Canadian Gene Cure Foundation
Foundation Canadienne Géne Cure 

Anny Fortin currently holds the position of Director of Research at Dafra Pharma R&D in Belgium, a pharmaceutical company specializing in the development and sales of drugs against infectious diseases on the African market. She holds a doctorate in Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal, during which she specialized in host response to infections and the study of complex genetic diseases. Dr. Fortin won the Governor General’s Gold medal and Thomas Haliburton Henry Award for her PhD thesis. Dr. Fortin has now accumulated 10 years of experience in the corporate sector in the field of genetics, drug target identification and anti-infectious drug development. She is also present on the academic scene through numerous publications, presentations and training of graduate students.

Greg Hines is currently the President and CEO of ArcticDx Inc. a Molecular Diagnostic Company with an intellectual property portfolio in colorectal cancer and age-related macular degeneration. Previously, Mr. Hines was President, CEO and Director of Tm Bioscience Corporation (TSX: TMC) where he led the design, development and commercialization of a molecular diagnostic platform. Prior to this Mr. Hines served as President of Leo Pharma (Canada) Inc., a research-based pharmaceutical company which Mr. Hines founded in Canada in 1981. In this capacity he brought eight new medicines through clinical development (phase 2&3), regulatory approval and commercialization.

He also served on the Board of Directors of MEDEC, Rx&D, Toronto Biotechnology Initiative and Genesis Genomics Inc. Mr. Hines was the Chairman of the Rx&D Board in 1997/98. Mr. Hines served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Genesis Genomics Inc. and as an Entrepreneur in Residence mentoring life science companies at the MaRS centre in Toronto.

Dr. Alex Montpetit is an Adjunct Professor at McGill University and the Assistant Scientific Director of the McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre. His current research interests include the use of high-throughput DNA technology in the discovery of genetic determinants of rare and complex traits such as Type II diabetes, cancer and neurological diseases. He also develops bio-informatic methods for the analysis of structural variants, methylation profile and other types of variation from high-density arrays.

Dr Montpetit completed his PhD in Biochemistry in 2002 at the Universite de Montreal under Dr Daniel Sinnett in the field of the genetics of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. He then completed post doctoral research under Dr Tom Hudson at the Montreal Genome Centre, leading large-scale genomics projects, mostly association studies for various complex traits and the Canadian portion of the HapMap project.

Chris Wagner has more than 20 years of experience in commercialization and product development in the life sciences industry. Mr. Wagner currently serves on the Board of The Canadian Gene Cure Foundation, the Advisory Board for B.C. Children’s Hospital / Centre for Molecular Medicine, Boreal Genomics, Life Science BC, and the Rick Hansen Institute.

Mr. Wagner recently served as President and CEO of Sirius Genomics.  The Company develops personalized medicines for critical care illness. In collaboration with government, business, universities, and venture capital, the Company made multiple discoveries covered by thirteen patent families.  Mr. Wagner saw the Company through new strategy development, new scientific discovery, non-dilutive and equity capital raising, and the world’s largest sepsis genomics clinical trial.

Prior to Sirius Genomics, Mr. Wagner was with Aspreva Pharmaceuticals (now Vifor Pharma/Galenica Group) as an officer, founding member of the company’s executive committee, and as Vice President of Business Development & Global Marketing.  Mr. Wagner was part of the four member team securing $76 million in venture capital and $113 million in public financings. During his five-year tenure at Aspreva the valuation of the company was increased from $3 million to over $1 billion.

Prior to Aspreva, Mr. Wagner was with Eli Lilly working in Europe, North America and Asia with positions based in Toronto, Indianapolis and Boston. He worked on the development and commercialization of 15 products including biologics and small molecules with annual sales ranging from tens of millions to over four billion dollars per year.

Ma’n Zawati (LL.B., LL.M.) is a lawyer and the Academic Coordinator of the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University. He is also an Associate Member of the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill University. His research focuses on the legal and ethical aspects of biobanking, as well as the legal duties and liability of health care professionals in both clinical and research settings.

Mr. Zawati has published numerous articles on issues such as access to genomic databases, the return of research results/incidental findings in genomic research, the legal liability of physicians and the closure of biobanks. Mr.Zawati has also presented on these topics in Canada and internationally and is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Montreal, McGill University and the Université de Sherbrooke.

Mr. Zawati sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Bioethics Society, representing Eastern Canada (Quebec) and is a legal representative on the research ethics committee of the Montreal General Hospital.