Dr. Julie Wilson, PhD

Senior Program Manager, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research


Dr. Wilson is a pharmacologist with more than 15 years experience in early stage drug discovery and preclinical research. As a Research Scientist, she gained extensive multi-disciplinary project management experience in the Biotech sector (NPS Pharmaceuticals) and through liaison with a large pharmaceutical partner (AstraZeneca). Through these activities, she demonstrated strong team-building capabilities. As Director of Pharmacology at BioQuest Innovations, she managed all pre-clinical IND enabling studies through outsourcing activities with CROs and academic collaborators, and was responsible for adherence to timelines, delivery of milestones and keeping within budget. Dr. Wilson is currently a Senior Program Manager in the Drug Discovery Program at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), where she manages multiple projects of high priority, complexity, long-term duration and OICR-wide scope. Dr. Wilson completed her Ph.D. in Pharmacology at the University of Toronto, and her B.Sc. (Honours) in Pharmacology at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She completed her post-doctoral training at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (now part of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) in Toronto as a Michael Smith Medical Research Council Fellow.

Dr. Harry Schachter, MD, PhD

Professor Emeritus in the Dept of Biochemistry, University of Toronto and Molecular Structure and Function at the Hospital for Sick Children


I was born in Vienna in 1933, moved to Trinidad (British West Indies) in 1938 and to Toronto in 1951. I received three degrees from the University of Toronto: B.A. (Physiology and Biochemistry) in 1955, MD in 1959 and PhD in Biochemistry with Gordon Dixon in 1964. I spent 1966-68 in Baltimore with Saul Roseman to learn all I could about glycosyltransferases, a very neglected field at the time. I spent the next 42 years doing basic research in glycobiology, first at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Toronto, and then at the Hospital for Sick Children. I closed my lab in 2010.

Dr. Frances Sharom, PhD

Professor Emeritus in the Dept of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Guelph


Dr. Frances Sharom obtained a B.Sc. Honours Degree in Chemistry at the University of Guelph, and completed a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario. She joined the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department at the University of Guelph in 1980 as an Assistant Professor. Until recently, Dr. Sharom was Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Membrane Protein Biology in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, where she is now Professor Emeritus. Over the course of her career, she was Director of two graduate programs (Chemistry & Biochemistry, Biophysics), and has for many years been a member of the executive board of the Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences (CSMB, formerly the CSBMCB). Dr. Sharom has won several teaching awards, including an OCUFA award in 1992, a Lieutenant-Governor’s Award in 1993, and UGFA awards in 1992 and 2002. Her research focus is in the area of membrane proteins and lipids, and her research group has published over 120 journal articles in this field.

Andrew Yoshioka, BS

President of Sanbonki Inc.


Andrew has more than 27 years of diverse pharmaceutical/biotech industry and consulting experience working in both start-ups and big pharma. During his career he has progressed through fifteen different job titles at seven companies and three mergers. As president of his own company Sanbonki Inc. he is a strategic business advisor to life sciences companies. He has previously been involved with career events at UofT LSCDS, UTSC Career Spark, mentored at a variety of entrepreneur startup competitions and is an active volunteer at Life Sciences Ontario, and the RIC Centre in Peel Region.

Panel Discussion