About Us
Our Mission
Neuraura’s mission is to unlock safe and effective treatments for brain and metabolic-related disorders.
Neurological and metabolomic conditions are a global epidemic with a burden on society that is greater than cancer and cardiac conditions combined. Current treatment options are severely limited due to a legacy of stigma and practical challenges in developing targeting drugs.
Neuraura will unlock these treatment options by using its proprietary sensing technology to understand the electrical workings of the brain and body for personalized and adaptive care.
Combining world class expertise in neuroscience, microfabrication and clinical practice
We believe in pushing the boundaries of innovation while maintaining the highest ethical standards. Enhancing the patient and clinician experience is at the core of everything we do.
We partner with world-class researchers, health care professionals and medical organizations to build the neuro care system that we all want to use.
HISTORY
Neuraura Biotech Inc., (“Neuraura”) was formed as a spin-out from the University of Calgary as part of a collaboration between the Hotchkiss Brain Institute (Cumming School of Medicine), a pioneering institution in the field of brain-chip interface, and the Schulich School of Engineering.
Our technical co-founders, Pierre and Colin, have collaborated since 2012 to develop novel microsensors as part of Pierre’s PhD. They joined the inaugural cohort of the Creative Destructive Lab Rockies in 2017, where they started working closely with Claire, our third founder, and incorporated Neuraura in December that year.
Leadership & Founding Team
Colin Dalton
Co-founder & CSO
Colin keeps our team grounded and out of trouble, being able to predict potential future issues. He has more than 20 years’ experience conducting collaborative research to advance healthcare solutions and is the Director of the Microsystems Hub, a multi user micro-fabrication research facility and an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary. Colin holds a PhD in Electronic Engineering, specializing in Biotechnology from Bangor University, UK, as well as MSc and BEng degrees from the same institution.
Pierre Wijdenes
Co-founder & CPO
Pierre’s superpower is his unshakeable vision and optimism. He previously founded a B2C healthcare community platform, consulted to the medical device industry and worked in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada. Pierre holds a Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Calgary and a MEng/MSc in Human Factors, Cognitive Engineering and User Interaction from the École Nationale Supérieure de Cognitique (“ENSC”) in Bordeaux – France.
Claire Dixon
Co-founder & CEO
Claire has a unique ability to distill complex and disparate information into clear, concise insights. She is also our team whip, formidable despite her diminutive stature. She brings more than 20 years’ of strategy and operations experience to our team, including her formative years with L.E.K. Consulting and a number of senior operational roles at the Haskayne School of Business. Claire holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a MEng/MA in Mechanical Engineering from Cambridge University, UK.
World Class Advisors
Business
Topaz Conway
Australian Director
Topaz is a veteran of the innovation ecosystem with experience spanning MedTech, Bioengineering, IT and e- commerce. In addition to being Co-Founder/Chair of Springboard Enterprises (“SBE”) Australia (an accelerator for women-led companies delivering the world class Springboard Accelerator) 2012-2018, Topaz is a Director of Cicada Innovations (New South Wales’ Deep-Tech incubator), Omni Tanker Pty Ltd, University of Technology (Sydney) Foundation and is Prof of Practice at UNSW School of Business Management. She served on the Advisory Council to the Minister of Research & Innovation in Alberta, Canada (“ARIAC”) until 2019, and was a Commercialisation Advisor to Australian government Accelerating Commercialisation Grant Program. She is past Chair of CleanSpace Technologies (ASX: CSX) a respiratory protection device company, and currently is an active investor, advisor and mentor.
Dr. Timothy Deer
Partnerships Advisor
Tim is internationally renowned in the field of neuromodulation as past President of the International Neuromodulation Society and President and CEO of the Spine and Nerve Centre in Charleston, West Virginia. He is also a Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology at West Virginia University and is also a former member of the board of directors of American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians ("ASIPP"). Tim is well known as a global thought leader and for his of publications spanning a range of topics including spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation.
Eric Relkin
Consultant - Sales & Marketing
Eric is a cross-functional commercial executive with 17 years of sales, management, marketing and training experience. He previously led a top performing $25 million per year region of ten salespeople in medical device sales as Vice President, Marketing and Strategy for Neuromodulation at LivaNova (previously Cyberonics) and is currently leading the US sales efforts as Vice President of Sales for Micromed, a neurophysiology solution provider to neurologists. Eric supports Neuraura in engaging leading research groups, clinicians and pharma companies as potential customers for its research and clinical products.
Clinical
Dr. Mark Cook
Clinical Advisor
Mark is an internationally renowned neurologist specializing in the treatment of epilepsy and is Director of Neurology at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He has led first-in-human studies of implantable systems for seizure prediction and intracranial drug delivery Director of the Graeme Clark Institute and the Sir John Eccles Chair of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Department of Neurology at St. Vincent’s Hospital.
Dr. Paolo Federico
Clinical Advisor
Paolo is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Calgary and specialist in Epilepsy care. His work focuses on functional and structural imaging of epilepsy and advanced EEG analytical techniques, including the study of high frequency oscillations.
Dr. Walter Hader
Clinical Advisor
Walter is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Calgary and specialist in Epilepsy and Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. His research interests focus on the treatment of temporal lobe epilepsy and the visual consequence of different surgical techniques in retractable epilepsy.
Dr. Sumeet Vadera
Clinical Advisor
Sumeet is a neurosurgeon at University of California, Irvine (“UCI”) Health who specializes in both adult and paediatric epilepsy and uses a range of surgical technologies including robot-assisted intra-cranial surgery.
Product Development
Mark Allen
Consultant - Product Development
Mark is the founder and president of Tessitura Performance and was formerly the Director of Process Improvement at Alberta Health Services. He has more than 25 years’ product development experience.
Stephen Cartwright
Consultant - Software
Stephen is currently the Technical Director of the Visualization Hub at the University of Calgary. He has more than 20 years’ software development and project management experience.
The Team
Bonita Gunning
Quality Manager
Fahad Iqbal
Quality & Regulatory Intern
Kazim Haider
Hardware Technician
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Lisa Van de Panne
Hardware Intern
Alanna Devolin
Hardware Intern
