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Performance Plants Inc.

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Overview

Performance Plants Inc. (Kingston) is using genetic engineering to produce climate change-resistant crops.

What they’re doing: Their Gene Discovery and Trait Development Platform combines modern and traditional genetic engineering toolboxes to produce higher yielding crops regardless of climate challenges. The modularized technology enables the custom design of crops based on market needs, from single target gene editing to multiple trait stacking. During this project, the goal is to improve production and yield of soybeans, the third largest principal field crop in Canada.

How will this be used in the real world? Successful deployment of this product will benefit Ontario farmers while enhancing the economic output of Canadian agriculture.

Liven Proteins

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Overview

Liven Proteins (Toronto) is producing animal-free protein ingredients for the food industry.

What they’re doing: They’re using unique precision fermentation technology to produce animal-free collagen in yeast from plant-based raw material for the functional beverages market. Liven plans on scaling up this technology to produce sufficient samples for validation by customers.

How will this be used in the real world? Producing collagen ingredients to provide affordable, and sustainable solutions to make delicious and nutritious food and beverage products without the need of the animal industry.

Kraken Sense

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Overview

Kraken Sense (Oakville) is developing new technologies to speed up detection of new and existing variants of different viruses and bacteria to maintain public health and safety.

What they’re doing: Their automated and autonomous qPCR-based pathogen detection system eliminates the need for manual sample processing and they’re working on expanding automated technologies to also identify possible new variants, all in under an hour.

How will this be used in the real world? Future applications include the quick detection of existing and new variants of different viruses (i.e. SARS-CoV-2 and Influenza virus) and bacteria!

Index Biosystems

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Overview

Index Biosystems (Burlington) is working on BioTag technology to make food products safer and cut down on food recalls by verifying sustainability, product quality and source-of-origin.

What they’re doing: BioTags are microscopic fingerprints made from baker’s yeast that are applied directly to products to track them. They’re primarily used to verify sustainability, product quality, place-of-origin and food safety. Index Biosystems’s goal is to develop detectable BioTags, methods for their production and identification protocols for successful commercialization.

How will this be used in the real world? BioTags have the potential to dramatically reduce the impact of product recalls in Ontario’s food systems by tracing agri-food products and identifying the source of problems faster. They can also be used to verify the ethical and sustainable sourcing of products.

Genecis Bioindustries

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Overview

Genecis Bioindustries (Toronto) has engineered a bacteria that breaks down food waste to make cheaper bioplastics.

What they’re doing: Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biodegradable polymers that are ideal substitutes for petroleum-based plastics but are too expensive to produce. Genecis is working to improve the performance of bacterial strains used on low-value organic waste to produce cost competitive PHAs.

How will this be used in the real world? Genecis’ engineered strain that produces PHAs has dramatically reduced the cost of making bioplastics by using a zero-cost feedstock, rather than expensive carbon sources.

Ceragen

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Overview

Ceragen (Kitchener) is helping farmers increase crop yields through microbiome engineering.

What they’re doing: This biotech company is developing probiotics for plants to increase hydroponically grown lettuce, kale, cucumbers, and basil crop yields by 20-30%. The plant growth promoting bacteria in this product helps increase nutrient uptake and improve plants’ response to environmental stress.

How will this be used in the real world? These products have the potential to increase food production in Ontario by at least 36,000 tons, which represents an $83 million annual revenue increase for farmers.

BioFect Innovations

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Overview

BioFect Innovations (Toronto) has designed a microorganism to mass produce a sugar substitute.

What they’re doing: Due to lack of availability, mass production of the sweetener, brazzein, is not currently possible. But through synthetic biology and precision fermentation, BioFect has designed a microorganism that can produce large quantities of brazzein through a method that is economical, efficient and sustainable.

How will this be used in the real world? Along with the potential to replace/reduce the dependence on traditional sugars in many food products, this technology can make brazzein a key ingredient in eco-conscious food and beverage products.

AIMA Laboratories

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Overview

AIMA Laboratories (Hamilton) is speeding up the diagnosis of endometriosis by creating a home test.

What they’re doing: This FemTech company is focusing on women’s health and providing unique solutions to diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. Endometriosis is one of the leading causes of chronic and debilitating pelvic pain and infertility. Because of ambiguous symptoms and pain normalization, it can take 5-12 years for women with endometriosis to get a diagnosis.

How will this be used in the real world? The first blood test for endometriosis that can be done from the comfort of home to give women and their physicians more clarity and a quicker path to diagnosis!

