www.ghbn.
or g
Bio-Matrix
n Summer 2009
McMaster
gets nuclear
medicine aid
A federal-provincial
investment of $22
million will help McMaster
University upgrade its
nuclear reactor and
nuclear research building
to provide new labs and
research space, as well
as to increase commercial
production of medical and
industrial isotopes.
The money, part of an
overall $38.5 million in
infrastructure funds, will also
help the training of personnel
for the nuclear industry and
health-care sectors where
nuclear medicine is involved.
Besides the reactor-related
money, the two governments
also announced a $16.5
million investment for two
centres aimed at innovation
in helping people devastated
by spinal cord injuries or
cancer.
Inside –
n Affinity for success
[page 2]
n Biotech at
Mohawk
[page 3]
nR
 ecession hurt
[page 4]
nT
 he ‘doctor’ is
in... the cellar
[page 5]
nU
 pcoming
events
[page 6]
n vol u m e 3 n is s u e 2
McMaster Park progress remains on track
Today’s global economic virus has infected financial and
business activities around the world. And McMaster
Innovation Park is not immune to the uncertainty.
But prospects for the 37-acre site at Longwood Road
South and Aberdeen Avenue – in the heart of what
Hamilton hopes will be an innovation district – still
appear bright. Occupancy of the first building, a
four-storey complex, likely will be in the 90 per cent
range by the end of the year.
“I have a very positive feeling about that,” says Zach
Douglas, president and chief executive at the park.
“Not all innovation parks are successful ... but our
affiliation with a university that has significant strengths
in research and the ability to develop significant new
products and innovations is a good sign for the future.”
Douglas expects that, by mid-2010, some equipment
might be arriving for the CANMET materials technology
lab facility. That project will bring about 100 jobs from
Ottawa. And he is hopeful a hotel proposal – an earlier
deal fell through – will materialize. What remains a
question mark, however, are research units planned
by the domestic auto industry.
General Motors, a company in the throes of massive
shrinkage, and Ford Motor Co. have each planned a
presence at the park. GM had talked about a corrosion
research centre, perhaps working hand-in-hand with
McMaster’s own steel research centre, and Ford had
discussed a diesel engine lab. Now, both projects
may be on shaky ground.
“We’re anxiously watching to see if those things do
materialize in the wake of what’s happening,” said
Douglas. It may well be that some aspects of what was
conceived as an emerging technologies centre, with a strong
automotive focus, will get rolled into the 186,000-square-
foot, four-storey existing structure now being redeveloped.
Golden Horseshoe
Biosciences Network
The 155,000 sq. ft. CANMET facility will house high-end
industrial technologies, such as materials characterization
and imaging, industrial radiography, analytical testing labs,
hydrogen sulphide high pressure labs, and computer
modeling operations.
Of course, the innovation park (MIP) had lined up financing
well before the current economic troubles began drying
up credit and financing lines for many businesses. And the
redevelopment, utilizing an existing shell, has reduced costs.
Douglas estimates MIP’s construction costs at $120 a square
foot, versus perhaps $250 for a new structure.
MIP backers foresee as many as 3,000 jobs there over
the next decade or so. By 2011, the park – developed in a
north-south direction – may contain as many as five buildings,
comprising a total 500,000 sq. ft. Plans call for a life sciences
building, including an incubator for business start-ups, that
would be located closer to Aberdeen.
When completed, the park – formerly the home of a
Camco appliance plant – will house laboratory, office,
teaching, training and conference facilities in advanced
manufacturing and materials, in nanotechnology and
bio-technology, and in other areas in which McMaster has
recognized research strengths.
The city envisions the park as the anchor for its west Hamilton
innovation district, with Frid Street being extended southerly
into the research complex. MIP’s convenient exposure, just
off Highway 403, means that “we have not seen a dramatic
dropoff in recent interest” on the part of prospective tenants,
said Douglas. n
CANMET building fronts rendering
held by Zach Douglas
 www.ghbn.or g

