By Blake Dillon
Leyla Soleymani has been named lead of engineering innovation at NexusHealth, a McMaster University-based innovation accelerator that collaborates with partners across government, industry, public health, and community sectors to co-develop health solutions with broad social impact.
A professor in the Department of Engineering Physics, Soleymani is an expert in miniaturized biosensors — technology her team is leveraging to develop next-generation medical diagnostics.
Her group’s suite of wearable and rapid-test technologies, including those designed to improve care for mental health conditions, are capable of monitoring an individual’s health and disease status in real time, enabling earlier intervention, more effective treatment plans, and a sustainable shift toward personalized medicine.
“Leyla is an experienced leader who is deeply respected across the university,” says Matthew Miller, executive director of NexusHealth. “She exemplifies the highest degree of excellence in both the academic and entrepreneurial realms. Her experience and insights will undoubtedly amplify the impact that NexusHealth seeks to enable. Leyla’s important work represents the type of innovative, interdisciplinary, and translational research that NexusHealth was created to accelerate, and her appointment will open doors to new and expanded collaborations with the Faculty of Engineering, and will attract new partnerships with industry, helping McMaster bring critical new health technologies to the people who need them most.”
Heather Sheardown, dean of Engineering at McMaster, says Soleymani’s new appointment builds on a longstanding tradition of collaboration between engineers and health scientists.
“From medical devices and protective equipment to diagnostics and biomedical technologies, engineers have always played a critical role in advancing health care,” says Sheardown. “Leyla’s new appointment with NexusHealth strengthens that enduring connection between Engineering and Health Sciences and creates new opportunities to turn our innovations into real health products that improve lives.”
Soleymani, who previously served as an executive member of NexusHealth, is also a member of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research, an associate member of McMaster’s Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and part of the university’s School of Biomedical Engineering. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices and is a recipient of the prestigious Dorothy Killam Fellowship. She was also McMaster’s inaugural associate vice-president, research (commercialization and entrepreneurship).
As lead of engineering innovation at NexusHealth, Soleymani says she will work closely with the accelerator’s executive team to broaden the group’s expertise in technology translation, foster new interdisciplinary collaborations, and share insights from her experience translating research into real-world health innovations.
“My research group has a long track record of partnering with industry, translating discoveries into practical technologies, and launching startup companies,” says Soleymani. “I’m excited to share these experiences with other McMaster innovators and to foster new connections between Health Sciences and Engineering. By bringing together different perspectives and expertise, we can help accelerate the development of technologies and health products that improve patient care.”
Soleymani’s new appointment with NexusHealth officially began July 1, 2026.