GREAT News
Lean Launch Pad Alumni Spotlight
Lean Launch Pad Alumni Spotlight – to keep you up-to-date with the progress of new ventures from the Lean Launch Pad for Genomics program. This month, our feature interviewee is David Lloyd Co-Founder and Director of FREDsense Technologies, who shares his story of how he was able to apply his experiences at the LLP session in his work outside the lab. To read David’s interview, click here.
Evaluating Genomic Science: A Conversation with Dr. Samantha Evans, Director of Evaluation, Genome Canada
“It is the stories that come out of your research that matter”, Dr. Samantha Evans. On May 21st, Dr. Evans joined us for an open dialogue on demonstrating the impact of current and future Genome Canada research projects. The nature of the open session format allowed us to assess the needs and interests of our various participants in order to offer follow-up objective-specific workshops in the near-future. Please stay tuned for more information on upcoming sessions. Read More.
Partner Project News
Bee IPM: Next-Generation Integrated Pest Management Tools for Beekeeping
The Bee IPM project has successfully secured funding from the Eastern Apicultural Society 2014 Foundation for Honey Bee Research.The EAS Foundation for Honey Bee Research is a competitive grant program developed from donations received from beekeepers and others interested in funding research on topical problems in honey bees. The Bee IPM team is honored to be recognized by end-users. This grant will allow Bee IPM to expand their research efforts.
About Bee IPM
New AdapTree Updates from The Field
The Aitken Lab team has already been busy this season conducting rigorous fieldwork. Sean King, a member of the Aitken Lab organized and executed a week of field collections on Salt Spring Island, Hornby Island and the Fraser Valley. Sean King explains: “The samples I’ve collected on these trips will hopefully provide some insight into genetic diversity and gene flow at the absolute outskirts of the species range of Garry oak, far from other trees. Evidence of high levels of gene flow even at great distance in other areas of the species range suggests that, despite extreme physical isolation, perhaps these populations are staying healthy and viable with help from friends in far-away places”. Read about his adventure here.
Sampling Locations (picture from The Modern Forest)
New Publication from SMarTForests
Dr. Joerg Bohlmann, SMarTForests Project Leader has co-published a new paper in Plant Physiology titled “Flavan-3-ols in Norway Spruce: Biosynthesis, Accumulation, and Function in Response to Attack by the Bark Beetle-Associated Fungus Ceratocystis polonica“. You may access it here.
SMarTForests to Host Second Conifer Genome Summit
Drs. Joerg Bohlmann and John MacKay’s SMarTForests project, in collaboration with the Sweden’s Norway Spruce Genome Project, is hosting the second Conifer Genome Summit, set to take place June 16th to 18th, 2014, in Forêt Montmorency, Québec, Canada. This event will facilitate updates on the most advanced approaches in genome sequencing, assembly and annotation, as well as updated on the interpretation and practical application of the information gleaned from conifer genomes. Visit the SMarTForests website for more information.
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.
Internships
Current Internship Opportunities
A successful graft. (Photo: Max MacDonald)
Apicultural Specialist Intern
The genomics.entrepreneurship@ubc program is seeking an intern to work with the Bee IPM research project on an international collaboration on honey bee health. The intern will interact with beekeepers and queen breeders in BC and possibly Apicultural producers in Alberta, and will participate in field activates with project collaborator Liz Huxter and with the UBC team. Read More
Introducing Our New Interns 2014
genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC team is happy to welcome our 2014 interns. Full profiles coming soon.
Tyler Dergousoff, AdapTree Research Assistant Intern 
Tyler is a research assistant intern at AdapTree. He is involved in the genomics side of the project, collecting and preparing samples in the lab. He is also working on the socioeconomic side with the ultimate goal of communicating results of research to end users and stakeholders. He is excited to work with the AdapTree project because of its focus on climate change and applicability to both conservation and industry. Tyler has just finished his second year of a Natural Resource Conservation degree in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC. Outside of work and school he spends his time playing music and hiking.
