want to make it easy for every retailer to use cryptocurrency for transactions, thereby removing long-standing barriers.

Maju Kuruvilla, CEO of Bolt, said: their merchants and retail partners hope that they will always innovate according to customers’ needs, which is why the announcement of this acquisition is so exciting. This is another step taken by Bolt to improve the purchase experience. He further emphasized that the acquisition would pave the way for their retailers to achieve seamless and secure encryption transactions and NFT. Consumers and retailers will benefit from a frictionless buying experience that natively supports encryption and NFT.

Cyclica and Arctoris Announce to Expand Cooperation: Accelerate Drug Discovery with AI+Robot Automation

Recently, Cylica, a Canadian biotechnology company invested by the China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, and Arctoris, a biotechnology company headquartered in Oxford and Boston, announced that they agreed to expand their cooperation and promote the new neurodegenerative drug discovery project focusing on Alzheimer’s disease. The expansion plan of this partnership was carried out after the positive results of the initial cooperation, which involved the targets of oncology and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Picture:Cyclica and Arctoris Extend Partnership Combining Polypharmacology and Machine Learning Platforms to Develop Medicines

Cyclica is a drug research and development company based on artificial intelligence. Based on the complexity of diseases, it is committed to developing innovative molecular chemical drugs. The company has innovative research technologies in the field of multi pharmacological properties of drugs, and thus more effectively promote the process of drug research and development.

So far, Cyclica has reached more than 100 cooperation projects and created dozens of joint ventures with AstraZeneca, Merck, Bayer and other large pharmaceutical companies, small and medium-sized biological research and development companies and research institutes. Cyclica has gathered a group of experienced biotechnology and pharmaceutical professionals, biologists, chemists, computer scientists, etc. to work together to make the patient’s life better.

Arctoris, a biotechnology platform company based on robotics, data science and machine learning, is one of the top 20 innovative enterprises in Europe. Arctoris combines its unique automation platform Ulysses with advanced computing methods and a world-class team of experienced drug hunters to guide and rapidly promote its cooperative drug discovery program in oncology and neurology. At present, the partners include IBM and other world-class companies. It is reported that Ulysses developed by Arctoris is an end-to-end automation platform for drug discovery research. The platform uses robot experiment execution and digital data acquisition technologies in cell and molecular biology and biochemistry/biophysics to ensure accuracy, precision and reproducibility. Compared with the industry standard, experiments conducted with Ulysses generate more than 100 times more data points in each analysis, which leads to more in-depth insights and faster progress.

As for this expansion of cooperation, Naheed Kurji, the co-founder, president and CEO of Cyclica, said that, “The combination of Cyclica’s platform and capabilities with Arctoris’s biological detection development will enable us to produce meaningful results and promote the research and development of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Our two professional fields have great potential for integration, and we are very optimistic about the impact of this cooperation on patients.

Dr. Martin Emmanuel Bittner, CEO of Arctoris, said: “Our joint drug discovery program focuses on dual specific inhibitors, which is a very promising but also challenging model. Cyclica is one of the leaders in this field, and uses its molecular design based on structure and artificial intelligence to conduct multi pharmacological research. In Arctoris, we have established special expertise in complex enzymology and advanced neurodegenerative cell models. This is a highly collaborative partnership Department, I am very glad that we can jointly achieve this goal for patients around the world in the field of indications in urgent need of new and better treatment options.Cyclica and Arctoris have a long-term plan for their partnership because they have started to discuss other treatment goals.

Motion Gestures using AI to enhance camera-based gesture recognition technology

news source:https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20220503VL202/ai-gesture-recognition.html

Motion Gestures joints skeleton-based software; Credit: Motion Gestures

Move a thumb to unlock a car door. Self-check-in at an airport without touching the kiosk. These are no longer scenes in the movies but what technology is capable of nowadays. Motion Gestures, a Canada-based startup, has brought sophisticated camera-based hand tracking and gesture recognition solutions to various industry verticals, offering transformative experience to the modern world.

Founded in 2017 by Kashif Kahn and Arash Abghari, Motion Gestures disrupts camera-based contactless interaction by using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques.

Chris Paine, Motion Gestures’ global director of business development, said the founders have backgrounds in utilizing AI and ML in natural language understanding. They always said, “We communicate with our mouths, but we work with our hands.” The statement shows it was natural for the founders to move to gesture recognition.

