Advisors

Dr. Ashok Jain, BSc, MSc, M.Tech, PhD
Biotech Advisor

Dr. Ashok Jain, a Fulbright Scholar, has spent over 15 years researching and developing drugs for Eye disease (Age related Macular degeneration), Auto Immune Diseases, Skin and Prostate Cancer. Dr. Jain was an integral member of the development team for Canada’s most commercially profitable drug, Visudyne from QLT Inc., commercially available in more than 75 countries.  Over the course of his career, Dr. Jain has made significant contributions to research and development including co-authoring 32 study reports submitted to the FDA to obtain IND (Investigational New Drug) and NDA (New Drug Application) status.  Ashok has also worked with Novartis, American Red Cross, Lederely Laboratories, and American Cynamid Company on various mutual interest research projects.

Ashok has extensive experience in pre-clinical drug development including drug screening, molecular formulations, animal studies, pharmacokinetics (ADME), GLP (Good Laboratory Practices) work and projects focused on clinical drug development including IND and NDA approval processes from the FDA.  He was Research Associate in the Microbiology and Immunology department at the University of British Columbia for 11 consecutive years.  Ashok is also a co-inventor of QLT Inc. second generation drug and holds a patent allowed in 37 countries for Ethylene Glycol Esters as a photoactive agent. To date, he has published 35 papers in peer reviewed journals.

Dr. Jain holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. (IIT, Delhi) in Chemistry, M. Tech (IIT, Delhi) in Modern Methods of Chemical Analysis and Control, a Ph.D. (AIIMS, New Delhi) in Mechanisms of Hormone Action in Human Breast Tissues as well as two years of a Fulbright Scholarship for Post Doctoral work in Reproductive Endocrinology (UCLA, USA) and Tumour Cell Biology (UTHSC, San Antonio, USA). 

Colin Smith, BSc (geology)
Research Associate - Mining

 Colin has worked in the mineral exploration sector for five years throughout British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. Specifically, he has experience in regional to deposit-scale mapping, sampling and interpretation, map digitization, core logging, down-hole geophysical surveying, technical reporting, and diamond drilling program management. Most recently, Colin worked as a geologist with CanAlaksa Uranium Ltd., focusing on grass roots uranium exploration in Northern Saskatchewan’s prolific Athabasca Basin. In addition to uranium, he also has exploration experience with oil & gas (coal-bed methane), copper-gold porphyry systems, and associated epithermal occurrences.

Colin graduated from the University of British Columbia with a B.Sc. in Geology, and has recently applied to the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia [APEGBC] to attain his Geol.I.T. and subsequent P.Geol designation.