STEMcast - McGill iGEM – Details, episodes & analysis

What if playing a video game could help advance scientific discovery?

Welcome back to STEMcast: Beyond the Lab! Today we invited Professors Attila Szantner (Department of Computer Science at McGill and CEO and co-founder of Massively Multiplayer Online Science) and Jerome Waldispuhl (Department of Computer Science at McGill University and Canada Research Chair (CIHR Tier 1) in Biomedical Citizen Science) to explore how video games are being used to advance scientific research.

From improving microbial phylogenies through Borderlands Science to uncovering the unique problem-solving strategies of expert players, we discuss the growing role of citizen science, the strengths of humans and computers in tackling complex challenges, and how millions of gamers are contributing to discoveries in biology and beyond. Join us as we examine the future of research powered by play!

In today’s show, we welcome Prof. Paola Pinilla, Associate Professor in exoplanets at University College London. Together, we peer into her journey from a kid in Bogotá (Columbia) dreaming about the stars to her role as a Principal Investigator studying early planetary formation in London. Her research on protoplanetary discs, formed from dust and gas around young stars, helps us understand how the planetary systems and organic molecules behind life first emerged, earning her the prestigious 2026 Blavatnik Award. From the complexity of protoplanetary discs to the importance of following your curiosity, this conversation is filled with nuggets of wisdom for scientists in every field.

In this episode, we cover:

(01:25) Questions that drive her research: How did the Earth form? How did our solar system form?

(3:00) Prof. Pinilla’s past scientific breakthroughs: pressure bumps and planet embryos

(6:55) Non-scientific stepping stones towards those scientific achievements

(13:51) Fitting in a scientific community

(19:19) What pushes Prof. Pinilla to dream bigger and bigger?

(21:40) Diving into Prof. Pinilla’s research: What are protoplanetary discs?

(25:59) How the diversity of protoplanetary discs leads to the diversity of exoplanets

(28:22) What methodologies does Prof. Pinilla’s group use?

(33:32) New research directions: Recreating the physical conditions of early planetary formation

(36:12) Creation and delivery of organic compounds to the inner disc

(40:30) We are made of the same stuff: stardust.

Further reading

• Read more about Prof. Paola Pinilla and her 2026 Blavatnik Award
• Read the paper we discussed in Nature Astronomy (way to form organic matter in protoplanetary)
• Her initiative on Mothers in Astromnomy

Episode host and producer: Sabrina Du and Kenza Rtel Bennani

Contact: igem@mcgill.ca

This special episode of STEMcast is cut from a seminar presented to participants of miniGEM, a mini version of the iGEM competition that McGill’s iGEM team runs for high school students across Canada. We learn about the judges’ paths into synthetic biology, and we hear their opinions on various topics, like ‘how important is the visual component of an iGEM project?’, or ‘what features do award-winning projects have that others don’t?’. Tune in to step up your iGEM game!

On this episode of STEMcast, Dr. Julia Freeman walks us through her experience working with farmers in India to understand the impact that modern biotechnology is having on both a personal and industrial level. She explains that biotech has more complicated questions associated with it than what most sensationalist coverage about it (both pro- and anti-biotech) makes apparent. Where is biotech a solution, and where does it need legislative protection? How to protect farmers health and economic well-being while taking advantage of these technologies? Are farmers choosing these seeds, or is biotech being forced upon them? Hear an on-field perspective in this episode of STEMcast.

This STEMcast episode, we are joined by Dr. Jay Nadeau, an astrophysicist currently part of the search for extraterrestrial life and a key founder of McGill’s first iGEM team. We hear about how Dr. Nadeau’s career led her to McGill and how her physics background complements her biological work, before discussing the thermodynamic probability of life arising on other planets/moons, and how humanity might go about finding it.

Fungi enthusiast and expert Dr. Shireef Darwish gives us a window into the third class of life on earth (after plants and animals) — fungi. After falling in love with these organisms early in his career, Dr. Darwish has experimented with all sorts of fungi-related work, including teaching, lab work, and even foraging for rare fungi (often to take home and eat!). In this episode, Dr. Darwish explains the ubiquitous role fungi play in the life cycles of both plants and animals, how these organisms can be used medicinally, and even the chemistry behind fungi-based hallucinogens.

In this episode of STEMcast, we join Simon Daoust to discuss the intersection of ecology, evolution, and medicine. We hear about everything from mind-controlling parasites to sustainable ecosystem design, and explore questions like “will there ever be a cure to cancer?”, or “why are Homo Sapiens the only human-like species to have avoided extinction?”. Dr. Daoust’s broad expertise provides for a thrilling and humorous deep-dive into all of these.

In this episode of STEMcast, we join Dr. Nagissa Mahmoudi — a biogeochemist at McGill University — in exploring how microbes live and thrive in various extremes. We hear how Dr. Mahmoudi fell in love with biology, and how she spends her days now as an educator and researcher. She provides wisdom on how events such as oil spills can affect their ecosystems’ microbiomes, and we hear an expert’s predictions on the possibilities of life outside of Earth. All this and more on this episode of STEMcast.

Join us on this episode of STEMCast as we explore topics ranging from NeuroAI to student entrepreneurship with Yohaï-Eliel Berreby, a current Ph.D. student at McGill University's School of Biomedical Sciences. He is a CAMBAM and Childress Fellow and has received many prestigious awards alongside his doctoral studies in one of McGill's most renowned programs. Besides pursuing NeuroAI research, he has also won multiple high-profile hackathons (e.g., ReadyTraderGo Algorithmic Market Making Competition, Meta's AI Safety Hackathon, etc.) and is the acting CEO of ShapeShifters, an IT consulting firm based in Paris. How has he managed to balance so many commitments? What advice would he give to students? Hear it all on this episode of STEMCast.

In this episode of STEMCast, we will be diving into the world of artificial intelligence with Professor Aaron Courville, with topics spanning from Game Theory to Explainable AI. Prof. Courville is from the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal. He is one of the founding members of Mila and a Canada CIFAIR AI Chair.

Alongside Ian Goodfellow and Yoshua Bengio, he co-wrote the seminal textbook on deep learning: aptly named Deep Learning. His current research focuses on developing deep learning models and methods, with a particular interest in reinforcement learning, deep generative models, and multimodal ML in the domains of language and vision.