The company did not come out of stealth until 2020, the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has seen the demand for gesture recognition and contactless interaction grow exponentially.

A joints skeleton-based approach

According to Paine, Motion Gestures has engaged with more than 25 industries. Its accurate joints skeleton-based approach sets the startup apart from competitors. The software tracks precise positional coordinates of all hand joints in real-time through a camera and interprets any gestures made. For example, the gesture could be a thumbs up or OK symbol and dynamic movement like tapping and swiping. An application developer or product engineer then uses recognition results to execute a command such as “Confirm.”

“There’s one statement that we use, which says that ‘we can track accurately any hand movement or any gesture, regardless of its complexity,” Paine said.

The director added that Motion Gestures has reduced gesture software development time and costs by 10 times with AI and ML. It also has improved gesture sophistication and recognition accuracy to nearly 100%. While using the technology does not require gloves, as the movie Minority Report shows, Paine said the software can still track the hand movement of someone wearing gloves. Therefore, it can help doctors check X-rays easily during surgery.

In addition, Motion Gestures’ solution work with ordinary cameras and processors. The software is application-agnostic and can be used to enable contactless interaction with almost any product in any industry.

Furthermore, Paine said no data collection is required for custom gesture requests. Instead, the company has developed algorithms that can generate training data synthetically to serve as a proxy for real-life data. The above features significantly reduce gesture software deployment and its costs.

Although the pandemic attracted the public’s attention to contactless interaction, hurdles remain in adopting gesture recognition. Paine said one of the challenges is to win people’s trust. Since the technology has a decades-old history, some people are still haunted by inaccurate last generation solutions and doubt the capabilities of software available now.

The only way to rebuild their confidence is to show them the enhanced technology. Paine said the solution is far more advanced than shown in the movie and does not need sensor-based gloves and powerful depth cameras to operate.

Chris Paine is Motion Gestures' global director of business development. Credit: Motion Gestures

Chris Paine, Motion Gestures’ global director of business development. Credit: Motion Gestures

A solution that serves various industries

Gesture recognition can be applied to a variety of industries and products such as augmented reality, automotive, consumer electronics, health care, and home automation. Motion Gestures has seen great interest in the technology from the automotive and digital signage industry.

The startup is working with top automotive OEMs around the world for applications inside and outside a vehicle, ranging from sophisticated interaction with infotainment and navigation systems to keyless entry and tailgate opening.

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) have grown significantly. Paine said automotive firms are striving to provide a futuristic multi-modal user interaction experience. The effort involves combining a variety of Human Machine Interface (HMI) technologies such as voice recognition, gesture recognition, eye tracking, haptics, and touch for greater consumer experience and effectiveness.

On the other hand, Motion Gestures has started commercialization in digital signage applications in the US. Recently, it signed a contract involving the integration of its gesture software with BrightSign’s digital media players. BrightSign is the largest media player manufacturer in the world, with several million devices installed in retail, travel, hospitality, healthcare, transportation, and amusement park sectors.

According to Paine, Motion Gestures is helping Brightsign create natural contactless interaction with digital content on TV screens. For instance, in the retail sector, gesture interaction is being developed for the enhanced shopping experience. The software will enable customers to swipe through a catalog without touching a kiosk, change the clothes’ color to what they like, add a pair of shoes, and send all the items to a fitting room to try on.

In addition, customers can stand in front of the designed smart mirror systems, selecting clothes/shoes/accessories to project on their image. The selection of the items will all be via sophisticated gesture recognition.

Exploring opportunities in Taiwan

After completing two pre-Series A funding rounds, Motion Gestures has acquired investors from countries where it expects to develop business, including the US, Canada, Germany, India, China, Japan, and South Korea.

The startup has built several connections with Asia. For example, its latest funding round was led by Allen Miner, a Forbes Midas List investor famous for helping build Oracle Japan and Salesforce Japan and is opening doors for Motion Gestures in Japan. The company has secured more than a dozen collaborations with top Japanese OEMs.

Moreover, Motion Gestures has formed partnerships with firms in South Korea and China to promote its software with OEMs. Now, the startup is looking to work with Taiwan-based companies that want to embrace hand tracking and gesture recognition technology.

Besides automotive and consumer electronics sectors that can use Motion Gestures’ solutions in their end products, Paine said the company is also looking to partner with firms in the semiconductor and optical sensor industries. It wants to embed its software in semiconductor chips and/or integrate with optical sensors used in cameras which then can be sold to OEMs in different sectors. This would proliferate the use of Motion Gestures’ tech.

