When Dr. John Gerald FitzGerald developed a diphtheria antitoxin, he did it in Ontario. That was in 1914 and, since then, Ontario has achieved a number of medical research "firsts."

The discovery of insulin by Frederick Grant Banting and Charles Best in the 1920s; the discovery of stem cells by James Till and Ernest McCulloch in the 1960s; the first successful lung transplant by Joel Cooper in the 1980s; the first successful childhood meningitis vaccine; and the world's first pacemaker - these are just a few of the leading examples of how Ontario has changed the landscape of the life sciences industry worldwide.

Ontario's life sciences industry employs more than 40,000 people at 850 companies. Revenues top $15 billion a year, with $5 billion generated by exports. Ontario's 25 research hospitals employ 10,000 researchers, who conduct $850 million worth of research annually. Multinational pharmaceutical companies invest another $720 million annually, making Ontario the third-largest biotechnology cluster in North America.
Today, Ontario's life sciences industry is being challenged by increased global competition from established and emerging life sciences jurisdictions, and by difficult economic conditions that include tight credit and market volatility.

To compete successfully in the global marketplace, Ontario must continue to attract and nurture great scientific minds, increase collaboration among academia, industry and government to accelerate the commercialization of research breakthroughs, and improve financing for innovative companies, particularly at the early stage. Since the journey from the research lab to the marketplace can be a long and arduous process, MaRS Discovery District is using a new approach to accelerate the commercialization of promising research in Ontario.

Actively Nurturing Innovation

MaRS was born from many ideas, including that Ontario needs to better capture the commercial potential of its research. Primary among the many ways MaRS seeks to build Canada's knowledge-economy, is acting as a commercialization centre to directly connect the worlds of science, business and capital to stimulate a culture of innovation. Located in the heart of Toronto, MaRS' 750,000-square-foot centre is an inspiring blend of heritage and modern lab and office space, backed by an impressive technical and conference infrastructure. The building itself is home to a mix of 80 tenants employing more than 2,000 people. From research groups to tech and biotech companies, with mature private-sector tenants and venture capitalists working alongside policy-makers, professional service providers and networking organizations, MaRS's goal is to accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough discoveries.

The MaRS footprint is growing with the launch of the MaRS Centre Phase 2 (photo), which will more than double the available square footage of the MaRS complex, creating Canada's largest science, technology and research hub. This 20-storey state-of-the-art convergence centre - a substantial expansion of the existing facility - will enable MaRS to accelerate its role as a catalyst of innovation in the launching and growth of new science and technology businesses.

Ontario Network of Excellence

In 2011, MaRS became a part of the Ontario Network of Excellence (ONE), a network of 14 regional innovation centres across the province that helps local entrepreneurs bring innovative ideas to market. Funded by the Government of Ontario, ONE is a coherent and effective network that will coordinate all of Ontario's programs and services available to support entrepreneurs. As a member of ONE, MaRS will give entrepreneurs access to a broad range of experts, including researchers, academics, business people, government representatives and investors, who can help sell an idea and grow a business worldwide.

Pathology Innovation Centre of Excellence

In 2011, GE Healthcare opened its first global Pathology Innovation Centre of Excellence (PICOE) in the MaRS Centre. PICOE brings digital solutions to pathology, giving practitioners and clinical partners resources that accelerate their research, development and testing. PICOE is where GE collaborates with its digital pathology joint venture, Omnyx, along with funding partner The Health Technology Exchange and numerous clinical partners, to create best practices and technologies to address current pathology challenges.

The new 2,150-square-foot centre includes a digital lab where GE will conduct training, research and development on the Omnyx Integrated Digital Pathology (IDP) platform with clinical collaborators. The lab is home to Omnyx's Pathologist and Histology Workstations, and showcases Omnyx's VL series of high-resolution scanners that will digitize glass slides.

