On the surface, the world of science appears entirely governed by the tangible: research, data, testing, validation, and so on. But scientific history tells a different story; one of chance meetings and fortunate accidents.
From penicillin to x-rays, some of medicine’s greatest advancements were products of happenstance. Precision healthcare company, Syantra Inc., knows firsthand that chance is sometimes the catalyst that brings change and innovation to the scientific landscape.
In May 2011, Dr. Kristina Rinker and Bob Shepherd were conducting research at the University of Calgary when they met Dr. Hyeyoung Lee, a Professor of Biomedical Laboratory Science from Yonsei University in Wonju, South Korea. For over 40 years, Dr. Lee’s home province of Gangwon-do has maintained a sister-province agreement with Alberta. Because of that agreement, Dr. Lee happened to be in Calgary on a trade mission that spring.
It also happened that Dr. Lee’s research around human disease, diagnostics and molecular testing aligned with Dr. Rinker and Shepherd’s current biomedical research. “Dr. Lee’s lab had been doing some initial work on breast cancer testing and she wanted to expand in this area. Molecular tests were the focus she wanted to hone in on—and that fit well with the work being done by Tina and myself at the University of Calgary,” Shepherd says.
Dr. Lee believed there was a significant opportunity to improve breast cancer detection through molecular testing and she had access to clinical samples. Meanwhile, Dr. Rinker and Shepherd had the ability to identify new biomarkers and validate them in their lab systems. A collaborative project was born.
Each year, the provincial governments of Gangwon-do and Alberta funded one program under their sister-province agreement. In 2012, Dr. Rinker and Dr. Lee were awarded the Alberta-Gangwon-do Collaborative Research Grant.
