Celebrating Excellence: 2025 HHS Research & Innovation Awards
“Today, we honour those who exemplify this spirit through their groundbreaking work, their dedication to excellence and their commitment to making a difference.”
Behind every medical breakthrough are researchers and innovators driven to discover new and better ways to improve care and save lives.
As part of Hamilton Health Sciences’ (HHS) Research and Innovation Awareness Month in October, our hospital celebrated locally-led exploration and advancement by HHS doctors and staff at the 2025 Research & Innovation Awards of Excellence event, held at LIUNA Station on Oct. 23.
It was a full house for the 2025 HHS Research & Innovation Awards of Excellence, celebrated at LIUNA Station.
“This is an occasion to celebrate the remarkable people and projects that are driving discovery, transforming care and improving lives, not just here in Hamilton but across Canada and beyond,” said Dr. Marc Jeschke, HHS’ vice president of research and innovation, and chief scientific officer.
“At Hamilton Health Sciences, research and innovation are not just part of our mission. They are part of our identity. They shape how we care, how we collaborate, and how we lead. Today, we honour those who exemplify this spirit through their groundbreaking work, their dedication to excellence and their commitment to making a difference.”
DRIVE-ing innovation
“These awards celebrate early-stage, high-potential ideas that are igniting change across our system.”
HHS DRIVE Spark grants support original new projects aimed at improving health-care delivery. DRIVE – which stands for Dare, Research, Innovate, VenturE – helps turn HHS research and innovation into real-world medical technologies and solutions that improve patient care and advance health.
“These awards celebrate early-stage, high-potential ideas that are igniting change across our system,” said Jeschke. Three HHS doctors each earned a $50,000 DRIVE Spark grant to bring their innovations to life. Winners were gynecological surgeon Dr. Esther Chin; gynecological surgeon and ultrasound specialist Dr. Mathew Leonardi; and medical biochemist Dr. Guillaume Paré, director of the HHS Clinical Research Laboratory and Biobank — Genetic and Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory.
Winning start-ups
Chin developed a simulator to help prevent women worldwide from dying due to severe bleeding after childbirth.
Dr. Esther Chin won a DRIVE Spark Award to help meet the growing worldwide demand for the STITCH simulator.
Her Surgical Trainer for Interventions to Control Postpartum Hemorrhage (STITCH) is a portable, affordable, reusable simulator that allows doctors to practice treating postpartum hemorrhage, a complication that kills tens of thousands of women worldwide each year. STITCH is on the market but demand is outpacing supply. Chin will use the award to help meet the growing demand worldwide.
Leonardi is developing ENDOTwin, a digital tool to improve treatment plans for patients diagnosed with endometriosis by `twinning’ them with a model of a current or former patient, or patients, electronically to create a highly personalized treatment plan. Leonardi is developing ENDOTwin software in partnership with McMaster University PhD student Shay Freger. The award will support building and using the ENDOTwin tool locally.
Paré and his start-up company Pareon Biosystems are developing state-of-the-the-art precision blood tests using artificial intelligence (AI) that would radically reduce the cost of blood testing, saving billions of dollars worldwide. The award will support developing the project from prototype to product.
Dr. Guillaume Paré (right) receives a DRIVE Spark award from Dr. John Kelton, executive director of McMaster’s Heersink School of Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Congratulations were offered to DRIVE Spark finalists Janny Proba, HHS’ chief nursing officer; Kyle Graham, a clinical manager at HHS McMaster Children’s Hospital; and Jennifer Johnson, an ED nurse.
Masterclass in entrepreneurship
Many physicians and researchers have game-changing ideas, but without entrepreneurial know-how, they’re unsure how to bring them to life. Those taking part in the DRIVE Spark competition credited masterclass sessions from McMaster’s Heersink School of Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship with helping them prepare strong pitches for the judges.
“Special thanks to Dr. John Kelton, executive director of the Heersink School of Biomedical Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and his amazing team, for their contribution and support of our Spark candidates,” Jeschke said.
Breakthrough researchers
New this year were the HHS Foundation’s Breakthrough Awards for leading-edge research, presented to six HHS clinician-researchers by Jeschke and Anissa Hilborn, the Foundation’s CEO.
This was the first year for the HHS Foundation Breakthrough Awards. Pictured left to right are: HHSF Board of Directors member Dave Vander Ploeg; HHS Vice President of Research & Innovation, and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Marc Jeschke; Breakthrough Award winners Drs. Jenna Smith-Turchyn, Julianna Sienna, Abdelsimar (Buddy) Omar, Samuel Chan (accepting for Aly-Khan Lalani), Pete Kavsak and Tobias Berg; HHSF Chair & President Holly Simmons; and HHSF CEO Anissa Hilborn.
Breakthrough Awards help fast-track promising research that has the potential to make a real difference for patients, from prevention and diagnosis to treatment, survivorship, and care delivery. This year’s focus was adult and pediatric cancer research, with grant funding of up to $25,000 for extraordinary research that has the potential to transform outcomes for people affected by this disease.
