Karolina Valente

Engineering the future of human-centered cancer care

For Karolina Valente, innovation is personal. A scientist, entrepreneur and educator, she stands at the intersection of research and real-world impact, where discovery is measured not only in publications or patents, but in lives she has helped improve. As CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of VoxCell BioInnovation and an assistant teaching professor in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Victoria, she embodies the spirit of a new generation of alumni: deeply grounded in academia, driven by purpose and committed to building a better future through science.

Valente completed her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at UVic in 2020, following earlier degrees in chemical engineering. During that time, her research focus crystallized around cancer—specifically breast cancer—motivated by her mother’s illness.

“When I started my PhD, it was the first time we learned her cancer had returned,” she recalls. “That experience shaped my focus and pushed me to deeply understand breast cancer.”

That work led to Valente founding VoxCell BioInnovation where she leads a team developing advanced, 3D bioprinted, vascularized human tissue models designed to transform drug development. In simple terms, the company is working to replace animal testing with more accurate, human-relevant models, thereby creating faster, safer and more effective pathways to life-saving treatments.

“Any drug that we buy at the pharmacy has been tested somehow,” she explains. “What we are doing at VoxCell is creating samples that resemble human tissue where drugs can be tested in the lab before being tested on actual patients.”

Redefining biotech leadership

Since its founding, VoxCell has grown rapidly. Under Valente’s leadership, the company has raised millions in funding, filed multiple patents, expanded internationally and gained global recognition for its work in oncology and bioprinting.

Yet for her, growth is both commercial and cultural. In a male-dominated biotech sector, Valente is intentionally reshaping what leadership looks like.

“VoxCell is female led, and our team, which is 50 per cent women and 50 per cent immigrants, reflects a wide range of lived experiences,” says Valente, who moved from Brazil to study at UVic. “Those different perspectives bring complementary skills and make the science stronger.” Alongside her entrepreneurial work, Valente remains deeply connected to UVic as an educator and mentor. She sees her roles as complementary, not competing.

Giving back to the next generation

Her days are long—often starting before dawn and stretching late into the evening—but her commitment to students is deliberate and structured. Mentorship, she believes, is not an add-on to education, but its foundation. She encourages students to build networks early, seek out collaborators and think critically about how their studies connect to real-world challenges.

“Community is important,” she says. “That means establishing a good peer foundation.”

Clarity is a principle Valente returns to often—one she applies equally in teaching, leadership and life in practice, which means setting transparent expectations with students, communicating openly with her team at VoxCell and translating complex science into language that investors, regulators and collaborators can understand.

“As Brené Brown says, ‘Clear is kind. Unclear is unkind,’” she reflects.

Looking ahead, Valente is focused on measurable impact. In five years, she hopes VoxCell’s bioprinted tissue platforms will be embedded directly into pharmaceutical development pipelines, reducing reliance on animal testing and improving how early-stage drugs are evaluated for safety and effectiveness.

“Our major goal is allowing drugs to hit the market sooner into the hands of people who need them,” she says.