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Contact:
David Granville, 604.806.9267, dgranville@mrl.ubc.ca
Marcia Fetterly, 604.291.4654, fetterly@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, Media & PR, 604.291.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca

Simon Fraser University graduate David Granville, now a successful scholar and scientist, credits SFU's on-the-job, co-operative education with helping him identify and attain his dream career. “Prior to entering the SFU co-op program in my second year, I was not aware of the career pathways available through the B.Sc. curriculum in biological sciences. I had always been interested in research on human health and disease, but we had limited exposure to biomedical research at the practical level in classrooms,” says Granville.

The 1994 SFU grad is now an assistant professor and junior Canada Research Chair in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of British Columbia. SFU co-op terms at disease control and health protection laboratories, and drug research companies sparked Granville's interest in biomedicine. He is one of three prominent science co-op grads participating in Dreamchasers, a seminar at SFU on Thursday, October 7.

The trio will discuss their work, the world of biomedical research, and how their co-op experience got them into it, from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm at Images Theatre, Burnaby campus. “Without the co-op opportunity, I would not have got my first position as a technician at QLT when I graduated from SFU. It is this experience and the references that followed which enabled my entry into graduate studies,” explains Granville who did his undergraduate work in molecular biology. QLT, a Vancouver company, develops photosensitizing drugs to treat cancer, macular degeneration and autoimmune diseases. Now at iCapture centre at St. Paul's Hospital, the Port Coquitlam resident researches how a programmed form of cell death goes awry and leads to cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.

Terry Roemer, director of Fungal Genomics and Operations at Elitra in Montreal, and Nina Reiniger, a doctoral candidate at Harvard University, are the other SFU science co-op grads participating in Dreamchasers.

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(electronic photo available)

Websites:
SFU Co-operative Education; www2.sfu.ca/coop/
Icapture Centre UBC www.icapture.ubc.ca/who/who_bios_david_granville.shtml