Mind to Market Finalist PlantForm Featured on Globe and Mail's Front Page

OCE-supported company PlantForm, spun out of the University of Guelph, is making headlines for its efforts to cure cancer... with tobacco.

The company, a finalist for the 2011 Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Mind to Market Award, was recently featured on the Globe and Mail's front page in the publication's closer look at the plant-based trend in pharmaceuticals.

PlantForm uses a manufacturing process that purifies the drug, producing a very sophisticated protein-based drug that could potentially cure cancer. Read the full Globe and Mail article here.

Diagnostic Tech Start-up Xagenic
Achieves Series A Financing

Xagenic Inc., an OCE-supported start-up created by University of Toronto Professor Dr. Shana Kelley, recently completed its series A financing, continuing the momentum of this breakthrough screening technology. Working with MaRS Innovation, the company secured $10 million from sources from the private and public sector including CTI Life Sciences Fund L.P., Qiagen N.V., and Ontario Capital Growth Corporation through its Emerging Technologies Fund.

Xagenic's patented nanostructured microelectrodes facilitate record-breaking speeds of DNA and RNA detection. Pathogens are detected on-site and in less than 30 minutes and at the point-of-care, lessening patients' anxiety and enabling faster treatment decisions.

Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) was involved in the early stages of Xagenic, providing Market Readiness funding to Dr. Kelley and her team to help develop various aspects of the core technology. Once the company was formed, OCE's Centre for the Commercialization of Research (CCR) helped to further establish the management team through its Embedded Executive loan program, and then subsequently through its Syndicated Investment program, CCR was a catalyst for a round of financing totalling $1 million.

Read more about Xagenic's Series A funding.

Innovation for a Greater Central Ontario

The Innovation for a Greater Central Ontario was an opportunity to bring together local industry leaders, academics and partner organizations. Click here to see pictures and video from this landmark event.