Supporting Founders, Fueling Innovation: MP Chi Visits Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus
On July 29, the University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus welcomed MP Maggie Chi, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, for a tour and overview of the SR Ecosystem and U of T Entrepreneurship (UTE).
The tour began with an overview of the SR Ecosystem. The Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus serves as a hub for emerging AI and health sciences startups and scale-ups, bringing together researchers, founders, industry leaders, and students within one ecosystem. It offers various programs, including connecting entrepreneurs with experts to support commercialization, hosting thought leadership forums, and linking startups with researchers and student talent. This environment fosters collaboration, accelerates innovation, and helps bring solutions to market faster.
Within this ecosystem is UTE, which is the central voice for entrepreneurship across the tri-campus. It provides a range of resources to support founders and startups, including access to a network of 13 Accelerators, IP education, events, and more.
U of T is recognized as a leading university for entrepreneurship, ranking first in Canada for research-based startups and operating one of the world’s top university-managed business incubators. Over the past decade, U of T has supported 1,500 startups that have created 20,000 jobs and attracted more than $14 billion in funding, demonstrating the role universities can play in driving innovation and economic growth.
“These achievements are the result of a deliberate commitment to supporting founders at every stage of their journey,” said Raquel De Souza, Ecosystem Director at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus.
“Entrepreneurship thrives when founders have access to the right resources, opportunities, and people – a principle that is at the heart of the SR Ecosystem.”
Next, PS Chi visited ProteinQure and Mitacs, both located at the Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus.
“From ONRamp to CDL to BioLabs U of T to SRIC, each step gave us infrastructure, mentorship, and community we couldn’t have built alone – accelerating ProteinQure’s path from early-stage idea to a growing computational biology company,” said Lucas Siow, ProteinQure’s CEO and Co-Founder.
Mitacs helps companies like ProteinQure reduce risk and bridge the gap between research and commercialization by co-funding and embedding highly qualified talent directly into their R&D projects. They support organizations at every stage of innovation – from early discovery and technology development through validation, commercialization, and scale-up, while building Canada’s future workforce.
Through multiple Mitacs-funded projects, ProteinQure connected with top academic researchers to advance its computational drug discovery platform, developing novel protein and peptide design technologies with applications in cancer treatment and other therapeutic areas. This access to talent and research expertise helped strengthen the company’s AI-driven drug discovery capabilities and supported its growth from an early-stage innovator into a made-in-Canada biotech success story.
“Building a company like ProteinQure starts with world-class research and equipping students and postdoctoral fellows so they can transform their discoveries into real-world impacts,” said Derek Newton, Senior Vice-President, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships.”
“Mitacs helps bridge the gap between research and commercialization by connecting talent, industry, and investment opportunities. Working with institutions like the University of Toronto, we help accelerate the path from breakthrough science to market-ready innovations, strengthening Canada’s life sciences ecosystem and growing globally competitive companies.”
Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus and the Government Relations Office extend its thanks to PS Maggie Chi for visiting U of T, and to ProteinQure and Mitacs for their participation.
Top image: Christopher Dixon (Academic & Ecosystem Partnerships Advisor, Mitacs), Joanne Tejeda (Senior Advisor, Strategic Partnerships and National Life Sciences and Health Sector Lead, Mitacs), Derek Newton (Senior Vice-President, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, Mitacs), Cynthia Smithers (Business Operations, ProteinQure), Lucas Siow (CEO – Co-Founder, ProteinQure), PS Maggie Chi, Jim Banting (Assistant Vice-President, Innovations, Partnerships & Entrepreneurship, UofT), Lora Bytyqi (Senior Advisor, Academic and Ecosystem Partnerships, Mitacs), Modupe Olufemi (Advisor, Business Development, Mitacs), and Raquel De Souza (Ecosystem Director, Schwartz Reisman Innovation Campus, UofT).