About illumiSonics
ILLUMISONICS IS A COMPANY BASED ON NEW PHYSICS (PARS®) TO ILLUMINATE DEEP DATA
Our proprietary PARS® (Photon Absorption Remote Sensing) technology is a revolution in optical imaging.
Our company is developing and plans to commercialize its PARS® advanced optical imaging systems for a wide range of pre-clinical and clinical applications.
Our proprietary PARS® (Photon Absorption Remote Sensing) technology is a revolution in optical imaging.
Our company is developing and plans to commercialize its PARS® advanced optical imaging systems for a wide range of pre-clinical and clinical applications.
Experienced Leadership
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SCOTT DURBIN
CEO 
Mr. Durbin brings over 25 years of executive leadership and expertise in finance, corporate development, clinical development, and operational experience from start-ups to multi-national companies. Mr. Durbin was formerly CEO of Viveve Medical, Inc., a publicly traded global women’s health company where he raised more than $250M in large private, public and debt financings. Prior to Viveve, Mr. Durbin was CFO for Vericel, where he raised over $50M in public capital, attracting high quality institutional investors and fostering equity research from some of the leading life science investment banks. At Prescient Medical, Inc., he was a co-founder and acted as both COO and CFO. There, he led the company’s early-stage growth, built the infrastructure to support the operation of the company as a future public entity, and raised over $60M in private equity. To date, he has completed more than $5B in financings and merger and acquisitions for life science companies.
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DR. PARSIN HAJI REZA, PhD.
CTO 
Dr. Reza discovered and pioneered the PARS® imaging techniques. In November 2014, he co-founded illumiSonics inc., holding the position of CEO from 2014 to 2018 and the chairman from 2014 to 2023. Dr. Reza is an award winning professor at the University of Waterloo and leads a large team of technical experts at PhotoMedicine Labs. He brings more than 12 years experience in optics and biomedical engineering, and continues to advance the validation of PARS® through these efforts. He currently has 35+ peer reviewed journal papers in optics and biomedical Engineering. He also holds 12+ family of patents regarding PARS® technology. Dr. Reza has been recognized for his innovative scientific contributions to advancing the state of optical imaging.
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DR. JOHN MACKEY, MD.
CMO 
Dr. Mackey is a medical oncologist and Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the University of Alberta. In addition to acting as director and clinical advisor to illumiSonics, Dr Mackey brings deep MedTech commercialization experience. He co-founded Pacylex Pharmaceuticals, J2 Endeavours, and SMHeartCard Inc. As Chair of the Alberta Pre-Phase I Program steering committee, he has a highly skilled team committed to bringing new anticancer therapies into clinical testing (www.prephaseone.com). Dr. Mackey has authored or co-authored more than 300 biomedical peer-reviewed publications.
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Jochen Schweizer
COO 
Jochen Schweizer joined us from Danaher, where he was Head of Microsurgery at the Business Unit Medical of Leica Microsystems. In this role, he was responsible for the Medical Strategy, the Portfolio Management and Clinical Applications. From 2012 to 2020 Jochen worked at ZEISS Microscopy in leadership positions in China and Germany, driving the development of products and solutions in Light Microscopy. Before, Jochen worked in the machine vision industry at the Fraunhofer Institute, Stemmer Imaging and SVS-Vistek. Jochen brings 10+ years of international leadership experience - managing complex, international multi-stakeholder projects. He is experienced in Product Management and Product Development in Medical, Life Sciences and Digital Imaging.
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Jill Stefanelli
Corporate Development Consultant 
Dr. Stefanelli brings over 20 years of experience in pathology and molecular diagnostics to the illumiSonics team. A pioneer in precision medicine, she has held positions as President and Chief Business Officer at Paige, where her business leadership was central to the company’s corporate strategy and strong commercial growth. In this role, Jill oversaw strategic partnerships with life science companies and the biomarker development strategy with pharmaceutical partners. Prior to this, she served as Senior Vice President of Partnerships at Invitae, by way of the ArcherDX acquisition, where she led global Companion Diagnostic partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment.
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Management
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MIKE BISHOP
Director, Product Dev. and Hardware Architecture 
Mike Bishop worked 10 years at Apple and was most recently Engineering Manager in hardware technologies, where he managed a team of engineers and led a cross disciplinary research team in the design and prototyping of biophotonic based hardware systems. Prior to joining Apple, Mike was in the Product Development Group at Christie Digital and was a key member of the technical team responsible for designing, prototyping, and launching the first high power RGB laser based cinema projector. Mike holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from University of Waterloo as well as a MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University. He holds numerous patents in the fields of nanotechnology, optical sensor design, optomechanical design, and thermal architectures.
