Dr. Kaley Wilson
Dr. Kaley Wilson
Principal & Director, Business Development, Quark Venture LP
Dr. Kaley Wilson is currently a Principal and the Director of Business Development at Quark Venture, a Vancouver based venture capital group that invests globally in health science. Investing out of the Global Health Sciences Funds, Dr. Wilson works closely with Quark’s Investment Committee to identify and diligence potential investment opportunities.
From January 2018 until September 2019, Dr. Wilson was also the interim CEO of ARTMS Products Inc. a global leader in the development of disruptive medical isotope production technologies. Following its seed financing, Dr. Wilson joined ARTMS to help grow the company and to implement a global sales and marketing strategy and to initiate the company’s Series A raise of $19M USD, which was secured in May 2020. From March 2020 until June 2022, Dr. Wilson was also the interim CEO of Sitka, a biotherapeutics company with a breakthrough nanoparticle platform technology to deliver compounds to difficult to penetrate tissues.
Dr. Wilson is also an Advisor and Mentor for Ontario Bioscience’s Capital Access Advisory Program (CAPP), a member of GlycoNet’s Commercialization Committee, Nanomedicines Innovation Network’s (NMIN) Research Management Committee, a Director on the Board of Canary Medical, Microbion, IOME and Crohn’s and Colitis Canada where she Chairs the Research Committee. Dr. Wilson is also an Observer on the Boards of ARTMS, Oculogica and Alpha-9.
Prior to joining Quark Venture in October 2016, Dr. Wilson was Associate Director, Partnerships, at the Centre for Drug Research and Development. During her eight years at CDRD, Dr. Wilson played a key role in building and maintaining the organization’s strategic alliances and partnerships with industry, academia, government and foundations. Dr. Wilson was also a key member of CDRD’s Project Search and Evaluation Team on which she led the identification and evaluation of drug discovery projects with potential therapeutic value in the areas of infection, inflammation and immunity — her areas of scientific expertise. During her time at CDRD, Dr. Wilson was also a member of the Advisory Board for the Neglected Global Diseases Initiative, a UBC-based organization dedicated to developing interventions for neglected global diseases and ensuring their delivery to those in need.
Dr. Wilson obtained her PhD in Dr. Pieter Cullis’ laboratory at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, in 2007 where she worked in close collaboration with senior scientists at INEX Pharmaceuticals on the immunomodulatory activity and vaccine potential of lipid encapsulated nucleic acids. During her Ph.D. Dr Wilson was the recipient of a number of prestigious scholarships and awards including the Doctoral Research Award, Canadian Institutes for Health Research (2005-2008); Trainee Research Award, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2003-2005) and the PGS-A Scholarship, NSERC (2002-2004). Dr. Wilson was also the 2008 recipient of the Gattefosse Canada/Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Award.