Human Health Therapeutics Research Centre

We host the largest research and development team dedicated to biologics development in Canada, helping our partners to accelerate and de-risk the drug development pathway through pre-clinical research support. Through engagement with a variety of partners and stakeholders, we provide collaborative research, technical expertise and advisory services, service agreements in biomanufacturing and bioprocess engineering, and technology transfer (e.g. asset licencing, co-development of assets, and intellectual property management). Our aim is to build a strong pipeline of assets suitable for commercial exploitation, across a range of expertise including:

• Broadly applicable technology platforms for drug delivery.
• Proprietary cell lines for the production of biologics.
• Specialized in vitro and in vivo disease models, as well as step-change vaccines and biologic products.
• Unique in Canada biomanufacturing expertise, including the ability to process at scale:
  • up to 1500 L in microbial expression systems
  • up to 500 L in mammalian expression systems for biologics production
• In vitro and in vivo research laboratories, which encompass containment up to biosafety level III.

Through our facilities, laboratories and extensive expertise, our role is to catalyze business innovation and public health solutions for unmet medical needs of importance to Canada in the areas of cancer, neurobiology and emerging infections, including:

• Disruptive technologies to advance made in Canada solutions for cell and gene therapy.
• Business innovation for multifunctional antibody-based therapeutics.
• Public health solutions such as vaccine development.

We work with a broad range of partners and stakeholders, including industry (start-ups, small and medium sized enterprises, and multi-nationals), hospitals and health networks, academia and government.