These days it can be very tempting to turn off the news, shut down the negativity on social media and find one’s happy place. Some of you escape into the world of cute pet videos or following animal accounts on Instagram (may I recommend my own furry friend @rorythesheprador?). Book sales have surged and Netflix added 26 million global subscribers to its streaming service during the first half of 2020, only two million shy of…

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Since 1967, the Caribbean community in Toronto, Canada, has been the focus of North America’s largest carnival, commonly referred to as Caribana by locals. This is Caribana weekend. It’s a popular event for Torontonians and people from around the world who descend on the city to enjoy the Caribbean culture on display. Because of COVID-19, the signature Caribana parade has been cancelled and we can’t expect 2 million people to visit this weekend, but there…

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When you hear the term “playing God” does it make you think of science? I will wager yes and that you connect the two even more after watching the docuseries “Unnatural Selection” on Netflix. I watched it for the purposes of this blog and quickly became engrossed in the subject matter. While the filmmakers have squeezed a lot of storylines into the four hour-long episodes, I found it interesting, educational and very thought-provoking. “Unnatural Selection”…

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Equally as worrying as the death toll the coronavirus is having on our global population is the economic fallout countries are experiencing. The Economist says COVID-19 “is causing the most brutal recession in living memory.” The international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says “The Covid-19 pandemic is turning into a jobs crisis far worse than the 2008 crisis. Women, young people and workers on low incomes are being hit hardest.” And, “The OECD Employment…

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Ali Velshi is host of the weekend morning show “Velshi” on MSNBC He’s been coming into your home for years, via the television airwaves, so that familiarity probably makes you feel like you know him. Well, I do. I met Ali Velshi before he became The Ali Velshi. We are both from Toronto and met on a special council of high school student government representatives. Then our paths crossed again when we both attended Queen’s…

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Glenn MacLean is a Development Manager at CCRM where his focus is supporting company creation.  Glenn obtained his PhD from Queen’s University while studying the role of retinoic acid metabolism during embryonic development. For post-doctoral studies, Glenn studied hematopoietic differentiation and lineage commitment at Boston Children’s Hospital. Outside of work, Glenn loves to escape to the woods and is passionate about canning and dehydrating food. We’ll always have ISCT Virtual Paris. I recently attended my…

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Prof. Richard Boyd (Monash University) is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cartherics Pty. Ltd., a young Melbourne–based immunotherapy biotechnology company that combines T cells, NK cells, genetic engineering and stem cells to “supercharge” the immune system to attack cancer. Cartherics is developing low cost, highly accessible “off-the-shelf” cancer killing cells from induced pluripotential cells.  Ian Nisbet, PhD is Chief Operating Officer and a co-founder of Cartherics. He has over 30 years of product…

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Are you the type of traveller who finds a destination you love and you keep returning to it every chance you get? That’s not me. I can appreciate that with a limited number of vacation days and a limited budget, there is something to be said for sticking with the tried and true. I fall into the philosophy of the second camp: There is a huge world out there and I’m busy checking new destinations…

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The discourse related to racism in (North) America is showing no signs of slowing down. Rightly so. The injustice and anger has been building for hundreds of years and while protests are not new, a global pandemic that is disproportionately hitting African Americans and African Canadians, police violence, the connectivity of social media, and lack of leadership in the U.S. are some of the reasons why the Black Lives Matter movement is striking such a…

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At the risk of appearing to be jumping on the bandwagon, it feels tone deaf right now to blog about something unrelated to racism in North America given how this important issue is currently dominating media coverage, our conversations and our thoughts. CCRM has written many times about the shortage of talent and leadership in the regenerative medicine and cell and gene therapy field. This issue certainly hasn’t gone away and we know it is…

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