Life-Changing Science: The BioBuilder Podcast
34 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 months ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsMonthly episodes explore the impact of BioBuilder on the careers of our guests, from graphic designers to teachers, entrepreneurs, and students.
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Episodes
Hana Shinzawa: A Journey Beyond the Textbook with a Budding Biologist
April 28, 2024 10:00 - 23 minutes - 16.2 MBMeet Hana Shinzawa, a beacon of inspiration from the BioBuilderClub who joins us to recount her experience as she discovered her passion to do and communicate science. Her AP Bio class captured her imagination leading her to relaunch the BioBuilderClub at her school. In this podcast she reviews her experience embarking on a project that converts scientific curiosity to a real-world application, culminating in the design of a yeast-based sensor for Salmonella detection. Hana's voice carries ...
Where Life Sciences Meet Tech Training in High School Curriculum
February 26, 2024 01:00 - 28 minutes - 19.5 MBAre you ready to have your mind expanded by the ingenuity of STEM education? Prepare to be inspired as Zeeshan talks with the dynamic Billy Carrier from Volunteer High School, a public school located in Church Hill, TN serving about 1000 students in grades 9-12. There Billy is trailblazing the "BioSTEM" program. This isn't your average biology class; it's a revolutionary approach that combines the intricacies of freshman biology with career exploration through hands-on technical training. H...
From High School Fascination to Cutting-Edge Biotech: Susana Donkor's Journey in Science
December 30, 2023 11:00 - 28 minutes - 19.4 MBEver wondered how a high school fascination can ignite a lifelong passion for science and medicine? Zeeshan's conversation with Susana Donkor explores her early days, marked by influential encounters and pivotal experiences, to her current cutting-edge work at Aurion Biotech. Susana shares her journey with heartfelt candor, reflecting on the profound early influence of educational shows and the empowering story of Ben Carson's "Gifted Hands," which sowed the seeds for her aspirations in neur...
Tara Peterson: One High Schooler's Journey from BioBuilder into a Biotech Career
October 29, 2023 18:00 - 27 minutes - 18.6 MBEver wondered how high school curiosity can evolve into a successful career in biotechnology? In this podcast, our guest Tara Peterson shares her unique story of how her high school apprenticeship program at BioBuilder shaped her career. Listen as she reveals the differences between her high school classroom and the BioBuilder program, and the program played a crucial role in kick-starting her journey into a college STEM major and now a career in science. Tara reveals how her work with BioB...
Inside the Lab: Yesenia Collins' Adventures in Synthetic Biology
August 01, 2023 18:00 - 26 minutes - 18.4 MBGet ready to be inspired by our extraordinary guest, Yesenia Collins. A pivotal figure in her school's BioBuilderClub, Yesenia takes us along on her captivating journey, from her initial introduction to synthetic biology to her innovative projects at Tyngsborough High School. Can you imagine the thrill of manipulating organisms to produce novel scents or even creating a world of vibrant microbial colors? Yesenia did just that in the Smell Lab and What a Colorful World Lab. Yet, it wasn't all...
Season 3 Episode 3: Igniting Passion for Biology with Amanda Blackburn and Evie Lafollette
June 11, 2023 00:00 - 28 minutes - 19.9 MBImagine transforming high school biology education by integrating synthetic biology into the curriculum, igniting students' passion for learning and preparing them for future success. How do you make this possible? This BioBuilder podcast focuses on two extraordinary biology teachers, Amanda Blackburn and Evie Lafollette, who share their inspiring journey of bringing synthetic biology to Dobbins Bennett High School in Tennessee. Amanda and Evie discuss their BioBuilder training experience i...
Season 3 Episode 2: Meet BioBuilder Rachael Smyers
April 22, 2023 11:00 - 23 minutes - 16.2 MBRachael Smyers was part of the 2019 BioBuilder High School Apprenticeship Challenge that was held at LabCentral. The program’s “learning by doing” approach attracted her to it, especially since she got what she felt was a late start in the Vocational Technical Program at Medford High School. Starting there in her junior year, she spent mornings taking 3 or 4 traditional high school classes (English, History…) and the afternoons in Biotech Shop, learning lab skills like pipetting, prepping bu...