The Heart of Innovation
Here are some highlights of the work happening right now at MaRS:

Infonaut's Hospital Watch Live system is designed to keep better track of everything that leads to the spread of disease, from patients, doctors and nurses to equipment. Infonaut created a system that uses a combination of tracking software and inexpensive radio frequency tags to record the location of anything that could possibly transport infections. Wireless receivers throughout the building transmit the position of each tag to a central computer every one to two seconds. So when a patient infected with hospital-borne bacteria is identified, the hospital can then identify which rooms he has been in, and what equipment and which people he has been in contact with. It then identifies other potential disease carriers and hot zones that could be potentially dangerous so that infection control strategies can be focused on those areas immediately.

But having an effective, globally relevant solution does not guarantee a company's success. That's where commercialization groups like MaRS step in. MaRS has helped Infonaut by providing strategic and business planning advisory support, market intelligence, access to capital and angel investment opportunities, as well networking opportunities with key partners.

Drilling and filling cavities could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a revolutionary new technology developed by Toronto dentist Stephen Abrams and University of Toronto engineer Andreas Mandelis of Quantum Dental Technologies.

Called "The Canary System," the technology finds cavities even before they show up on X-rays. The system is safe, non-invasive and painless - and lets dentists halt decay by using pastes or gels to remineralize teeth. With The Canary System, a dentist uses a handheld laser that emits a low-power light to examine tooth surfaces. The system measures the amount of light and heat emitted from each tooth. Since healthy tooth enamel produces a specific wavelength signature, any deviations can be analyzed and problems can be pinpointed. Custom reports are generated and displayed for immediate chair-side review and can also be downloaded to a smartphone.

MaRS has supported Quantum Dental Technologies by providing market intelligence, networking opportunities, access to capital and angel investment opportunities, and strategic support, as well as advisory services on positioning and branding.

Innovation is Inevitable

While great science is fundamental to success in life sciences, taking that science and turning it into technologies and products that save lives is the ultimate goal. Ontario aims to be the best place in the world to take innovative biomedical discoveries and turn them into new products and services that resolve unmet patient needs by capitalizing on world-class talent, research capacity and collaborative spirit.
The old linear approach to commercialization, where a scientist invents a new molecule or devises an algorithm, then raises seed capital from early stage investors and only then is able to turn a new product into a new business with the help of entrepreneurs, is not the MaRS approach. At MaRS commercialization is seen as much more likely when researchers, business people and investors collaborate, converge and interact in an ongoing, synergistic fashion.

Five reasons to invest in Ontario's life sciences sector

Top ranked research and development tax incentives. Ontario's R&D tax incentives are among the most generous in the world. When tax credits are factored in, a $100 R&D expenditure can be reduced to an after-tax cost of about $56, or $38 for a small business.

Lower business costs. Canada offers a lower business-cost environment for life sciences companies than the United States, Germany, Italy or Japan, according to KPMG's Competitive Alternatives 2010. Ontario's marginal effective tax rate (provincial and federal combined) on new capital investment plummeted to 18.6 per cent in 2010 from 32.8 per cent in 2009, and will drop to 16.2 per cent by 2018.

A research powerhouse. With 25 research and academic hospitals employing 10,000 scientists, clinical investigators and other researchers, Ontario is one of the largest biomedical research centres in North America. Ontario's universities and teaching hospitals perform 30 per cent of all the health research conducted in Canada, spending almost $2 billion annually.

Exceptional global connections and partnerships. Ontario is home to a growing number of internationally recognized centres of excellence in research, innovation and collaboration. Examples include the International Cancer Genome Consortium, the new Ontario Brain Institute and the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University.

Critical mass of companies and talent. Ontario has a broad and innovative life sciences sector. Some 900 companies employ over 41,500 people in the pharmaceutical, biotech, advanced medical technologies and contract services sectors. Ontario's 44 universities and colleges produce more than 35,000 graduates a year in mathematics, engineering and sciences. Ontario has six medical schools, including the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine, one of the largest in North America.

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