Happy Holidays!

Well, we can’t believe it is December already! From all of us at the genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC program, we would like to wish everyone a happy and restful holiday season. We will be checking back with you in the New Year with more news of upcoming events.

We would also like to let you know that our program assistant, Peggy Minaker, will be moving to the USA. It is sure to be an exciting adventure, but we will miss Peggy enormously. Best wishes, Peggy! We greatly appreciate your contributions to the program.

Partner Project News

SMarTForests Newsletter

The recent newsletter by the SMarTForests project, led by Dr. Jörg Bohlmann, features a fascinating story on how stone cells contribute to Sitka spruce’s resistance to the spruce bark beetle. Check out the latest happenings at the SMarTForests website.

New Papers Published by Tria Project Researchers

Dr. Chris Keeling et al. have published a new paper, “CYP345E2, an antenna-specific cytochrome P450 from the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, catalyses the oxidation of pine host monoterpene volatiles,” in Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Read more at ScienceDirect.

Scientists from UBC and UNBC have teamed up to explore the roles of the mountain pine beetle genes that are potentially responsible for detoxifying the chemical defenses of the insects’ host, the lodgepole pine. The results have been published in the paper, “Disentangling Detoxification: Gene Expression Analysis of Feeding Mountain Pine Beetle Illuminates Molecular-Level Host Chemical Defense Detoxification Mechanisms.” Read the paper over at PLOS ONE.

Do you have any news on your research project that you’d like to share?

Please let us know so we can feature it in our upcoming newsletters.

Internship

Intern Feature: Michael Chen

In our Intern Feature series, we profile genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC interns and their work with our partner projects. This month, we feature our commercialization analyst intern Michael Chen.

Michael is a MBA student in SFU’s Management of Technology program and he holds a Master’s degree in Applied Science from UBC. Given his education and many years of work experience in the biotechnology industry, Michael was the perfect fit for the Commercialization Analyst position with Dr. Lindsay Eltis and Dr. William Mohn’s Harnessing Microbial Diversity for Sustainable Use of Forest Biomass Resources (Lignin) project. Read more about his internship experience at his profile page.

Partner Projects: If you have a specific need or challenge on your project that an intern can help you with, please contact us. We will be starting our intern recruitment for 2014 in the New Year.

Recent Events

Communicating Science with Impact

November 19th and 20th, 2013

Dr. Mark Winston offered insightful guidance to participants of our Communicating Science with Impact workshop on how to communicate their research story, and position themselves as researchers within that story, to connect in authentic ways with diverse audiences. Thank you, Mark!

Tools for Scientific Storytelling: Social Media II

November 26th, 2013

Science communicator Ben Paylor teamed up with Amy Elderkin, the managing director of POPCORN, for our follow-up Social Media workshop. This workshop explored the benefits of social media platforms to communicate scientific research, taught attendees how to sign up and use Twitter, and how to use Hootsuite. Participants were even encouraged to converse on Twitter using the hashtag #scitweets.

“Ben was awesome! Like how he sees social media as a crucial tool for science communication, not only for outreach, but also to communicate with peers.”

6 Minutes of Passion…for Science

November 28th, 2013

genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC and TerreWEB hosted an energizing and fun year-end celebration in which our speakers presented what inspired them to do what they do in this Pecha Kucha-styled night.

Thanks to TerreWEB for co-organizing and to all our speakers for sharing their passion with us!

Speakers (L to R): Cameron Strachan, Ben Paylor, Julia Amerongen Maddison, Dr. Wayne Maddison, Dr. Suzanne Simard, Dr. Chris Keeling and Dr. Richard Hamelin

Thanks also to the band, Snowman in Heat, for kicking off and closing the night with their catchy tunes. They even played a science version of “Hallelujah” for us!

View more photos at the 6 Minutes of Passion…for Science page. Missed the event? Not to worry. We will post a video recording of the speakers as soon as it’s ready.

Upcoming Events

Lean Launch Pad for Genomics

genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC is excited to bring back the Lean Launch Pad (LLP) program in January 2014! Led by Sauder School of Business instructor Iain Verigin, the objectives of this 8-week program are to rapidly identify, evaluate, and develop potential venture opportunities for genomics, life sciences and natural resources research.

If you have a business concept or potential application from your research to develop, or would like to participate in the program as a mentor, please visit the LLP page or contact us for more information.

Workshop Dates:

Friday, January 24th, 2014; 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Friday, February 7th, 2014; 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Friday, February 21st, 2014; 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Friday, March 7th, 2014; 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

e@ubc – General Genomics Video from UBC UILO on Vimeo.

More Events

In addition to the workshops hosted by genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC, here are other events of interest on the genomics/entrepreneurship front offered by UBC, Mitacs and other organizations.

Foundations of Project Management II: December 9th, 2013; 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Skills of Communication: December 9th, 2013; 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 pm.
Professional and Business Effectiveness: January 28th, 2014; 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

View our calendar for more upcoming events.

Top Tweets

Tweeting to the Choir? Tips on Using Twitter for Outreach http://t.co/gWeZtP3l3Q -cm

— CSWA (@cswa_news) November 20, 2013

Lean LaunchPad for Life Sciences – Revenue Streams http://t.co/gqIm6RAJyr — steve blank (@sgblank) November 18, 2013

Top N Genome Scientists to Follow on Twitter: 2013 Edition. http://t.co/C8nXr1BHyl #genomics #twitter — nextgenseek (@nextgenseek) November 7, 2013

Check out these simple short animations about the Business Model Canvas – http://t.co/eaFf9e926d http://t.co/4aQwDKXDzg

— sba_bc (@sba_bc) November 5, 2013

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