Ontario Genomics-CANSSI Ontario Postdoctoral Fellowship in Genome Data Science

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Ontario Genomics-CANSSI Ontario Postdoctoral Fellowship in Genome Data Science

We are pleased to open the Request for Applications (RFA) for the Ontario Genomics and CANSSI Ontario Postdoctoral Fellowship, establishing another joint Postdoctoral Fellowship in Genome Data Science.

This Fellowship, now in its third year, will support the work of an early-career investigator pursuing research in the areas of genomics and data science with an emphasis on genomic medicine, including, but not limited to, methodology, application, and translation of genomic prediction tools such as polygenic risk scores; human-computer interactions; or novel genomic computational approaches to therapeutic identification.

Proposed projects should be innovative, generalizable across applications, and not restricted to developing a predictive tool for a single application.

The Fellowship offers two-year salary support for up to $50,000 per year for postdoctoral fellows undertaking full-time research at a CANSSI Ontario partner university or their affiliated research institutes.

Candidates are responsible for selecting, contacting, and securing the commitment of two faculty members to jointly supervise them in their project, where at least one is a faculty member with a PhD in statistics, biostatistics, epidemiology, computational biology, genomics, or computer science. The second supervisor can be from any other field.

The Fellowships offer two-year salary support for up to $50,000 per year for postdoctoral fellows undertaking full-time research. Candidates are responsible for selecting, contacting, and securing the commitment of two mentors to jointly supervise them in their project.

Eligibility and Requirements

Read all eligibility and all required materials at the Eligibility and Application Guide

  • Postdoctoral fellows with a PhD in the fields of statistics, computational biology, biostatistics, bioinformatics, computer science, epidemiology, genomics, or other related quantitative fields
  • Applicants must be undertaking full-time research during the term of the postdoctoral fellowship at a CANSSI Ontario member university or any of their affiliated research institutes.
  • Research projects that focus on statistical methodology and tool development, including computational tools, may be considered. We encourage applications from candidates combining ’omics data with other data to overcome challenges, especially as it applies to the environment and climate change. Final selection is at the discretion of the adjudication panel.
  • Funding eligibility of submissions will be assessed based on defined eligibility criteria related to scientific excellence and innovation by a joint adjudication panel.

Funding and Tenure

  • Funding Availability: Up to two years.
  • Maximum Fellowship Value: $50,000 per year for up to $100,000 over two years.

* We expect to fund the highest-ranked candidates.

Landing Pad Investment Program (LPIP)

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This competition is closed. All submitted proposals will be assessed according to the process outlined in the competition timeline, and results will be announced as indicated.

Call for genomics or engineering biology start-ups solving global challenges in therapeutics, future of food, biomaterials, biological tools, diagnostics and bioinformatics/AI-based technologies

The Ontario Genomics (OG) Landing Pad Investment Program (LPIP) seeks to provide investment and support to help Ontario-based genomics and engineering biology1 companies to start and scale successfully. To enable this, OG is offering support to start-ups that attend an approved International Accelerator Program and return to Ontario upon completion. The Landing Pad Investment Program partner IndieBio (San Francisco & New York), offers a minimum of $275,000 USD upon acceptance to their program, and is backed by the global venture capital firm SOSV.

  • Successful applicants will receive a $100,000 investment from Ontario Genomics
  • Companies will benefit from mentorship which may include: regulatory pathway assistance, global outlook and connections, understanding of export markets, business model strategy, technical development, funding and foreign investment.
  • Companies can be connected to Ontario’s leading incubators and support organizations such as Velocity, Synapse, McMaster Innovation Park and Ryerson’s SDZ.

How it works:

Icon of a lightbulb with text below: "Contact OGif your genomics or engineering biology start-up has potential for large impact. Key icon: Attend an international Accelerator Program to qualify for the LPIP. Rocket Icon: Apply for LPIP for investment, connections to lab space and mentorship

*Impacting at least 1B people or is part of a $1B market

Get Started

  • Step 1: Contact Britney Hess, Ontario Genomics Manager, Investment and Venture Development, if you have any questions about the program or your eligibility!
  • Step 2: Fill in the application form (linked above) and send it to Britney Hess by December 1, 2021.
  • Step 3: Eligible top-ranked applicants will pitch to an expert panel on December 15, 2021. Top-ranked applicants will undergo a due diligence process.
  • Step 4: Successful applicants will receive $100,000 in investment from Ontario Genomics, as well as opportunities for mentorship and connections to lab space.

1.Genomics can encompass proteomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, bioinformatics and other related disciplines that involve systematic, comprehensive and high-throughput procedures to study cellular constituents and function. Engineering (or synthetic) biology is a convergence of genomics and molecular biosciences with computing, automation, miniaturization, artificial intelligence (AI), and the application of engineering principles to biological systems. See OG Engineering Biology Whitepaper for examples