NEXT BREAKTHROUGH: The Biomedical Innovation Brainstorm

About NEXT BREAKTHROUGH: The Biomedical Innovation Brainstorm

This is where ideas for biomedical innovation are brainstormed and born. In this extraordinarily important field, it is vital to ask the right questions- as the resulting solutions will aim to go on and solve some of the greatest medical issues. Do you want to create this change? Because that next breakthrough starts here. We invite guest researchers from the many niche areas of this field not only to pry at existing problems they face in their innovative work, but we then take this information, and here is our core element, look into the cracks, and derive ideas for the creation of new devices to target these problems. My name is Francesca Chen, and as your host, I’m a student fascinated in the potential of the near future of biomedical innovation- one that the ideas cultivated directly in this podcast could go on to impact. This is the real lab behind the innovation, alive with real ideas that could go on to change real people's lives. With NEXT BREAKTHROUGH, you could be the one to change them. Follow to be the first to know when the new episode drops. In the meantime, check out our podcast trailer!

Publisher

Francesca Chen

Category

science

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Jun 2025

Latest episode

15 Dec 2025

Latest episodes

7 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   15 Dec 2025

   Drosophila melanogaster: Neuroscience, Sensory Processing Behind Taste and Scent, Optogenetics, Nutrient Sensing, the Connectome

   “One of the things that's really sort of changed fly neuroscience recently is the connectome.” This connectome, Dr. Gordon says, is “like this map of all the connections between all the different neurons in the fly brain.” It completely revolutionized the way scientists do things like genome sequencing, where it would take years to sequence one single animal. Now, this can be done in a day. He says, “If something like the technology for studying connectomes could be scalable in a similar way, and we could then easily get connectome information from other species, for example, the species of insects or other larger species, etc.” Hello everyone, welcome to Next Breakthrough! My name is Francesca Chen, and I have a surprise for everyone today in this month’s episode. I interviewed Dr. Michael Gordon, a Professor and PI in the Department of Zoology at UBC, whose team looks at a very unique animal in their research: the Drosophila melanogaster. A fruit fly. Intrigued? I was as well when I initially read through Dr. Gordon’s research, and thus wanted to bring his thoughts to share with you all.  As the topic of this episode suggests, we will cover a wide variety and depth of aspects today, including fly models and genetics, neuroscience, sensory processing in terms of taste and scent, optogenetics, nutrient sensing, linking things back to human health, the connectome, and more in much more detail. Although some things discussed do not directly related to biomedicine per say, remember that biomedicine is really influenced and impacted by a broad scope of areas, and it can be through profound research from one of these areas that ties to something more central, as Dr. Gordon explains today. The episode gives us a broader view of the stretch and connectedness that are human biomedical sciences. It is all very interesting, so definitely go ahead and enjoy this unique episode. (I would also recommend you guys research a bit about the Human Connectome Project when you finish listening!) Without further ado, here is Dr. Mike Gordon.

2. 

   15 Nov 2025

   HIV & Antiretroviral Drugs and Therapy: Mitochondrial Toxicity, Mitochondrial DNA Depletion, Telomer e Length, Pregnancy & Preterm Delivery

   One of the limitations Dr. Hélène Côté recognizes in this field of research is the complexity behind the intaking of these antiretroviral drugs in individuals, where causation is not always clear. If this can be done, she says, on a scale which allows answering of questions with more granularity, she would be able to close in on what antiretroviral drug does what, and figure out a link between the drug and its affects. Welcome back, everyone, to Next Breakthrough, our hub of biomedical innovation brainstorm! My name is Francesca Chen, and I’m very excited to introduce to you all Dr. Hélène Côté. In this episode, Dr. Hélène Côté, a PI and professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UBC talks about her team’s research in HIV medication.  Our discussion tracks the journey of antiretroviral drugs’ introduction- from initial adverse affects-to now, and current improvements of patients’ lives, to more internal aspects such as mitochondrial toxicity and antiretroviral impacts on mtDNA depletion, the relationship of these drugs to telomere length, how these drugs influence pregnancy and preterm delivery, and much more. Ending off is a reflection on how the fight against HIV has progressed in the past years, current challenges researchers like Dr. Côté and her team face, and anticipated progression in the future. There’s lots of densely packed intriguing insights in our conversation, so let’s dive right in! And as always, please consider following this podcast to increase the size of your biomedical brain. And without further ado, here is Dr. Hélène Côté.

3. 

