Desmond Pink

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT DESMOND PINK

The development and validation of new biotechnologies from the bench to the clinic have been at the forefront of my scientific career for the last ten years. My early academic journey spanned multiple disciplines while centering on amino acid biochemistry in large and small animal models. This led to my scientific position at Innovascreen Inc, a CRO founded by Dr. John Lewis, where I was encouraged to find divergent solutions to complex problems. Working with Dr. Lewis allowed me to gain significant expertise with real-time intravital imaging of the tumour microenvironment to research cancer progression, including the growth of new blood vessels, vascular permeability, and metastasis. My next challenge was developing a targetable lipid nanoparticle cargo delivery platform which is now proprietary technology owned by Entos Pharmaceuticals Inc. for use in genetic medicine.Over the last decade, I have been developing a liquid biopsy diagnostic platform called ClarityDX, that uses standard clinical analytes or biomarkers, extracellular vesicles and novel machine learning algorithms to define disease aggressiveness. University of Alberta spin-off company Nanostics, which I co-founded and am the Chief Science Officer of, uses the ClarityDX platform in its lead diagnostic test for aggressive prostate cancer, ClarityDX Prostate. This test risk stratifies men suspected of prostate cancer and can accurately identify men who do not need to undergo an invasive prostate biopsy. This test was commercialized and launched in 2023.As CSO of Nanostics Inc, I lead the science team in the preclinical and clinical development of novel biomarkers for urological cancer screening and diagnosis, as well as translational activities to develop innovative technologies to improve patient outcomes for different disease indications.