NEWS
Morphocell Co-Founders Claudia Raggi and Max Paganelli Receive BIOTECanada’s 2026 Gold Leaf Award
Ottawa, Ontario – August 31, 2026 – Morphocell Technologies is proud to announce that its co-founders, Dr. Claudia Raggi, Chief Scientific Officer, and Dr. Massimiliano “Max” Paganelli, Chief Executive Officer, have been named joint recipients of BIOTECanada’s 2026 Gold Leaf Award for Community Leadership (Research & Innovation).
Presented annually by BIOTECanada, the Gold Leaf Awards recognize outstanding individuals and organizations whose leadership, innovation and achievements are advancing Canada’s biotechnology sector. The Community Leadership Award (Research & Innovation) recognizes academic excellence, research innovation and entrepreneurial leadership, and the ability to translate scientific advances into meaningful impact.
For Raggi and Paganelli, the recognition reflects a journey that has always connected patients, science and the development of new therapies. Partners in life as well as in science, both trained as physicians before pursuing complementary careers in stem cell biology, regenerative medicine and liver disease. Their work was shaped by unmet needs encountered in medicine and by a shared conviction that advances in stem cell biology and tissue engineering could lead to fundamentally new therapeutic options for patients with severe liver disease and, ultimately, other organ deficiencies.
Their collaboration led to the development of an induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based platform for engineering functional human tissues. Together with Margaret Bywater, they co-founded Morphocell Technologies in 2018 to translate this innovation into therapies for patients.
“This award is particularly meaningful to us because it recognizes a journey that has always gone from patients to science, and from science back to patients,” said Dr. Paganelli. “Morphocell started with the belief that discoveries in regenerative medicine could be translated into therapies capable of fundamentally changing what is possible for patients with severe liver disease and, ultimately, other organ deficiencies. What began as research is now being advanced by an extraordinary multidisciplinary team toward the clinic.”
Dr. Raggi is an internationally recognized expert in human development, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, and the inventor of Morphocell’s proprietary iPSC-based platform technology. As Chief Scientific Officer, she leads the scientific development of the company’s engineered tissue platform.
Dr. Paganelli is a pediatric transplant hepatologist, clinician-scientist and entrepreneur whose work has focused on translating stem cell-derived liver tissues into new therapeutic approaches for severe liver disease. As Chief Executive Officer, he has led Morphocell’s evolution from its academic origins into a growing regenerative medicine company developing next-generation tissue therapeutics.
Today, Morphocell’s lead product, ReLiver®, is an off-the-shelf, iPSC-derived engineered liver tissue designed to temporarily replace critical liver functions, support regeneration of the patient’s own liver and potentially provide an alternative to transplantation for patients with severe liver disease.
“This recognition also belongs to the many people who transformed an ambitious scientific idea into what Morphocell is today,” added Dr. Raggi. “Science of this complexity only moves forward through collaboration. We are incredibly proud of the team we have built and of the shared commitment to translating regenerative medicine into meaningful therapies for patients.”
Raggi and Paganelli will receive the 2026 Gold Leaf Award for Community Leadership (Research & Innovation)during BIOTECanada’s BIONATION in Ottawa, September 22–23, 2026, alongside leaders from across Canada’s biotechnology community.
The recognition comes as Morphocell continues to advance ReLiver® toward clinical development and explores its potential across multiple severe liver disease indications, while its tissue-engineering platform provides a foundation for a future pipeline addressing other organ deficiencies.
About Morphocell Technologies:
Morphocell Technologies is a Montreal-based regenerative medicine company developing cell therapies and engineered tissues for the treatment of severe organ deficiencies, beginning with liver disease. Its proprietary iPSC-derived platform supports the development of off-the-shelf engineered tissue therapeutics designed to provide functional organ replacement without the need for immunosuppression. Morphocell’s lead product, ReLiver®, is being developed for severe liver disease as the first application of this platform.
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