Affiliation: University of British Columbia,School of Biomedical Engineering,Vancouver, Canada, V6T 1Z3

Dr. Nika Shakiba is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME) at UBC. She received her PhD from the University of Toronto and completed her postdoctoral training in the Synthetic Biology Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research program (https://shakiba.bme.ubc.ca) is interested in understanding the social lives of stem cells. Her lab applies a combined systems and synthetic biology approach to reverse- and forward-engineer the competitive interactions between cells in developmental systems. Dr. Shakiba is also a big believer in outreach and mentorship. Beyond her research and teaching, she is passionate about providing equity in mentorship & advice access through her latest project, Advice to a Scientist (https://advicetoascientist.com/).