Our Team
Director, Programs & Ecosystem Development
Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation
Paramita Chaudhuri Basu is an innovation facilitator, scientist, and educator. She grew up in the city of Kolkata, India where she earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta, Canada, Paramita studied the structures of membrane proteins. In mid-2010 Paramita joined the prestigious Presidency University, Kolkata, India as an assistant professor in the Department of Life Sciences, where she taught and led a research group for six years.
Paramita’s avid interest in altruism and using scientific knowledge for the benefit of humankind brought her back to Canada as an MBA student. While pursuing graduate studies in management, Paramita continued to be involved in health innovation as an intern in multiple companies. Her involvement included not only scientific innovation to improve the quality of human health but also using artificial intelligence in these pursuits.
After completing her MBA from the University of Alberta, Paramita joined the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry as the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Manager, leading the Health Innovation Hub, a community incubator for early stage companies and startups in human health. Currently, she is the Director of Programs & Ecosystem Development at Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation, an Edmonton based not-for-profit, where she oversees all programs while continuing to lead the Health Innovation Hub.
Apart from health innovation, Paramita is also enthusiastic about reading, traveling and hiking in the mountains. She lives in Edmonton with her husband, where she spends her leisure time tending her garden or painting while listening to music.
Manager, Programs
Applied Pharmaceutical Innovation
Marina is an innovation enthusiast with 9 years of experience in operations management and leadership. She is highly skilled in communication, customer relations, project management, training, and team building. She is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship because she believes that new ventures can challenge the status quo, provide innovative solutions to customers and make the world a better place.
Marina’s happy place is in the Rockies where she is able to unwind, get inspired, and access her creative side. In her spare time, you can find her exploring new places in Edmonton, Canada, and abroad.
Events Coordinator
University of Alberta
Nife is a social and health science enthusiast with over 3 years of event coordination, planning and project management. Nife is passionate about being involved in the change and innovation that can bring said improvements to the health care system. She has worked with several organizations producing knowledge campaigns, conferences, events, and projects aimed at improving health outcomes for the general public.
In her spare time, Nife can be seen volunteering with various non-profit organizations, reading and exploring different walking paths that Edmonton has to offer.
Paramita Chaudhuri Basu, PhD MBA
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Manager
Paramita is a life science enthusiast with a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship. She brings a rich background and subject matter expertise in life science, biotech and healthtech. She has worked with many startups supporting them with their business readiness and technology commercialization needs. She is a trained facilitator, mentor and coach. She has worked for many years as an Assistant Professor, training and mentoring graduate students and postdocs.
When she is not building partnerships and collaborating across disciplines, she can be found hiking in the mountains or walking in her neighbourhood park.
Marina Barbu, MBA
Program Coordinator
Marina is a recent MBA graduate who possesses over eight years of experience in operations and leadership in the hotel industry in the mid and luxury markets. She is highly skilled in communication, customer relations, project management, training, and team building. She is passionate about innovation and entrepreneurship because she believes that new ventures can challenge the status quo, provide innovative solutions to the customers and make the world a better place.
Marina’s happy place is in the Rockies where she is able to unwind, get inspired, and access her creative side. In her spare time, you can find her exploring new places in Edmonton, Canada and abroad. She is a language enthusiast, currently speaking Romanian and Russian fluently, and learning French.
Arun Nair
Consultant, Health Innovation Intern
Arun is an MBA student at the University of Alberta and comes with more than six years of work experience across startups and SMEs. He prides himself on working in countries like the UK, Serbia, India, and Canada and sectors like ed-tech, logistics, IT, F&B and health care. He has a passion for solving complex business problems that leave a positive imprint on society. He has spent the last four years building and scaling up startups that have seen exponential growth.
Apart from work, he has deep interests in discovering new music, exploring cafes across cities, and spending time in nature.
Our Mission
We aim to build a health and life sciences innovation community at the University of Alberta by providing space, resources, support and networks to startup companies, with the intent of increasing commercialization success of health and life sciences technologies.