NovaSonix Healthcare is a medtech startup based in London, Ontario developing a portable attachment that converts any standard ultrasound machine into a real-time 3D scanner for musculoskeletal imaging. The goal is to give clinicians MRI-like image quality at the point of care, without the wait.

In Canada, patients with musculoskeletal injuries and diseases currently wait an average of 89 days for a medically necessary MRI.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with co-founder and CEO Randa Mudathir about a company that began as a master's thesis project at Western University and found its footing after winning a pitch competition for bone and joint innovations.

Randa walks through how a team of five co-founders came together, how clinical feedback pushed the company to broaden its focus beyond osteoarthritis detection, and why she believes the technology is ready for its next stage.

With clinical pilots already underway, a pre-seed raise open, and Health Canada and FDA submissions planned for later this year, NovaSonix is moving fast.

Magellan Biomedical is a medical device company based in Toronto working on a problem that has been hiding in plain sight for almost a century. The fundamental tools used in cardiac catheterization have not meaningfully changed since 1929, and in some of the most critical procedures, conventional tools fail up to twenty percent of the time.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with co-founder and CEO Ali Tavallaei about a device called the CAT Pilot, which gives surgeons precise local control over the tip of a catheter during minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures. Where conventional tools achieve roughly a twelve percent success rate crossing arterial occlusions, the CAT Pilot achieves ninety-two percent. Ali walks through how the technology works, how the company spun out of Sunnybrook Research Institute, and why he believes an acquisition is a likely outcome once FDA approval is secured.

This is a conversation about a long overdue disruption to a standard medical procedure, and a small Canadian team that decided to do something about it.

Dr. Lakshmi Krishnan is Vice President of Research (Life Sciences) at the National Research Council of Canada, one of the country's most influential science organizations in the country. The NRC connects industry, academia, and government to drive innovation and often is quietly behind-the-scenes helping steer some of the most significant advances in Canadian Life Sciences.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with Lakshmi about her journey that began in Chennai, India, wound through New Delhi, Edmonton, and Ottawa, and eventually lead to her becoming one of the most senior leaders in the Canadian Life Sciences community.

Lakshmi shares insights about the mentors and unexpected moments that have helped shape her path, what it was like to lead the NRC's Life Sciences division through the COVID pandemic, and why she believes Canada is at a turning point in its ability to build and commercialize world-class science.

Today we reach into the archive to rebroadcast our interview with Maura Campbell, President & CEO of OBIO.

Maura is one of the key leaders in Canada's life sciences community and it was a pleasure to speak with her. Listen in as she shares her thoughts on surviving a severe car accident, some of the obstacles she has faced as a woman working in life sciences, the disappointment of doing everything right but still having a company fail, and how keeping an open mind is important to success.

NerView Surgical is a medtech startup based in Hamilton, Ontario developing a handheld imaging device that gives surgeons the ability to visualize nerves in real time during surgery. It sounds like something that should already exist. It doesn't. The current standard of care is the naked eye.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with founder and CEO Mann Parikh about a company born out of a university course at McMaster, driven forward by a thousand cold emails to surgeons, and now supported by advisors at some of the most respected medical institutions in the world including Mayo Clinic, Stanford Medicine, and Harvard Medical School.

Mann also opens up about the challenge of proving credibility as a student founder, the mentors who helped shape his thinking, and why he believes the best thing any young entrepreneur can do is stop waiting and start building.

Based in Kitchener, Ontario, BioHub is an applied research facility at Conestoga College that helps companies move ideas from concept to commercialization.

Their model is simple but powerful: instead of renting space or equipment, they provide hands-on technical expertise and student talent to solve real industry challenges in biotechnology and biosciences. With seven lab spaces including biosafety level two certification, state of the art analytical equipment, and a team of subject matter experts, BioHub is quietly becoming one of the most useful resources in the Waterloo Region life sciences ecosystem.

In this episode, host Jim Wilson speaks with research lead Anthony Bauer about a facility that is only a year old but already gaining serious traction. Anthony explains how BioHub fills a gap that incubators and universities often miss, why companies at any stage can benefit from what they offer, and why the Waterloo Toronto corridor is one of the most exciting places in Canada to be building something right now.

Vasomune Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotech company that spun out of Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto. Their lead molecule targets vascular leak, a common underlying factor in some of the most serious conditions in medicine including sepsis, pneumonia, cerebral edema, and severe burns.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with the President and CEO if Vasomune, Brian Jahns, about a company that has made remarkable progress to date and secures nearly $10million USD in non-dilutive funding.

Brian makes a passionate case for Canadian self-reliance in life sciences... and asks Jim to share how the NGBi podcasts started.

This week we reach into our archive to replay one of our most popular interviews from 2024 with Brad Wouters, Executive Vice-President of Science and Research at University Health Network. Brad and I discuss his passion for medical biophysics, his accomplished academic career, what brought him to Europe, his return to Canada and the incredible research he and his team are doing at UHN.