Dr. Soror Sharifpoor

Dr. Soror Sharifpoor is the Director of Commercialization & Partnerships at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, a role she began in February 2025. In this capacity, she leads a growing team focused on delivering transformative training programs, fostering strategic partnerships, implementing effective commercialization strategies, and cultivating an entrepreneurial culture, all with the ultimate goal of amplifying the impact of medical discoveries emerging from the Faculty. She is also the founder of the Entrepreneurship for Commercialization of Health Opportunities (ECHO) program, a national training and mentorship initiative that supports health innovators in translating research into impactful ventures. Originally launched in 2018 to support cardiovascular technologies, ECHO has since evolved to serve researchers and entrepreneurs across a broad range of health disciplines. In 2022, she helped launch ECHO Discovery, a foundational education program focused on ideation, research translation, and entrepreneurship.

From 2017 to early 2025, Dr. Sharifpoor held leadership roles within the Translational Biology and Engineering Program (TBEP) at the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, serving as Director of Strategy & Translation from 2020 onward. During her tenure, she played a central role in advancing TBEP’s mission by developing sustainable research strategies, cultivating high-impact partnerships, implementing commercialization pathways, and building a robust entrepreneurial and training ecosystem within the cardiovascular health sector.

Dr. Sharifpoor brings over 15 years of academic and industry experience in biomaterials, biomedical engineering, and regenerative medicine, specializing in cardiovascular and soft tissue research and innovation. From 2016 to 2020, she was the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Polumiros Inc., a biomaterials start-up where she led the development of a novel immunomodulatory polymer platform and was pivotal to fundraising, regulatory planning, and commercialization strategy. Prior to that, she served as an associate research engineer at Interface Biologics Inc., where she contributed to the development and commercialization of innovative biomaterials designed to improve the performance of medical devices and enable targeted drug delivery.

Dr. Sharifpoor received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto (Engineering Science – Biomedical Engineering major), her Master’s from Queen’s University (Chemical Engineering), and her PhD from the University of Toronto (Biomedical Engineering). She has been the recipient of several awards and recognitions, most notably the MaRS Portraits of Innovation, FACIT’s Ernsting Entrepreneurship Award, and the Norman F. Moody Award for Academic Excellence.