Associate Professor Keith Pardee recognized with inaugural Derrick Rossi Innovation Award

Five University of Toronto researchers have been recognized with the inaugural Derrick Rossi Innovation Awards for leading innovative projects with strong potential to transition research into real-world applications that achieve maximum impact.

From converting agricultural waste into biochemicals to improving stroke recovery and combating insecticide resistance in mosquitoes, the five researchers – Chung-Wai Chow, Molly Shoichet, Peter Roy, Emma Master and Keith Pardee – have all demonstrated that their scholarship has the potential to be commercialized or, in the case of medicine, translated into health-care environments.

Unlike standard academic awards, the Derrick Rossi Innovation Awards not only provide financial support – they fill a critical gap in a landscape where promising, high-impact research often struggles to attract early-stage investment. The awards focus on proof-of-concept projects with strong socio-economic potential and encourage researchers to consider adoption strategies, regulatory hurdles and the overall market viability of their discoveries and innovations.

Congratulations to Associate Professor Keith Pardee, who developed an automated platform for small-batch RNA biomanufacturing, enabling local production of vaccines and other medicines to treat rare diseases in remote communities and lower-to-middle-income countries. The platform was successfully tested in South America over four months.

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