McMaster engineer Leyla Soleymani recognized early on the impact her research could have on people. 

“Every time big news broke about my work, people, including cancer patients, were emailing me daily asking, ‘When is this going to come to market?’” says Soleymani, whose research focuses on rapid diagnostics for diseases – including cancer – and antibacterial coatings to repel and detect infectious diseases.  

“I realized the research doesn’t end at the research lab, and I wanted to take this a step further.” 

In 2021, Soleymani, together with fellow McMaster researcher and engineer Tohid Didar, co-founded FendX Technologies, a nanotechnology company focused on developing products to reduce the spread of pathogens. Their goal was to translate their groundbreaking research into technologies that protect the health of people in Canada and around the world. 

Read: McMaster inventors’ repellant wrap shown to shed all viruses and bacteria  

Now, Soleymani is bringing her expertise to support other budding entrepreneurs as McMaster’s inaugural Associate Vice-President, Research (Commercialization and Entrepreneurship).  

This week, Soleymani announced the winners of McMaster’s new Professor Entrepreneur Fellowship program at the Made at Mac: Celebrating Entrepreneurship event where the university’s entrepreneurship website was launched. 

McMaster President David Farrar recently sat down with Soleymani to talk about her experiences with entrepreneurship, and how faculty, staff and students can translate their research into real-world impact.