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KRISTOF SUBRYAN
Director, Software Architecture 
Kristof Subryan worked as a software professional in robotics research, medical imaging, education and developing commercial software for some of the big computer companies. He worked 16 years at Apple where, amongst other projects, he managed development of Aperture, software for professional photographers. Prior to Apple he worked for Sun Microsystems where he managed number of large infrastructure projects supporting Sun’s business as well as projects powering large telecom companies. He holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science from University of Manitoba.
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ILONA URBANIAK, PhD.
Senior AI Software Engineer 
Dr. Urbaniak is an experienced and passionate image processing scientist. She has received a Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo. She has continued her journey as a medical image processing scientist as a Postdoctoral Fellow (OCE TalentEdge) at Client Outlook Inc., in Waterloo, ON. She has joined us from the Cracow University of Technology where she holds a position as an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Dept. She has been conducting scientific publishable research in AI medical image analysis. She was also working as the Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the National Research Institute (NASK) in Warsaw, Poland, where she acquired experience in leading AI projects on the national scale and developing research partnerships between academia and industry.
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DEEPAK DINAKARAN
Director Molecular Imaging 
Dr. Dinakaran is a radiation oncologist and clinician scientist in Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center / Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada. He completed his BSc(Hons) at the University of Toronto, MD,CM at McGill University, MEd from the University of British Columbia, PhD from the University of Alberta, and postgraduate training in National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, USA. His basic science and translational research focus has been on biophotonics systems in radiation & drug combinations, novel nanoparticle-based therapeutics, and understanding radiotherapy-drug interactions using biomarker analysis. His clinical research has focused on augmenting checkpoint inhibitors through immunopriming radiation, and improving toxicity predictors via advanced dosimetric analysis. Dr. Dinakaran has notably pioneered a new therapeutic strategy using radiation-activated photodynamic therapy (radioPDT) nanoparticles by bringing together a multidisciplinary team spanning chemical engineers to radiation oncologists, and led the project to a technology patent, industry licensing partnership and CIHR funding for preclinical development. He has won multiple awards for his research work from national and international associations. He also is a co-investigator on multiple Phase I/II clinical trials in partnership with EMD Serono, AstraZeneca, Ontario Cancer Research Institute and Alberta Cancer Foundation. Dr. Dinakaran has authored 20+ research publications, abstracts and book chapters.
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JIM ROBBINS
VP Finance (Consultant) 
Mr. Robbins has over twenty-five years of accounting and finance
experience in both industry and public accounting. Prior to joining illumiSonics, Mr. Robbins served at Viveve Medical, Inc., a publicly traded global women’s health medical technology company that was committed to advancing new solutions to improve women’s overall well-being and quality of life. Mr. Robbins joined Viveve as Vice President of Finance in 2014 and was promoted to Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration in 2021 having served as Vice President of Finance and Administration since 2017. In 2018, he was appointed as Viveve’s Principal Accounting and Financial Officer. Prior to joining Viveve, he provided accounting, finance and business consulting services for various biotechnology companies. From 2010 to 2012 he served as Vice President of Finance and Administration for Auxogyn, Inc., a privately held medical technology company focused on advancing women’s reproductive health by translating scientific discoveries in early embryo development into clinical solutions that improve patient outcomes in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures. Mr. Robbins served as Director of Finance and Vice President of Finance from 2004 to 2010 for Micrus Endovascular, Inc., a publicly traded global company which developed, manufactured, and marketed both implantable and disposable medical devices used in the treatment of cerebral vascular diseases. Prior to Micrus Endovascular, he served at Genitope Corporation as Corporate Controller, a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on the research and development of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer. From 1995 to 2001, he served in management positions for high technology companies including Extricity, Inc., InVision Technologies, Inc., and Truevision, Inc. and was in the audit practice of Price Waterhouse, LLP from 1987 to 1995. Mr. Robbins received his Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and is a CPA. |
Board of Directors
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STEVEN BASTA
Chairman 
Mr. Basta is a Senior Executive with broad experience leading biopharma and medical technology companies. Demonstrated success launching and scaling commercial life science products and leading product development. Over the past 25 years, Steve has led multiple life science companies developing and commercializing biopharma and medical device technologies. Steve currently serves as CEO of Sanotize, a Vancouver-based pharmaceutical and medical device company, and as a director of VYNE Therapeutics and Dermbiont. Steve has successfully led two companies through Initial Public Offerings and has led multiple partnerships, private financings, mergers and licensing collaborations. Steve served as CEO of BioForm Medical through product development, initial commercial launch and scale up of a leading injectable aesthetics business, making it a worldwide leader in the dermal filler space, and ultimately a leader broadly in medical aesthetics. Steve led AlterG in establishing the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill as a core tool in physical therapy rehab for orthopedic and neurologic injury. Steve holds a BA in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from Kellogg.
