Changing medicine, one blood type at a time
Avivo helps make better use of what is already donated. By removing blood type as a limitation, we:
- Increase access to life-saving treatments
- Reduce waste in the system
- Support healthcare providers under pressure
This is about more than efficiency. It’s about giving patients a better chance, whether they need blood urgently or are waiting for a transplant.
Built for real-world impact
Our technology is designed for use in the environments where it matters most:
Hospitals and transplant centers
Military and remote settings
Emergency and trauma care
It works within existing workflows, so it can be adopted without major changes to infrastructure or processes.
Faster access. Greater flexibility. Better outcomes.
Breaking down blood types and the status quo.
Avivo is built on breakthrough discoveries from leading researchers at the University of British Columbia.
Since 2020, we’ve brought together a multidisciplinary team across science, medicine, and operations with a shared goal:
Save lives by increasing organ transplants and expanding the blood supply by using donations that already exists.
Our vision
A world where no one waits for a transplant or transfusion because of blood type.
A world where donated organs and blood are used to their full potential.
More access. Less waste. More lives saved.
Team
John Coleman, PhD
President & Chief Executive Officer
John is an experienced biotechnology executive who brings more than 20 years of leadership, operational and commercialization experience to Avivo. Most recently, he co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer, and then President, of Anandia Labs leading to the acquisition by Aurora Cannabis. John also led Project Search for the Centre for Drug Research & Development, now adMare BioInnovations, in which he oversaw that organization’s identification of academic drug discovery projects with exceptional therapeutic potential thus enabling their evaluation and development within CDRD for future commercialization.
Peter Rahfeld, Dr. rer. nat.
Chief Scientific Officer
During his postdoctoral research at the University of British Columbia, Peter discovered enzymes from the human microbiome that can convert type-A red blood cells to type-O, the universal blood group. This discovery inspired him to co-found Avivo with the vision of making ABO-blood types obsolete and converting all donated blood and solid organs to O. Peter completed his doctoral training at the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany.
Rob Carroll MD, DM (Oxon), FRACP, A(ACHI)
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Rob Carroll is a distinguished expert in transplant medicine, nephrology, and immunogenetics with over two decades of experience. A pioneer in blood group incompatible renal transplantation in Australia, Dr. Carroll has significantly advanced patient care. He has served as the National Clinical Lead for the Transplantation and Immunogenetics Service within the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood and provided crucial immunological risk advice for transplant programs across Australia. An adjunct Clinical Professor at the University of Adelaide, Dr. Carroll is also a prolific researcher with over 70 publications, including leadership in multiple Phase I-III clinical trials.
Chris Clark, CA
Chief Financial Officer
Chris is an experienced financial executive that brings 25 years+ finance and accounting experience in public practice and in public and private companies. Chris was previously the CFO of Neovasc, a specialty medical device company in the cardiovascular space, in which he raised $420M US through equity, debt and strategic M&A transactions, and the successful sale of the company to Shockwave Medical for $147M US in January of 2023. He received his designation as a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and articled with KPMG before moving to Canada in 1998. He has an honours degree in Economics from Swansea University and pursued post graduate studies at Keble College, Oxford.
Spence Macdonald, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
Spence studied high-throughput enzyme discovery in the laboratory of Stephen Withers at the University of British Columbia. Spence was involved in various entrepreneurial endeavours while completing his PhD, such as the development of a plant extract as a natural health product to treat diabetes, obesity and irritable bowel syndrome. In addition to exploring potential commercialization pathways for the technology, Spence led the design and implementation of a medium-scale extraction process to produce the product, which was subsequently approved to meet GLP standards. Spence is a co-founder of Avivo.
John Barclay, MBA
Vice President, Business Development
John possesses over 20 years of broad business development and program management experience in the life sciences, health care, and technology innovation ecosystem. In early 2020, he was connected to Avivo’s scientific founders as a mentor through entrepreneurship@UBC’s Lab2Launch venture incubator program and eventually became one of the company’s co-founders. Between his time at Avivo and as Executive Director of the American Society for Apheresis, John has over a decade of experience in the blood transfusion and organ transplant sectors. John also held positions at Genome British Columbia, the Rick Hansen Institute (now the Praxis Spinal Cord Institute), and Malachite Management Inc, part of the STEMCELL Group of Companies. He also continues to mentor new life sciences ventures in Innovation UBC’s Venture Founder program.
Isis Ip, BSc
Manager, Product Development
Isis holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Forensic Science from the University of British Columbia and the British Columbia Institute of Technology. During her undergraduate studies, she gained experience in the biotechnology industry through co-operative placements focused on enzyme production at a GLP and GMP level. She later joined Avivo co-founders Dr. Stephen Withers and Dr. Peter Rahfeld as a Research Assistant, then subsequently completed her honours thesis on the characterization of an enzyme for blood type conversion. She currently oversees product development and leads pipeline operations at Avivo.
