Chemistry’s winning formula
Scott Mabury says the key is taking opportunities
Uof T’s Chair of Chemistry, Scott Mabury, in his trademark lumberjack shirt and jeans, pounds through the department’s Lash Miller Building headquarters pointing out the gleaming new student labs, and describing his plans to renovate a huge empty room in the basement for sophisticated research. You’d be hard pressed to find a more enthusiastic academic leader. And Mabury has a lot to be excited about.
Long known for important advances in basic science, Mabury’s department has emerged as one of the country’s new beehives of activity in commercializable research. In fact, Mabury notes that chemistry leads all U of T departments in invention disclosures.
“People don’t usually associate chemistry with inventions,” says Mabury. “But we have a history of innovation that we are building on by taking new opportunities.” Those opportunities, and the source of the high level of commercialization, have come in what Mabury calls “pre-incubation.”
Incubators provide space and resources to research groups preparing to take their ideas to the marketplace. The MaRS complex in Toronto — of which U of T is a partner — is the perfect example.
But Mabury says there is a period before incubation. “We’re not trying to compete with MaRS. We’re trying to bridge between the discovery in the lab and when it’s appropriate to be in an incubator.”
To this end, a number of groups have set up shop temporarily in the chemistry facilities. Many of these teams have gone on to success, such as Axela Inc. (founded by professor Cynthia Goh), DVS Sciences Inc. (founded by professor Scott Tanner) and Northern Nanotechnologies, founded by a group formerly in Goh’s U of T lab that includes the company’s chief technology officer and U of T alumnus, Darren Anderson.
Anderson says the U of T pre-incubation program was crucial. “Cynthia Goh led an Entrepreneurship 101 course that was critical in helping us start. And Scott arranged lab space and access to equipment that we wouldn’t have been able to afford elsewhere in the city. Our success wouldn’t be possible without the opportunity offered by U of T.”
Mabury emphasizes that the department’s focus is still on “fundamental research. But we also consider how our research can be applied. We try to achieve a balance.”
This balance suits Nobel laureate John Polanyi. In addition to his renowned achievements in chemistry research, Polanyi has long advocated for scholars to have the freedom to “make discoveries where nature allows, rather than where commerce dictates.” He fears an overemphasis on commercialization could limit this freedom.
“The central purpose of university research is to advance understanding. I’m all for having our research applied to the marketplace so people can make good use of it, when that is possible. But commercialization shouldn’t drive our research. If we go flat out for commercialization, we will undermine the basis for research.”
Geoff Ozin has balanced cutting-edge basic research with commercialization. One of the most honored chemists in Canada, and a pioneer in nanotechnology, Ozin has made a number of important achievements in taking his work to the marketplace, most recently through a company, Opalux, managed by a former student (see page 3).
“As I beachcomb for ideas, I am always thinking of how the materials we create can be applied in the real world. It’s impossible for me not to think of that.”
For Ozin, commercialization 25 years ago was lacking in support from universities. “We had to learn by the skin of our teeth. But from what it was then and is now, with The Innovations Group, represents the difference between night and day. We have a good team there now.”
Still, Ozin believes there is room to improve. “The companies we are starting from research need more investment and mechanisms that can accelerate their growth and enhance the chances of success to give us the edge over competition in other countries. Canada must create the environment that gave birth to Silicon Valley or the network of national labs in Europe that nurture great ideas from the lab to market. We’re getting there, but there is more to do.”
Scott Mabury’s take? “Ozin’s and Polanyi’s ideas blend into each other. That’s how we are building our department — an emphasis on fundamental basic science and being nimble enough to take commercialization opportunities.”