“I didn’t join DynaLIFE because they’re the only game in town; I joined because they were the only game I wanted to play,” says Brenda Galbraith, a 27-year company veteran currently working as a Science and Technology Specialist. “No one else was doing what DynaLIFE was doing, with the same purpose and dedication to safety, research and innovation.
It’s a resounding endorsement from someone who recognizes and values the human condition as much as Galbraith.
“I have always really liked the thought of taking care of people, but I knew I didn’t have the personality to do it; I’m too much of a softie, and it would be too hard for me,” she admits.
“So I knew that being a lab technologist would let me do it in a way that worked. Plus, I loved science. I knew in high school that I wanted to work in the medical lab. After NAIT, I got on weekends and evenings with Hanson’s as a lab assistant doing home collections and working in patient collection sites. DynaLIFE supported me through university, and now I get to do some of that for others.”
Galbraith does that by being the external face of DynaLIFE’s research support program, which offers clinical research opportunities to entrepreneurs and product developers.
“Partners that join our accelerator learn how to work safely and how to translate research ideas and prototypes into something that can fit into a clinical lab setting,” she explains. “We provide the resources they need – whether it’s a chemist or help with documentation or quality control training. Our job is to guide them.”
Current DynaLIFE research and accelerator programs support innovations in miniaturization, digital incubation monitoring, and breast cancer detection through the Calgary BioHub.
Galbraith’s professional and personal life – she is a married mother to two teen boys, ages 14 and 16 – are guided by the “We Serve” motto of Lion’s Club, a volunteer organization she’s been with for 26 years.
“DynaLIFE is very similar in its approach to community service,” she says. “We are contributing to our cities and our innovators, and we are vested in every aspect of our communities. When people have great ideas to benefit our communities and need a place to take them, we try our best to serve.”
Galbraith’s outlook on obstacles and challenges is similar to the innovators she works with so closely.
“You come together to overcome the big bumps, and you try not to let them change you,” she says. “You learn to be resilient and always move forward.”