Duo has an affinity for success

Natrix now
a well-read
supplier
A company with roots
at McMaster University
has scored a distribution
deal with prominent life
sciences firm VWR. The
VRW products catalogue
will include gel-membrane
products created by Natrix
Separations.
Research developed by
McMaster professor
Ronald Childs later moved
to commercialization
and formation of Natrix.
The Burlington company,
led by former university
chemical engineering
professor Lisa Crossley,
sells internationally
to biomanufacturing,
nutraceutical and water-
treatment industries.
Natrix lab and process-
system products utilize
membranes consisting
of a polymeric hydrogel
formed within a flexible
porous support matrix.
home-based business in 1987, even though both had
other jobs in Kingston.
Sometimes, success wells up not from a great original
idea or technology but from seeing a niche that
few recognize. The trick there is in acting on the
opportunity . . . even if it means toiling at full-time
jobs elsewhere while seeding and nourishing your
fledgling niche at home.
That’s the story of Affinity Biologicals: a company
that climbed from a Kingston basement into a
plant in Ancaster. And the team behind the climb –
husband and wife Hugh and Patricia Hoogendoorn
– are acting on opportunity again: they’ve just
bought a new business.
The pair have acquired the hemostasis reference
lab at Henderson General Hospital, a service
complementary to Affinity’s blood serum and
coagulation lines, and a full-circle return to where
they alighted when they left Kingston in 1993.
They credit Drs. Jack Hirsh and Jeff Weitz for
mentoring and entrepreneurial help as the
Hoogendoorns planned their exit and spun off the
Henderson business into a stand-alone Affinity
operation nine years ago.
Today, the company that began in the basement
of two former Mohawk College lab technology
grads has almost 20 employees and does more
than $2 million in annual sales around the globe. It
ships most of its product lines into Europe, the U.S.,
Australia, and other areas. And now China beckons.
Broadly speaking, Affinity makes lab reagents and
kits for research and diagnostics. The antibodies,
conjugates, ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay) kits, and plasma products are used in the
research pathology of diseases and in monitoring the
efficacy of treatments.
It was the antibody line, used in coagulation research,
that the Hoogendoorns first picked up on. It was a
niche market going unserviced. So they started their
Affinity’s market sector – human health and safety – means
the company must adhere to demanding and expensive
audits and standards set by such bodies as the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration and the ISO agency.
Another demanding barrier is the U.S. border. Entry into the
United States has gotten tougher, post 9/11 and post-Mad
Cow disease. Often, it has meant that Patricia, the company’s
chief financial officer, has personally taken shipments over to
make sure they reach carriers or distributors.
The risks and demands in a life sciences business are higher
today, says Patricia. To which Hugh, the president, adds:
“They (the hurdles) are second only to the drug development
system. It requires a huge investment.”
By broadening their offerings beyond plasmas and antibodies,
the couple has so far weathered this economic collapse. But
two years ago, it was the rapid rise of the Canadian dollar’s
value, relative to the U.S. dollar, that hurt them. Affinity’s lines
are priced in U.S. dollars; quotes are good for a year.
Handsome margins crumbled then, and Affinity had to
reduce R & D, cut back on heavy marketing, let some
employees go. Today, the marketing is more likely to focus on
email campaigns but there is still the occasional trade show.
“We made it through (the soaring loonie),” said Patricia. “We
live now like it’s at par and anything beyond is gravy.” n
Affinity Biologicals founders, Patricia and
Hugh Hoogendorn.

More than two decades later, most of their customers

are in academic and industrial research. Some buyers are
manufacturers who rebrand Affinity staples or incorporate
those products into their own separate commodities.