Melanie Easson
Senior Laboratory Technician
Melanie completed her certified laboratory technician training in southern Germany within the field of biotechnology at the Natural Sciences Academy. During this time, she investigated the comparative efficacy of certain essential oils and antibiotics against the growth of bacteria. Her origins in science began at the Max-Planck-Institute of Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany where she assisted scientists in studying plant-herbivore interactions of Black Poplar and Chrysomela populi (leaf beetles). Melanie has been working for Avivo since 2023, where she contributes to research and product development activities involving microbiology, protein biochemistry, enzymology, and blood cell biology.
Haisle Moon, PhD
Research Scientist
Under the supervision of Prof. Brunette, Haisle began her graduate studies examining the effect of surface topography on macrophage polarization in order to understand its impact on humoral immunity at the cell-substrate interface with the goal of developing immune-compatible surfaces for medical implants to enhance their integration. After completing her MSc, she joined the Kizhakkedathu research team at the University of British Columbia for her PhD to continue moving forward with her research interest in immune modulation. For her PhD and postdoctoral studies, she focused on developing enzyme-mediated cell surface engineering techniques to generate universal donor red blood cells. Haisle continues this research her Research Scientist role and is a member of Avivo’s co-founder team.
Grace Chong, BSc
Laboratory Technician
Grace earned her BSc in Biochemistry from the University of British Columbia, where she supported research in two laboratories during her co-op placements. At the Vancouver Prostate Centre, Grace conducted drug screening of small molecule inhibitors against ERα-positive breast cancer cell lines. Additionally, she contributed to research on a protein to investigate the mechanism of infection by M. tuberculosis in tuberculosis disease at Dr. Natalie Strynadka’s laboratory. Prior to joining Avivo, Grace worked in Dr. Stephen Withers’ lab under the supervision of Dr. Peter Rahfeld, contributing to the early development of a blood-filtering technology designed to remove blood-converting enzymes.
Board of directors
Bruce Cousins, CA
Chair
Bruce has more than 30 years life sciences company experience, in both financial and operational roles spanning organizations from large multinational corporations to emerging early phase companies. Currently, Bruce is the President and CFO of Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals (TSX:EPRX). Formerly, he was Executive Vice President & CFO at Arbutus Biopharma (NASDAQ:ABUS) from 2013 to 2018 and CFO of Aspreva Pharmaceuticals Corporation (NASDAQ: ASPV) from 2004 to 2008. Bruce started his life sciences career with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), where, from 1991 to 2004, he worked in a variety of franchises globally including Orthopedics and Wound Closure, completing his tenure with the Wound Management franchise.
Doug Buchanan, MBA, ICD.D
Director
Doug is an experienced board director and business leader with a wealth of experience in biotechnology and as a Partner at Price Waterhouse. Before retiring, he served as the CEO of BC Biomedical Laboratories Ltd for over twenty years. During his tenure, Doug oversaw several significant acquisitions, oversaw the development of a leading-edge laboratory and substantially strengthened the customer-culture of the organization, which consistently ranked among the ’50 Best Employers in Canada’ (1st for three years in a row).
Geoff Houlton, MBChB
Director
Geoff, a physician by training, has an extensive career in the life sciences industry. He was the CEO of Heart Force Medical from 2009 to 2017, which developed nascent medical technology based on algorithmic analysis of sub-audible (seismocardiograph) frequencies emanating through the chest from the heart. He is experienced in venture capital and investment banking through positions at MDS Capital Corporation, Octagon Capital, Loewen Ondaatje McCutcheon and Union Securities Capital Markets Group. Geoff began his career in industry when he was recruited to Canada to lead the development of the Medical Affairs Department of Glaxo Canada Inc. now Glaxo SmithKline (GSK). He is also a co-founder and was the inaugural President and CEO of Avivo.
Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu, PhD
Director
Jay is a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Centre for Blood Research at the University of British Columbia and an expert in biomaterials science and engineering. Jay is a highly cited researcher with an H-index of 51, published in numerous leading basic science and clinical journals (>200), and named on 30 patents or patent applications. Jay’s expertise and extensive background in translational blood research played a critical role in the development of Avivo’s technology. He is a co-founder of Avivo.
Stephen G. Withers, PhD
Director
Stephen is a professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia, a Fellow of the Royal Society, London, and the primary scientific driver behind the development of the blood conversion technology. Stephen’s distinguished career includes many notable and essential contributions to the field of Carbohydrate Enzymology. He is an author on over 500 publications in top journals, including over 20 in the Nature family journals, and named on over 35 issued patents in six families. Stephen is a co-founder of Avivo.
John Coleman, PhD
President & Chief Executive Officer
John is an experienced biotechnology executive who brings more than 20 years of leadership, operational and commercialization experience to Avivo. Most recently, he co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer, and then President, of Anandia Labs leading to the acquisition by Aurora Cannabis. John also led Project Search for the Centre for Drug Research & Development, now adMare BioInnovations, in which he oversaw that organization’s identification of academic drug discovery projects with exceptional therapeutic potential thus enabling their evaluation and development within CDRD for future commercialization.