   14 Oct 2025

   Type 1 Diabetes & Stem Cell Therapy, Macroencapsulation Devices, CRISPR/Gene Editing, Yamanaka Factors, Hypoimmune Cells

   The elimination of life-long immunosuppressant drugs begins with being able to able to avoid the immune system's attack. Avoiding the immune system’s attack, as Dr. Zhao explains, lies in the generating of hypoimmune cells, and the tweaking of certain genes in order to “mask” the molecular ID of these cells when they are in the body.... Welcome back, innovators! My name is Francesca Chen, your host for Next Breakthrough. In this episode we interviewed Dr. Jia Zhao, a post doc in the Kieffer Lab, which is part of the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences at UBC. The Kieffer Lab delves into the treatment of Type 1 diabetes, focussing on a combination of insulin producing cells and macroencapsulation devices, and genetic engineering. In this episode, we discussed stem cell therapy, donor alleles, pancreatic pregenital cells, Beta cells (you will learn what all these are soon!) macroencapsulation, CRISPR and gene editing, hypoimmune cells, and more. We ended off by addressing the efforts need to make these emerging diabetes therapies more accessible and less expensive to a larger population. There are lots of fascinating components embedded in our interview- as always, should you find anything you want to look into on your own time, please do- I would recommend looking into the Yamanaka factors Dr. Zhao and I talk about a little later in the interview. Without further ado, here is Dr. Jia Zhao!

4. 

   15 Sept 2025

   Environmental Pollutants & Age-Related Diseases, The Evolution of Cancer & The “Two-Hit Method”, Mutations, Multi-omics, Next-Gen Sequencing

   Imagine a drug that you could just take if you knew you would be outside for a long time. It would be able to mitigate your pollution exposure- as simple as ibuprofen, right off the counter. And the amount of mutagens getting into your cells, and thus causing them to become diseased states, reduced considerably, just like that. Hi, everyone. My name is Francesca Chen, and welcome back to Next Breakthrough. In this episode we meet Dr. Emilia Lim, a PI principal investigator in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The University of British Columbia. Dr. Lim’s team is focussed on determining how environmental pollutants alter the genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics of cells to transform from healthy to diseased. We discussed the evolution of cancer on a molecular level, DNA repair mechanisms and immune systems defences for mutations, the individual timeline of cancer development and the “two hit-method”, air pollutants and lung cancer development, spacial transcriptomics, age-related mutations, and more. Ending on a high note was our discussion on next-generation sequencing and the future of Dr. Lim’s research. I know you guys are super excited and ready to dive in, as am I, so let’s go ahead! As always, please follow to never miss your monthly dosage of biomedical breakthrough knowledge.  And without further ado, here is Dr. Emilia Lim.

5. 

   14 Aug 2025

   RNA Vaccines, Self-Amplifying RNA Vaccines and Therapies, Gene Delivery, LNP Drug Delivery, Animal Models, Machine Learning

   Imagine an RNA printer device that could print RNA… overnight. This would drastically alter the pace at which RNA is designed and made- which consequently would increase the pace of researchers as they develop the next vaccines and therapies for us. Welcome back to Next Breakthrough: The Biomedical Innovation Brainstorm, everyone. In this episode, I interviewed Dr. Anna Blakney, and she, similar to Dr. Kelly McNagny, who you met in our first episode, is a Principal Investigator at School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Blakney’s lab is interested in RNA formulations and their delivery into the human body, for vaccine and therapeutic purposes. I’m not sure if many of you are aware of this, but Dr. Blakney works closely with Dr. Pieter Cullis, who was a pivotal part of the development of the Lipid nanoparticle (LNP) based vaccines during the pandemic. Throughout this episode, we talked about this development, and the continued improvement of self-amplifying RNA delivery Dr. Blakney and her team are working on. Fun fact: Dr. Blakney began a TikTok channel during the pandemic to answer the questions people had regarding vaccines. Interested in learning more about scientific innovation with Next Breakthrough? Consider following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to get those neurons firing. And without further ado, let’s go ahead and meet Dr. Anna Blakney.

6. 

   14 Jul 2025

   Innate Lymphoid Cells & The Immune Response, Bacteria, Crohn’s Disease, Next Gen Vaccines and Researchers, Cancer

   I just want to zoom in onto a particular part Dr. McNagny talked about in this episode: the sort of innovation he sees when looking into the future of Innate Lymphoid Cells and patients with diseases associated with them. He talks about a pill that patients could take, which could activate a certain subtype of Innate Lymphoid Cells causing a disease, and through that action, turn them on and off. That’s an incredible thought, and what’s even more incredible is the entire context behind, which leads to, this thought. Dr. Kelly McNagny is a principal investigator at the School for Biomedical Engineering (SBME) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Throughout this episode, our main discussion was on a specific type of recently discovered immune cells called Innate Lymphoid Cells; we discussed their role in inflammation, their relationship with bacteria and disease, such as Crohn’s disease, and the next generation therapies currently being explored to regulate and control their function, and more. Towards the end, we talked about the future of research in this area: the type of innovation that could deal with the problems we discussed earlier, and the type of mindset needed to will continue to drive this innovation forwards. Finally, Dr. McNagny gave us a teaser on a potential following episode with him about the novel cancer immunotherapies being developed in his lab at this moment. They target a particular tumour stem cell protein that has been discovered by the lab which drives cancer to metastasize.... Make sure to follow to know when the next biomedical brainstorm is released. Welcome to Next Breakthrough.

7. 

   24 Jun 2025

   Trailer

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Podcast Authority Score: 15 / 100

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0

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