2
 www.ghbn.or g

Employers wanted for Mohawk biotech grads

The first graduates of Mohawk College’s health

biotechnology technician program are entering the work
world. But the downturn in the economy has made it
tough to find full job placements as well as co-op work
terms in their chosen areas. Eat Greek,
be healthy
About 35 students are getting their health biotechnology Mohawk is looking at the potential for a three-
diplomas this month (June). They are part of a two-stream year technology study program, said Wilson. Want to be healthy?
program that takes in health biotechnology technicians Down the road, a degree program might even be Eat Greek. That’s the
and the more established biotech technicians course that possible, perhaps in concert with a school such as
simplified version of a
began in 2004. Australian-based Charles Sturt University, which
has a campus in Burlington. McMaster University
For many grads in both streams, the problem is securing study that looked at six
full-time positions and putting Mohawk programs on Among the skills and tasks that students decades of research on
employers’ radar screens. “It’s an awareness thing, really learn to perform are: DNA and protein diet and heart disease.
– what our students can provide them at the entry-level absorption spectrophotometry; agarose gel
(technician) positions,” said Dan Wilson, professor and co- DNA electrophoresis; ion exchange and thin The study results, which
ordinator of chemical, environmental, and biotechnology layer chromatography; basic techniques in
appeared in April’s
programs at the college. microbiology; and, micropipetting, extractions,
titrations, centrifugation and pH measurements Archives of Internal
As of April, more than 150 students were either at school using Good Lab Practices (GLP). Medicine journal,
or in co-op job placements. Their training orients them showed that a typical
toward careers in the vast biosciences arena – everything Mohawk officials plan to continue meeting with Mediterranean diet that
from biologics, which are replacing synthesized drugs; employers and biosector representatives to get
features tomatoes and
biofuels, the ‘green’ hope of energy; animal and plant the marketing word out about their technician
genomes; biosensors; and biosecurity innovations. courses. That’s important both for final job other vegetables, fruits,
placements and for interim co-op positions. almonds, whole grain
And, of course, part of the interest in biotech has been breads, and such mono-
the television celebrity of CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). “We’ve seen it (the impact of the downturn). unsaturated fat produce
The various CSI spinoffs have been an accelerant in firing It has hit us and (some students) had to come
as avocados and feta
up interest in college and university forensic sciences back to Mohawk when they couldn’t get a
programs. Mohawk began offering its own forensics job. ... Without (the co-op aspect), the program cheese was a heart-
course last fall. founders,” says Wilson. “We’re hurt with the healthy eating regimen.
economy like everybody else, so we’re looking for
“I’ve never taught a program where there is so much more (employer) partners.” As expected, the
change,” says Wilson. “Every two weeks, it seems there is research summary
a new vaccine coming out or a new bacteria eating up an Mohawk is also working with SISO, the Settlement trashed fatty meats
oil spill or something.” and Integration Services Organization, to assist and processed foods
immigrants and refugee communities. The college
but also was tentative
Biotechnology technicians might work in such settings has created a bridging program that would help
as laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, in food applicants who might be interested in biotech on the benefits of
processing, agricultural products, plant or livestock technician employment. Omega-3 fatty acids,
genetic engineering and environmental engineering. except for those
This bridge would offer candidates, some of whom found in fish, and
Health biotechnology technicians are more likely found in may already have a biotech background, an overview
of vitamin E and C
such areas as bio-medicine, genetics, forensics, agricultural of the sector. It would also provide training in sector
and food production, bio-pharmaceuticals, and medical terminology and familiarize SISO students with issues supplements.
device firms. and trends in the Canadian-based biotech segment of
the economy. n