“That will be a tremendous conversation to have with companies in Taiwan,” Paine said.

Conavi Medical’s Novasight Hybrid System Now In Use at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

news source:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220428005153/en/Conavi-Medical%E2%80%99s-Novasight-Hybrid-System-Now-In-Use-at-Sunnybrook-Health-Sciences-Centre

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Conavi Medical Inc. (www.conavi.com), a leader of hybrid imaging guidance for common minimally invasive heart procedures, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, today announced that the Novasight Hybrid System is now being used for clinical procedures by interventional cardiologists as part of the Schulich Heart Program.

Sunnybrook’s Schulich Heart Program is one of Canada’s leading cardiac and vascular care centres with an international reputation for pioneering some of the world’s most innovative ways to diagnose and treat the heart and damaged blood vessels.

The hybrid intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging platform, now called Novasight Hybrid System, was initially invented at Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI) by Dr. Brian Courtney, a scientist and interventional cardiologist. It is the first and only clinical system available on the market that enables simultaneous and co-registered imaging of coronary arteries with both IVUS and OCT to help physicians visualize disease and deploy stents to open the arteries and restore blood flow in percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs).

“At Sunnybrook, we are continually striving to bring personalized and precise diagnostics and treatments to our patients. In fact, it’s a key part of our strategic plan,” said Andy Smith, President and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “Novasight is one of the many innovative tools that Sunnybrook is working on to help us achieve our goal, and we couldn’t be more proud to use this Canadian-developed technology.”

The Schulich Heart Program provides comprehensive cardiac and vascular care for some of the most complex cases in Ontario. From prevention to acute intervention and long-term management, the Program addresses the greatest health challenges in all areas of the heart and vascular systems.

“Having both a technical and clinical care background, this hybrid system was invented based on a combination of intensive research activities in image guided therapy and clinical needs identified during patient care. I saw an opportunity to improve imaging for minimally invasive heart procedures by creating a hybrid system that combines IVUS and OCT imaging, rather than having to choose one or the other,” said Dr. Brian Courtney, interventional cardiologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and chief medical officer and co-founder, Conavi Medical. “After years of development, it is incredibly rewarding to now be using this advanced and pragmatic technology at Sunnybrook, where it all started. The versatility of the system has already proved useful in a variety of complex cases, such as multi-vessel disease, heavy calcification, and cases where intravascular lithotripsy was used, allowing for better patient outcomes.”

Novasight Hybrid System has 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and regulatory approval for clinical use from Health Canada, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan.

About Conavi Medical
Conavi Medical Inc., is a privately-held company focused on designing, manufacturing, and marketing imaging technologies to guide common minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures. The Company’s patented hybrid intravascular imaging system is the first and only of its kind to combine both intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to enable simultaneous and co-registered imaging of coronary arteries. Conavi is focused on driving adoption of its advanced imaging solution. For more information, visit http://www.conavi.com/.

About Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is inventing the future of health care for the 1.3 million patients the hospital cares for each year through the dedication of its more than 16,000 staff, physicians, volunteers and learners. From our beginnings as a hospital for Canadian veterans, Sunnybrook has flourished into an internationally recognized leader in research and education with a full affiliation with the University of Toronto. Sunnybrook specializes in caring for high-risk pregnancies, veterans, critically-ill newborns and adults, offering specialized rehabilitation and treating and preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological and psychiatric disorders, orthopaedic and arthritic conditions and traumatic injuries. Sunnybrook’s over 200 scientists and clinician-scientists conduct more than $100 million in breakthrough research each year.

ApplyBoard wins Governor General’s Innovation Award

new source:https://communitech.ca/technews/applyboard-wins-governor-generals-innovator-award.html

ApplyBoard co-founders and brothers (l-r) Meti Basiri, Martin Basiri and Massi Basiri. ( Communitech photo: Sara Jalali )

Kitchener-based ApplyBoard has won a prestigious Governor General’s Innovation Award for its international student-recruitment platform, which has assisted more than 300,000 students around the world in their pursuit of high school and post-secondary education.

“The ApplyBoard team is receiving the Governor General’s Innovation Award for improving global access to education; helping to foster internationalization, strengthening the diversity of student populations, and lowering longstanding barriers to traditional education by increasing visa approval and program acceptance rates,” the citation says.

