INSPIRE Partners with SpinUp for 2024 Program
The Interdisciplinary Science Program in Research and Entrepreneurship (INSPIRE) took place in June, and students came to campus to learn about the various career paths available to them in the life sciences. Organized under the theme “Quantitative Biosciences and Research Translation,” the 2024 program introduced trainees to the quantitative biophysical, mathematical, and computational techniques necessary for tackling critical questions in the life sciences.
Founded in 2022 by CPS professors Josh Milstein and Scott Prosser, and hosted by the Office of the Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation (OVPRI), INSPIRE is an immersive two-week program for top undergraduate students considering grad school in Physics, Chemistry, or Cell and Systems Biology. Students participated in hands-on modules, directly within faculty research labs, and met with U of T researchers from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Departments of Physics and Chemistry.
“The students were incredibly inquisitive and displayed a real enthusiasm for the science,” says Milstein. He designed the program to highlight the interdisciplinarity inherent in the life sciences — and to get students excited about the many opportunities available to them once they graduate.
“INSPIRE was probably one of my favourite undergraduate experiences,” says Mark Stevens, a second-year bioinformatics student who was part of the 2024 cohort. “It was awesome to get to see what it’s like to work in a lab and to know what my future is going to be like.”
Now in its third year, the program has partnered with Visions of Science. It’s a local organization committed to advancing STEM equity by engaging Black and other racialized youth from low-income communities across the Greater Toronto Area who experience significant barriers to participation. Each year, Visions of Science helps more than 3,000 youth and reaches over 30 communities.
INSPIRE has also joined forces with SpinUp, U of T’s first wet lab startup incubator. Raquel De Souza, SpinUp lead and UTM’s Director of Partnerships and Innovation, was involved in the planning for this year’s program and brought in startups, speakers, and sponsors to support INSPIRE’s entrepreneurship goals.
“This year’s partnership with SpinUp has really taken the entrepreneurial and translation goals of the program to a whole new level,” says Milstein.
The exciting collaboration inspired a day dedicated entirely to entrepreneurship and involved six of SpinUp’s new startups.
Seeing INSPIRE students shadow and learn from our on-campus startups, and then so proficiently represent those startups at the pitch competition, was to witness one of the OVPRI’s main goals for SpinUp materialize: to provide enriching and unique experiential learning opportunities for students right on the UTM campus.
In preparation for the program’s inaugural pitch competition, Feiran Zhou, Business Development and Commercialization Manager at the Ontario Centre of Innovation, came to speak to students about how to craft compelling pitches.
Then on Entrepreneurship Day, the cohort spent the morning touring the SpinUp space and shadowing four of the startups in small groups. In the afternoon, each team prepared for the pitch competition, where they would ‘pitch’ the startup they'd shadowed to the larger group and a panel of guest judges.
“Seeing them shadow and learn from our on-campus startups, and then so proficiently represent those startups at the pitch competition, was to witness one of the OVPRI’s main goals for SpinUp materialize: to provide enriching and unique experiential learning opportunities for students right on the UTM campus,” De Souza says.
Diaminopharm was one of the startups the students shadowed, and CEO Jik Chin was particularly impressed by the students’ engagement. “The student pitches were like watching future CEOs in action,” he remarks. “It’s a great education for them — and fun at the same time.”
Lucas Penny, Co-Managing Director of Nucleate Canada, joined Entrepreneurship Day for a Lunch & Learn session, where he spoke on how graduate students can turn lab-based innovations into viable startups.
“Entrepreneurship in the life sciences can be exciting but daunting,” says Penny. “This is a fantastic program for students to understand what’s needed to begin their journey in bio entrepreneurship in a hands-on manner.”
Dana Abughaduma is a second-year student studying Molecular Biology and Human Biology at UTSC. She plans on pursuing graduate studies and applied to INSPIRE to learn about the interdisciplinary nature of the life sciences — as well as the opportunities available to future entrepreneurs.
“INSPIRE really taught me about the deep connection between chemistry, biology, and physics, how multiple labs are working together to solve problems,” she says. “And the entrepreneurship side gave me a new view on how you can take what you’re studying in the lab and create a whole company with it.”
Since the program, students and startups have been discussing ways to engage further, and Milstein looks forward to continuing to expand the program.
“My hope is that INSPIRE gave the student a sense of what interdisciplinary, real-world problem solving is really like,” he says. “We hope to grow it even more next year.”
Sincere thanks to this year’s faculty researchers, module instructors, pitch competition judges, and guest speakers. We’d also like to thank our participating startups for offering their time, mentorship, and expertise: Arma Biosciences, Bough Biosciences, Diaminopharm, and MycoFutures.
The 2024 INSPIRE Scholars Program was generously supported by Excedr, our platinum sponsor, and gold sponsors Beckman Coulter Life Sciences and MilliporeSigma. Thank you to Excedr for joining us on campus and supporting our inaugural pitch competition!
