Health Technology Showcase

Dr. John White

Director, Biomedical Engineering Program at UVic 

Dr. John White, Program Director of UVIC Biomedical Engineering, has a long record of academic leadership, including serving as the Executive Director of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah, Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, and President of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Dr. Carl De Boer

Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia

Dr. de Boer is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia. He did his PhD in the lab of Tim Hughes at the University of Toronto, and was a postdoctoral fellow in Aviv Regev’s lab at the Broad institute until the end of 2019, after which he moved to his current position at UBC. His research group aims to develop genomic and computational tools that will enable us to understand how the genome is regulated so that we can understand and treat disease. RESEARCH EXCELLENCE The Boer lab pioneers the integration of synthetic genomics and machine learning to unravel genome regulation complexities. Understanding genome regulation is now feasible with their innovative methods. They show that studying random DNA reveals how genomes function, as cells use the same mechanisms to interpret it similarly. The lab shows this potential by generating datasets exceeding genome size, providing deep insights into genome regulation.

Mark Drlik

StarFish Medical Concept Development Manager.

Mark Drlik is a StarFish Medical Concept Development Manager. He is a senior design and engineering professional with over 20 years of product development experience. At StarFish, Mark works with clients to transition medical devices from initial product architecture definition to final product delivery to ensure client success. His projects include design and commercialization of innovative medical devices employing ultrasound, stereotactic positioning systems, and high frequency oscillation technologies.

Dr. Karolina Valente

Assistant Teaching Professor in Mechanical Engineering, CEO of VoxCell BioInnovation Inc.

Karolina has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. She has deep expertise in the areas of tissue engineering, 3D bioprinting, and oncology. She has been teaching in the Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Departments at UVic since 2015 as a Sessional Instructor and she is currently a new Assistant Teaching Professor in Mechanical Engineering. Karolina teaches BME and MECH courses, including physiology, 3D printing, and tissue engineering. She has developed the new Materials Science course for BME and also all the lab content for BME 200 and BME 320. Her teaching interests include materials science, 3D printing, bioprinting, biosensors, and microfluidics.

Dr. Sam Lui

Associate Professor, School of Exercise Science, Physical & Health Education

Dr Sam Liu's research focuses on two main areas: 1) developing and evaluating the effectiveness of digital communication technology (e.g. Internet, mobile phones, social media) to help individuals prevent chronic diseases, 2) finding innovative ways to monitor and predict behaviours and health outcomes using big data in order to better target and personalize digital health interventions.