helen

Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder, Notch Therapeutics

Peter Zandstra graduated with a B.Eng. degree from McGill University in Chemical Engineering, obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and continued his research training as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Bioengineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1999, Dr. Zandstra began his faculty appointment at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and in 2016 was appointed as a University Professor. In July 2017, Zandstra joined the University of British Columbia as the Founding Director of the School of Biomedical Engineering, and as the Director of the Michael Smith Laboratories. In these roles he is building programs that apply technological innovation to biology and help to educate the next generation of biotechnology leaders. In addition to his academic roles, Dr. Zandstra has been involved in founding a number of biotechnology companies, including ExCellThera and Notch Therapeutics.

Dr. Zandstra’s research focuses on understanding how functional tissue forms from stem cells, and how this information can be applied to design of novel therapeutic technologies based on living cells. He has received significant recognition for his activities. He is the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering (Tier 1) and is a recipient of a number of awards and fellowships including the Premiers Research Excellence Award (2002), the E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship (2006), the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2007), and the Till and McCulloch Award (2013). Dr. Zandstra is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Engineering), the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.