About

Located at McMaster University’s main campus, the Biointerfaces Institute (BI) is a dynamic hub for advancing research at the intersection of materials and biology—what we call the “Biointerface”.

The BI was founded in 2012 as a $22 million facility—the first of its kind in Canada—to support, optimize and innovate various research initiatives surrounding ‘Biointerfaces”, while creating a collaborative, multi-disciplinary work environment, with experts in science and engineering. 

Although BI laboratories were organized into research suites to provide efficient workflows for rapid discovery and production, our facility also supported equipment-specific characterization and analytical services, and projects requiring Containment Level (CL)-1 or 2, with dedicated culturing labs for bacterial, mammalian and virus work.

Over the years, research initiatives have evolved, with our facility adding equipment in 2018 to support the formation of a Point-of-Care Diagnostics suite. Furthermore, in 2025, we created the Bioprocess Automation Lab to support biologics manufacturing and bioprocessing for investigating safe and efficient production of vaccines and other biomolecules.

To date, the BI has supported 20+ core McMaster faculty members, spanning across three faculties, and collaborated with over 800 thesis students, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and other academic research partners. In addition to the McMaster community, the BI also supports external academics and industrial partners.

Innovation has always been a core value at the BI. We welcome collaboration with global partners to advance and commercialize various initiatives, by providing access to unique expertise and infrastructure. We also support direct engagement of our researchers with industry professionals to align research and innovation with meaningful real-world insight.

Reach out to our team and discover what the BI can do for you and your research or product goals – we look forward to ‘interfacing’ with you!