Director, School of Biomedical Eng. & Michael Smith Lab, University of British Columbia

Dr. Peter Zandstra is internationally recognized for his distinguished contributions to the field of biomedical engineering and is advancing our fundamental understanding of how stem cells develop into mature blood cells. Using this knowledge to design and implement new technologies that enable stem cell-based therapies for diseases such as leukemia, Dr. Zandstra is driving the development and clinical testing of these new therapies with Canadian biotechnology companies. A leader in cell and gene therapy manufacturing, Dr. Zandstra is catalyzing the growth of biomedical engineering research ...

Prof. of Pediatrics, Surgery, Immunology & Pathology/Lab Med, University of Alberta

Dr. West holds an international reputation as a scholar and leader in the field of pediatric heart transplantation and the science of immunobiology. Infants around the world now benefit from a change in clinical practice brought about by scientific knowledge applied to transplant policy. Today, 80% of infants waiting for a heart transplant will receive an organ; this improvement is largely due to the use of incompatible donor organs based on Dr. West’s research. Moreover, wastage of donor organs that would have been discarded due to lack of acceptable recipients has been minimized. She has ...

Professor, University of Toronto

Yu Sun is a Professor, a Tier I Canada Research Chair and founding Director of the Robotics Institute at the University of Toronto. His pivotal contributions fall at the intersection of engineering and medicine, including robotic cell surgery for clinical in vitro fertilization and nano-surgery for glioblastoma. He has published 7 books and 270 journal papers, and serves as Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Trans. Automation Science and Engineering and an editorial board member of the AAAS journal, Science Robotics. He has been elected Fellow of RSC, CAE, IEEE, ASME, AAAS, AIMBE, NAI, CSME, and EIC for ...

Full Professor, Dept. of Biomed Eng. and Faculty of Dent., McGill University

M. Tabrizian has pioneered many concepts in the field of (nano) biomaterials and (nano) biointerfaces to promote the interactions and crosstalk between alive and artificial systems. This resulted in shifting the paradigm in conventional approaches to regenerative medicine and nanomedicine, and many acclaimed publications. Of great significance are her approaches to layer-by-layer self-assembly of natural polymers to make a nano-thin film on any templates including live cells and tissues along with developing inventive microfluidic platforms for biosensing of live tissue and pathogen detection.

Professor, Western University

Dr. Kathy Nixon Speechley is a Professor at Western University and Scientist, Lawson Health Research Institute and Children’s Health Research Institute. An epidemiologist, her primary research focus is determinants of quality of life in children with chronic health conditions with an emphasis on improving quality of life in children with epilepsy. Her publications describing key risk and protective factors for quality of life in childhood epilepsy have contributed to advances in family centered care. She is a Fellow of the American Epilepsy Society, Past Chair of the Canadian Paediatric ...

Director of Geriatrics, University Health Network

Dr. Samir Sinha is the Director of Geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and the Director of Health Policy Research at Toronto Metropolitan University’s National Institute on Ageing. A Rhodes Scholar, Dr. Sinha is a highly regarded clinician and international expert in the care of older adults. In 2021, he was appointed to serve as a member of the Government of Canada’s National Seniors Council in 2021, and also recently led the development of Canada’s new National Long-Term Care Services ...

Leader mondial incontestable des "Proprotéines Convertases", ayant cloné sept des neuf Convertases, Nabil G. Seidah démontre leurs implications dans plusieurs pathologies humaines, notamment le rôle de PCSK9 dans l'hypercholestérolémie familiale. Il est à l'origine du médicament le plus efficace à ce jour pour réduire le LDL-cholestérol sanguin. Il est auteur de plus de 760 publications et a prononcé 470 conférences dans 30 pays. Ses découvertes majeures font partie des manuels de biochimie et de médecine. Passionné par la découverte, il a formé une relève de 150 étudiants/chercheurs. Son ...

Professor and Associate Vice-President Research, York University

Dr. Rebecca Pillai Riddell (Professor of Psychology, York University) has focused her research in the pediatric behavioural and biobehavioural sciences. She built the first and largest cohort in the world studying young children through painful vaccinations over the first years of life. She has generated an unrivalled published literature on the biopsychosocial dimensions of infants' and young children's acute pain. She is a tireless advocate for equity, diversity, and inclusion and strives to create systemic infrastructure that supports a more just future for patients, their families, health ...

Stuart Peacock holds the Leslie Diamond Chair in Cancer Survivorship in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University. He is Co-Director of the Canadian Centre for Applied Research in Cancer Control, and Head of the Department of Cancer Control Research at BC Cancer. He has over 200 publications, including papers in the BMJ, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Lancet Oncology. He has shaped healthcare priority setting in Canada, serves as a Board Director of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health, and is an international advisor on cancer control ...

Professor of Medicine & President Emeritus, University of Toronto

David Naylor is currently President of the University of Toronto, having been Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice Provost-Relations with Health Care Institutions, University of Toronto from 1999-2005. He was chair of the National Advisory Committee on SARS and Public Health in 2003. Dr. Naylor founded the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) and led it until 1998. He is an internationally recognized leader in the field of health services research and evidence based health and social policy, and has advised a number of governments on policy issues over the last 15 years. He ...