Amir Kashani, a UBC master’s student in genome science and technology, has been nominated as the Canadian finalist for the Blue Sky Young Researchers Innovation Award by the International Council of Forest & Paper Associations. His research involves engineering microorganisms to produce vanillin and capsaicin from lignin, a wood byproduct. Kashani, who has a business background from Sauder School of Business, aims to increase the value of lignin waste and plans to start a biotech company after his studies. He will present his research at the ICFPA’s annual meeting in Vancouver.

Hepatic cytoreduction operations for patients with rare lung and renal neuroendocrine tumors, where at least 70% of visible metastases were removed, resulted in a median time to liver progression of 66 months and five and ten-year survival rates of 65% and 37%, respectively. These outcomes are superior to those achieved with complete resection of colorectal metastases. The study also noted that 90% of patients had extrahepatic metastases and that liver failure was the predominant cause of death. No prognostic factors for survival were identified among the variables collected.