Dear Joe, My worlds collided the other day when I stumbled upon your many, highly viewed stem cell videos on YouTube. You see, my husband is a huge fan of yours. He regularly watches UFC, he practices mixed martial arts and he boxes. He loves your podcast and watches your videos regularly (religiously?). He talks about your show often. I confess to not being a listener/viewer of yours, but I blog about stem cells. As…

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Molecular structure of the CFTR ion channel with circles marking positions of some disease-causing mutations (from Zhang and Chen, 2016). As the most common genetic disorder, cystic fibrosis (CF) has been at the forefront of genetic research since the gene responsible for it was discovered 40 years ago. But with more than 300 known disease-causing mutations, or variants of the CF gene, disease severity and treatment options can vary a great deal from one patient…

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In this month’s installment of the “Bioprocess and Bioanalytics” blog, we get part II from Drs. Robin Turner and James Piret on Raman spectroscopy and how this method can be utilized to tell us new information about cell therapy products. Both are Professors in the Michael Smith Laboratories at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Robin Turner has a cross appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dr. James Piret is in…

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I’m sold. I just watched a fantastic documentary called The Game Changers and I am ready to significantly reduce my meat intake. It may take time to be completely animal-free, but I can certainly consume less meat and farmed fish. I predict that when this documentary gets worldwide distribution, probably in September 2019, it will have an impact on meat consumption patterns and stem cell meat will gain notoriety, again. The Game Changers is a…

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StemCellTalks 2019 at the University of Toronto Eleni Kanavas is a science communicator with more than eight years of work experience in the academic and health science fields. She is the Acting Communications Specialist at CCRM. She completed her Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism at the University of Toronto and previously worked at Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus. The first time I heard about macular degeneration was over a decade…

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Today is International Women’s Day. This year, the theme is “think equal, build smart, and innovate for change,” to ensure that women’s needs and experiences are considered when it comes to innovation. While real progress has been made when it comes to gender equality, there is still much to be done to address the disadvantages, discrimination and barriers that women face today. In fact, the UN points out that based on current projections, existing efforts…

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Cindi Morshead is a professor and chair of the anatomy division of the Department of Surgery with the University of Toronto, with appointments in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. Sowmya Viswanathan is an affiliate scientist with the Krembil Research Institute through the University Health Network, and an assistant professor at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. This article first appeared in The Hill…

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Please click here to read the original version of the article that first appeared on Medicine by Design’s site and is reprinted with permission. The article has been edited slightly for length. Finding inspiration from an unlikely source – a contagious facial cancer that has ravaged the Tasmanian devil population in southern Australia – a Medicine by Design team project led by Andras Nagy has devised an answer for one of the most pressing questions in cell…

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Rare diseases are defined as such because the number of people affected by them is considered very low. Depending on which country you live in, that number will change. There are so many rare diseases in the world that if you add up the number of people living with one, it’s no longer a small number. In the United States, 25-30 million people are estimated to live with a rare disease. I had never heard…

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Farah Qaiser is a graduate student at the University of Toronto, where her research involves whole-genome sequencing of patients with neurological disorders. When not in the lab, Farah dabbles in various science communication, policy and outreach initiatives. You can find Farah live-tweeting Toronto’s many science events at @this_is_farah or speed-reading (yet another) dystopian novel on her commute home. Dr. Gardner is known for her signature “Scientist” pink enamel pin Dr. Heidi Gardner is exploring science blogging practices through a WCMT fellowship In early January,…

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