Mike Cooke

Co-Founder and CEO at AmacaThera

Speaker

Dr. Mike Cooke co-founded AmacaThera Inc. with Dr. Molly Shoichet in 2016 to commercialize novel hydrogels. Their lead product, AMT-143, is focused on improving postoperative pain management and has applicability to any surgical incision. Under Mike's guidance as CEO, the AmacaThera team has successfully gained approval from Health Canada to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial for AMT-143. In 2021, Mike and the team closed an oversubscribed CDN$10.3 Series A financing to further the company's clinical development and expand the uses of its drug delivery platform. Mike completed his PhD in stem cell biology at the University of Durham (U.K.), where he studied controlling cell fate methods. During his postdoctoral work, he investigated combining a hydrogel with neural stem/progenitor cells to repair stroke-injured brains in animal models, successfully demonstrating that these cells, combined with a hydrogel, could lead to a functional recovery.