“Solving some of Canada’s grandest challenges with synthetic biology” with Dr. Vikram Yadav.

A warming climate, unrepressed mining and logging, contamination of our water resources, the uncertain price and tight supply of crude oil and the growing threat of epidemics are having a profound, negative impact on the well-being of Canadians.

There is an urgent need to develop and implement sustainable manufacturing technologies that can not only meet our material and energy needs, but also sustain our quality of life. Romantic and unbelievable as it sounds, nature posses all the answer to our challenges, and the coming decades in science and engineering will be typified by our attempts to mimic or recruit biology to address our needs. This talk will present a vivid snapshot of current and emerging research towards this goal and highlight some cutting-edge technologies under development at the University of British Columbia.