Who Is Micellae

Micellae is an innovative technology-based company founded on 15 years of research and engineering at University of Toronto.

We aim to provide the most advanced Drug Delivery System to high-quality pharmaceutical, medical and recreational cannabis producers.

Our in-house scientific experts, led by CSO and founder, Dr. Mehdi Nouraei, are deeply knowledgeable about Drug Delivery Systems.

We’re further strengthened by an executive and advisory team with in-depth expertise and experience in the pharmaceutical and health care industries.

Our Mission

Our mission is to provide the most advanced Drug Delivery System with food-grade excipients to significantly improve the solubility and bioavailability of fat-soluble compounds, including cannabinoids.

Our mandate is to drive innovation and translate more than 15 years of research at University of Toronto into a commercially successful application.

Our Vision

Our objective is to become the most valuable partner of high-quality pharmaceutical, medical and recreational cannabis producers who aspire to develop the safest and highest performing products in a variety of dosage forms.

Our goal is to expand the application of our technology to other active ingredients across industries.

Our Values

Our promise to our clients, our users and the planet is to provide a high-performing, cost-effective, healthy, safe, green and sustainable technology.

We are committed to fostering an organizational culture of diversity and inclusion. Our founders are immigrants with a high regard for merit-based inclusion of employees.

Our Team

Mehdi-Nouraei

Dr. Mehdi Nouraei

Founder, CSO and Chairman of the board

Shiva Darvishi

Shiva Darvishi

Co-founder, Director and Chief Operating Officer

Ed Gudaitis

Ed Gudaitis

Director of the Board

Mark Smithyes

Mark Smithyes

Strategy Advisor

Mark Lievonen

Mark Lievonen

Executive Advisor

Prof. Edgar Acosta

Prof. Edgar Acosta

Senior Scientific Advisor

Dr. Mehdi Nouraei

Dr. Mehdi Nouraei, the founder and CSO of Micellae, is a scientific entrepreneur who brings 25 years of professional achievements in research, academia, and the food industry. He achieved a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Food Engineering, and a M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at U of T.

With a passion for entrepreneurship, he established two companies prior to Micellae; Food RA Solutions, a consulting firm in food regulatory affairs, and Canada Crop, a grain exporting company.

His innovative approach has resulted in multiple inventions in designing, modeling, and optimizing microemulsion-based delivery systems, microencapsulation technologies, and extraction process.

His achievements led Micellae to come to fruition.

Shiva Darvishi

Shiva joins Micellae after 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry with Johnson & Johnson, UCB and Otsuka, where she worked in various roles, including Medical Science Liaison, Medical Information, Pharmacovigilance, early-stage product development, regulatory and medical affairs. Shiva holds a master’s degree in Genetics & Cellular Biology and in Management from University Paris XI, France. Shiva obtained the Regulatory Affairs Certification (RAC) from the Canadian Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS). In addition to overseeing daily operations, designing and implementing business strategies, Shiva assists with R&D projects.

Ed Gudaitis

Ed is the President & CEO of Acerus Pharmaceuticals. He brings over 25 years of pharmaceutical experience to Micellae. Ed has held numerous senior positions in multinational pharmaceutical companies and has worked in Canada and the United States. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for launching and building billion-dollar pharmaceutical product franchises and country operations.

Ed has experience in specialty markets such Oncology, Hepatitis, HIV, CNS and Transplantation. His functional experience spans Country and Business Unit Leadership, Marketing and Sales Management, Market Access, Pricing, Health Economics and Clinical Research.

Mark Smithyes

Mark serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Micellae. He brings 25 years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device industries in numerous senior leadership positions at multinationals like Novartis and Alcon as well as in the life sciences start-up space.

In addition, Mark is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto Mississauga and serves as Board Director at Endeavour Consulting and as Board Chair of Nurosene Health and Life Sciences Ontario.

Mark Lievonen

Mark is the Principal of JML Advisory Services and the former President of Sanofi Pasteur Limited, the Canadian vaccine division of Sanofi. He served as Chair of BIOTECanada, Rx&D and the Ontario Genomics Institute, as Vice-Chair of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, and as a Director of Oncolytics Biotech, Quest PharmaTech and Acerus Pharmaceuticals. Currently, he is a Director of Sona Nanotech Inc., Biome Grow Inc., OncoQuest Pharmaceuticals Inc. and the Gairdner Foundation

Dr. Edgar Acosta

Dr. Edgar Acosta holds a B.Sc., M.A.Sc., and Ph. D. in Chemical Engineering and is a professor at the U of T Chemical Engineering department and Centre for Global Engineering.

He brings knowledge from 25 years of experience, 105 publications, and 19 patents and disclosures, and hundreds of conference presentations.

During his academic career, he was granted numerous prestigious fellowships and awards. He is a world-renowned expert in surface and surfactant science, the oil and gas industry, and drug delivery systems.

As a Senior Scientific Advisor for Micellae, Dr. Acosta provides fundamental insight on designing O2W delivery systems.