In this episode, we talk to Dr. Kristina Rinker, a professor in both the Shulich School of Engineering and the Cumming School of Medicine. Dr. Rinker is also the lead on the Early Cancer Detection Initiative at the University of Calgary. Dr. Rinker explains how collaborative research led to a breakthrough method of detecting breast cancer. She describes how prioritizing the next critical step in any path toward innovation can help keep momentum within a research team.

Dr. Rinker is actively involved in technology development and commercialization through university spin‐off companies and industrial and governmental partnerships in the areas of cardiovascular and cancer detection and treatment. Her research is highly collaborative locally and internationally and focuses on how fluid flow affects cell and nanoparticle behavior with relevance to cardiovascular disease and cancer.