Pictured: UVic Centre for Advanced Materials and Related Technology (CAMTEC). Photo Credit: University of Victoria
Victoria Rising, SIPP’s collaborative talent and investment attraction platform, has launched the first of a series of “Sectors on the Rise” profiles to draw attention to promising local sectors whose growth and innovation are helping to strengthen and diversify Greater Victoria’s economy. The first “Sectors on the Rise” focuses on Life Sciences & Health. The sector is defined by 60 life sciences companies and organizations involved in a range of activities from medical device development, digital health and health informatics to biotech research.
Despite its relatively small size, this sector boasts major successes, including Canada’s leading MedTech company, Starfish Medical, and UVic Health Informatics, the largest health informatics program in North America. Each Sector’s on the Rise profile — which will expand in coming months to include the blue economy, creative industries and the tech sector — will feature a sector overview, notable companies and successes, identification of the supportive organizations that help bolster the sector, and identification of any specific opportunities that exist in the sector.
Innovating Cancer Research with 3D Bioprinting
Pictured: Karolina Valente. Photo Credit: James MacDonald
One of Greater Victoria’s life sciences successes is VoxCell BioInnovation, whose CEO Karolina Valente is one of Victoria Rising’s “People on the Rise.”
Karolina was a girl in Brazil when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. By the time the cancer returned, Karolina was pursuing her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at UVic.
“I still remember the day that I could decide what to do with my thesis,” she says. “I decided to really understand how cancer works.”
It wasn’t until the end of her PhD that Karolina came up with the idea for VoxCell, which creates human-like cancer tissue models and proprietary universal bioinks for the drug development industry. VoxCell’s 3D bioprinted tissue models provide drug developers with a more human-like platform to better test the effectiveness of anti-cancer drug candidates.
“We are building Voxcell in Victoria,” says Karolina, “because the quality of life here is fantastic….”
The life sciences sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors in B.C., Karolina says. “We want to stay in Victoria. We want to continue growing this business in Victoria. We want VoxCell to be known for being in Victoria. I could not have imagined building a business anywhere else, to be honest.”
