Team

Dr. Guenther is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. He is an internationally recognized mechanical and biomedical engineer with expertise in nano/microfabrication and microdevices for applications in organs-on-chips and 2D and 3D printing of organized soft materials (e.g., engineered human tissue substitutes). His team has invented several patented 3D bioprinting approaches to mimic nature’s ability to rapidly achieve the controlled hierarchical organization of cells and biomolecules within robust constructs. These include a handheld 3D printer that can in situ deliver skin precursor sheets for the treatment of full-thickness burns. His team also introduced one of the first organ-on-a-chip platforms, a microfluidic device for the functional characterization of intact small blood vessels. This ‘blood vessel-on-a-chip’ device is now sold commercially by Quorum Technologies. Dr. Guenther has been named Inventor of the Year at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Veres leads the Bio-Analytical MicroNano Devices section (BioAMND) at the National Research Council of Canada in Boucherville, Quebec. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto, the Department of Biomedical Engineering at McGill University and the Faculty of Medicine at Laval University. Under his leadership, the BioAMND has filed over 135 patent applications, 37 of which were granted, and licensed 8 of its technologies. Dr. Veres pioneered the use of thermoplastic elastomeric materials (TPEs) for the rapid, low-cost fabrication of lab-on-chip microfluidic devices with scalable methods and materials. These advances are paving the way for the mass production and broad deployment of low-cost complex microfluidic devices. His team at NRC developed the PowerBlade, a microfluidic technology that will soon be deployed to the International Space Station through a collaboration between Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian space industry.

Dr. Radisic is a Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the University Health Network. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering, and her team has created foundational technologies in this field, such as Biowire, AngioChip and inVADE platform. Her work focuses on cardiac tissue engineering and biomaterials, and includes the development of in vitro models, using microfluidic devices, for cell injection and drug testing. Dr. Radisic has received numerous distinctions, such as the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the EWR Steacie Prize from NSERC. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society and American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers. She is a co-founder of TARA Biosystems, a biotechnology company that provides predictive in vitro human cardiac tissue models for use in drug discovery, safety assessment and translational medicine. Dr. Radisic leads two programs which are closely linked to CRAFT: the NSERC CREATE Training Program in Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering and Entrepreneurship (TOeP) and Ontario-Québec Center for Organ-on-a-Chip Engineering (oqCORE).

Dr. Wheeler is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at University of Toronto. He holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Microfluidic Bioanalysis. His research focuses on creating ‘labs-on-a-chip’ microfluidic devices and exploring the unique capabilities of digital microfluidics for a variety of applications, including chemical synthesis, clinical sample preparation and tissue engineering. He has developed an inexpensive point-of-care microfluidic device capable of quantifying disease biomarkers in a pin-prick sample of blood. This device has been rigorously validated for rapid assessment of population immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases in refugee camps in Kenya and outdoor testing sites in Democratic Republic of Congo. He has been awarded the SCIEX Microscale Separations Innovations Medal and Award and the Lab on a Chip Pioneer of Miniaturization Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Dr. Daniel Brassard is a Senior Research Officer who leads the Microfluidic Systems team at the National Research Council of Canada, Medical Devices Research Center. He received a PhD in Material Science (INRS – University of Québec, 2007) and BEng in Engineering Physics (École Polytechnique, 2002). He leads the development of lab-on-a-chip technologies for point-of-care, clinical, environmental, food/water safety and space applications. His main areas of research include: (i) next-generation centrifugal microfluidic technologies for the automation and deployment of complex bioanalytical assays; (ii) integrated chip-based biomolecular assays for the identification of nucleic acids, proteins, bacteria and viruses in clinical and remote settings; (iii) materials and processes for the fabrication of low-cost thermoplastic microfluidic devices; (iv) highly-integrated electrowetting-based digital microfluidic technologies for the detection and identification of biological targets; and (v) microfluidic magnetic capture technologies for the isolation of target analytes from raw samples. Dr. Brassard also leads the development of next-generation interactive and dynamic document security technologies.

Dr. Keith Morton is a Research Officer and Micro-Nanofabrication Team Lead in the BioAnalytical Micro-Nano Devices section at the National Research Council of Canada. Dr. Morton studied Engineering Physics at Queen’s University, Canada before completing a PhD in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, USA. At the National Research Council, Keith has led numerous industrial translation projects with external commercial clients including start-up companies and multi-national corporations, specifically to bridge the gap between proof-of-concept microfluidics and industrial device production.  He primary interests are microfluidic device design for applications in biology, including nanostructured surface plasmon resonance biosensors and microfluidic cell fractionation of whole blood, bacteria and parasites.  He has extensive microfabrication experience in nanoimprint lithography, polymer hot embossing and injection molding of microfluidic devices using thermoplastic, thermoplastic elastomer and biodegradable polymer materials.

Dr. Ramos is a Business and Research Development Officer in the Dept. of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, where she forges collaborations between academia, industry, not-for-profits, and governmental agencies around cutting-edge research topics. She supports CRAFT on industry engagement and partnerships.