2022
Health and Life Sciences Showcase
Date: September 27, 2022
Location: Calgary, Alberta
BioAlberta was joined by Alberta’s Life Sciences community to learn about trending topics in the industry, and gather as a community to celebrate our industry’s achievements in full form.
This year we were excited to hold our annual Health and Life Sciences Showcase and Dinner in person. We have not hosted this event in-person since 2019 due to covid restrictions, and while have found ways to celebrate our annual award winners, we thought it was time to gather as a community and celebrate our industry’s achievements in full form.
HLSS included panels and discussions on a variety of life sciences topics, including Alberta’s fast-growing
clinical trial capacity, supply chain lessons learned in the pandemic, game-changing developments in cancer treatment, and the future of proteins and natural health products in Alberta.
Our Showcase sessions were followed by our Annual General Meeting and networking session on the patio.
We ended the night off with Alberta’s premier networking event dinner for life science professionals where we celebrated the winners of BioAlberta’s Company of the Year and Scientific Achievement of the Year
We look forward to seeing you next year at our 25th Anniversary celebration!
Award Winners
2022 Company of the Year – Future Fields
This award acknowledges a company that has shown significant achievement within the marketplace and Alberta’s business community through strong performance or a leadership role.
Future Fields uses fruit flies to make Earth’s most sustainable recombinant proteins. EntoEngine™ – their Recombinant Protein Production Platform harnesses the genetic prowess of Drosophila melanogaster, supercharges it with cutting-edge synthetic biology, and scales with the massive efficiencies of insect farming. With the EntoEngine™, they can optimize the production of critical products across a broad range of industries and applications including cellular agriculture, research, therapeutics, vaccines, growth factors, and enzymes – all within a circular economy framework.
2002 Scientific Achievement and Innovation winner one – Dr. Toshima Yokota
This award recognizes an individual or a team responsible for a breakthrough innovation with commercial application.
Dr. Toshifumi (Toshi) Yokota is a Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Yokota’s research team designed and tested synthetic DNA-like molecules called gapmers that interfere with the production of a toxic protein that destroys the muscles in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), the third most common form of muscular dystrophy. They demonstrated that this first-of-a-kind treatment knocked down more than 99 percent of the toxic gene products called DUX4 in patient-derived cells accompanied by morphological and functional improvement.
2022 Scientific Achievement and Innovation winner two – Dr. Hasan Uludag
This award recognizes an individual or a team responsible for a breakthrough innovation with commercial application.
Dr. Uludağ is currently based at the Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, and holds joint appointments with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Dr. Uludağ directs interdisciplinary research programs on experimental therapeutics, specifically focusing on designing functional biomaterials to realize the potential of new, unconventional therapeutic agents. His research activity is conducted in the context of nucleic acid therapeutics and anti-cancer therapies. He is actively involved in various biomaterials societies around the World and is an elected Fellow of the International Union of Society of Biomaterials Science and Engineering. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of several international journals.
HLSS SPONSORS