“ApplyBoard is very grateful for this recognition, which solidifies the importance of our mission to educate the world,” said co-founder and CEO Martin Basiri. “This award is a testament to our entire global team, and also thanks to students, schools and recruitment partners who have joined us in our mission.”

Launched in 2015, ApplyBoard strives to break down barriers for international students searching for the right programs and institutions to advance their education.

The company was founded by Basiri and his two brothers, Massi and Meti, all of whom travelled to Waterloo Region from Iran for their post-secondary education. Based on their own experiences, they saw an opportunity to streamline the search, application and acceptance processes for students wanting to pursue their high school and post-secondary education in a foreign country.

Applyboard has grown rapidly in just seven years. It has raised more than CDN$600 million and is valued at CDN$4 billion. From its headquarters in Kitchener, it employs 1,500 people worldwide and has helped more than 300,000 students in 125 countries pursue international education, the company says.

In its early stages, ApplyBoard tapped into support from the University of Waterloo’s Velocity program, Communitech’s Rev accelerator and two programs at Waterloo’s Accelerator Centre.

“We are absolutely thrilled for Martin and everyone at ApplyBoard,” said Communitech CEO Chris Albinson. “They are role models for founders who aspire to build international success stories through a tech-for-good mission.”

ApplyBoard was nominated for the award by Canada’s Tech Network, of which Communitech is a member.

The Governor General’s Innovation Awards are bestowed on individuals, teams and/or organizations whose innovations are “truly exceptional, transformative and positive in their impact on quality of life in Canada.”

The awards are intended to recognize outstanding achievement and “foster an active culture that celebrates innovation that is having a meaningful impact on our lives.

Six innovation awards were handed out today. In addition to ApplyBoard, other recipients include: BrainBoxAI of Montreal; CarbonCure of Halifax; the National Centre for Audiology at Western University; UBC cancer researchers Pieter Cullis, Michael Hope and Thomas Madden; and the Pirurvik Preschool in Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet, NU), for its early childhood education initiative.

Shelby Yee and Alex Dorsch named Young Mining Professionals of the Year 

news source:https://www.mining.com/shelby-yee-and-alex-dorsch-named-young-mining-professionals-of-the-year/

Shelby Yee and Alex Dorsch named Young Mining Professionals of the Year 

Shelby Yee and Alex Dorsch. Submitted.

The winners of this year’s Young Mining Professionals (YMP) awards are Shelby Yee of privately held RockMass Technologies and Alex Dorsch of Chalice Mining (ASX: CHN; US-OTC: CGMLF). 

The YMP awards, presented in association with The Northern Miner, recognize two mining professionals under forty who have demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and innovative thinking and provided value to their companies and shareholders. 

The awards are named after two iconic entrepreneurs in the mining industry, Eira Thomas and the late Peter Munk. Shelby Yee has won the 2022 Eira Thomas award and Alex Dorsch the Peter Munk award. 

This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the awards ceremony has been moved to Sunday, June 12, and will be an outdoor event at the Jump restaurant in downtown Toronto. Since last year’s awards were presented online, the organizers invited Maggie Layman and Matthew Fenton, that year’s winners.  

The sponsors of this year’s event are Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD), KPMG, Cassels Brock & Blackwell, and The Northern Miner

Each of the winners were nominated in a public submissions process. They were then discussed and selected by a panel of YMP chapters, including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Perth, Australia, London, U.K., and an equal vote from The Northern Miner

Stephen Stewart, chairman of YMP and CEO of Orefinders Resources (TSXV: ORX) and QC Copper & Gold (TSXV: QCCU; US-OTC: OTCQB), notes that this is the first time an Australian has won the award. 

“Alex was a runaway choice for the Peter Munk award, and there was no doubt that he would receive my nomination,” he said in an interview. “I’ve been following Chalice closely, and their Julimar project in Western Australia is exactly the kind of project that keeps our industry alive. Alex and his team have done a tremendous job creating a multi-billion dollar company, and it is probably the biggest success story of the year.” 

Competition for the Eira Thomas award was very close this year, says Stewart, but adds that Yee was a clear choice for the award. “Shelby went out on a limb and took a risk creating her own company. But she’s really moved the needle in developing an innovative technology to drive the industry forward and fully deserved to win the award.” 

