scientificanada

Organized by: Genome Canada  

Twenty years after the Human Genome Project, genomics is delivering on its promise: a big data science that—combined with AI, gene editing and biomanufacturing—is revolutionizing our wellbeing and economies. The U.K., U.S. and others are launching genomics strategies to maximize impact for their citizens. Canada is doing the same. Budget 2021 announced $400M for a new Pan-Canadian Genomics Strategy to build on the excellence Canada has built in genomics. This session will explore what it will take to build an effective Strategy, opportunities for Canada’s continued leadership in genomics, and the confluence of genomics with other transformational technologies.  

The major takeaways here were our need for our own big database of genomic data that can be used by government, research, industry, etc. The panelists referred to the UK BioBank many times as the best (and only?) example of this, and it’s the consensus that Canada could be the second, if we manage to get our ducks in a row.  

This was an exciting session, basically it kind of felt like a room of very smart people getting handed a huge sum of money, and asking them how to use it to become world leaders in genomics. Probably because that is more or less what it was. I took a bunch of notes, which you can find on scientificanada.ca, but here I will try to summarize a few of the more interesting points I gleaned from the session.

My main takeaway from this session was that “we all want collaborations”. Many have industry-led collaborative approaches. I will say, a lot of the session felt like name-dropping different initiatives and quoting numbers which is probably useful for some, but from my perspective, a lot of that was too in-the-weeds for me. However, there were some interesting questions from the moderator and audience that I’ll highlight, and then get into some odds and ends from the session. Like Japan’s Moonshot Program, whose Step One is focused on Cybernetic Avatars…

Organized by: National Research Council Canada  

The climate crisis cannot be addressed by any single organization, sector, country, or even region. Research in universities and laboratories around the globe must be commercialized if we are to succeed. This panel draws on experts playing a key role in enabling innovation ; Canada, Japan, Norway, Germany and the UK, which are all recognized leaders in climate change related research, innovation and technology. Panelists will present their initiatives addressing climate change, and the role of international partnerships. The session will highlight successes, underline pitfalls, and discuss innovation and commercialization policy approaches that can most effectively address the climate crisis.

In 2019 a federal budget item was announced and $134 million was set aside for what is considered the first-ever FOOD POLICY FOR CANADA. Qualitatively, income disparity and unequal access to affordable, healthful food is a fundamental problem we face. Multiple government departments play a part in ensuring Canadians have access to good food because it’s a complicated issue. But getting a bunch of separate departments to work efficiently toward an amorphous goal like this is probably pretty difficult. So, that is the argument for creating the Food Policy for Canada.

The first pre-conference session at the CSPC2021 was a panel discussion with five members of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council who introduced us to the Food Policy for Canada, and presented their opinions on key priorities for the new government, and reflected on barriers to be overcome.

For more, head to www.scientificanada.ca

This week, we: 

Are building towers out of rocks, because the US military wants us to! 

Buying lottery tickets instead of writing grant proposals - it actually might be the best way to do it! 

And of course, Jessie is back talking ecology on Gamer’s Guide to Ecology. This week, we’re starting in on the deep sea planet of Subnautica.  

https://www.bu.edu/eng/2021/10/07/it-...

 https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158... 

That’s it for this episode. If you have comments or questions, find me on Twitter at AdamFortais or email me at [email protected] .   

Find more of Jessie de Haan on Twitter @deHaanJ , and make sure to follow them on Twitch at justjessieD.    

Our music was provided by my friends from the band Boonie. Find them at boonie.rocks .  

 If you liked the show, share it with a friend. We are on all streaming platforms and youtube, just look for scientificanada .  

 If you want to learn more, or if you’d like to help us support more creators, head to scientificanada.ca .  

 See ya later!

This week’s random walk is … going to take up the whole episode this week. We have a very special guest this week. Antonia Kowalewski is an undergraduate student studying biophysics at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby British Columbia. This week I talked to her about a summer research project on Multivalent Diffusive Transport that recently was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. She will be presenting the work at the Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference, but I had a chance to talk to her first. So stay tuned, we will be back with Antonia in just a sec.   

Learn more about Antonia and the Forde Lab below: 

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoniakowalewski/ 

https://www.sfu.ca/fordelab/ 

https://cupc.cap.ca/

Sedimentary rocks are rocks which are formed from the compaction of other rocks or organic material near the Earth's surface. They can tell us information about the Earth's past environment like how much carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere, or what the sea levels were. But, how can this information from millions of years ago help us today? Nick Randazzo is a 5th year PhD Candidate in the School of Earth, Environment, and Society under the Faculty of Science, and his research aims to examine the geochemistry of sedimentary rocks from 90 million years ago to inform present-day models and predictions of climate change. Tune in to learn more about Nick’s research and its breadth of implications on climate change, oil companies, and outer space!

You can follow Nick on twitter here or check out his website here

See ya next week!

That’s it for this episode. If you have comments or questions, find me on Twitter at AdamFortais or email me at [email protected] . Our music was provided by my friends from the band Boonie. Find them at boonie.rocks . If you liked the show, share it with a friend. We are on all streaming platforms and youtube, just look for scientificanada . If you want to learn more, or if you’d like to help us support more creators, head to scientificanada.ca . See ya later!

Find more Jessie  on Twitter and Twitch, and be sure to add the Gamer's Guide to your favorite podcasting app!

This week, Sawayra talks to Nikoo Aghaei about her work developing an in vivo functional genomics screen to identify novel drivers of lung cancer brain metastasis. They also talk about Nikoo's work with Empower Circle, a group motivated by empowering and connecting individuals from all walks of life, and amplifying the voices of womxn and minorities.    

Want to learn more? Want to reach out to Nikoo?   

Nikoo’s twitter: https://twitter.com/nikoo_aghaei  

Project Empower Circle’s twitter: https://twitter.com/empower_circle  

Project Empower Circle’s website: https://www.projectempowercircle.com/  

Project Empower Circle’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empower_circle/  

You can find Sawayra at: https://twitter.com/seeingaway  

Finally, for more content like this, go to www.scientificanada.ca  

See ya next week!

Find more Jessie on Twitter and Twitch, and be sure to add the Gamer’s Guide to your favorite podcasting app!

WATCH

Last week we introduced Jessie deHaan and the Gamer's Guide to Ecology. Today, Adam and Jessie talk about grad school, ecology, gaming, and why those things go together so well. We conclude with the very first episode of the Gamer's Guide to Ecology, where Jessie introduces the world of Red Dead Redemption 2.

Find more Jessie  on Twitter and Twitch, and be sure to add the Gamer's Guide to your favorite podcasting app!