All human beings need healthy communities to lead flourishing lives, but more than that, I believe scientific progress and the translation of scientific discoveries into life-changing medicine requires not only thriving communities of scientists but also strong scientist-clinician relationships.

In a world where our default is to stay at our desk, keep our heads down and work a task, what would it take to build a healthy community of scientists?

How can we build more open communication channels with the end users we envision using our engineered product (in this case, doctors)?

Where does one start in beginning to change a culture of isolation and independence?

These are questions that I have been mulling over, in addition to musings on how our increasingly fragmented society is contributing to the rising mental health concern.

As Vivek Murthy wrote in early 2024, the lack of connection is becoming one of the epidemics of our time.

I don’t purport to have the solution, but here are some ways I have worked to address the issue in my spheres of influence:

---

The story of the certificate:

It was not until I ventured into the world of biomedical science research that I realized how big the gaps are between lab and clinic. While I slaved away in the lab, deep down I doubted that any of the work I was doing would have any real-world impact, or was even being informed by a need in the real world.

We had doctor collaborators for sure – I remember walking in to the hospital for the first meeting at the start of my PhD glancing around at the patients and reminding myself of why I was doing this PhD – but little did I know that one 30 min meeting discussing my initial project idea to jumpstart the grant application was the most interaction I was to get with the clinical side.

In talking to other fellow PhD students, it turns out this existential fear was a common one. In fact, in talking to my doctor friends, it seems the disconnect was mutually felt. They found it hard to stay interested in the science when they were barely keeping their head above water meeting all the clinical needs.

Unlike the startup world where the product is constantly molded and informed by client needs in a closed cycle of user interviews and iterative improvement, the academic and clinical world felt like two gargantuan institutions, standing silent and separate.

I tried on my own to search out ways to interface with the clinic – volunteer in the hospital, shadow doctors, even considered the MD-PhD route for a hot minute (then realized I didn’t actually want to be a doctor) – but everything felt difficult, layered with bureaucratic red tape.

On a fortuitous visit to Boston, a friend told me about the Leder program at Harvard and other such translational training programs at top institutions in the U.S., where graduate students were given a condensed medical education and taught to think in translational ways. It sounded like a perfect fit for my needs, except that no such program existed in Canada.

That got me started on a 4 year journey of figuring how to start McGill’s first translational certificate, with the goal of enriching basic science education with a mix of medical-style coursework crafted specifically for graduate students, immersive clinical experiences with physician mentors, and engagement with the broader translational network at McGill.

On this journey, the student committee I assembled conducted both an environmental scan of translational training programs in North America and a needs assessment amongst McGill students that highlighted the need from both an institutional and grass-roots level.

We developed 2 new courses: PHAR 522 (Fundamentals of Disease Therapy) and PHAR 524 (Clinical Mentorship), writing syllabi that was approved by the McGill Senate and contacted clinicians to both teach and mentor in these courses. Leading the recruitment efforts and holding informational sessions for our 1st cohort, we successfully kicked off the certificate in Jan 2022 with 10 students.

---

To build stronger professional networks amongst researchers involved in controlled drug release, I helped to start the first young scientist committee of CC-CRS. During my time as president, I revamped the website, held a 3 min Youtube video competition where students submitted video summaries of their research, and held several networking events including a collaborative training series with the CRS YSC during which students were taught how to use Blender to make video animations of their research.

---

SPE is one of the few bilingual student-founded initiatives directly engaging local political scenes and effectively bridging the gap between academia, industry, and government leaders.

During my time as student board member, I contributed in the following ways:

• SPE cafes: organized events for students to discuss important issues in science policy and wrote reports to summarize findings of the events listed below:
  • Zero-waste: reality or fantasy?
  • Sexual harassment: how can academia do better? 
  • Mental health: how can academia do better? 
• SPE blog: wrote several articles on SPE Medium
  • Medium: Mindsets of a sustainable traveller
  • Medium: Mindful Research – 5 steps to a minimal waste lab
  • Medium: How I learned the importance of voicing my needs – through the lenses of graduate students

---

Gradlife McGill is a student-run group of bloggers and Instagrammers whose goal is to showcase the graduate student voice via writing, photos and videos. During my time as Editor-in-Chief, I recruited a group of ~10 bloggers and Instagrammers and organized monthly meetings around tea and doughnuts during which we planned our writing/social media schedule, but also shared about our experience as graduate students.

I, myself, wrote the following pieces that were published on the Gradlife blog:

• GradLife McGill: my PhD, a mountain
• Gradlife McGill: the day I quit
• Gradlife McGill: the 3 week countdown
• Gradlife McGill: from surviving to thriving – on resilience

---

I’ve loved being in the church since I was a young girl pondering the origins of the universe and other big questions of life to now being the wife of a pastor of a church in downtown Montreal. Being deeply involved in my church community, from leading a city group to facilitating inter-faith dialogue at a local mosque, I’ve seen people of vastly different socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds share meals and laughter in ways that are beautifully distinctive in a world of increasing polarization.

Below is an article I wrote for The Institute for the Study of Christianity in an Age of Science and Technology (ISCAST), that was also published in Eternity News, on the unique role of the church in the loneliness crisis.