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Passionate about hiking and the outdoors, Jacob Kennard values Calgary’s easy access to the mountains. As an avid climber, he appreciates the balance the city offers between his active and professional lifestyle. This is one of the reasons that Kennard chose to build his life and career in Calgary.
Before becoming a scientist, Kennard worked in sales and studied chemical engineering, but it wasn’t until he accepted an internship working in a lab that he found his true calling.
This shift took Kennard by surprise “I always thought I would be an engineer doing more technical work,” he said.
Kennard currently works for Syantra who’s mission is to develop new and more convenient forms of cancer detection technology.
Syantra’s flagship product is the Onco-ID breast test. It is a minimally invasive blood test designed to identify breast cancer signals at early stages, when treatment is proven to be most effective.
“We’re looking in the blood to try and find signals that correlate to different types of cancer. It’s a lot easier to test with blood than it is with mammography or X-rays,” Kennard explained.
With a passion for bringing experiments to market, Kennard enjoys the process of watching his research grow and evolve over time.
“This is a test that we're developing that's going to change people's lives,” said Kennard.
When thinking about the future of science, Kennard acknowledged AI and the role it will play in furthering his research. He believes that it is a useful tool that can assist with more tedious tasks, but it must be used with caution.
“You can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’re just going to put AI to it.’ You have to really understand what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and what you’re getting out of it,” he explained.
Kennard values collaboration and teamwork and is grateful to work in a setting that is home to a variety of innovations. Syantra operates on-site at Biohubx alongside several other ventures. This environment allows the creative process to be approached collectively.
“It’s interesting to have people doing kind of adjacent work. Even if it’s not directly relevant to what you’re doing, it’s nice to talk about,” said Kennard.
When it comes to teamwork, Kennard shared that his boss, Olesya Kharenko, is a significant role model for him. “She is really good at fostering our creativity,” he said.
Throughout his time as a scientist Kennard has learned the value of perspective and wants to challenge the way that people view the scientific field.
“There’s this conception that you have to be science brained and I don’t think that’s true. I think science benefits a lot from people who are a little more artistic. I think it’s a real negative to science to have people thinking the same way all the time because you lose out on so much viewpoint diversity.”
Kennard also stated that there is a benefit to having more women and people of varied ethnic backgrounds in science because they also offer a unique perspective. With this in mind, he is excited to see who will join this field in the coming years.
As a final thought Kennard would like to encourage young and aspiring scientists to be curious and proactive as they further their careers.
“If you find someone or something interesting just reach out and ask them about it, and you might learn something cool,” he advised.