CRAFT Connects Rounds
A place to connect about tackling real-world clinical challenges using microfluidic-enabled technologies
CRAFT Connects Rounds is a monthly webinar series that brings together scientists and clinicians to exchange ideas, spark new potential collaborations, and to explore the value of translational research in the area of microfluidics. The webinars take place on the 3rd Thursday of the month from 4-5PM on Zoom.
Register now to secure your spot and receive reminders for upcoming sessions!
Upcoming Sessions
📅 Date: Thursday, October 15, 2026
🕛 Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm
📍 Zoom: Register to receive Zoom link
Speakers
- Dr. Rola Saleeb, Associate Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology – Anatomic Pathology, University of Toronto; Investigator, St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. Dr. Saleeb earned her MD from Cairo University and completed combined Anatomical Pathology postgraduate/PhD training at the University of Toronto. She has also completed a Transformative Pathology molecular fellowship granted by the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research. Her research focuses on genitourinary pathology and kidney cancer, integrating tumor morphology with molecular profiling—including a novel biological classification for Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma.
- Dr. Ben Moon, Associate Research Officer in the Bioanalytical Micro-Nano Devices Directorate, Medical Devices Research Centre at the NRC, specializing in microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip devices. His research focuses on engineering thermoplastic-based microfluidic systems for 3D cell culture and tissue models. In particular, he develops thermoplastic elastomer-based platforms for rapid tumor spheroid formation and organ-on-a-chip systems for vascularized tissue modeling and investigation of tumor–vascular interactions.
📅 Date: Thursday, November 19, 2026
🕛 Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm
📍 Zoom: Register to receive Zoom link
Speakers
- Dr. Boris Hinz, Professor, Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Toronto; Keenan Research Chair in Fibrosis Research at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. Dr. Hinz’s research investigates how contractile myofibroblasts drive tissue repair and pathological fibrosis, with findings published in leading journals such as Cell, Nature Medicine, and PNAS. His work has led to two startup companies developing anti-fibrotic coatings for silicone implants and novel “soft” cell culture devices.
- Dr. Alison McGuigan, Professor in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry and the Institute for Biomedical Engineering at University of Toronto. Dr. McGuigan holds a Canada Research Chair in Tissue Engineering and Disease Modelling. She has made pioneering contributions to the engineering of tissue models to explore mechanisms of disease and regeneration. Her team exploits materials and engineering technologies to create artificial tissues in a dish which can be used to develop and discover new drugs, decide which drugs to give to which people, and potentially to predict which people are likely to get sick from specific diseases and when.
📅 Date: Thursday, December 17, 2026
🕛 Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm
📍 Zoom: Register to receive Zoom link
Speakers
- Dr. Milica Radisic, Professor, Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto; Canada Research Chair in Functional Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering; Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute
Past Sessions
📅 Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
🕛 Time: 4:00pm – 5:00pm
📍 Zoom: Register to receive Zoom link
Speakers
- Dr. Yufeng Zhao is an Assistant Professor (status only) in the Faculty of Pharmacy and NRC Research Officer. Yufeng Zhao’s research focuses on the development of efficient protein engineering methods and applications of functional proteins in pharmaceutical science, cell biology and disease diagnostics. Particularly, he designs fluorescent protein-based biosensors to track various analytes (e.g. ions and metabolites) in live cells for elucidating disease mechanisms and advancing drug development. He also develops high-throughput screening platforms to accelerate the engineering of functional proteins including fluorescent proteins, enzymes, and antibodies.
- Dr. Darren Yuen is a nephrologist, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and the Canada Research Chair in Fibrotic Injury. He is a co-founder of Fibrocor Therapeutics, which is developing new anti-fibrotic treatments, and ScarDx, which is developing new software to enable fibrosis imaging with ultrasound. His research group is based at St. Michael’s Hospital. Dr. Yuen’s current research program is focused on developing new diagnostics and therapeutics for organ injury.