STEMcast is a not-for-profit podcast that serves to highlight the connections between the largely varying subfields of STEM. We interview guest speakers from a diverse range of fields, bringing listeners into the loop on STEM research in biotech, AI, medicine, environment, math and much more.
In this special collaborative episode of STEMCast (McGill iGEM x UBC-Okanagan iGEM), we speak with Dr. Isaac Li, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Dr. Li's lab builds DNA-based molecular tools to study mechanobiology through single-molecule and quantitative imaging. These tools are used to better understand the cell-cell interactions involved in diseases such as cancer. Dr. Li was named UBCO Faculty Researcher of the Year in 2023. He also acts as the Primary Investigator for the UBC-Okanagan iGEM Team. Join us for this special episode featuring UBC-Okanagan iGEM's Human Practices Lead, Oluwatinufemi (Tinu) Tope-Awofeko.
Dr. Eugene Park is a specialist in the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury and brain injury therapeutics to improve outcomes. Dr. Park graduated with a master's from the department of Physiology at UofT and a Ph.D. from the Institute of Medical Science at UofT as well. Dr. Park is currently working as a Senior Research Associate at Unity Health Toronto.
Dr. Drew Endy is a synthetic biologist and professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University. He helped start new undergraduate majors in bioengineering at both MIT and Stanford. Twenty years ago Drew also helped launch the iGEM competition. As a group of students passionate about building with biology, it's a privilege to be able to speak with Dr. Endy.
In this mini-episode of STEMcast, we speak with Dr. Adalsteinn Brown. Dr. Brown is the Dean of Dalla Lana, the school of public health at the University of Toronto. He obtained his A.B. from Harvard and PhD at Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He has been the co-chair of COVID-19 Advisory Board in Ontario and has held many senior leadership roles in health policy. His research interests include health policy, public health emergency preparedness, outcome assessment in healthcare, and equity in healthcare.
Dr. Sandra Hofmann is an Associate Professor in Bioengineering Bone at the Orthopaedic Biomechanics research group at Eindhoven University of Technology. Dr. Hoffmann obtained her masters in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Basel, Switzerland in 2002, then achieved her Ph.D. with distinctions at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 2007, studying "Silk fibroin as a biomaterial for drug delivery and tissue engineering". Dr. Hofmann specializes in creating a human cell-based, functional, 3D in vitro model of bone which allows for studying interactions between various environmental factors and their effects on the cells. Additionally, these models can be used for studying the interactions between various cell types with bone and also differences between cells from various donors.