Falling Walls Lab Toronto 2025 hosted passionate innovators for three-minute presentations at Hart House in front of five judges from business, academia and the non-profit sector. Falling Walls Lab Toronto is a pitch competition that brings together a diverse and interdisciplinary pool of students and professionals by providing a stage for their breakthrough ideas.
Artem Kushnirenko impressed the judges with animated descriptions of Breaking the Wall of Surgical Automation and won first place, earning a trip to Berlin to present at the Falling Walls Science Summit in November!
Poorya Saeedloo won second place for Breaking the Wall of Passive Bone Grafts and Swapna Mylabathula earned third place for Breaking the Wall of Food Insecurity in Hospitals
Akshita Vincent of PRiME has assessed presenters in every Falling Walls Lab Toronto event since 2019. She noted that “This event is always a rewarding experience and consistently leads to great connections and follow-on conversations with the startups (whether they’re the winners or not) in the months that follow.”
This is the fourth iteration of Falling Walls Lab Toronto. In previous years, Toronto sent innovators to Berlin in the field of fintech, hydrogen power and sustainable agriculture, which shows how diverse the research environment is in Toronto and also demonstrates that anyone of the presenters had the chance to win.
Vincent was joined on the jury by Dr Jan Lüdert of DWIH New York, banking consultant Katie Pereira, Dr Erum Razvi of Ontario Genomics and Professor Jessica Pressey of Cell & Systems Biology. They assessed presentations on a wide variety of subjects detailed below.
Improving Treatment
Artem Kushnirenko (SickKids) gathers high quality data for training surgeons, progressing to automated surgeries. This interactive digital training can be shared across borders and was successfully used between Canada and the Ukraine.
Poorya Saeedloo (University of Toronto) reminded us that competition needn’t be the driving force behind innovation. He collaborates with transplant companies to assess AlloWide buffer for enhancing bone repair, showing impressive results in bone grafts.
Amulya Bhagirath (University of Western Ontario) is showing how genomic data can be used in the clinic to improve treatment of blood cancer.
Enhancing Patient Services
Swapna Mylabathula (University of Toronto) earned knowing groans when she mentioned the quality of hospital meals. Taking techniques she developed in training hospital staff for concussion treatment, she will develop policies and procedures for ensuring hospital meals match the health requirements of patients with diabetes, heart congestion or other conditions.
Ilakkiah Chandran (University of Toronto) emphasized care beyond working age by focusing on ensuring patients with developmental and epileptic encephalopathies age well.
Impressive Technological Innovations
Monica Singh (University of Guelph-Humber) applied her understanding of the biochemistry of uterine cramps to develop Happy Cramps, a fast-acting, plant-based menstrual pain relief patch.
Hui Huang Hoe (elerGreen) gave an energetic description of his ElectroWINNING system for efficiently extracting valuable products from waste for re-use.
Ali Shaverdi (University of Waterloo) gave a personal account of what led him to solve the problem of cross-border gifting barriers through his website Flomaru.
Kauel Brahmbhatt (University of Toronto) is developing breakthrough wearable technology to accurately predict bipolar episodes.
Deween Piyasena (University of Toronto) presented a novel and accessible technology for chronic disease management focused on sarcopenia.
Falling Walls Lab Toronto 2025 and Beyond
Mariia Cherednychenko and Dr Neil Macpherson of the Department of Cell & Systems Biology were co-Directors of this event and were supported by other members of the Mitchell Laboratory: Ximena López Morales, Aneira Rachmadsyah and Natalia Gajewska as well as Parmin Sedigh.
Cell & Systems Biology has supported Falling Walls Lab Toronto since its inception and are joined this year by the kind support of the Temerty Faculty’s RHSE, DWIH New York and Life Sciences Ontario.
CSB Professor Jessica Pressey enthusiastically asserts “The energy, innovation, and passion behind each pitch highlighted the talent and potential in our community. I wish the best of luck to this year’s winner Artem Kushnirenko in Breaking the Wall of Surgical Automation in Berlin!”
During Artem’s multi-day stay in Berlin, he will meet Lab winners from dozens of countries and present alongside them. There will be tours of local academic institutions and an extended programme of workshops on career development, entrepreneurial skills, and academic publishing.
Congratulations to all the presenters for your brilliant talks! Good luck in Berlin, Artem!