Season 2 Episode 1: Meet BioBuilder Lyle Musesengwa
February 26, 2023 20:00 - 22 minutes - 15.4 MBLyle Musesengwa is a high school sophomore at Dobyns-Bennet HS, a rural school in Kingsport, TN, near the Appalachian Mountains. His school has strong STEM offerings, including the MATE Underwater Robotics competition, as well as nationally recognized Marching Band program. Lyle was born in Cape Town, South Africa and came to the US as a 4 year old. In this podcast Lyle notes that he can’t remember a time he wasn’t asking questions. His interest in synthetic biology began in 5th grade – ev...
Season 3 Episode 1: Meet BioBuilder Lyle Musesengwa
February 26, 2023 20:00 - 22 minutes - 15.4 MBLyle Musesengwa is a high school sophomore at Dobyns-Bennet HS, a rural school in Kingsport, TN, near the Appalachian Mountains. His school has strong STEM offerings, including the MATE Underwater Robotics competition, as well as nationally recognized Marching Band program. Lyle was born in Cape Town, South Africa and came to the US as a 4 year old. In this podcast Lyle notes that he can’t remember a time he wasn’t asking questions. His interest in synthetic biology began in 5th grade – ev...
Season 2 Episode 12: Meet BioBuilder Jacob Lei
December 25, 2022 20:00 - 24 minutes - 16.6 MBJacob Lei was a rising Junior in High School when he participated in one of BioBuilder's online programs in the summer of 2020, waking up at 5AM Pacific time to participate synchronously three times a week for a month. BioBuilder’s online program introduced Jacob to the idea that biology and engineering could be combined to help people, using genetic parts that could be reconnected to address global issues. His biodesign team focused on medical treatments with a design that addressed insulin...
Season 2 Episode 11: Meet BioBuilder Presley Simelus
November 30, 2022 01:00 - 21 minutes - 15 MBIn this interview, Presley notes how they haven’t seen a single program or organization that is similar to BioBuilder. Presley would know, given the range of programs that they have engaged in. Presley is currently an 11th grade student at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School in Cambridge, MA. The first BioBuilder experience for Presley came as an 8th grader through an exploratory program BioBuilder ran in the Learning Lab @ LabCentral. After a 9th grade “zoom only” year that included a vir...
Season 2 Episode 10: Meet BioBuilder Jo-Anne Purdy
October 31, 2022 14:00 - 30 minutes - 21.2 MBJo has been a biology teacher for 26 years and a BioBuilder from the very start, having attended the very first Professional Development workshop at MIT in 2011. Since then, she has integrated BioBuilder into her classroom (Newton North and Westborough High Schools in MA), supporting a BioBuilderClub that was led by Viggy (Season 1 Episode 6), and leading teacher professional development workshops. In this conversation she digs into what it takes to run BioBuilder labs and programs, as well ...
Season 2 Episode 9: Meet BioBuilder Veni Dole
September 26, 2022 17:00 - 27 minutes - 18.8 MBVeni Dole is currently studying Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, but as a high school student she participated in BioBuilder's BioBuilderClub at Andover High School. The team project she worked on addressed plastic bottles that pollute the ocean. Their design used salt as a trigger for bacterial production of pETase, allowing microbes under the bottle's label to dissolve the plastic. The work not led her to research what has become a hot topic in biotechnology but also to speak w...
Season 2 Episode 8: Meet BioBuilder Geneva Fischer
September 05, 2022 01:00 - 17 minutes - 12.3 MBGeneva Fischer, a rising sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston, has been part of the BioBuilder community since high school. As part of her work in the biotechnology program at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, she saw her classmates participate in the BioBuilderClub, joined an intensive workshop at the BioBuilder Learning Lab @LabCentral, and participated in the online Idea Accelerator during the COVID shut-down of in person classes. Most recently she has worked as an intern in th...
Season 2 Episode 7: Meet BioBuilder Dave Westenberg
July 31, 2022 02:00 - 34 minutes - 23.4 MBDave Westenberg, a Professor of Biological Sciences at Missouri University of Science & Technology, is widely known as a wonderful microbiologist, a great communicator and an exceptionally dedicated teacher. His students, be they undergraduates, high school teachers or public audiences, invariably feel empowered as scientists because Dave makes room for student curiosity, collaboration, and learning from mistakes. Dave attended one of BioBuilder's earliest professional development workshop...
Season 2 Episode 6: Meet Rebekah Ravgiala
June 29, 2022 19:00 - 34 minutes - 23.5 MBRebekah Ravgiala is an award-winning biotechnology teacher at Tyngsborough High School in Massachusetts. She attended the first BioBuilder teacher professional workshop at MIT in 2011 and was hooked. Her excitement about synthetic biology motivated her to lead her school's iGEM/BioBuilderClub teams year after year. In 2012, Rebekah registered and trained as an advanced BioBuilder instructor, learning how to teach other teachers the BioBuilder curriculum. Since then she has co-taught summer w...