“We are proud to partner with HHS Research to support awards that help foster impactful research and innovation by recognizing researchers for their work addressing critical challenges in health care,” Hillborn said.
Winners were HHS hematologist Dr. Tobias Berg; clinical biochemist Dr. Pete Kavsak; medical oncologist Dr. Aly-Khan Lalani; neurosurgeon Dr. Abdelsimar (Buddy) Omar; radiation oncologist Dr. Julianna Sienna and physiotherapist Dr. Jenna Smith-Turchyn.
Kyle Graham, Gregory Pond, Samuel Chan, and Tobias Berg check out a copy of the 2024-25 HHS Research Impact Report.
Berg is a clinical hematologist at HHS Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre (JHCC), and an associate professor of oncology at McMaster. He’s director of the Translational Oncology Program at the Centre for Discovery in Cancer Research (CDCR), medical director of the HHS Specimen Processing Facility at JHCC, and lead on the HHS/McMaster Cancer Research Stem Cell Bank. Berg also holds the Marta and Owen Boris Foundation Chair in Leukemia and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Translational Research. Berg won for his project, A New Way to Treat Leukemia: Targeting its Metabolism. This project is testing a new treatment for acute myeloid leukemia that combines drugs affecting gene activity with drugs that target cancer cell metabolism. This approach disrupts cancer growth while sparing healthy cells. Using advanced models, the team will study drug interactions and prepare for clinical trials, with potential applications for other metabolism-driven cancers.
Dr. Pete Kavsak (right) shakes hands with Dr. Marc Jeschke after receiving a 2025 HHSF Breakthrough Award.
Kavsak is a biochemist and research lead for the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program at JHCC, and a professor in the department of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster. He won for his project, Improving Cardiac Troponin Testing Accuracy in Breast Cancer Patients treated with Herceptin. His project develops a point-of-care device to improve cardiac troponin testing for breast cancer patients taking the medication, herceptin. By eliminating test interferences causing false positives, it aims to enhance diagnostic accuracy for cardiac toxicity and extend benefits to other clinical populations.
Lalani is a medical oncologist at JHCC, where he serves as chair for the genitourinary cancers disease site team. He’s also a scientist with the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute, an associate member of CDCR and an associate professor at McMaster. Lalani received the award for his project, AI-Driven Radiomics for Personalized Therapy in Metastatic Kidney Cancer. This project is developing a tool that uses AI to analyze medical images using CT scans and patient history to predict which metastatic kidney cancer patients benefit from immunotherapy or radiation. Leveraging CytoShrink trial data, it creates a non-invasive biomarker, promotes fairness, and trains underrepresented researchers, advancing AI-driven cancer care.
Omar is an HHS neurosurgeon specializing in neuro-oncology, an assistant professor of neurosurgery and associate member of the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster. He won for his project, Tackling Uncertainty in Brain Cancer Care for Older Adults. This project analyzes 17 years of Ontario health-care data to identify the best treatment combinations for elderly patients diagnosed with the aggressive and deadly brain cancer, glioblastoma, since older patients are often excluded from trials. The project aims to provide evidence-based guidance for clinicians and families, improving survival and reducing uncertainty in care.
Sienna is a radiation oncologist at JHCC and an assistant professor of oncology at McMaster. Sienna received the award for the project, Lying Down for Better Outcomes: A Safer, More Comfortable Approach to Radiation Therapy. This project develops a new radiation technique using Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy, an advanced type of radiation therapy. This technique allows stem cell transplant patients to lie down instead of standing, while improving comfort, precision, and efficiency, and with potential applications in treatments like CAR T-cell therapy.
Dr. Jenna Smith-Turchyn receiving a 2025 HHSF Breakthrough Award.
Smith-Turchyn is a physiotherapist and assistant professor in McMaster’s School of Rehabilitation Sciences, as well as an associate member in the CDCR, and co-chair for the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s oncology division. Smith-Turchyn won for the project, A Coordinated Approach to Peri-operative Rehabilitation to Enhance Outcomes in Melanoma: The CARE-Melanoma Pilot Randomized Control Trial. This trial looks at how well a rehabilitation program works for melanoma patients who have had chemotherapy before their surgery. The goal is to improve recovery, physical function, and access to rehabilitation, informing future care strategies for this underserved population.
Road to success
Keynote speaker Dr. Kari Dalnoki-Veress
Keynote speaker Dr. Kari Dalnoki-Veress shared how his research led him to co-found MesoMat Inc., an advanced tire management platform that integrates real-time data from proprietary stretchable sensor technology with cloud-based analytics for performance monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Dalnoki-Veress is an experimental physicist at McMaster with a passion for soft condensed matter, teaching, and entrepreneurship. He’s the faculty of science research chair in experimental soft condensed matter physics in McMaster’s department of physics and astronomy. His research lab focuses on experiments in soft and living matter at surfaces and interfaces.
