Nika Shakiba

PhD, P.Eng.
Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, University of British Columbia; Specially Appointed Adjust Associated Professor, Premium Research Institute for Human Metaverse Medicine (PRIMe), The University of Osaka
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Nika Shakiba, PhD, P.Eng. is a 2025 Gairdner Early Career Investigator.

She is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME) at the University of British Columbia. Nika received her Ph.D. in stem cell bioengineering at the University of Toronto and subsequently completed her postdoctoral training in the Synthetic Biology Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her research program is interested in the “social lives” of stem cells: how these cells interact to influence one another’s survival and cell fate decisions, both in culture and embryonic development. Her lab uses systems and synthetic biology to understand the genetic rules that encode cooperative and competitive interactions between stem cells. Leveraging genetic engineering, her lab seeks to program these interactions to enable robust bioprocesses for manufacturing stem cell-derived cell therapies.

Aligned with her mission to make stem cells an engineerable substrate, she co-founded the international Virtual Human Development consortium, which brings together experimentalists and theoreticians around the central goal of creating a computer-based simulator of human embryonic development. This simulator provides a window into the formation of the human body while serving as a tool for rational cellular design. Beyond her research and teaching, Nika is passionate about providing equity in mentorship and multi-directional advice-sharing through her latest project, Advice to a Scientist.