Headquarters
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia

Scientific Director & CEO
Gilbert Walker

Board Chair
Inès Holzbaur
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, AmorChem

Advancing nanomedicines to defeat disease

Nanomedicines or “smart” medicines that employ various forms of nanotechnology, are poised to have a revolutionary impact on drug development. Nanomedicines will deliver drugs, such as anticancer drugs, more specifically to disease sites to dramatically improve efficacy, to reduce toxicity and also to enable gene therapies employing RNA and DNA with the potential to treat most human diseases. Further, diagnostics and imaging agents based on nanotechnology will allow us to detect disease earlier and monitor the effectiveness of therapy more accurately.

The NanoMedicines Innovation Network (NMIN) established and mobilized a network drawn from academia, industry and other not-for-profit research enterprises to maintain and improve Canada’s position as a global leader in developing next generation nanomedicines. NMIN developed novel therapeutics to cure high-burden human diseases and new diagnostics to detect disease more precisely; commercialized these products to bring health and economic benefits to Canadians; and trained the skilled workforce required by the growing nanomedicines industry.

Among the results

• As of 2022-23, NMIN made 42 research investments (30 research projects; three commercialization-facilitating research platforms; four strategic research initiatives, including two COVID-19-related projects; two strategic commercialization and three strategic KTEE projects), resulting in nine patents issued and 828 publications to date (of which 86 were peer-reviewed).
• Since 2019, NMIN spun off six new companies, created 58 highly skilled jobs, and a total of 107 NMIN Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) have found relevant employment across sectors.
• NMIN united Canada's world-leading nanomedicine sector and partnered strategically across sectors to foster a robust nanomedicine ecosystem. NMIN had 133 partners (2022-23) across industry, universities, non-profit, hospitals, federal agencies and other sectors, leveraging $1.18 in partner contributions for every $1 of NCE investment in research.
• NMIN leaders actively contributed to the development of a Canadian biomanufacturing strategy and NMIN partnered nationally across sectors to support the development of Canada’s nanomedicines ecosystem.
• NMIN engaged over 330 HQP towards preparing the next generation of nanomedicine scientists and entrepreneurs. Since 2019, NMIN issued 44 HQP Advanced Training Certificates, offered 145 capacity-building sessions, enabled 2,841 individual advanced capacity-building experiences, and partnered with Mitacs to award 15 studentships.
• NMIN established three novel world-class Core Facilities to catalyze innovation in nanomedicines: NanoCore, which provides state-of-the-art nanoparticle formulations and a standardized nanomedicines characterization service to enable the ready manufacture of potent therapies for R&D purposes; PharmaCore, which supports in vitro and in vivo studies, as well as scale-up, stability testing and manufacturing to help confirm commercial potential of new therapeutic compounds; and the early Health Technology Assessment (eHTA) Core, which supports the translation of NMIN-funded innovations from bench to bedside.
• NMIN developed an online repository of capacity-building and scientific resources, and three interactive online IP management tools developed in collaboration with a patent agent with expertise in biotech and pharmaceutical IP to accelerate the development, dissemination and commercialization of NMIN research results – all of which are available on NMIN’s website or by request.
• NMIN communicated information about its researchers, research, and activities to the global nanomedicine community and public via press releases, newsletters, blog postings, email campaigns, tweets receiving over 1 million impressions, and over 150 YouTube videos receiving over 3000 hours of watch time.

Connect with Nanomedicines Innovation Network

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