3
 www.ghbn.or g
John Brash
John Brash
gets top honour
He is an engineer who
also happens to be
an authority on blood
and biomaterials. John
Brash was honoured in
April with the Founders
Award at the annual
meeting of the Society for
Biomaterials in Texas.
Dr. Brash, director of
the School of Biomedical
Engineering at McMaster
University, is only the
second Canadian to
receive the award, given
for long-term, landmark
contributions to the field of
biomaterials.
His four decades of study
and innovation have led to
improvements in vascular
stents and grafts, heart-
assist devices, and heart-
lung bypass systems.
His expertise is
recognized in several
areas, including
protein adsorption and
blood compatibility,
thrombus formation
on artificial surfaces,
and biocompatible
polyurethane-based
materials.
Life Sciences Industry. Forecast found that almost 80
per cent of 167 biotechnology firms surveyed listed the
ability to access capital as their key issue.
4
Recession hurts bioscience sector
The global economic crisis has hit several industry
sectors hard. In Canada, companies in the
biotechnology arena – there are more than 500
life sciences firms, many of them small and private
operations – are among the victims of this recession.
The collapse has fueled fears that some life sciences
businesses will disappear or be snapped up by
American interests. And once again, the spectre
of a brain drain of scientists fleeing south has
been raised, as more stimulus money is allocated
in the U.S.
The downturn has accelerated cash burns and
aggravated existing strains in lending. It has dried
up liquidity lines, ratcheted up some rates, led to
the insolvency of some non-bank lenders, and
has cratered venture capital and private equity
funding.
“I think we’re noticing certain longstanding,
faithful customers are in a bind,” says Hugh
Hoogendoorn, president of Affinity Biologicals
in Ancaster. “And so, you have to make certain
concessions (in sales orders and accounts
receivable situations).”
Some financiers – competing in a market
where IPOs and mergers have dried up, and
where pension funds, insurance firms, or limited
partnerships are reluctant to fund VC operations
– are content just to wait out this global crisis.
That’s bad, a senior Business Development
Bank of Canada official warned in early spring.
Edmée Metivier, BDC’s executive vice-president of
financing, told a House of Commons subcommittee
that the crunch will hobble technology
entrepreneurs.
“It breaks my heart because if we let go of these
technology companies, once this recession is over,
you will have lost all this (new) technology. You will
have lost a decade,” said Metivier.
Studies repeatedly stress the need for capital in the
industry. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2009 Canadian
BIOTECanada has asked Ottawa for relief. The national
voice for the biotech sector has suggested one-time cash
refunds on tax losses, capital gains tax exemptions on
investment, and breaks in the Scientific Research and
Experimental Development credit program.
To be fair, venture capital fundraising in Canada was
sliding before the recession. Four years ago, the industry
raised $1,718 billion, according to the Venture Capital &
Private Equity Association (CVCA). Last year, the total fell
to $1,028 billion – a 41 per cent drop.
That’s the fundraising side. VC investing in all companies,
not just life-sciences firms, has also plummeted. The
amount of VC infusions in this year’s first quarter, at
$275 million, was the lowest on a quarterly basis in
almost six years.
Governments and their funding/banking agencies
have been criticized for being slow to react to tighter
conditions. For example, critics have hit at the Ontario
Venture Capital Fund for being too deliberative, taking
too long to put money into play.
And earlier this year, several bioscience / biotechnology
groups and officials took shots at the Harper government’s
budget. They criticized its directing of federal funds more
to infrastructure than to actual hands-on research work.
But Quebec and Ontario – to name just two provinces
– have ponied up money of late. In March, Ontario
announced its $250 million Emerging Technologies Fund,
to be matched with private investments, for cleantech, IT,
and life sciences startups.
A month later, Quebec launched a private-public sector
$700 million fund of funds. CVCA president Gregory Smith
called the fund “a shining example” of collaboration
between both sectors.
Some VC and equity players think the
slowdown may well promote a
clearing of the decks. Lumira
Capital head Peter van
der Velden notes on a
blog: “Today’s market
represents an outstanding
time to cull the weak and
underperforming from our
herds...” n
 www.ghbn.or g

The ‘doctor’ is in... the cellar

At Gaspereau vineyards, near Wolfville, Nova Scotia, It was more than a decade ago
the grapes spring from the soils of the Annapolis that Haverstock, working her
Valley. But the wines made by Gina Haverstock have way through a biochem
some of their roots in the Niagara peninsula. degree in New Brunswick, John Wallace
spent some time at the
The native of Cape Breton Island, who had originally family cottage. That retreat
planned to study the science of medicine and become just happened to be near Wallace gets
a doctor, switched instead to the science of oenology Jost Vineyards, in the same Premier’s
and viticulture. After taking her early biochemistry family business as the newer
education at the University of New Brunswick, she Gaspereau winery. She took Gina Haverstock
award
packed up and went to Brock University. a summer job at Jost. The head of McMaster’s
digestive centre has been
Four years after graduating from Brock – preceded by “I was basically a blank slate when I went to
internships at wineries ranging from Germany to New Jost,” says Haverstock, 31. As Gina became a awarded the Premier’s
Zealand – she’s back home, the winemaker at one of student of the vines, she “quickly fell in love with Summit Award in Medical
her province’s newest wine operations, as Annapolis wine.” And she became a Sommelier. She looked Research.
builds a profile based on grapes as well as apples. to Brock University to learn more.
Pharmacologist John
Just as Niagara was known at first principally for “Brock was the only place – I think it still may be Wallace, a global star in
its whites, Nova Scotia – now with 10 wineries – is the only place in Canada – where you can get a gastrointestinal research,
gaining a small reputation for varieties such as New bachelor of science with an Honours in Oenology received the honour in a
York Muscat, L’Acadie, Seyval and Riesling – ideal since and viticulture.” (Her fiancé, Sean Myles, a
Toronto event in May.
the province is known for its marvellous seafood. former McMaster University student, is now doing
post-doctoral work on grape genetics at Cornell The award is worth
At Gaspereau, they also grow l’Acadie Blanc, a dry University in Ithaca.) $5 million, with half of
white hybrid developed years ago at Vineland Station
that from the Ontario
just down from Brock. But there are also reds, such Her wine efforts have won acclaim. Reislings
as Marechal Foch, Lucie Kuhlmann, and DeChaunac have won both gold and silver medals at the All- Government and half from
varieties, that do well in the maritime province. Canadian Wine Championships. She has crafted the McMaster, the home of
difficult Pinot Noir grape. Her Niagara roots have the Farncombe Family
made wines with “a Nova Scotia twist.” n Digestive Health Research
Institute, headed by
Dr. Wallace.

