As Researchers Under the Scope marks its 100th episode, we hand the microphone to Dr. Linda Chelico, who recently accepted a five-year term as Vice-Dean Research, Biomedical Sciences, at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine.

Originally from Melfort, Saskatchewan, the virologist and biochemist outlines her two main priorities: upgrading research infrastructure and raising the public profile of her colleagues' work.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, Chelico said biomedical researchers are now expected to team up producing multiple lines of evidence supporting the same conclusion, before publications accept their findings.

"Is it just specific to that cell? What about cells from other parts of the body, or other cancers?" she explained. "They might also want you to do the studies in an animal model."

Alongside a second vice-dean who will oversee the College of Medicine's clinical trial unit, Chelico wants to strengthen collaboration, pushing more discoveries toward real-world treatments.

She also says it's time to make biomedical research more visible to donors and the general public, through social media outreach and real-life tours of the Health Sciences complex.

"A lot of times people drive by this nice, shiny building, this new building that went up, you know, 10 years ago, on College Drive and they probably wonder, what are we doing in here?"

Chelico said connecting those dots should help boost health-related infrastructure investment from both the public and private sectors.

A yet-unnamed vice-dean will focus on clinical health sciences and population health, overseeing the College's clinical trial service unit. Together, Chelico says their goal is to more effectively link laboratory discoveries with investigator-led clinical trials that lead to new treatments for real-life patients.

She sees this as a time for renewal.

"I think it's a really great time to be here as a biomedical researcher, because there's a really big chance to have an impact on what the future will be," she said.

"People are really collaborative here."