| Use the back button
to return to your initial selection.
HOME |
THE
NETWORKS | CAN
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
15 16
17 18
19 20
Familiarity breeds content: NCE trainees
make a smooth transition from research to development
Making the leap from innovation to market in a cost-effective
way has always posed challenges. When transferring knowledge
from university to industry, things sometimes get lost in
translation. A good solution? Instead of transferring knowledge,
transfer the people who have the knowledge.
That's what the Canadian Arthritis Network (CAN) has
done — with great success.
Thanks in part to NCE funding, researchers Martin Garon
and Éric Quenneville have parlayed their academic careers
at École Polytechnique de Montréal directly
into productive careers at BioSyntech Canada Inc., a leading
biotechnology firm in Laval.
| From here to there
You might say that Dr. Mike Buschmann has
a thing for movement.
As Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering
at École Polytechnique in Montréal
and the Canada Research Chair in Cartilage Tissue
Engineering, Buschmann's research into cartilage
and other connective tissue promises to help people
with arthritis or joint injuries gain greater
movement with less pain.
Buschmann is also interested in moving knowledge
and expertise to where it will have the greatest
impact. At École Polytechnique, he supervised
both Martin Garon and Éric Quenneville
during their PhDs and enabled them to train with
the Canadian Arthritis Network while working at
BioSyntech Canada Inc. He continues to work with
other young researchers, facilitating their growth
and careers.
In addition, he has helped bring together high-quality
researchers from complementary disciplines, including
engineers, cell and molecular biologists, biochemists,
analytical chemists, physicists, orthopedic veterinary
surgeons, cartilage experts, bone biologists and
social scientists. His research laboratory dedicated
to cartilage regeneration is one of the largest
and most advanced of its kind in the world.
Buschmann is also interested in moving innovations
to market. He contributed to BioSyntech's technology
platform shortly after its founding in 1995, passing
on his discoveries and patents via a technology
transfer agreement between BioSyntech and his
research group at École Polytechnique.
The end result of this movement of knowledge
and people is that two new technologies are now
being commercialized by BioSyntech: the Arthro-BST™
(see main story) and BST-CarGel®, an injectable
polymer gel that adheres to cartilage defects
and promotes regeneration of articular cartilage.
|
|
Both, by the way, were finalists for the NCE Young Innovators
Award, Garon in 2004 and Quenneville in 2005. The Award recognizes
the success of the NCE program in training young researchers
who accelerate knowledge transfer to the user for socio-economic
benefit.
Quenneville and Garon, now full-time employees at BioSyntech,
are helping commercialize Arthro-BST™, a product they
had major roles in developing over the past four years, while
simultaneously working part-time at BioSyntech and completing
their studies at École Polytechnique.
Arthro-BST™ is a hand-held clinical instrument that
lets surgeons make precise and accurate assessments of the
health and functional properties of articular cartilage. It
will also help improve our understanding of joint diseases
such as arthritis, contribute to the development of new therapeutic
products, and perhaps lessen the need for knee and hip replacements.
Arthro-BST™ works by measuring the electric fields
produced by cartilage when it is compressed. The central component
of the device is a microelectrode array that Quenneville developed
for his PhD project while working part-time at BioSynech.
After completing the array, Quenneville came up with an innovative
and cost-effective process for manufacturing it and patented
it as the Arthro-BST™ Disposable Tip. Garon is focused
on electronics components of the device.
Quenneville and Garon are now familiar with how innovations
are brought to market, but early on they learned an important
difference between academic and industry settings.
"As an academic researcher, you have the freedom to
go in different directions," says Quenneville, "but
in a company like BioSyntech, you have to define the straight
way in front of you and stay on course. We learned to think
about timelines, industry standards, production costs and
marketing as well as the science. As a result, when we finish
our degrees, we will already have the experience of bringing
a product to market."
BioSyntech is currently taking the Arthro-BST™ through
clinical trials and has already sold three systems for preclinical
use. To be able to sell it in Canada, the United States and
Europe, however, they must ensure that it is electrically
safe and biocompatible, and that it will remain sterile in
operating rooms.
"In the lab, you can prove in principle that something
works," says Garon, "but even if it's the best system
in the world, if you can't make it work in the real world,
you won't be able to sell it. For one thing, there are a lot
of regulations involved in manufacturing and marketing medical
devices that we never considered in university,” says
Garon. “We soon learned about them at BioSyntech."
They also learned the value of making connections with other
experts.
"CAN is really incredible," says Garon. "It
gives us the opportunity to develop relationships with people
in other fields. In fact, it is the networking that has helped
a lot in developing some aspects of this project faster."
"It is very interesting and rewarding to start from
the beginning of a project at university, as we have done,
and see it through working for a private company," says
Quenneville.
It's rewarding for the company as well, which gets researchers
who are already intimate with the details of a project and
have a sense of pride and ownership in it.
"BioSyntech appreciates not having to look too far
for well-trained, highly motivated and loyal employees who
understand our particular needs and customers," says
Dr. Matthew Shive, Vice President, Product Development,
BioSyntech.
And BioSyntech will not have to look far in the future —
several other students at École Polytechnique are honing
basic research skills at school while collaborating with teams
at BioSyntech on specific projects.
www.arthritisnetwork.ca
|
