Claim OwnershipLife-Changing Science: The BioBuilder Podcast
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© 2025 Life-Changing Science: The BioBuilder Podcast
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Monthly episodes explore the impact of BioBuilder on the careers of our guests, from graphic designers to teachers, entrepreneurs, and students.
42 Episodes
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In this inspiring episode of the BioBuilder Podcast, Dev and Joshua, co-founders of the startup AIVON, take listeners through their personal journeys of curiosity, innovation, and social impact. The conversation weaves through their formative experiences with science and technology, their time in the BioBuilderClub, and their ambitious venture into the world of AI-powered healthcare. Origins of Scientific CuriosityDev recounts how growing up in a science-loving household, with parents a...
Greg Wu shares his transformative journey from high school in China to becoming an aspiring pioneer in synthetic biology. His story highlights critical educational opportunities at BioBuilder that shaped his passion for science and his future ambitions. • Greg's initial interest in natural sciences during high school • Discovering BioBuilder and its influence on his academic career • Experience in synthetic biology and engineering bacteria for unique projects • Transitioni...
Daniel Kemp shares his transformative journey in integrating synthetic biology into high school education. Listeners will gain insights into practical applications in the classroom, the establishment of the BioBuilderClub, and the significance of bridging theoretical knowledge with real-world skills. • Introduction to Daniel Kemp and his experience with synthetic biology • Overview of the BioBuilder Professional Development Workshop and its relevance to teaching • Importance of hands-on lear...
In this episode of Life-Changing Science, we sit down with Nathan Kirokwa, a rising senior at Pioneer Charter School of Science, who guides us through his journey from a curious child captivated by the human body's healing magic to a dedicated bioengineer. Nathan recounts how his mother's insights and his own early experiments fueled his passion for science. He also shares how his interests evolved from a broad fascination with medicine to a focused pursuit of bioengineering through problem-s...
Ever wondered how a love for reading can shape your career path? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Vanessa Murati, an ambitious junior at Pioneer Charter High School of Science. Vanessa's childhood obsession with character development led her to explore human behavior and neuroscience, seamlessly blending her passion for both STEM and the humanities. She shares the vital lab skills she picked up through the BioTechBuilder curriculum and how her Albanian parents' appreciation for t...
Are you ready to have your mind expanded by the ingenuity of STEM education? Prepare to be inspired as Zeeshan talks with the dynamic Billy Carrier from Volunteer High School, a public school located in Church Hill, TN serving about 1000 students in grades 9-12. There Billy is trailblazing the "BioSTEM" program. This isn't your average biology class; it's a revolutionary approach that combines the intricacies of freshman biology with career exploration through hands-on technical trainin...
Ever wondered how a high school fascination can ignite a lifelong passion for science and medicine? Zeeshan's conversation with Susana Donkor explores her early days, marked by influential encounters and pivotal experiences, to her current cutting-edge work at Aurion Biotech. Susana shares her journey with heartfelt candor, reflecting on the profound early influence of educational shows and the empowering story of Ben Carson's "Gifted Hands," which sowed the seeds for her aspirations in neuro...
Ever wondered how high school curiosity can evolve into a successful career in biotechnology? In this podcast, our guest Tara Peterson shares her unique story of how her high school apprenticeship program at BioBuilder shaped her career. Listen as she reveals the differences between her high school classroom and the BioBuilder program, and the program played a crucial role in kick-starting her journey into a college STEM major and now a career in science. Tara reveals how her work with BioBu...
Imagine transforming high school biology education by integrating synthetic biology into the curriculum, igniting students' passion for learning and preparing them for future success. How do you make this possible? This BioBuilder podcast focuses on two extraordinary biology teachers, Amanda Blackburn and Evie Lafollette, who share their inspiring journey of bringing synthetic biology to Dobbins Bennett High School in Tennessee. Amanda and Evie discuss their BioBuilder training experience in...
Rachael Smyers was part of the 2019 BioBuilder High School Apprenticeship Challenge that was held at LabCentral. The program’s “learning by doing” approach attracted her to it, especially since she got what she felt was a late start in the Vocational Technical Program at Medford High School. Starting there in her junior year, she spent mornings taking 3 or 4 traditional high school classes (English, History…) and the afternoons in Biotech Shop, learning lab skills like pipetting, prepping buf...