Shelby Yee 

Shelby Yee is the CEO and co-founder of RockMass Technologies, a Toronto-headquartered mining and geosciences technology start-up. 

Born in Winnipeg, Man., and now based in Vancouver, Yee has also lived in Vermont, Toronto, Calgary, Shenzhen in China, and Singapore. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geological engineering at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. 

“When I was eleven years old, my family moved to Vermont, where I fell in love with the outdoors,” she said in an interview. “I also grew up going to camps in Ontario, where we’d spend the summer doing lots of canoeing.” 

These skills came in handy when, in the summer of 2013, Yee and a group of friends set off from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and canoed 1,400 km to Baker Lake in Nunavut. “It’s probably one of the most remarkable things I’ve ever done, and it was very mentally and physically gruelling,” Yee recalls. “Some days we would paddle up to 80 km, while other days we’d only cover a few hundred metres because of the wind.” 

She says that memories of that experience often return to her when she’s facing challenges in life or her job: “I think actually this isn’t hard compared to that trip, and so it allows me to take on the challenge and get through it. It was a great benchmark in my life.” 

Yee says that as well as the outdoors, she loved math and science growing up, “so when it came time to go university, it was an obvious choice to combine these and study geological engineering.” 

While pursuing her degree, Yee spent five months studying civil engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore as part of an academic exchange program. “This was the first time I had left the continent, and it was such an eye-opener to experience a completely different culture. It was a great experience and one of the most distinct places I have lived in.” 

Another highlight during her studies, she adds, was when Yee helped coordinate the transportation of over 3,000 daily spectators for the 2015 Pan American Games, held in Toronto.  

“I’ve always been a big planner, and this allowed me to gain experience on the operational side of things, where I managed a team of about 80 people,” she says. “I loved being involved in such a dynamic situation where you have to solve problems on the spot and manage the expectation of many different stakeholders. It helped in preparing me for my role with RockMass.”  

Yee’s studies largely focused on rock mechanics and geotechnical engineering, which involved a lot of design and modelling work, she said. “While working as a geological fields methods teaching assistant, I had gained invaluable experience with field mapping, which has many similarities to that in the mining industry.” 

This experience, she adds, exposed her to the difficulties inherent in accurately mapping underground mining environments and drove her to engage more with the mining industry.  

Throughout her studies, Yee worked in the oil and gas, transportation, and energy industries. However, she realized that she wanted to do something “more fast-paced and dynamic that had more of a grey area.” 

“It never actually crossed my mind to go into entrepreneurship — it wasn’t something my parents or anyone in my family had done,” she explains. “But I had a couple of friends who had started businesses. I saw what they were doing, and I thought, ‘OK, I think I could do many of the things they are doing.’” 

During this time, Yee had visited an underground mine and found the experience fascinating. “It was so complex and intricate, and was the perfect storm that set me on my future career path.” 

Towards the end of her studies, Yee met a software engineer and a mining engineer working on automating geotechnical mapping. “One was working on his PhD, and the other was heading up the off-road robotics lab at the university. It was then that the opportunity arose to commercialize what began as a PhD thesis and bring it into the mining industry.” 

After graduating with first-class honours in 2016, Yee co-founded RockMass with fellow Queen’s University alumni Matthew Gubasta, now its president, and Stuart Bourne, its chief technical officer. 

According to Yee, RockMass uses cutting-edge technologies such as computer vision and robotics to create safe and more efficient mining operations. “By automating the collection and processing of geotechnical data, we can provide actionable data to miners at the point of measurement, which can significantly improve operational efficiencies and production optimization, and lead to safer mining environments.” 

Its flagship platform, Axis Mapper, is the first handheld tool able to digitally measure geotechnical data, such as structural orientation, underground within seconds, says Yee. “The Tool calculates dip and dip direction and can combine that information with other data, such as rock mass rating, stereonets, and colour images, and integrates these data with a mining company’s existing database.”  

In 2018, the company collaborated with Nexa Resources (TSX: NEXA; NYSE: NEXA), a major zinc producer, to field-test a prototype of the tool at one of Nexa’s working mines. 

RockMass worked with Nexa to advance Axis Mapper by improving its ease of use and integrating workflow functionalities used by Nexa’s geotechnical teams. 

“We’re now working with miners to streamline and improve the data collection process and are currently working with clients that operate across eight continents,” Yee says. 

