The recently launched Techna Institute located at University Health Network (UHN) has entered into its first contract with Hamilton and Quebec City-based INO.
The Techna Institute, started on November 9 in collaboration with the University of Toronto, is a novel center established to accelerate and integrate research, development, and marketing of innovative healthcare technologies. INO is an outstanding Canadian centre of proficiency in photonics and optics that supports companies to develop their competitive edge and advance their businesses. It has implemented over 4,500 or more R&D contracts in optics and photonics for the last 23 years. It has established 27 companies, all of which are presently functional and performed 43 technology transfers, and has been producing novel biomedical optics solutions for the industry since 15 years, lately in collaboration with UHN. INO's expansion into Ontario in 2009 was based on the success of this partnership, enabling it to benefit from Toronto's Discovery District’s distinct medical ecosystem.
The UHN partnership with INO will be directed by Techna, which is officially known as The Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health. According to the contract, initial projects will be optical dosimetery, bioluminescence CT imaging, and non-linear optical endoscopy. Directed by Senior Scientist at the Ontario Cancer Institute and a Professor at the University of Toronto, Brian Wilson, the extent of the collaboration is naturally included in Techna's Photonics Core. INO, as a part of the agreement, will contribute $2.5M over a period of five years for prototyping, developmental, and preproduction works in biomedical optics, and will support program management and business development also.