LifeSciences British Columbia Announces Winner Of Sanofi Biogenius Canada Competition For B.C.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Iveta Demirov a young science student from New Westminster Secondary School in New Westminster, has earned top honours at the B.C. edition, of the prestigious Sanofi Biogenius Canada (SBC) competition. The competition in its 22^nd year, was held recently at the Centre for Drug Research and Development on the campus of the University of British Columbia.

The participating high school science students from around the province, presented their science posters to a panel of scientist from B.C. based research institutions, organizations and companies.

The runners-up of the SBC 2016 BC regional final:

Second prize went to Nathan Kuehne, a grade 12 student at Glenlyon Norfolk School, Victoria, for his project on pH Dependent Colorimetric Assays for Biomarking Amino Acids.

Third prize went to Austin Wang, a grade 12 student at David Thompson Secondary, Vancouver, for his project on Boosting MFC Biocatalyst Performance: A Novel Gene Identification and Consortia Engineering Approach. Last year Austin, won the Gold Medal prize at the Taiwan International Science Fair and also won the 2015 International BioGENEius Environmental Challenge prize at BIO.

The Genome British Columbia Genomics Prize was presented to Ishmum Ataur, a grade 10 student at Britannia Secondary School, Vancouver, for his project on Tumor-Specific TCR-pMHC Database, for its excellence in genomics.

A special CDRD Commercialization prize was awarded to Nathan Kuehne, Glenlyon Norfolk School, Victoria, for his project on pH Dependent Colorimetric Assays for Biomarking Amino Acids. This project was deemed by the panel of judges, to have the greatest potential to be commercialized.

Competition winner, Iveta Demirov, will now progress to the SBC 2016 National Finals in Ottawa on May 2 – 3, 2016. There, winners of all nine regional SBC competitions will submit their work to be judged by a panel of Canada’s pre-eminent scientists for a chance at winning the top prize: a place at the 2016 International BioGENEius Challenge at BIO in San Francisco this June.

Iveta Demirov also received a cash prize of $2,500; a portion of which will go to her New Westminster Secondary School. Runners-up in this year’s SBC BC regional competition were also awarded cash prizes ranging in value from $250.00 to $2,500.00

About LifeSciences BC

LifeSciences BC is a not-for-profit, non-government, industry association that supports and represents the life sciences community of British Columbia through leadership, facilitation of investment and partnering, advocacy, and promotion of our world-class science and industry.

Life sciences sectors, from biopharmaceuticals and medical technology, to digital health and medical devices, are integrated into our organization and all that we do, ensuring that no life sciences sector is working in isolation — and that all sectors come together in a comprehensive, complementary and coordinated fashion.

Throughout the year, LifeSciences BC undertakes numerous programs and projects in support of these sectors. These include public policy initiatives, facilitating trade missions between global industry and our local organizations, raising the profile of our industry internationally and thus facilitating investment and global partnering opportunities, and helping nurture economic development in British Columbia through the life sciences industry.

About the Sanofi Biogenius Canada (SBC)

Sanofi Biogenius Canada is a national science research competition open to high school students, which, since 1992, has helped almost 4,000 young Canadians pursue real-world scientific research projects that have been the launch pads to future studies and careers. Coordinated by Partners In Research, the initiative is sponsored by Sanofi Pasteur Limited, Sanofi Canada, the Ontario Government (Ministry of Research & Innovation), York University, the National Research Council Canada/Conseil national de recherches Canada (NRC-CNRC), Canadian Institutes of Health Research/Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada (CIHR-IRSC) and Genome Canada. In April 2016, Sanofi Pasteur will receive the William Edmond Logan Award from the Royal Canadian Institute for Science, in recognition of its long-time sponsorship of Sanofi Biogenius Canada. The Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the public awareness of science by an institution or organization.

For more information, please visit biogenius.ca, or follow SBC on Facebook (facebook.com/SanofiBiogenius) or Twitter (@biogeniusca) using the hashtag #SBC2016.