Privacy Policy
Signals Blog

Contributors

Categories

Right Turn Special Report: Competition rife in Canada

by | Dec 25, 2020

(Ed: This blog was originally posted on December 25, 2015. After a difficult year, full of trials and tribulations, reposting this just feels right – even if it is a little dated. Enjoy!)

This may come as a shock to many of you, but the land of lakes, trees, socialism and universal healthcare has a dark underbelly: the competitive nature of its academics.

If you look to the regenerative medicine community, everything looks hunky-dory and, on the surface, very collaborative; after all, the Stem Cell Network is behind the launch of many leading organizations, and the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine’s most lucrative grants go to teams of scientists, not individuals. Groups like Research2Reality democratically promote scientific excellence in Canada and CCRM’s modus operandi is based on the premise of leveraging networks of academics and industry partners.

Yes, Canada’s regenerative medicine community looks like one big happy family. Remember Jim Till’s foundational discovery of transplantable stem cells? Even he had a partner. Till and McCulloch are as synonymous as Fred and Ginger, Anthony and Cleopatra, Bert and Ernie, Brangelina…you get the drift.

So, at this time of ‎the year when everyone is making merry, it is particularly heart-rending and gut-wrenching to reveal that some of Canada’s foremost stem cell scientists and bioengineers – leaders in our community – are actually locked in a battle of supremacy to determine – well, the video says it all. Watch if you are prepared to have your innocence shattered.

(Disclaimer: no one was actually harmed in the making of this video and all parties depicted here – Drs. James Till, Janet Rossant, Peter Zandstra, Molly Shoichet and Michael Rudnicki – consented to have their images used. How cool is that?!)

 

Our regular feature, Right Turn, appears every Friday and we invite you to submit your own blog to info(at)ccrm.ca. We encourage you to be creative and use the right (!) side of your brain. We dare you to make us laugh! Right Turn features cartoons, photos, videos and other content to amuse, educate and encourage discussion.

As always, we welcome your feedback in the comment section.

The following two tabs change content below.
Avatar photo
My Twitter profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profile

Stacey Johnson

Stacey Johnson is the editor of Signals and a contributor. For 25 years, Stacey has been providing strategic communications counsel to government, corporate, technology and health organizations. She began her career at the CTV Television Network and then moved to Hill & Knowlton Canada where she advised clients in a variety of industries and sectors. Stacey is the Vice President, Communications and Marketing for CCRM, a leader in developing and commercializing regenerative medicine-based technologies and cell and gene therapies. She has a Master's degree in Public Relations. You can follow her on Twitter @msstaceyerin.

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *