Civil Engineering to Cell Therapy: Applying Engineering Principles to Medical Product Development
The first wave of successful implantable medical devices was successfully realized when physicians and engineers joined together to form cross-functional teams sharing medical, surgical, strength of materials, tribology and manufacturing methods. As medical products become more sophisticated and seek to replicate natural function more closely, the need for cross-functional collaborations continues to grow to include developmental biology, angiogenesis, and many other biological processes. This seminar will provide background into types of medical products including medical devices, biologics (cell therapy) and combination products, while chronicling a 30-year journey from the halls of E1, E2 and E3 at Waterloo to the medical device Mecca of Orange County, California and back to Canada to lead development of next-generation regenerative medicines.
Dr. Michael Scott is the Senior Vice President of Product Development at BlueRock Therapeutics. He brings to BlueRock Therapeutics (www.bluerocktx.com) more than 20 years of experience in the field of cardiovascular medical devices and in the stem cell therapeutics landscape. In addition to overseeing BlueRock’s Toronto operations, Dr. Scott is part of the team focused on development of a cell therapy platform for delivery of dopaminergic neurons to treat Parkinson’s disease and cardiomyocytes to treat congestive heart failure. Prior to joining BlueRock, Dr. Scott served as chief development officer & vice president of R&D at ViaCyte (www.viacyte.com), a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the treatment of type I diabetes with a stem cell-based therapy product. Before ViaCyte, Dr. Scott was responsible for surgical heart valve therapy programs driving clinical trials at Edwards Lifesciences (www.edwards.com), and was the vice president of R&D at Orqis Medical, focused on treatment of congestive heart failure. He received a Ph.D. in medical biophysics from The University of Western Ontario, and masters and bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of Waterloo.