This week we reach into our archive to replay one of our most popular interviews from 2024 with Brad Wouters, Executive Vice-President of Science and Research at University Health Network. Brad and I discuss his passion for medical biophysics, his accomplished academic career, what brought him to Europe, his return to Canada and the incredible research he and his team are doing at UHN.

Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Kare Chemical Technologies is a synthetic chemistry company working on something that sounds unlikely but could change how we treat chronic pain. By converting a byproduct of citrus orange peels into pharmaceutical grade cannabinoids, the company is developing non-psychoactive alternatives to opioids for patients dealing with long-term pain.

In this episode, host Jim Wilson speaks with co-founder and COO Kareem Abdur-Rashid about a company that began with a family member's diagnosis, a father's decades of experience in organometallic chemistry, and a young scientist who signed up before fully realizing what he was getting into. Kareem walks through how the technology works, how the company bootstrapped its way to its first licensee, and why chronic pain remains one of the most underfunded areas in pharmaceutical development.

This conversation is a candid look at early stage entrepreneurship from someone who is still in the thick of it, learning as he goes and building something that could genuinely help people get their lives back.

We thank the NRC for sponsoring the NGBi podcasts. The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is the Government of Canada's largest federal research and technology organization, focused on accelerating innovation, research, and development.

Claudia Krywiak is President and CEO of the Ontario Centre of Innovation which is a government-funded organization that helps small and medium-sized enterprises commercialize research by connecting industry, academic, and government partners to drive innovation across the province.

In this episode, Jim Wilson speaks with Claudia Krywiak about her journey that began in a small town in Poland, wound through Dubai and Toronto, and eventually lead her to the heart of Ontario's innovation ecosystem. Jim speaks with Claudia talks about growing up between cultures, finding her footing in Canada, and how curiosity has been the common thread in her career.

Claudia also shares her perspective on what is on the horizon in quantum computing and AI, why she believes the next two years will bring more technological change than the last decade, and why there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur in Ontario.