Tohid Didar

Dr. Tohid Didar is a professor-entrepreneur at McMaster University renowned for his exceptional contributions to the development of transformative nano-biomaterials and their translation to products in infectious diseases, women's health and food insecurity. He obrained his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from McGill University followed by a postdoctoral training at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University. During his tenure at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, he developed a novel dialysis-like treatment for sepsis. The impact of Dr. Didar's work is shown by over 90 well-cited peer-reviewed publications in top-tier journals, over 35 patents, eight of which already licensed to multinational companied and SMEs. He has also co-founded two start ups from his lab: Sentinel Group to commercialize smart food packaging materials and FendX Inc. to commercialize antimicrobial materials developed in his lab. FendX is now publicly traded. Developed technologies form Dr. Didar's lab have been featured in mainstream media – namely, BBC World Service, CNN Health, The Independent, CBC’s the National, CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, CTV, Forbes, and Toronto Star. He has also delivered over 55 invited and keynote talks at international conferences, tech expos and universities around the globe.
A hallmark of Dr. Didar’s work is his emphasis on translational science, mobilizing his research towards tangible improvements to society. His passion for the commercial translation of academic research inspired him to publish a widely acclaimed op-ed in the Globe and Mail in November 2022, where he introduced the concept of a Professor-Entrepreneur. McMaster initiated a Professor-Entrepreneur fellowship in 2024 based on this idea indicating the impact Dr. Didar’s vision has made on policy development.