Lyle Musesengwa is a high school sophomore at Dobyns-Bennet HS, a rural school in Kingsport, TN, near the Appalachian Mountains. His school has strong STEM offerings, including the MATE Underwater Robotics competition, as well as nationally recognized Marching Band program. Lyle was born in Cape Town, South Africa and came to the US as a 4 year old. In this podcast Lyle notes that he can’t remember a time he wasn’t asking questions. His interest in synthetic biology began in 5th grade –...
Jacob Lei was a rising Junior in High School when he participated in one of BioBuilder's online programs in the summer of 2020, waking up at 5AM Pacific time to participate synchronously three times a week for a month. BioBuilder’s online program introduced Jacob to the idea that biology and engineering could be combined to help people, using genetic parts that could be reconnected to address global issues. His biodesign team focused on medical treatments with a design that addressed insulin ...
In this interview, Presley notes how they haven’t seen a single program or organization that is similar to BioBuilder. Presley would know, given the range of programs that they have engaged in. Presley is currently an 11th grade student at Prospect Hill Academy Charter School in Cambridge, MA. The first BioBuilder experience for Presley came as an 8th grader through an exploratory program BioBuilder ran in the Learning Lab @ LabCentral. After a 9th grade “zoom only” year that included a virtu...
Jo has been a biology teacher for 26 years and a BioBuilder from the very start, having attended the very first Professional Development workshop at MIT in 2011. Since then, she has integrated BioBuilder into her classroom (Newton North and Westborough High Schools in MA), supporting a BioBuilderClub that was led by Viggy (Season 1 Episode 6), and leading teacher professional development workshops. In this conversation she digs into what it takes to run BioBuilder labs and programs, as well a...
Veni Dole is currently studying Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, but as a high school student she participated in BioBuilder's BioBuilderClub at Andover High School. The team project she worked on addressed plastic bottles that pollute the ocean. Their design used salt as a trigger for bacterial production of pETase, allowing microbes under the bottle's label to dissolve the plastic. The work not led her to research what has become a hot topic in biotechnology but also to speak wi...
Geneva Fischer, a rising sophomore at Northeastern University in Boston, has been part of the BioBuilder community since high school. As part of her work in the biotechnology program at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, she saw her classmates participate in the BioBuilderClub, joined an intensive workshop at the BioBuilder Learning Lab @LabCentral, and participated in the online Idea Accelerator during the COVID shut-down of in person classes. Most recently she has worked as an intern in the...
Dave Westenberg, a Professor of Biological Sciences at Missouri University of Science & Technology, is widely known as a wonderful microbiologist, a great communicator and an exceptionally dedicated teacher. His students, be they undergraduates, high school teachers or public audiences, invariably feel empowered as scientists because Dave makes room for student curiosity, collaboration, and learning from mistakes. Dave attended one of BioBuilder's earliest professional development ...
Rebekah Ravgiala is an award-winning biotechnology teacher at Tyngsborough High School in Massachusetts. She attended the first BioBuilder teacher professional workshop at MIT in 2011 and was hooked. Her excitement about synthetic biology motivated her to lead her school's iGEM/BioBuilderClub teams year after year. In 2012, Rebekah registered and trained as an advanced BioBuilder instructor, learning how to teach other teachers the BioBuilder curriculum. Since then she has co-taught summer wo...
Oscar is a rising junior at University of Massachusetts at Lowell, studying biology. His interest in biotechnology was sparked by a high school class and teacher at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. He applied and was accepted to BioBuilder's High School Apprenticeship Challenge in 2019, held that year at LabCentral in Cambridge. His biodesign project addressed high concentrations of lead in drinking water. At the poster session presentation of his project, Oscar met a researcher at Indigo A...
Nancy is currently a Clinical Research Assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She was one of the first BioBuilder Apprentices, a workforce readiness program for Boston-area students in under-resourced local high schools. In 2021 she graduated from the University of Massachusetts -Dartmouth, where she majored in Psychology and minored in Biochemistry. In 2022, she has returned to the BioBuilder Apprenticeship program as a teaching assistant, helping today's high sch...
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