Scientific and Investment Readiness for Aspiring Bioentrepreneurs

Event Date: June 24, 2025
Location: Virtual

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Bringing a stem cell or regenerative medicine therapy to market requires more than just scientific expertise—it demands strategic alignment across scientific, regulatory, and business milestones to ensure a viable path forward. To support researchers and entrepreneurs in navigating this complex landscape, SCN is hosting the webinar Scientific and Investment Readiness for Aspiring Bioentrepreneurs, which will explore best practices for commercializing early-stage regenerative medicine programs. This session will provide practical insights on defining actionable scientific and regulatory milestones while integrating investment strategy to build a sustainable business. Attendees will gain insights from industry experts on how to set achievable scientific and business goals, align with regulatory expectations, and position their innovations for concurrent investments in the regenerative medicine sector. The session will lay out a clear roadmap from preclinical academic research to commercialization, ensuring that academic researchers understand how to position their preclinical research programs for translation into real-world applications.

Who Should Attend?

This webinar is designed for researchers, research support staff, trainees, and anyone involved in research in regenerative medicine seeking to enhance their understanding of commercialization. 

Learning Objectives:

• Gain insight on defining/achieving scientific and commercialization milestones in preclinical/early-stage regenerative medicine programs.
• Understand the critical elements of a Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls (CMC) submission to design preclinical and research studies that are relevant and impactful for regulatory submission
• Understand strategies for integrating investment strategy with scientific and regulatory milestones to support commercialization.

Speakers:

Gregory Block, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Histone Therapeutics

Gregory Block is a seasoned biotechnology executive with more than 10 years of experience in the development and commercialization of novel therapeutic modalities. He is currently the CEO and co-founder of Histone Therapeutics, a biotechnology company at the forefront of precision epigenetic reprogramming focused on enhancing cell function and treating disease by controlling gene regulation. Prior to founding Histone, he has held roles including Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of Notch Therapeutics, and Director of Business Development for Astellas Pharmaceuticals, where he led business development and strategic initiatives for regenerative medicine and cell therapy immune oncology. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Tulane University and completed a fellowship at the University of Washington.

Matthew Jeffers, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Ottawa

Matthew is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Epidemiology at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa with Drs. Manoj Lalu and Dean Fergusson. Matthew’s thesis research seeks to address optimization of preclinical experimental design and analysis to maximize validity, as well as methods of assessing preclinical evidence to better inform decisions to translate novel cell therapies to early-phase clinical trials. This includes studying existing regulatory and ethical frameworks surrounding initiation of confirmatory preclinical experiments and first-in-human clinical trials. Matthew’s work is funded by the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and the SCN Impact Awards – ELSI Stream.

Prior to entering his Ph.D., Matthew completed a BSc (Honours) in Psychology at the University of Manitoba and MSc in Medicine (Neurosciences) at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Subsequently, he conducted 9 years of research in preclinical models of stroke recovery, rehabilitation, and late-preclinical therapeutic assessment as a laboratory manager at the University of Ottawa in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine. This role included significant contract research for both preclinical and clinical research groups seeking to support translation of drugs, cell / gene therapies, and medical devices into early-phase clinical trials.

Chantal Martin, Ph.D., Capital BioVentures – Managing Director, Product Development, and CMConsulting Inc – Founder & Principal Consultant

Dr. Chantal Martin is a PhD-trained scientist from the University of Ottawa with 15 years of industry experience in the development and clinical launch of novel biological products, including oncolytic viruses, viral vaccines, cell therapies, antibodies, peptide therapies, and more.

Dr. Martin played a pivotal role in establishing the Biotherapeutics Manufacturing Center (BMC) at the OHRI, leading Quality and CMC.

As one of the first hires at Turnstone Biologics, Dr. Martin wore many hats, initially leading quality and analytics for technical operations and clinical correlates.  Her specialty is Technical Operations, where she has been a leader on several program teams for viral and autologous cell therapy products. She has led high performing teams of scientists and engineers in CMC, manufacturing and QC operations, as well as in development and product sciences.

Currently, she is the Managing Director of Product Development and an Expert-in-Residence (EIR) and with Capital BioVentures, in addition to being a biotech consultant, supporting technical operations and CMC for biologic product development and clinical launches.

For further information on this workshop or for application related enquiries, please email trainingSCN@stemcellnetwork.ca