An entrepreneur who
has founded at least
two pharmaceutical
companies, he focuses
on understanding,
preventing and
treating diseases
such as irritable
bowel syndrome,
ulcerative colitis,
Crohn’s disease
and colon cancer

5
 www.ghbn.or g

20th Annual Conference of the McMaster innovation Showcase 09

Canadian Bioethics Society Date: June 18-19, 2009
Date: June 11-14, 2009 Location: McMaster Innovation Park
Location: Hamilton Convention Centre Address: 175 Longwood Road South, Hamilton
Address: Hamilton, ON For more information visit: www.ghbn.org
For more information visit: www.ghbn.org
Life Sciences – Partner across the border

Events listing
Food Meets Function – the science Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Brock gets and business of functional foods Location: Adam’s Mark Hotel
Address: 120 Church Street, Buffalo, NY
Date: June 17-18, 2009
big federal Location: Best Western Lamplighter Inn & For more information visit:
donation Conference Centre www.thepartnership.org/events or
Address: London, ON www.ghbn.org
Ottawa has boosted For more information: www.foodmeetsfunction.ca
World Congress –
the construction
Translog 2009 conference – The World Congress on Industrial
campaign for Brock Transportation and Logistics Biotechnology & Bioprocessing
University’s research Date: June 17-18, 2009 Date: July 19-22, 2009
complex by investing Location: McMaster University Location: Montreal, Qc
Address: Hamilton, ON For more information visit:
$38 million in the
For more information visit: www.mcmaster.ca/ www.bio.org/worldcongress
project. translog/index.html???
The federal money Foods as Natural Health Products
follows a $33.5 million Date: Thursday, June 18, 2009
provincial contribution, Location: Guelph Food Technology Centre
Address: Guelph, ON
plus $2 million from For more information visit: www.gftc.ca
Niagara Region. The
142,000-square-foot
Niagara Health and
Bioscience Research
Complex will focus on
n Massive study will track health of aging Canadians
bringing bio-innovations McMaster University leads a cutting-edge national of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics.
study on aging and health that will follow 50,000
Feature research

to market and will
Canadians of boomer-age and beyond for the next
be home to labs and two decades.
greenhouse space, Researchers with the Canadian Longitudinal Study
classrooms, a business on Aging will collect information on the changing
incubator and other biological, medical, psychological, social and
economic aspects of subjects who take part in the
units.
study. The study team intends to examine health
trends and directions over a longer-term period –
Construction of the
data that will increase the understanding of
$109 million facility health problems that beset seniors.
is expected to begin
The $30 million study, announced by the federal
this summer. government in May, will be led by McMaster’s
Parminder Raina, professor in the Department
“Some people age in a healthy fashion despite many
physical health challenges, while others who are in
good physical health age less optimally,” he said
after the announcement. “The (study) will answer
questions that are relevant to decision-makers to
improve the health of Canadians.”
Among other things, the comprehensive study will
provide age-related information that will benefit
government health and medical programs and
services for aging Canadians.
In addition to starting at human mid-life, the study
is the first to collect social and economic retirement
factors, as well as clinical and biological measures. n

Contact Golden Horseshoe Biosciences Network

McMaster University, Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning & Discovery

5105-1200 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA L8N 3Z5
n Ana Paredes Office Administrator/Incubator Assistant – Tel: 905-525-9140 Ext. 26602 Fax: 905-528-3999
n Darlene Homonko Executive Director – Tel: 905-525-9140 Ext. 26609 Web: www.ghbn.org

6 Bio-Matrix is a quarterly newsletter published by GHBN. Director and editor: Darlene Homonko
Writer: Mike Pettapiece Graphic Design: Nadia DiTraglia