EDMONTON, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioAlberta announced the recipients of its 2022 Achievement Awards in recognition of the outstanding contributions of the individuals and companies whose innovation and achievements have contributed to the growing success of Alberta's life sciences sector. The awards were presented at BioAlberta’s Annual Health and Life Sciences Showcase & Awards Ceremony, held in Calgary on September 27th.
BioAlberta Annual Achievement Awards
“Our life sciences sector is expanding quickly, and the 2022 award recipients showcase Alberta's growing ability to accelerate and develop new technologies that are both sustainable and scalable to produce real-world solutions with a global impact,” said Robb Stoddard, President and CEO of BioAlberta.
2022 Company of the Year – Future Fields
This award acknowledges a company that has shown significant achievement within the marketplace and Alberta’s business community through strong performance or a leadership role.
“Future Fields, EntoEngine™ platform is the first to harness the genetic prowess of fruit flies to produce Earth’s most environmentally and economically sustainable biomolecules,” said Nuzhat Tam Zaman, Co-Founder of Sinoveda/ Co-Chair of the BioAlberta Board of Directors. “It’s an honour for us to recognize Dr. Matt Anderson-Baron and Jalene Anderson-Baron, Co-Founders of Future Fields and their team who are committed to producing sustainable ingredients for science through insect biotechnology.”
Future Fields uses fruit flies to make Earth's most sustainable recombinant proteins. EntoEngine™ - their Recombinant Protein Production Platform harnesses the genetic prowess of Drosophila melanogaster, supercharges it with cutting edge synthetic biology, and scales with the massive efficiencies of insect farming. With the EntoEngine™, they can optimize production of critical products across a broad range of industries and applications including cellular agriculture, research, therapeutics, vaccines, growth factors, and enzymes – all within a circular economy framework.
Accepting this award Co-Founders Matt Anderson-Baron and Jalene Anderson-Baron said: We are very honored to be recognized as the BioAlberta company of the year. Our success over the past few years is the result of our talented and innovative team at Future Fields and we are incredibly grateful for their dedication and hard work. We look forward to continuing our growth here and contributing to Alberta’s flourishing biotech community.”
2022 Scientific Achievement and Innovation winner one – Dr. Toshima Yokota
“The work in Dr. Toshi’s lab has inspired a multitude of students in the area of medical genetics, collectively producing over 90 publications on their studies…He has since built on his original discovery to create a more powerful treatment with the potential to help over 40% of patients with DMD, which is preventing heart failure in patients with muscular dystrophy,” said Nuzhat Tam Zaman, Co-Founder of Sinoveda/ Co-Chair of the BioAlberta Board of Directors.
Dr. Toshifumi (Toshi) Yokota is a Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of Alberta.
Dr. Yokota's research team designed and tested synthetic DNA-like molecules called gapmers that interfere with the production of a toxic protein that destroys the muscles in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD), the third most common form of muscular dystrophy. They demonstrated that this first of a kind treatment knocked down more than 99 percent of the toxic gene products called DUX4 in patient-derived cells accompanied by morphological and functional improvement.
Accepting this award via video, Dr. Toshima Yokota said: “Thank you so much for this award, it means so much to me and my team. We started this laboratory 10 years ago and our therapy was FDA approved a couple of years ago. My goal is to boost the potential of this therapy because it not only cures genetic diseases but can also be used in cancer therapy and infectious diseases. I would like to end by saying a big thank you to everyone including my colleagues, partner, and Dr. Rika Yokota-Maruyama.”
2022 Scientific Achievement and Innovation winner two – Dr. Hasan Uludag
This award recognizes an individual or a team responsible for a breakthrough innovation with commercial application.
“In Alberta, Dr. Uludag’s research on bone-seeking drug carriers established, for the first time, the feasibility of delivering proteins to bones after systemic injection. This has accelerated novel therapies, in particular to realize the dream of using growth factors to treat systemic bone diseases,” said Nuzhat Tam Zaman, Co-Founder of Sinoveda/ Co-Chair of the BioAlberta Board of Directors.
Dr. Uludağ is currently based at the Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, and holds joint appointments with the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry and Faculty of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences. He directs interdisciplinary research programs on experimental therapeutics, specifically focusing on designing functional biomaterials to realize the potential of new, unconventional therapeutic agents. His research activity is conducted in the context of nucleic acid therapeutics and anti-cancer therapies. He is actively involved in various biomaterials societies around the World and is an elected Fellow of the International Union of Society of Biomaterials Science and Engineering. Additionally, he serves on the editorial board of several international journals.
Accepting this award, Dr. Hasan Uludağ said: “I am honored to be recognized with this award, especially being able to contribute to the growth of the bio-industry in my adopted province makes me especially happy. I thank so many friends, colleagues and trainers that came along for the ride.”
About BioAlberta
BioAlberta is the voice and champion for life sciences in Alberta, committed to creating a thriving and competitive industry by facilitating and accelerating economic diversification, investment attraction and job growth.
As a private, not-for-profit industry association, BioAlberta represents more than 230 members of Alberta’s growing life sciences community of researchers, producers and suppliers operating in specialized sectors such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, natural health products, as well as environmental, agricultural and industrial biotechnology. BioAlberta’s activities are focused on advocacy, promotion and proactively facilitating growth of the industry. Please visit: https://www.bioalberta.com/
