Dr. Crispin Russell, lead for Team Enhanced Lung Cancer Care. Image: submitted
When Covid-19 restrictions kept the Dragon’s Den-inspired competition from taking place in person, Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation partnered with Hemmings House Pictures to let the show go on.
This year, the hospital foundation’s medical research competition, aka Lion’s Den, is coming back in the form of a film. The movie will focus on the behind-the-scenes journey of three teams of medical professionals competing to win half a million-dollar prize to fund their project.
“By capturing that on film, [the foundation] could really explain to a wider audience the importance of philanthropy and really the power that the passion physicians can have long-term in healthcare in this province,” said Shannon Hunter, director of marketing and communications.
Smart Skin Technologies Inc., a Fredericton, NB-based provider of IIoT productivity solutions, raised $10.7M in funding.
The round was led by BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, with participation from Schott AG, Mariner’s East Valley Ventures and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations, hiring up to 50 new employees in the next year, and its business reach.
Led by Evan Justason, CEO, and Kumaran Thillainadarajah, founder and CTO, Smart Skin Technologies is a global leader in IIoT productivity solutions. The company’s patented Quantifeel™ solutions combine innovative sensors, deep analytics and artificial intelligence to provide global manufacturers with actionable data on the forces their containers experience during the filling and packaging process.
Support for student success
New Brunswick is a long way from Bangladesh, but graduate student Mehedee Siddiquee says the research opportunities at UNB were a compelling reason to make the journey.
Mehedee is in his second year at UNB’s Fredericton campus, where he is engaged in research studying the recruitment and retention of immigrants to New Brunswick. He is writing a master’s dissertation on the subject, which is being carried out for the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.
Mehedee’s research looks at the retention rate of newcomers in New Brunswick compared to elsewhere in Canada: “Immigrants come here to New Brunswick but after a couple of years here many move to other provinces. We are trying to find out why.”