TECHNOLOGY
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I had the expertise with the mechanics , and we were both interested in a stem cell tissue engineering component .
“ We started working together , and Ron had the vision that maybe this could be a company , something with commercial value . I ’ m really excited and inspired by the science part of it ; I don ’ t really consider myself that much of a businessman , but he had that vision , and it seemed like a really exciting opportunity .”
The third person involved was Professor Michelle Khine , who specialises in microfluidics and machine learning . Together , they founded Novoheart in 2014 , with the company going public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in October 2017 .
Novoheart has developed not just healthy hearts for testing , but they are also able to produce diseased heart tissues , allowing not just the safety of drugs to be tested but also their efficacy in treating disease .
“ The bottom line is , mice aren ’ t humans , and especially with the heart , it ’ s just fundamentally different ”
Kevin Costa , CSO at Novoheart
OCTOBER 2018