How did a farm boy from Prince Edward Island become a succesful businessman, mentor and community philanthropist? In 1970, Regis Duffy %38212; then dean of science at UPEI — started a small chemical reagent company to create summer jobs for his students. Diagnostic Chemicals and its offspring, BioVectra, soon grew into global competitors in the diagnostic and pharmaceutical industry, employed hundreds of Islanders, and provided a model for entrepreneurship and economic development in Canada's smallest province. The key to his success? As Regis once said, "Innovate or die; the atlernative is not that appealing."

The Chemistry of Innovation tells the behind the scenes story of DCL: the growing pains and leaps of faith of a comunity-minded business. To Regis, his team was everything. They were the creators, the innovators, the researchers who spent hot summers in the lab, the sales reps who found markets and won the business. This people-centred approach allowed DCL to grow from a makeshift basement lab into a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and planted the seed for a thrving biotech industry.

Mo Duffy Cobb is the founder and editorial director of Pownal Street Press. She is also a book coach. Cobb has an MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction. She is the author of Unpacked: from PEI to Palawan (Pottersfield Press, 2017), The Chemistry of Innovation: Regis Duffy and the Story of DCL (Island Studies Press, 2021), and Crescent Moon Friends (Acorn Press, 2022). Mo lives in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. (https://moduffycobb.com)

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Lori Mayne is a writer, researcher, and editor, as well as a writing instructor at the University of Prince Edward Island. Her research and editing projects have included Owen Connolly: The Making of a Legacy 1820-2016.A former journalist, she won the Island Literary Award for creative non-fiction for a personal essay in 2012.

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