Paul Santerre, professor at the Faculty of Dentistry, has been named Baxter chair of health technology and commercialisation.
University of Toronto has appointed Paul Santerre (pictured), professor at the Faculty of Dentistry and Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, as Baxter chair of health technology and commercialisation.
The position was created through a C$2.5m ($2m) investment from healthcare company Baxter to the University Health Network (UHN), a research hospital affiliated with Toronto.
He will be responsible for driving commercialisation efforts and entrepreneurship programs at Toronto and UHN, including leading courses for students and trainees and mentoring them in tech transfer practices through the university’s accelerator Health Innovation Hub (H2i).
He will also be in charge of building relationships between health and medical technology startups and UHN, University of Toronto and Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.
Santerre leads the Santerre Biomedical Polymer Laboratory at Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, specialising in research into new materials for tissue engineering, implants and medical devices.
In 2001, he co-founded Interface Biologics, a medical equipment maker that uses a polymer in peripherally inserted central catheters – thin, soft and long tubes inserted into a vein to deliver medicine – and other devices that prevent blood clots. He serves as chief scientific officer.
He also serves as chief scientific advisor of Polumiros, a biomaterials spinout co-founded by two postodoctoral fellows from Santerre’s lab – Soror Sharifpoor and Kyle Battiston.
Previously, Santerre has been involved with programs through UHN’s Techna Institute, H2i, discovery and translation program Medicine by Design, Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research and Centre for Collaborative Drug Research.
Santerre said: “The timing of the Baxter chair could not be more strategically aligned with the success and momentum that has been building towards accelerating health technology and its commercialisation out of the phenomenally successful programs that many of us have been contributing towards integrating in recent years.
“The Baxter chair will be pivotal in engaging these partners to synergise all of our commercialisation efforts in health matters.”
– Image courtesy of University of Toronto