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SCOTT DURBIN
CEO 
Mr. Durbin brings over 25 years of executive leadership and expertise in finance, corporate development, clinical development, and operational experience from start-ups to multi-national companies. Mr. Durbin was formerly CEO of Viveve Medical, Inc., a publicly traded global women’s health company where he raised more than $250M in large private, public and debt financings. Prior to Viveve, Mr. Durbin was CFO for Vericel, where he raised over $50M in public capital, attracting high quality institutional investors and fostering equity research from some of the leading life science investment banks. At Prescient Medical, Inc., he was a co-founder and acted as both COO and CFO. There, he led the company’s early-stage growth, built the infrastructure to support the operation of the company as a future public entity, and raised over $60M in private equity. To date, he has completed more than $5B in financings and merger and acquisitions for life science companies.
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PARSIN HAJI REZA, PhD.
Founder & CTO 
Dr. Reza discovered and pioneered the PARS® imaging techniques. In November 2014, he co-founded illumiSonics inc., holding the position of CEO from 2014 to 2018 and the chairman from 2014 to 2023. Dr. Reza is an award winning professor at the University of Waterloo and leads a large team of technical experts at PhotoMedicine Labs. He brings more than 12 years experience in optics and biomedical engineering, and continues to advance the validation of PARS® through these efforts. He currently has 35+ peer reviewed journal papers in optics and biomedical Engineering. He also holds 12+ family of patents regarding PARS® technology. Dr. Reza has been recognized for his innovative scientific contributions to advancing the state of optical imaging.
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JOHN MACKEY, MD.
CMO 
Dr. Mackey is a medical oncologist and Professor Emeritus of Oncology at the University of Alberta. In addition to acting as director and clinical advisor to illumiSonics, Dr Mackey brings deep MedTech commercialization experience. He co-founded Pacylex Pharmaceuticals, J2 Endeavours, and SMHeartCard Inc. As Chair of the Alberta Pre-Phase I Program steering committee, he has a highly skilled team committed to bringing new anticancer therapies into clinical testing (www.prephaseone.com). Dr. Mackey has authored or co-authored more than 300 biomedical peer-reviewed publications.
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GLEN MACKEY
Mr. Mackey is a highly accomplished corporate executive with extensive experience in marketing, trading, analytical, compliance, and financial management within commodity marketing and financial institution sectors. Mackey is currently Chairman of the board of VRP Farms Ltd., and previously served as Chief Risk and Procurement Officer at NRG Energy, Inc. where he oversaw all retail brand costing and structuring, cash management, insurance, procurement, and risk management activities within the NRG portfolio of companies. He has also held leadership positions at Nexen Inc., EnCana Midstream and Marketing, Duke Energy/Westcoast Energy/Engage Energy, and TD Bank Financial Group. Mackey is an advisory board member at Rutgers University, Mathematical Finance, and a member of the Market Risk Advisory Committee of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of GenOn Energy, Inc., Mirant Novatas Corporation, and several other companies.
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BRUCE JOHNSON
Mr. Johnson has been the Chief Executive of a number of companies primarily in the technology sector. He was the co-founder and CEO of Intuit Canada and UK and grew that organization to 700 staff and revenues of around $115M. He currently is active in coaching entrepreneurs and sits on a number of boards including HeadCount Corporation, Vertical City Inc., Rehabtronics Inc., and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute.
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KEVIN FAHEY, PhD.
Dr. Fahey has held executive positions in both large and small companies, and in all cases has driven dramatic growth time and time again. At Xradia (acquired by ZEISS) and FEI (acquired by ThermoFisher), Dr. Fahey grew the business over 4X within 4 years by restructuring their existing products, solutions and operations. He drove entry into new markets, and implemented efficient sales, marketing, and management systems that enabled the businesses to scale into the future. Dr. Fahey grew startup businesses from pre-revenue to commercialization at ESI, Metrosol, and OptoAtmospherics, including landing large B2B customers. Dr. Fahey successfully pivoted ESI, KMLabs, ZEISS into new markets, creating new business lines and implementing integrated sales and marketing channels that drove rapid increases in sales. Dr. Fahey holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Our Development and Technology Partners
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PHOTOMEDICINE LABS
The PhotoMedicine Labs (PML) is a research group in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Professor Parsin Haji Reza founded PML in September 2018, with the vision of growing it to become a major hub within the fields of biomedical optics and optical imaging. PML is composed of talented graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, scientists, engineers, and clinicians, all working to design and develop innovative medical imaging techniques in the field of digital pathology, oncology, pre-clinical research, drug discovery, and ophthalmology. » PhotoMedicine Labs |