Science to Business Network (S2BN) Podcast Science to Business Network (S2BN)

Rob Henderson, President/CEO of BioTalent Canada, shares his career path, insights and lessons learned. BioTalent Canada is one of Canada's leading organizations engaged in supporting STEM career development, training courses and workshops and experiential learning programs such as the Student Work Placement Program (SWPP).

In this episode, Dr. Leah Cowen shares her journey as a scientist, professor, and academic department chair at the University of Toronto towards her role as an entrepreneur, Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Bright Angel Therapeutics, a company that develops novel therapeutics to address the growing global public health crisis of antifungal resistance.

Bruce Seet, Founder and CEO of the Science to Business Network (S2BN), hosts the Science to Business Network Podcast to showcase the stories, advice and insights of individuals working at the interface of science, innovation and business.

Marianne Stanford, PhD, shares her career path that led to joining IMV Inc, a Halifax-based biotech company, almost 10 years ago. She also describes IMV's efforts to leverage their cancer immunotherapy technology and expertise towards developing an effective COVID19 vaccine.

Dr. Stanford is current Vice-President, Research and Development at IMV Inc, a Halifax based biotechnology company overseeing all preclinical research activities and clinical immunology assessment of cancer immunotherapies and infectious disease vaccines. She received her BSc and MSc from Memorial University of Newfoundland and her PhD from Dalhousie University. She performed post-doctoral research with Dr. Grant McFadden at Western University (London, Ontario) and Dr. John Bell at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

In this inaugural Science to Business Network (S2BN) podcast, Dr. Grant McFadden shares his scientific journey as well as his experience and lessons learned as an entrepreneur having formed two companies during his career. His latest company, Oncomyx, seeks to deploy an obscure poxvirus of rabbits to save human lives by using this virus to treat cancer. Grant also discusses the implications of the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox (which was announced by the WHO on May 8, 1980) and also shares his perspective on the impact of COVID19 and the work he’s doing to create a SARS-CoV2 vaccine.

Grant McFadden, PhD, is a world-renowned poxvirus researcher, Professor at Arizona State University, Director of the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal PLoS Pathogens and past President of the American Society for Virology. Having started his career in Canada, his lab pioneered the field of viral immune subversion and is credited with the discovery of a wide spectrum of virus-derived inhibitors of the immune system.