In addition to winning this year’s YMP award, both she and Gubasta were selected as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in the manufacturing and industry 2021. 

Alex Dorsch 

Alex Dorsch is managing director and CEO of Chalice Mining, an Australian-based explorer and developer. 

The company is focused on advancing its flagship 100%-owned Julimar nickel-copper-platinum group elements (PGE) project, a 26-km-long, major greenfield discovery in an almost entirely unexplored region of Western Australia, about 70 km northeast of Perth. 

Dorsch also sits on the board of Falcon Metals (ASX: FAL), a gold exploration company established in 2021 as a demerger of Chalice’s Australian gold assets, comprising the Pyramid Hill, Mt Jackson, and Viking projects. 

Born and raised in Adelaide in South Australia, Dorsch pursued a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of Finance at the University of Adelaide. 

“I originally thought about going into the aerospace industry, with dreams of exploring space,” he says. “I then got a bit more realistic and decided to do a mechanical engineering degree and a finance degree, which provided me with a solid technical background as well as knowledge of the commercial side of things.” 

Dorsch says that studying engineering allowed him to develop strong problem-solving skills and the ability to “break down complex problems into lots of smaller problems, which can be more easily solved, and gets you to a solution for the bigger problem.” 

The project management side, however, appealed to him more than the technical side of engineering. “I was never a nutsand-bolts person but preferred to look at the bigger problem.” 

While pursuing his studies, he spent a year as an undergraduate engineer for BHP(NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) working on the Olympic Dam project in South Australia, about 560 km north of Adelaide. The project is believed to host the world’s largest uranium resource and the fourth-largest copper resource. 

“I enjoyed the experience of working with BHP, especially on such a major project, and it was a great introduction to the mining industry,” Dorsch says. 

He also gained valuable experience working as a financial analyst for Adelaide Equity Partners. “This gave me a taste for what small-cap juniors have to go through when raising money and promoting their projects.” 

After graduating, Dorsch landed his first job with Santos Ltd. in Perth, in 2010, working as a drilling engineer. “My job focused on the exploration side for both the onshore and offshore parts of Santos and I was fortunate to have been involved in several fantastic offshore oil and gas discoveries.” 

In 2013, he took up a position with the Italian energy company Eni, a formerly state-owned oil and gas company in Perth, where he worked on several offshore oil and gas projects. 

It was this experience, Dorsch says, that gave him a “strong sense of the value creation side of the industry, and then knew that I wanted to focus on exploration.” 

He was then headed-hunted by McKinsey & Co., joining the company’s Perth operations as a management consultant in 2016. 

“I got to fly around the planet and work with a diverse range of clients in the oil and gas sector and had exposure to topics such as decarbonization and future mobility,” Dorsch says. 

While at McKinsey, Dorsch says he was able to further develop his communication skills. “The importance of good communication was drummed into me there — after all, there’s not much point in being good at something if you can’t communicate it.” 

Although he says it was a rewarding experience working at McKinsey, “I didn’t get the satisfaction that I was making a difference. I wanted to be on the owner’s side… to own and develop something that goes well and generates value.” 

Then, in 2017, a mutual acquaintance introduced him to Tim Goyder, the founder of Chalice. The pair had coffee together in Perth. “Tim and I immediately hit it off and were very much aligned in our thinking. Tim was looking to build a team and initially offered me a corporate development role with the company. I jumped at the opportunity.” 

Goyder, who retired last November, founded Chalice in 2006 and oversaw the company’s transition from exploring for gold in Australia and North Africa to its recent discovery at Julimar. 

According to Dorsch, Goyder was looking for a CEO to hand the company over to and says he was “fortunate to have been in the right place at the right time.” 

In November 2017, Dorsch joined Chalice as general manager of corporate development and was appointed chief executive officer of the company five months later, in March 2018. 

“I spent the first two years exploring for gold and nickel,” he says. “I came out of McKinsey with a firm conviction for nickel, particularly nickel sulphide. Fortunately, Tim had assembled a fantastic team of geologists with experience in nickel sulphides, so we branched out from gold to the metals that are supporting the growth in electric vehicles.” 

While Chalice tried and failed to acquire a nickel asset in North America, the company staked an area around 1.5 hour’s drive from Perth in early 2018 as part of its global search for high-potential nickel sulphide exploration projects. This led to the discovery of high-grade nickel, copper, and PGEs at Julimar in March 2020, almost two years from the day that Dorsch was appointed CEO. 

