When a young Ontario girl was diagnosed with acute leukemia, her family’s heart-wrenching journey inspired St. Paul’s Hospital’s Dr. Zachary Laksman to reimagine how patients connect with clinical trials. With conventional treatment options exhausted and time running out, the family discovered hope in the form of an experimental therapy—just in time to save her life.
Today, that vision is becoming a reality. MyTrials.ai, co-founded by Dr. Laksman—an entrepreneur and Cardiac Electrophysiologist at St. Paul’s—has secured a milestone $100,000 investment from Providence Health Care Ventures (PHC Ventures). Together with biomedical engineers Omar Asaker, Tyler Connelly, and Kristian Isa, Dr. Laksman is revolutionizing how patients access and engage with cutting-edge, and potentially life-saving research, transforming the clinical trial landscape worldwide.
Transforming clinical trial access through AI
MyTrials.ai harnesses artificial intelligence to make clinical-trial matching simpler and more accessible. The platform uses plain language that patients can understand, matches them with trials that fit their specific needs and schedules, and cuts through the complexity that often prevents people from finding appropriate trials. This innovative approach reduces recruitment costs by nearly 50 per cent, while making it faster and easier for patients to find and be a part of cutting edge research that meets their personalized needs.

The significant investment from PHC Ventures comes as part of its new incubation program, aimed at supporting startups that are transforming healthcare. Beyond the funding, MyTrials.ai will benefit from access to clinical data, collaboration with world-class clinicians, and state-of-the-art facilities to help validate and improve their platform.
“PHC Ventures has all the necessary resources to help a biomedical startup succeed from concept to launch,” explains Vikram Devdas, Tech Director of PHC Ventures, part of PHC’s innovation engine Innovarium.
Through its new incubation program, PHC Ventures accelerates health innovation by connecting people, systems, and partners to research, develop, and implement novel solutions aimed at improving healthcare through collaboration and public-private partnerships. Devdas notes: “Our new strategic incubation program provides a unique avenue for entrepreneurial clinicians in BC to scale their ideas into thriving companies, improve patient outcomes, and create valuable jobs in BC.”
Improving patient outcomes
The partnership brings together MyTrials.ai’s innovative platform with PHC Ventures’ comprehensive support system, including mentoring in sales, marketing, finance, and fundraising, along with weekly guidance sessions. This collaboration aims to accelerate MyTrials.ai’s growth and impact, ultimately helping more patients find and access cutting-edge clinical trials.
“We’re thrilled to support MyTrials.ai in transforming the clinical trial process,” says Brian Simmers, President of PHC Ventures. “This partnership allows us to accelerate innovation and improve outcomes for patients everywhere.”
Founded by a team combining clinical expertise and technical innovation, MyTrials.ai is led by:
- Omar Asaker, CEO – Biomedical engineer with expertise in health tech innovation
- Dr. Zachary Laksman, CMO – Clinician-scientist specializing in precision medicine
- Tyler Connelly, CTO – Expert in software development and AI technology
- Kristian Isa, CCO – Biomedical engineer focusing on communication and collaboration