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November 25, 2022

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Capitalizing on her 14-year-old self’s science enthusiasm 12 years ago, Cathy Tie, transformed herself into a successful bioinformatician and entrepreneur.

At 18, the young Canadian became the co-founder of the $1 million dollar worth Ranomics company, a health risk prediction provider. While she co-founded Locke Bio, an e-commerce platform for pharmaceutical and other FDA-approved product suppliers when she was 23.

Today, the 26-year-old sci-entrepreneur shares that having a broader view is her key to being integrative and cross-disciplined in the many fields she is engaged in, as art and creativity are easier said than done.

During an interview with CNBC, Tie mentions her ability to connect ideas and see them far differently from how others perceive, including how science can grow and expand for beginners which she thinks is more artistic and creative than technical. 

This skill, however, is uncommon among teenagers. Yet, Tie’s innate dexterity manifested in her secondary years as she reserved a special place for science and relevant practical activities in her heart ever since a kid. 

Discontented with the standard curriculum, she wrote unsolicited letters to her professors seeking to tour the school labs, perform studies, and assist in their scientific projects, which taught her a lot until she had her first paper published in a peer-reviewed journal at age 16. 

However, she realized that getting entrepreneurial financing is better than relying on academic allowances since she could do more research. She applied to entrepreneur programs to assist her in the startup world.

Upon getting acquainted with Leo Wan who was then a Ph.D. student at the school where she was a neophyte, they worked together and were admitted into IndieBio, a startup platform that finances and mentors science entrepreneurs.

With Tie having prime knowledge on how to figure out issues on genetic trial precision, she subsequently co-founded Randomics with Wan after quitting college and leaving for San Francisco where she became the CEO for the three early years.

Thereafter, she was asked to apply and was accepted to The Thiel Fellowship, which aids a $100,000 subsidy to out-of-college inexperienced entrepreneurs.

A year following her collaboration with Cervin Ventures, she founded Locke Bio, which currently has three U.S. and Canadian business resources.

Tie’s business is nonexempt to challenges that a company experiences, yet, hard work and reflection make it possible for her to always “see the bigger picture. In this light, she and her team have a lot ahead for the company.

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ARTBOUND Features Giant Robot’s Asian-American Pop Culture Influence In Its Latest Episode

Highlighting the impact of the Asian-American pop culture publication Giant Robot, the debut of the latest episode entitled “Giant Robot: Asian Pop Culture and Beyond” was finally aired last October 26 in the acclaimed arts and culture series ARTBOUND on KCET.

The episode showed Giant Robot’s examination of Sawtelle Boulevard as a Japanese-American neighborhood, sparking interest in Asian and Asian-American popular culture which resulted to a long line of Asian American artists who won recognition on a global scale. 

Established in 1994, Giant Robot was a bimonthly journal that focused on Asian popular culture that soon included works by Asian-American artists including David Choe and James Jean.

Eric Nakamura began publishing Giant Robot as a digest-sized zine. The piece covered a variety of subjects, including trendy Asian American independent filmmakers, Japanese punk rock, and contemporary Hong Kong films. National media sources including the New York Times, Wired, and LA Weekly published the story.

In 2001, Nakamura opened his first store named “Giant Robot Store” in Sawtelle Japantown and expanded in 2003.

Giant Robot co-founder, Martin Wong edited all 68 issues of the glossy magazine on Asian, Asian-American, and new hybrid culture from 1994 to 2010, when it was still a punk zine. His wife Wendy Lau served as Giant Robot’s graphic designer beginning with issue 18. Even today, Martin continues to publish zines and contribute to them.

The popular weekly television program and online site ARTBOUND captures the essence of California’s expanding arts and cultural scene and investigates how it is transforming the state into the world’s creative capital. 

The KCET Original series investigates and clarifies contemporary cultural challenges, offering insightful in-depth study of how the arts and culture impact society.

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Dreams Set No Limits To 50-Year-Old Who Started A Bakeshop Now The Philippines’ Most Famous Brand

“In a way, I was poor. I was hungry, maybe not for food but for self-achievement. I thought there must be something more I can do than just being a housewife. I was very determined to succeed, in whatever came my way,” thus said Julie Gandionco as quoted by the Inquirer, the Philippines’ local newspaper.

In January 1981, then-50-year-old Julia Gandionco opened Julie’s Bakeshop to satisfy her thirst for proving that she is more than a housewife.

Julie’s Bakeshop gloriously celebrates being one of the Philippines’ largest bakery chains with more than 500 branches all over the country, which can be traced back to Mandaue City on the Island of Cebu as its place of origin.

In the 1970s, Julie was a canteen concessionaire at a rattan company, and subsequently became a manager of its sister company. She also opened another canteen a year later.

Having these three canteens being managed, she felt the rising demand for bread which made her take the chance of opening a bakeshop, despite having zero knowledge of baking.

Julie stressed that her bakeshop exists because of “a growing need for bread products and a strong trust in God,” and that she desires to encourage and uplift other mothers to dream big and strive for their goals.

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Veteran Actor James Hong Lauds Asian-American Representation In Entertainment Industry

During the Critics Choice Association (CCA)’s Inaugural Celebration of Asian Pacific Cinema & Television, veteran actor James Hong received the prestigious Icon award along with a few other awardees.

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In his speech, Hong commended Asian-American creatives for “carrying through” work to advance their careers in the entertainment world and emphasized that his ultimate goal was to stop hatred and boost the whole level of Asian-Americans.

“To see an organization collect all these people together and work together and stop this hatred for Asians is our main goal, I think, and just boost the whole level of Asian-Americans,” Hong mentioned to the PA News Agency.

Held at Fairmont Century Plaza, CCA’s celebrity-filled event highlighted both new and experienced talents and featured other notable figures from the Asian film industry.

At the age of 93, the veteran vigorously demonstrated a few martial arts movements for the photographers with a smile on his face during the occasion.

In his more than six decades-old career, Hong is a well-accomplished actor with hundreds of film and television credits who co-founded the East West Players in 1965, making him more than deserving to receive the Icon award.

The actor stated that CCA is perhaps one of the pioneering organizations that promote culture.

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TikTok Viral Beauty Brand Youthforia Inspired From Asian Roots And Self-Awareness

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Founder Fiona Co Chan accomplished this goal for Youthforia, making it the first East Asian makeup brand to be sold at Ulta Beauty. 

While quarantined in Hong Kong, Fiona realized she should launch a cosmetics line. She also recalled a lesson her Vietnamese refugee mother had taught her early on about the importance of paying attention to what goes into one’s body. Although she didn’t have the best track record with makeup, she was able to consider her interest. 

Before 2020, she worked in technology and visited several highly polluted Asian cities. She realized that her Western cosmetics reacted poorly to heavy pollution, resulting in skin damage. 

This led Chan to work on a gentle formulation and test it out for two months before releasing it to the public on TikTok in 2021. She used the video hosting giant to see if people would be interested in trying out her new makeup creations, such as a liquid blush that adjusts to the skin’s pH. The BYO Blush was a huge success, and Chan’s Youthforia’s TikTok accumulated 40 or 50 million views in its first year.

While the launch of Youthforia on TikTok is undoubtedly cutting-edge, the brand’s core values are founded in the past. This comes directly from Chan’s identity and her upbringing in an Asian San Francisco household where her mother stressed the importance of viewing the body as a whole.

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