Fast Five: Meet Dr. Boris Hinz

Fast 5 features quick, personal profiles of our research team members. This week, it’s Dr. Boris Hinz , Professor, Laboratory of Tissue Repair and Regeneration, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, who answered our poll last summer. 

1. What are you reading for pleasure right now?
CIHR applications from colleagues. And then other science fiction material, mostly re-reading Isaac Asimov.

2. What is the most worthwhile non-monetary investment you’ve made?
After reading Asimov and listening to his ‘Clone Song’ on YouTube, I cloned myself, which really enhanced my productivity and improved my life-work balance. Definitively worth the investment.

3. What advice would you give your younger self?
Which one of my many younger selves?

4. What prompted you to get into regenerative medicine?
I guess I cannot run that clone joke for all my answers. In all honesty – coincidence. I was getting ready for a master thesis (diploma) to study Alzheimer precursor protein folding, which never started. Instead, I ended up in a dermatology lab studying skin wound closure by epidermal keratinocytes. Then I moved deeper, into the dermis, during my post-doc. Once I understood there is stuff under the skin that needs repair, too – the world was wide open.

5. If you could buy one new toy for the lab right now – if money was not an issue – what would you get and why?
Money is always an issue. When I worked with Giulio Gabbiani (Italian, as the name might suggest) in Switzerland, the institute showcased all their cool research equipment to visitors. However, what impressed everyone the most was a coffee shop-grade professional Jura coffee machine in the lab – that’s what I would buy. I cannot use grant money for that, though – I think.