Health committee  I have 20 researchers in my lab right now. We're focusing on two areas: one is diagnostics and one is in vivo cancer application. It's very clear, the directions are there. Because we work in an academic system, students graduate. By the time you train them well enough, they move on to do something else, so I keep on restarting the process every few years.

Health committee  I actually have U.S. companies interested, not Canadian companies. One of the companies is one of the first companies in the U.S. that the Gates Foundation invested in. I'm in continual talks with their CFO and their COO, plus some work.... It's not on paper, but at one time they were interested in moving to Toronto to work with us on some of this.

Health committee  I just want to comment. I think the way it went about converting the NRC from basic research to applied research was not right. As scientists, you're trained to think in a certain way. All of a sudden you make this change within a year. It's hard for people to make that change along the way.

Health committee  Are you asking the question from the point of view of metastasis, once the tumours move, how would nanotechnology help?

Health committee  Once a tumour starts to break apart, once it starts to move and regrow, the surface of these cells contains a unique fingerprint, so there are molecules that are unique to it. With nanos, if you know what those molecules are, you can colour them with, let's say, the five different colours that we show and you can inject a bolus, a combination of these markers that have different targets on it.

Health committee  I collaborate with people outside Canada. The great thing nowadays, with Skype and FaceTime, is we have regular meetings to discuss projects and we actually apply for grants together. The U.S. allows people from outside the U.S. to apply for money. When we do joint grants, if we get something, then they can siphon off some for me to do research up here in Canada.

Health committee  Right now, the first device that we're going to be translating is a hand-held system for infectious disease diagnostics. We're taking all the genomic information that you heard about and we're building it into our bar-coding system. Can we essentially develop a system where we bar-code your blood to tell us what you have, and then start to build databases out of that?

Health committee  If there is an industry in an emergent technology, they're the perfect people to translate what's being developed. The challenge we're facing at this point is that industry is not there. I think the real question is: how do you create these industries in Canada? That's a billion-dollar question, and almost every country is asking it.

Health committee  That's a very good question. I believe in people. The CEO I am with is amazing. He's a salesperson. He's aggressive. He knows how to build structure. We actually built this company without any financial support, so he hasn't had a paycheque in three years. He's living to try to build the company.

Health committee  By training, I am actually a chemist. My Ph.D is from 1996 to 2001. I was doing chemistry. Nano was not a national agenda in the U.S. What ended up happening was that in 2000 or 2001 they started doing the cancer nano program. My training is in chemistry. I know how to make materials.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  It's kind of interesting. I like the city. I visited the city a long time ago and I quite enjoyed the city. I grew up in Chicago. When I was looking for a faculty position, I wanted to move back to a city because going to grad school in a small town for my undergraduate degree, I kind of missed the city flavour.

Health committee  I think one of the good ways to do it is to offer competitive start-up packages. In the U.S. right now, for a new faculty it's usually around $600,000 to $700,000 simply to start to build your lab area. Sometimes it may be difficult to do that at the universities in Canada, because start-up packages are not that high.

Health committee  I'm building. It's almost like I'm a scientific architect. I started 10 years ago. I know that commercialization is important, and that's why we started this company in Burlington. Last year, we started selling materials. We don't need to do high-end stuff. We sell materials. Last year, we were at about $500,000 in revenue already, after year two.

Health committee  Coming from the nano perspective, the challenge right now is that the different agencies don't know how to regulate it. Do you regulate it as a drug, or do you regulate it as a device? I work with both the U.S. FDA as well as Health Canada and they are trying to figure it out. Right now it's actually considered a special case, based on a case-by-case basis.