After 14 years in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, Judd Berman decided it was time for a change. As he looked around, says Berman, former director of high-throughput chemistry for GlaxoSmithKline, he was certain he'd end up in San Diego, where he has relatives. But an unexpected invitation from a Toronto biotech startup called Affinium Pharmaceuticals intrigued him.
"I fell in love with the people as well as the city itself," Berman explains, a year after relocating to Toronto. "Everyone at Affinium had deep personal commitments to research. And Toronto is pretty dynamic. It's a 'tossed salad' city having many distinct cultural entities. There's so much going on, it's just a terrific place to work and live."
Berman is senior vice president for chemistry at Affinium, a drug discovery company spun off from research done at the University of Toronto (UofT) (cf. map-1) and the Ontario Cancer Institute (cf. map-2). ...
