Brian Underdown

Biography

Dr. Underdown is a Managing Director of Lumira Capital, a later-stage venture capital company with investments in companies throughout North America. During his venture capital career, Dr. Underdown has been responsible for investments in life sciences companies at all stages of development with a particular focus on therapeutics. He had earlier been Assistant Vice-President for Research at Pasteur Merieux Connaught, where he headed the Canadian Universities Research program and several global programs to develop vaccines. During his academic career, he was Associate Dean of Research at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and at McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. Dr. Underdown has held senior positions on national and international bodies concerned with science policy and university-industry collaboration. He currrently serves on boards of a number of biotechnology companies including, Argos Therapeutics, Avid Biologics Inc., enGene Inc, OsteoQC and Vistagen Therapeutics. He also is involved with a number of not-for profit organizations such as Ontario Genomics Institute (Chair), McMaster Innovation Park and Allergen, a national Centre of Excellence in Allergy and Asthma. He received his PhD in Immunology from McGill University and undertook postdoctoral studies at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Research Interest

 Immunology