Aspect Biosystems is a Vancouver-based biotechnology company developing bioengineered cellular medicines to replace or restore biological function lost due to disease. The company combines bioprinting, stem cell biology, cell engineering, and computational design to create cell-based, curative medicines for applications including diabetes and rare endocrine disorders.
You studied engineering before becoming immersed in biology. What was it about those disciplines that appealed to you?
It all comes from a passion for building. I love creating something valuable, and that's what drew me into engineering. I initially went down the electrical and computer engineering path and found it fascinating.
Later, while trying to decide what came next, I started sitting in biology classes. That's where I got infected with a passion for biology and the dynamism it offered. We were living through a period when our understanding of biology was expanding rapidly, and the idea that we could build with biology really blew my mind. That led me to find the right research groups, co-founders and technology path. It started with a passion for building, but eventually I became excited not just by building the non-living, but by building living systems as well.
Many scientific breakthroughs are exciting in theory, but far harder to translate into real-world therapies. What convinced you that bioprinted tissue therapeutics could become both transformative and viable?
The litmus test for me was simple: do we know more of the biology than not, and can we turn it into a bioengineering challenge? We felt we could because we understood the biology well enough to tackle the problem.
What I've learned is that biology will humble you very quickly. That's why we focus on disease areas where we understand more of the biology than not. Diabetes is a good example. We know people with Type 1 diabetes lose the cells that sense glucose and release insulin. Once you understand that biological problem, it becomes an engineering challenge: how do you create those cells at scale, deliver them into the body, and keep them healthy and functional? What gave me confidence was the ability to apply an engineering mindset to well-understood biology and restore function lost due to disease.
Much of the public conversation around Aspect has focused on diabetes, but the platform was always designed with broader applications in mind. How do you think about the opportunity ahead?
Aspect's goal is to build a generational company, and that belief comes from having a platform technology capable of restoring many functions lost due to disease. We're not initially trying to replace entire organs with all their complexity. We're focused on understanding organ malfunction, function by function, and restoring what has been lost.
Take the liver. It performs hundreds of functions, but in some cases, only one function is impaired. Today, a patient may require a donor liver transplant even though only one function is missing. Our approach is to create a cellular medicine that restores that specific function. Another example is primary adrenal insufficiency, where patients lose the ability to produce cortisol and must take steroids every day. We're developing an implantable, bioengineered adrenal tissue that can sense stress signals from the brain and produce the appropriate level of cortisol. More broadly, we see cells as building blocks to create bioengineered medicines that restore function.
We're not trying to replicate biology one-for-one; we're using cells as building blocks to build bioengineered medicines capable of restoring, replacing, and repairing function inside the body.
Canada has produced world-class research and successful biotech companies, but relatively few have reached global scale. What does it take to build an enduring biotech company in Canada?
Canada is certainly not short of great discoveries. At Aspect, we aspire to be Canada's first $100 billion biotech company. That's our goal. It won't happen overnight. But when it does happen, and we’re on that trajectory, it will feel like an overnight success. It's that ambition, compounded year after year, that creates category-leading companies and breakthrough medicines.
What does it take? First, world-changing technology capable of creating a new category and multiple breakthrough medicines. Second, a long-term view and deep partnerships with the government to build the infrastructure, capabilities, and manufacturing platforms required to go the distance. We've secured about half a billion dollars of government-funded projects with federal and provincial partners to build those capabilities.
Third, talent. Over the last 18 months, we've recruited senior executives from major biotechs in the Boston and California biotech ecosystems who have moved their families to Vancouver. Fourth, capital. Great Canadian companies attract early-stage capital, but building enduring companies requires large-scale pools of growth capital aligned with founders for the long term. Those are the key ingredients: highly differentiated technology platforms creating a pipeline of breakthrough medicines, talent, integrated development and manufacturing capabilities, and growth capital.
As Canada looks to build more globally competitive companies, what will separate those that achieve real scale from those that fall short?
The challenge is scaling multi-billion-dollar companies into $100 billion companies and not settling before reaching the finish line. That requires alignment with the government and access to capital that can support a long-term vision.
Aspect has raised more than $500 million and is well capitalized. Broadly speaking, our best Canadian companies will need access to large-scale capital aligned with long-term outcomes to remain anchored in Canada. Large pension funds and initiatives like the Canada Strong Fund can play a key role in building enduring companies. The government is playing a constructive role, and we like both the ambition and the follow-through we're seeing. Building a $100 billion company requires significant capital, and that's a critical ingredient.
You've described this as a rare moment of opportunity for Canada. What's at stake if the country gets it right—or gets it wrong?
This is an incredible opportunity, and if we don't seize it, it could take another generation to get back to this point. What worries me is failing to take advantage of the opportunity in front of us. We have what Prime Minister Carney calls a "rupture in the status quo," and that's an opportunity to redefine who we want to be as a country.
In that redefinition, we shouldn't just be an energy superpower—we should be an intellectual superpower as well. We need to build a true innovation economy, and I can't imagine an innovation economy without biotech at the very top. Life sciences and biotech speak to our identity as Canadians. Canadians are often viewed as the ‘nice guys’, and I can’t think of a better way of being nice than by making an impact on human health. We have many of the ingredients: human capital, a strong balance sheet and a crop of companies that could become anchor companies. Aspect aspires to be Canada's first $100 billion biotech company, and we're not going to rest until we get there. What keeps me up at night is making sure we deliver on that dream for the patients counting on us.
