Lara Skwarek

Lara Skwarek, Ph.D., is an Investment Principal at Invest Nova Scotia, where she focuses on identifying promising life sciences start-ups and guiding them through the investment process—from initial review to approval and closing. She specializes in helping early-stage companies commercialize healthcare innovations, ensuring groundbreaking discoveries reach the right markets and create real-world impact.

With extensive experience in both research and business, Lara has worked in two biotechnology start-ups, taking on roles in research and development, technology and product development, grant writing, and commercialization. Before joining Invest Nova Scotia, she was a scientific consultant at a firm in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she advised CEOs, chief science and technology officers, professors, clinicians, and graduate students on translating their scientific breakthroughs into commercial products that address critical unmet needs.

Lara’s academic background spans genetics, neuroscience, and cell and developmental biology. She holds an undergraduate degree in Arts and Science from McMaster University and earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto. She furthered her expertise as a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellow during her postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Combining her deep scientific knowledge with hands-on industry experience, Lara is committed to supporting life sciences entrepreneurs—whether they are academics and clinicians just starting out or seasoned executives ready to scale. She plays a key role in fostering Nova Scotia’s life sciences ecosystem, helping to bring transformative healthcare technologies from the lab to the global market.