‍CEO of Farcast Biosciences, Mohit Malhotra, has articulated to us 6 priority areas to describe the scope of the problem:

1. Cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of mortality and despite decades of research and billions of dollars spent across academia and industry.

2. Over the past 10 years, nearly 97% of drug candidates failed in clinical trials and of the ones that were approved, the response rates range for patients remain in the range of 15-% 30% at best.

3. Human tumors are complex, dynamic and unique for every patient and anatomy - making it hard to predict their response to treatment, therefore even with several new therapies that have become available, there is minimal difference in the outcomes for cancer  patients.

4. One of the main opportunity areas is to develop models that are relevant to human biology and represent the complexity and dynamic nature of human tumors.

5. Farcast researchers have developed a platform that preserves the near native nature and  architecture of human tumors outside the human body for up to 3 days. This platform begins by taking live tumor samples from patients who consent to donate a part of their tumor tissue, that is processed using proprietary techniques and subjected to multiple treatments simultaneously. The perturbations caused by these treatment lead to dynamic signaling between tumor cells in their microenvironment and these signals provide indications of likely response that is used to rank order the likelihood of durable response in patients.

6. Farcast has processed over 25,000 live human tumors over the past decade and has generated multi-omic data that has the power to create biosignatures to guide precision development of cancer drugs and also guide treatment options for patients.

Position type
‍Fellowship

Cohort size
‍5 specialised fellows attached to BLUE 2025

Period
‍12 weeks

Duration
‍January 2024 - April 2025

Farcast Biosciences x BLUE Resident Fellow

1. Meet all the requirements of being a BLUE Resident Fellow.

2. Receive guidance from the Farcast Biosciences team at the beginning, middle, and end stages of the project cycle.

3. Present the final iteration of the project internally at Building 21 and potentially, externally, with Farcast Biosciences.

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Function

‍Develop one’s personal, original, creative, and rigorous academic project in order to acquire the knowledge and skills to think beyond the acknowledged, the recognized, and the comfortable.

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‍Presence‍

Fellows will be required to work out of—and be physically present at—Building 21 for a minimum of 15 hours per week over the course of the Fellowship. In-person presence at B21 leads to essential interdisciplinary connections and conversations.

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Responsibility

• Develop and present your project with the community

• Participate in one Lightning session per week

• Schedule regular project check-ins (twice per month) with Anita Parmar or Ollivier Dyens

• Attend regularly scheduled talks and discussions

• Share ideas and feedback to a group of interdisciplinary scholars

• As an aspect of the fellowship, students will also be asked to help organize or host B21 events and take on some administrative tasks.

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Communication Workshop

As part of BLUE, fellows will be required to make availability for a 3-day intensive communication training, led by former Director of Engagement & Partnerships and Director of Media Relations at McGill, Carole Graveline. This will be held early February based on the cohort's schedule.

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‍Showcase‍

Fellows will be asked to present their work to the community at the end of the Fellowship in a project showcase.

Eligibility and Requirements

Community Guidelines

Applicants will be asked to ‘wow’ the selection committee in the manner they prefer. This means choosing whatever platform they feel will best highlight both their ideas and personal strengths (video, text, music, filmed performance, unusual and original research work, etc.).

The application should show the originality and boldness of the idea submitted and the technical capacity of the applicant to make progress. We are looking for students who are passionate, engaged, autonomous, and are obsessed with knowledge, learning, and discovery. Think about the question or the unknown that you are trying to get at, and articulate it in your application.

Important: articulate the unknown that you're trying to uncover as clearly as you can!

Due to the expected large volume of applications, please aim for maximum impact and clarity as opposed to detail. We strongly recommend keeping videos and similar applications to be viewed within 3-5 minutes.

If you are shortlisted, we may call you for an interview where you are expected to explain your rationale for applying, and your overall goals.

Anita Parmar
‍Co-director, Building 21

Book a meeting

Email

Ollivier Dyens
‍‍Co-director, Building 21

Email