Over ten years ago, the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research (TRCHR) set out to put engineers, biologists, and clinicians in the same room and see what happens when they take on heart failure together. Dr. Craig Simmons was chosen to lead that effort. A University of...
A person walks into an emergency department with heart failure. Within hours, a doctor must make a consequential call to send them home or admit them to the hospital. Both options run their own risks – admitting the patient can lead to an unnecessary hospitalization...
For researchers studying heart disease, lab-grown heart cells are an essential tool. Created from human stem cells, they offer a powerful way to model disease, test therapies, and better understand heart function. However, the challenge remains that these cells behave...
For children living with cardiomyopathy, heart failure is not always caused by the heart losing its ability to pump. In many cases, the problem is more subtle, but just as serious: the heart becomes stiff and struggles to relax and fill properly between beats. This...
New findings from the UNEARTH CVD research team have shed light on an important but often overlooked aspect of cardiovascular care: the cognitive health of people living with heart failure. Published in Cureus, this new publication is the first study to examine...
The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research is proud to celebrate an extraordinary milestone in the career of Dr. Paul Santerre, who has been elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the highest honour bestowed upon academic inventors. This...
ECHO PITCH 2026 will feature a fireside chat followed by pitch presentations from our six venture finalists. The event will conclude with a reception and award announcement.
| Time | Details |
|---|---|
| 2:30 – 3:00 PM | Registration & Networking |
| 3:00 – 3:10 PM | Opening remarks |
| 3:10 – 3:55 PM | Fireside Chat |
| 3:55 – 5:15 PM | Pitch Competition: General Health Stream |
| Pitch-1: A2O | |
| Pitch-2: Heprion | |
| Pitch-3: Neuropeutics | |
| 5:15 – 5:45 PM | Break |
| 5:45 – 7:00 PM | Pitch Competition: Cardiovascular Health Stream |
| Pitch-1: Aortico | |
| Pitch-2: ArteraNova | |
| Pitch-3: Sensible Vascular | |
| 7:00 – 7:45 PM | Dinner & Networking Reception |
| 7:45 – 8:00 PM | Award Presentation & Closing Remarks |
Scientific Lead, Cardiac Precision Medicine Program
Dr. Seema Mital is a Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiologist and Head of Cardiovascular Research at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto. She is Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Toronto and a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute. She is also the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada / Robert M Freedom Chair of Cardiovascular Science, and Scientific Lead of the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. Mital has a strong translational research program focused on genomics, pharmacogenomics and stem cell applications to model childhood heart disease and discover new therapies. She has extensive experience in the genetics/genomics of congenital heart disease and heart failure, personalized medicine and clinical trials. She established the SickKids Heart Centre Biobank, a multi-centre biorepository of children and adults with childhood onset heart disease for genomics research, one of the largest international repositories of its kind. Mital is the Principal Investigator of the CIHR-funded INSERT-HCM multi-centre project aimed at implementing digital health technology, the NIH-funded Pediatric Heart Network for clinical trials, and leads the international ERAPerMed funded PROCEED network for Personalized Genomics in congenital heart disease.