How Canada can take the lead in biomedical engineering

This year, I was privileged to be appointed to the Order of Canada for my work in regenerative medicine and biomedical engineering (BME). I know well what this award means, the responsibility it bestows, and the rare company who share the honour. It’s humbling, both personally and professionally. But what this recognition signals about where BME stands in the national conscience, and where it can take the country from here, is something far more exciting. In a nutshell, biomedical engineers view the human body as an engineered system. We take new technologies, the problem-solving skillset of an engineer, and our expanding knowledge of biology and put them all to work on the health-care challenges facing humanity. But this simple description is just the tip of an enormous iceberg; one that has the potential to transform medicine as we know it—for everyone. Dr. Peter Zandstra is is the director of UBC's School of Biomedical Engineering and Michael Smith Labs. Photograph courtesy of Paul Joseph The field includes wearable sensors, prosthetics, cellular and molecular engineering, nanotechnology, AI, data science, advanced imaging, and more. My own research focuses on understanding how stem cells form functional tissues, and how we can use that understanding to design new therapies. Imagine being prescribed off-the-shelf, engineered immune cells instead of a pill. Imagine being able to grow blood cells on demand. This is already happening in hospitals across Canada, with very exciting impacts on patients suffering from terrible diseases such as leukemia. Step by step, we’re changing health care, and that success is getting deservedly noticed. Dr. Connie Eaves, a giant in stem cell science (and one of my PhD mentors) was also named to this year’s Order of Canada cohort. So too was Dr. Pieter Cullis, a scientist who provided the key discovery that gave the world lipid nanoparticles, delivery systems that provide a way to battle everything from COVID-19 and HIV to possibly heart disease. Made in Canada All of this and much more is happening right here in Canada. Why is that? Sure, we have world-class talent driven to explore the vanguard of science and technology, and yes, we’re home to one of the fastest-growing biotech hubs in the world, but what brings it all together is something very simple: there are no silos. Regardless of scientific discipline, we go wherever the best solution might be, and work to make it a reality. This means that the walls between mathematicians and chemists, biologists and quantum physicists, electrical engineers and nanotechnologists, are all pulled down. As a result, ground-breaking innovation moves faster. For evidence, look no further than the British Columbia boom in biotechnology companies like Abcellera, Notch Therapeutics, Zymeworks, and STEMCELL Technologies, just to name a few. For Canada to go even further, we need to support this collaborative scientific culture ever-more deeply. When I was tapped to help launch and lead the University of British Columbia’s School of Biomedical Engineering in 2017, we set out to build a hub-and-spoke home for Western Canada’s BME community. One where every student, researcher, clinician, entrepreneur, and biotech company could bring their ideas and challenges, and walk out with the talent, knowledge, and technology to see it succeed. Our work has led to the design of a new, state-of-the-art facility—Canada’s Living Laboratory—at UBC. It will come online in 2024 and is purpose-built to broadcast this culture out to the companies, policymakers, and organizations that already exist, as well as the ones it will partner to create. Stepping Out in Front Our shared Canadian BME success can be the foundation for creative solutions to some of our biggest challenges—from chronic and infectious disease to food security and climate change, to universal access to health prevention and treatment technologies. Canada has an economic and cultural opportunity to define the future of medicine for all. We have the means, the people, the knowledge, some of the top BME post-secondary programs on the planet; and soon, we’ll have the facilities. Now is the time to be very intentional about putting biomedical engineering front and centre in the national conscience. How can we use BME as a silo-free model to bring the best science and technology to bear on solving health problems, and more, for all our benefit? That’s what the Order of Canada means to me. And I’m excited for what comes next. Dr. Peter Zandstra is the director of the School of Biomedical Engineering and Michael Smith Labs at the University of British Columbia. The Hill Times