Dr. Mani Larijani completed his PhD at Harvard University and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto. He later opened up a lab at the Memorial University of Newfoundland where he studied DNA and RNA mutating enzymes, known as AID and the APOBEC3 family, that have functions in both immunity and tumorigenesis.

He uses unique approaches to enzymatics, where he studies how AID and the APOBEC3 family members changed throughout evolution and uses this to uncover crucial mechanisms of these enzymes in humans. With this, he was able to discover the structure of AID, a long-standing mystery, which was subsequently named a fundamental cancer research breakthrough by the Canadian Cancer Society.

Currently, Dr. Larijani has been appointed as the Shrum Chair at Simon Fraser University and continues to study breakthrough mechanisms of these enzymes. Tune into Science Made Casual to learn about his extraordinary journey from his PhD to the SFU Shrum Chair!