Season 2 Episode 5: Meet Oscar Jimenez
May 31, 2022 13:00 - 14 minutes - 10.1 MBOscar is a rising junior at University of Massachusetts at Lowell, studying biology. His interest in biotechnology was sparked by a high school class and teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. He applied and was accepted to BioBuilder's High School Apprenticeship Challenge in 2019, held that year at LabCentral in Cambridge. His biodesign project addressed high concentrations of lead in drinking water. At the poster session presentation of his project, Oscar met a researcher at Indigo ...
Season 2 Episode 4: Meet Nancy Otaluka
April 30, 2022 23:00 - 19 minutes - 13.3 MBNancy is currently a Clinical Research Assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She was one of the first BioBuilder Apprentices, a workforce readiness program for Boston-area students in under-resourced local high schools. In 2021 she graduated from the University of Massachusetts -Dartmouth, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Biochemistry. In 2022, she has returned to the BioBuilder Apprenticeship program as a teaching assistant, helping today's high schoole...
Season 2 Episode 3: Meet Chris Kuffner
March 27, 2022 17:00 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBChris Kuffner has been a longtime BioBuilder -- starting in high school at Acton-Boxborough High School in Massachusetts almost a decade ago, and now he serves as a BioBuilderClub mentor and workshop instructor. He pursued his early interest in synthetic biology at University of Maryland, where he participated in the hardware track of iGEM. His team engineered a -80 freezer that could be built from component parts that cost less than 10% of the commercial versions of the lab equipment. Ch...
Season 2 Episode 2: Meet Jenny Nemlekar
February 27, 2022 11:00 - 22 minutes - 15.3 MBJenny is a creative whose work designing the first BioBuilder website influenced her career path from biomedical engineer to successful luxury handbag maker, marketer, and woman-led business owner. Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/ And follow BioBuilder on social media: https://www.facebook.com/BioBuilderFoundation/ https://twitter.com/SystemsSally https://www.youtube.com/@BioBuilder https://www.insta...
Season 2 Episode 1: Meet Tian Shi
January 30, 2022 21:00 - 24 minutes - 16.9 MBTian Shi is a senior at Georgetown University who came to BioBuilder's Learning Lab as a high school student and designed a biotechnology that she is now commercializing. She has also written a book on entrepreneurship and credits her work with BioBuilder for helping her see herself as an agent of change. Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/ And follow BioBuilder on social media: https://www.facebook.com...
Episode 12: Meet Angela Girodier
December 28, 2021 01:00 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBAngela Girodier is a senior undergraduate student at Emmanuel College, majoring in biology and secondary education. She is an alumna of the BioBuilder Apprenticeship Program. In this podcast, she describes how a science scavenger hunt in 8th grade and a grant proposal she wrote for her high school biotech program put her a path to a science career. These experiences revealed the fun, creative, and useful parts of science, and led her to find a way in. Her high school teacher encouraged her ...
Episode 11: Meet Rebecca Millman
November 28, 2021 16:00 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MBZeeshan Siddiqui, BioBuilder's podcast host, notes: A particular topic of conversation I found really insightful was hearing about BioBuilder's tried and tested model over the past 10 years, where you start a curriculum in a school district and an area, you then start the Clubs in that area. Then you have cohorts that go through all the programming and you develop your teacher base there. But at the same time, you're talking to the region about what the bio-economy can bring to them. And th...
Episode 10: Meet Karen Katz
October 31, 2021 13:00 - 27 minutes - 18.9 MBKaren is a legal and healthcare executive, entrepreneur, and business development leader. She is currently the Deputy Director at the Office of Behavioral Health at MassHealth. Karen was one of the very first members on the BioBuilder Board of Directors. She helped shepherd the nonprofit from its earliest days, oversaw significant expansion of the Board, and helped BioBuilder keep its content freely accessible while establishing new partnerships and collaborations. Learn more about BioBui...
Episode 9: Meet Amin Hajimorad
September 26, 2021 00:00 - 27 minutes - 18.6 MBAmin Hajimorad earned his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Iowa State University, Ames, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Amin is currently an associate professor at California State University, Chico. He first got involved with BioBuilder back in 2010, where he worked on developing lab content and synthetic biology workshops for undergraduate students to get exposed to the general aspects of synthetic biology. In...