“Julimar is one of Australia’s most significant new discoveries in the past decade,” Dorsch says. “With the discovery, we’ve opened up an entirely new mineral system, and it represents a great opportunity to deliver the green metals needed for a low-carbon future.” 

In addition to winning this year’s YMP award, Dorsch was recognized as ‘New/Emerging Leader of the Year’ by MiningNews and ‘CEO of the Year’ by Kitco in 2020. 

How a Scarborough facility is converting food waste into biodegradable plastic

news source:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/scarborough-facility-food-waste-to-plastics-1.6395022

Luna Yu is the CEO of Genecis Bioindustries Inc. The facility in Scarborough converts food waste into biodegradable plastics. (Talia Ricci/CBC)

Designer bags and cellphone cases don’t usually conjure images of leftover spaghetti — but at a facility in Scarborough, these things are related.

Genecis Bioindustries uses bacteria to convert food waste destined for the landfill into biodegradable plastics. Luna Yu, CEO, says the substance the company makes is called polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), and it works similarly to most plastics. The product can be used to make things like cutlery, cups and textiles.

“We basically were looking at how much food waste was going to landfills and we thought why don’t we repurpose that food waste into something that’s a lot more valuable and better for the planet,” she said.

The company’s website says when the product reaches the end of its useful life it can be composted within a month, and if it does find its way into the ocean, it degrades within a year.

Yu says the company launched four years ago, and has grown to a 10,000-square-foot facility in Scarborough, an eastern Toronto suburb.

Diverting food waste from landfills

The City of Toronto says it encourages innovations that reduce both the amount of food waste going to landfills and the amount of food waste generated, and that its green bin program helps to keep waste out of landfills by collecting and processing organics into material that can be used to create compost used to feed soil.

“When creating new products, whether it be from food waste or other materials, it’s important to consider the impacts of the whole lifecycle of that product, including how it’s disposed of and whether or not it is compatible with municipal disposal systems,” a statement from Solid Waste Management Services said.

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks says Ontario is working on a proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out the amount of food waste going to landfills by 2030. It says that with over one third of Ontario’s waste stream made up of organic waste, including food waste and scraps, it is critical to continue exploring ways to prevent these materials from ending up in landfills.

We don’t need to think of ways to better throw away food that retailers don’t want to sell, we need to stop that waste from happening at all.- Laura Yates, plastics campaigners, Greenpeace Canada

Environmental organizations like Greenpeace, however, say while it supports innovation that benefits the environment, it would rather see single-use packaging like shampoo bottles eliminated altogether.

“Solutions that are focused on taking products and creating single-use products aren’t really the solutions we’re looking for,” said Laura Yates, plastics campaigner with Greenpeace Canada. 

“They don’t challenge our current system, they perpetuate our reliance on convenient single-use and disposable materials, delaying what must be our inevitable shift to more sustainable systems.”

Yates says there should be a greater focus on going package free, reducing overall consumption and eliminating food waste.

“We don’t need to think of ways to better throw away food that retailers don’t want to sell, we need to stop that waste from happening at all,” Yates said.

WATCH | Going from food waste to plastic:

Converting waste into plastic

8 months ago

Duration2:09A business in Scarborough is using bacteria to convert food waste that’s destined for landfills into biodegradable plastics. The product can be used to make things like cutlery, cups and textiles.

Waste diversion innovation 

Mike Chopowick, CEO of the Ontario Waste Management Association says Ontario generates about 3.7 million tonnes of food waste a year and currently, about 1.1 million tonnes of that waste is being diverted from the landfill.

“I always note that Ontario is running out of landfill space, and that makes things like food and organic waste diversion even more important,” he said, adding a lot of the ideas coming out of the private sector are very interesting.

“Ontario is a hotbed for innovation when it comes to waste diversion, the trick is seeing if it can operate at a large enough scale to make sense,” Chopowick said.

Yu seems up for the challenge, saying they can actually load their technology onto existing biogas companies’ infrastructure, using the same waste stream, so it’s turned into both biogas and compostable plastics.

“With our solution, the vision is to literally replace the blue bin with a green bin,” she said.

“So, no matter what it is that you use whether it’s compostable cutlery, a cup, or textile fabrics, you can put it all into green bins where they get recycled back into a new generation of compostable materials.”