THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

ECOSCOPE

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About the program

ECOSCOPE presents a unique opportunity to equip UBC students and post-docs entering the emerging bioeconomy with professional and entrepreneurial training to augment their research skills, engage in knowledge translation and entrepreneurship.

Apply today!

ECOSCOPE applications are now being accepted! Apply by MAY 6, 2019 for this year’s Fall cohort.   Photo by Martin

Research highlight: Withers lab

ECOSCOPE investigator Steve Withers recently presented new research at the American Chemical Society’s annual meeting. His group used functional metagenomic screening to identify enzymes capable of converting any blood type to type O – the universal type – thus increasing donation usability and safety. Photo by Istockphoto

Highlight: BioDesign

With support from the Peter Wall Institute, a team of ECOSCOPE investigators and graduate students won the 2018 Biodesign Challenge with the “MYCOmmunity toilet” – a sustainable toilet of mushroom mycelium that uses a blend of bacteria, enzymes, and mushrooms to safely break down human waste into compost.

The Ecosystem Services, Commercialization Platforms and Entrepreneurship (ECOSCOPE) industrial stream NSERC CREATE training program provides UBC students and post-docs with the skills needed to translate environmental sequence information derived from studying microbial communities in natural and engineered ecosystems into commercial and entrepreneurial activities. ECOSCOPE  increases capacity for highly qualified personnel (HQP) training in microbial ecology and biological engineering, allowing for internships in start-up environments, and providing professional and entrepreneurial training to augment research skills and empower HQP to commercialize their innovations.

 

We live in a microbial world

Microorganism are the invisible majority of living things on Earth. There are more microorganisms on the planet at any given time than all the stars in the known universe. ECOSCOPE trains the next generation of scientist-entrepreneurs to harness the cooperative power of microbial communities and devise solutions to extract materials and energy from the environment in a sustainable way.

 

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