Episode 8: Meet Kevin Fuentes
August 27, 2021 15:00 - 19 minutes - 13.7 MBKevin Fuentes is a first generation Salvadoran-American now studying chemical engineering and biochemistry at Tufts University. He discovered BioBuilder when Dr. Kuldell gave a presentation to one of his science classes. He completed the Apprenticeship Challenge in the spring of 2019 and did his internship at BioBuilder during the summer, testing the synthetic biology lab kits that BioBuilder provides to schools. Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry p...
Episode 7: Meet Lindsey L'Ecuyer
July 23, 2021 21:00 - 23 minutes - 16.1 MBLindsey L'Ecuyer is an award-winning biotechnology teacher at Andover High School in Massachusetts. She has been empowering students to become independent learners for over 13 years. She is also a BioBuilder Ambassador and as part of her BioBuilderClub, Lindsey’s students have appeared on local news stations, published in the journal BioTreks, and were finalists in the international Spellman High Voltage CleanTech competition in New York City for their work using engineered cells to break do...
Episode 6: Meet Viggy Vanchinathan
May 30, 2021 18:00 - 29 minutes - 20.2 MBViggy just completed his senior year at Westborough High School, in Westborough, a small town in central Massachusetts. He was first truly exposed to synthetic biology through BioBuilder's bacterial transformation lab, "What a Colorful World." From there, he partnered with his high school biology teacher to bring the BioBuilderClub to Westborough High School. Since then, Viggy has also served as a near-peer TA for BioBuilder’s summer programs, and this summer will work with them as a junior ...
Episode 5: Michael Sheets
April 23, 2021 18:00 - 18 minutes - 12.7 MBLearn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://biobuilder.org/ And follow BioBuilder on social media: https://www.facebook.com/BioBuilderFoundation/ https://twitter.com/SystemsSally https://www.youtube.com/@BioBuilder https://www.instagram.com/systems_sally/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/16132078
Episode 4: Meet Jude Clapper
March 15, 2021 19:00 - 26 minutes - 17.9 MBJude Clapper started teaching synthetic bio at Taipei American School (TAS) in 2013 after attending one of Natalie Kuldell's Biobuilder workshops at MIT. He is now the chair of Scientific Research at the school, as well as an advisor for their iGEM team - which has won three high school grand prizes and countless nominations, as well as inspiring hundreds of kids to pursue scientific research. Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 ...
Episode 3: Meet Katie Hart
February 19, 2021 22:00 - 20 minutes - 14.3 MBKatie Hart is an assistant professor at Williams College and a member of the BioBuilder educational foundation board. Katie has spent several years running BioBuilder professional development workshops at UC Berkeley for teachers interested in incorporating the BB curriculum into their classrooms. She is also one of the authors of the amazing BB “Synthetic Bio in the lab” textbook. Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and industry professionals here 👉 https://bio...
Episode 2: Meet Karen Ingram
January 21, 2021 21:00 - 14 minutes - 9.87 MBKaren Ingram is a creative director, designer, and artist who uses her skill set to promote scientific awareness. With an origin in painting and textile design, Ingram's professional experience has traversed the arenas of digital design and art direction, creative strategy, event curation, and synthetic biology. She is also one of the authors and illustrators for the BioBuilder “Synthetic Biology in the Lab” textbook. Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and indus...
Meet our Host, Zeeshan Siddiqui
December 29, 2020 11:00 - 41 seconds - 522 KBAbout the host Zeeshan Siddiqui is a Synthetic Biologist from Sydney, Australia. He completed his undergrad in Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics from UNSW, Sydney. In 2020, he joined the iGEM team as an ambassador, with the goal of promoting science communication and education. He intends to pursue a PhD in protein engineering, as well as launch an online science journalism platform about sustainable synthetic biology. Learn more about BioBuilder's programs for students, educators, and ...
Episode 1: Meet Julie Legault
December 28, 2020 18:00 - 19 minutes - 13.4 MBJulie Legault is designer-entrepreneur from the city of Montreal. She is also the co-founder of Amino Labs, an MIT spinout that builds hardware and synthetic biology products making genetic engineering accessible to children and non-scientists. Join us for this very exciting episode as Julie walks us through her transition from designer to synthetic biologist, the key role BioBuilder played in this new career path, the birth of Amino Labs, as well as reflections on the journey so far. Link ...