Freelance Writer
Tech & Innovation
An innovative leap: Amanda Hall’s secret to sustainable success
MaRS
“I never thought of myself as entrepreneur, but I knew in my gut that the corporate world wasn’t for me. For six years, I worked for the biggest gas producer in North America. As a geophysicist, my job was to work with a team to find oil and gas, drill wells, study the basin and optimize it, extracting as much as possible from each reservoir. I worked with good people and good teams, and there was always a mystery to solve — I loved the challenge." Read More
This former Blue Jays pitcher changed his career to start his own cryopreservation business
MaRS
“For my grade seven science fair the theme was mechanics, and the goal was to take something apart to understand how it worked. Most kids tackled radios and toasters, but my project was a little different: I studied knees. I got to watch a knee replacement surgery, and it blew me away. The next day, I even got to watch as the patient walked across the room to hug and thank her doctor. "
This doctor would rather not do another amputation. So, she invented a monitoring device to help patients.
MaRS
“The surgical part of an amputation is relatively straight-forward. I am focused, I am in the moment, I know exactly what to do. But placing the limb in the bucket is something else entirely. You know that life has changed forever for that patient. I always take a moment to grieve for them, and for their loss.
Cancer patients are able to live longer, fuller lives with precision medicine
MaRS
“A few years ago, I heard of a patient with late-stage cancer who wasn’t responding to traditional treatment. She was dying in the intensive care unit; her family was preparing her funeral. It’s not uncommon — many people die from cancer despite their doctors’ best efforts. But technology is changing that.
“Disruption always comes from someone who doesn’t know the rules.”
MaRS

“The first drugs that were developed were done so by blind luck — scientists were essentially just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck. Insulin, for example, was the result of people stumbling across discoveries. Pretty quickly, though, all of the low-lying fruit had been plucked. And that’s where a lot of drug development stalled.