Funding is still available for summer internships. For more information on our Internship Program, please visit the Internships page or contact us.
Recent Events
Genomics 101 “Crash Course”
On May 14th, we offered our second iteration of Genomics 101 “Crash Course” – a one-day intensive (emphasis on intensive!) version of our popular Genomics 101 workshop with instructor Dr. David Ng from Michael Smith Laboratories. This course demystified the terminology (as depicted above) as well as provided some grounding in the fundamentals of genomics. Attendees ranged from GREAT program interns, to stakeholders and members of our partner projects. Dr. Ng provided case studies from Genome BC partner projects, and explained the various methodologies and terminology around genomics research. You may access the course materials here.
Many thanks again for Dave for sharing his knowledge of genomics in a most engaging way! This is what the participants had to say:
“I liked learning most about the history of the human genome project and how methods such as PCR, and Sanger Sequencing came about. As I had done PCR in the past, this helped put the method into a new perspective and give reason for why some of materials normally used in DNA replication were eliminated in PCR.”
“Thank you for setting time for this workshop. We found this very useful and are excited for future workshops!”
Evaluating Genomic Science: A Conversation with Dr. Samantha Evans, Director of Evaluation, Genome Canada
“It is the stories that come out of your research that matter” Dr. Samantha Evans. On May 21st, Dr. Evans joined us for an open dialogue on demonstrating the impact of current and future Genome Canada research projects. This conversation clarified evaluation expectations and terminology (including benefits to Canada). We explored case studies and effective practices in order to advance the ability of genomic researchers and stakeholders to demonstrate impact.
The session was successful at drawing together various perspectives: Genome Canada’s and Genome BC’s institutional perspective, practical approaches to performance measurement, and exploring participants’ perspectives on the challenges faced within projects to meet the diverse range of funders needs. The event included a variety of audience members, from projects’ principal investigators, project managers and GE3LS researchers, to individuals with an interest in the field of evaluations.The nature of the open session format met our objectives as it allowed us to assess the needs and interests of our various participants in order to offer follow-up objective-specific sessions and workshops in the near-future. Access the session’s presentation here. Read Dr. Evans’ Bio. If you have attended this event and would like to share your feedback, please click here.
Upcoming Events
Lean Launch Pad for Genomics
Our third Lean Launch Pad for Genomics program cohort started in May 2014. Sessions will continue running until June 20.
Developing an Iron Clad Integrated IP strategy –
To Ensure Maximum Protection for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Advance of Entering the U.S. Market
Industry Canada has partnered with Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG) to offer a seminar on developing an IP strategy. This free session is intended for knowledge-intensive start-ups that may be still in a UBC incubator or accelerator; or graduating students that have entrepreneurial interests. A similar event that had been planned for March was postponed. A new date has been set for Vancouver, June 4, 2014. More info.
More Events
GPS/CSI&C Pre-Career Symposium Workshops: “Networking” and “From Resume to Online Profile” – June 9
GPS/Mitacs Step Event: Technical and Scientific Writing I & II – June 25
View our calendar for more upcoming events.
Top Tweets
How will you measure up? The benefits and #impacts of #genomics #research can be difficult to identify and celebrate http://t.co/bsRF4Y4vXV — g.e@UBC (@UBC_GenEnt) May 13, 2014
MT @iainverigin: Collection of Lean Launch Pad Pres’n Examples & Mentor Notes on Steve Blank’s Slideshare http://t.co/0DcOS9RV1j #startup — g.e@UBC (@UBC_GenEnt) May 26, 2014
Summer #Internship Opportunity: Apicultural Specialist Intern http://t.co/3BvqAj4LMS @sustainUBC @honeybeezen #bees #apiculture #beekeeping — g.e@UBC (@UBC_GenEnt) May 26, 2014
Follow genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC on Twitter.
Newsletter Subscriptions
If you would like to receive monthly genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC updates and notifications of upcoming events, please sign up here. genomics.entrepreneurship@UBC is in partnership with Genome BC and Genome Canada.
