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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
With one of the most complex life cycles around, schistosomes are a fascinating subject for scientists. However, they also cause a tremendous amount of death and illness among the poor as a neglected tropical disease. Therefore, James Collins brings a full set of motivations to his research on the schistosome life cycle. Listen and learn
James Collins is an associate professor with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in the shistosome parasite, researching significant elements of its basic biology. Originally from a geneticist and developmental biologist background, he became fascinated with flatworms and the schistosome stood out to him as both fascinating and also in desperate need of study: he realized how common and devastating their infections are among the world's poorest communities. About 200 million people have a schistosomiasis diagnosis and a quarter of a million people die every year from its effects. This neglected tropical disease affects so many yet only a small amount of labs are focusing on it.
James Collins runs of these labs and hopefully his research will promote more effective schistosomiasis treatment. He explains their wild reproduction cycle that involves both snail and human hosts and a mysterious mating ritual that depends on a "hug" for the female to reach sexual maturity. Further, they have some significant attributes that make it hard to develop effective therapeutics. While there is one drug that can successful kill them called praziquantel, it is only effective in two of their life phases. In addition, studies show that because the parasite is so plentiful, reinfection is highly likely. Therefore, while infected members of a village may be treated with this drug, when doctors return a year later, the parasite infection rate is just as high. He explains that it is the high rate of egg production that causes the illnesses, with eggs finding their way to organs like the liver and causing massive inflammation and scaring that can lead to illness and death. Dr. Collins is studying both their ability to live for decades in human hosts as well as their ability to produce so many eggs in the hopes that such findings may lead to better schistosomiasis treatment.
For more about his work, see his lab's website: collinslab.org. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere brought her lifelong love of dogs to college and found her niche through decoding dog behavior and cognition. She continued these studies in graduate school and she shares her love and knowledge with lucky listeners in today's podcast. Listen and learn
Dr. Byosiere is the director of the Thinking Dog Center at CUNY Hunter College. She brings a tremendous amount of knowledge to this podcast, sharing a variety of findings sure to interest dog lovers and listeners interested in animal behavior. Her initial research centered on dog social behavior as she explored the dog-play bow and what it might indicate. This classic dog pose is one of several familiar dog behavior signs thought to indicate play, but her work found it also indicates a pause or transition of activity.
She discusses other fascinating dog traits and understandings of dog body language. Listeners may not realize that dog cognition and behavior studies really only started booming in the last 20 years, she adds, so there's much to learn. For example, dogs are really proficient at reading human cues that we might think are simple but require a complexity. This complexity is manifested in their ability to figure out context-specific cues, which even young children aren't able to do. They've evolved to be highly attentive to our human body language, not just to other dog signals and dog facial expressions. She and Richard explore numerous behaviors observed in their own dogs, comparing them to what research indicates, covering topics like the flehmen response, their neophilic tendencies, their scent capabilities and vapor wakes, and their vision. She discusses current projects as well, such as improving the lives of shelter dogs—they're investigating easy and inexpensive methods to implement in shelters to improve the dog's experience.
For more, follow her on Twitter as @sebyosiere and see the website for the Thinking Dog Center at Hunter College. The center is also active on Instagram and Twitter. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
While they are treasured companions, can dogs also teach us more about learning and adaptions? Graduate student Sophie Barton says yes. Listen in to learn how to understand your dog better but also to find out what they're brains might tell us about how our own learning develops. Listen and learn
Sophie Barton studies how brains evolve adaptations to learn specific behaviors and skills. She explains that she uses domestic dogs because they are a great vehicle for study: dogs have been bred for a variety of behaviors that are relevant to humans, especially dog social behavior. They have been bred based on aggression, sociality, and other human traits that are analogous to and significant for our own behavior. While we might think most breeds have been around for a long time, they have only been around a few hundred years. She explains how the Victorian era really took breeding up a notch by using practices to advance dog work even more and show their dogs off as commodities.
She explains that her main study involves neuroimaging research: she studies pairs of dogs that are siblings. These pairs have one that is actively a work dog, like a border collie who herds, and the other who has lived life more as a companion. She compares their brain through imaging, identifies what neural circuits are involved in a behavior such as herding, and evaluates how the circuit changes according to experience. She also shares with listeners her vast knowledge of fascinating quirks and trends in dog behavior, from dog facial expressions to their response to our own neutral expressions. She describes interesting possible neural differences in breeds who need to work alone, like hunting dogs, versus dogs who work more on verbal and whistle commands, like herding dogs. So listen in for surprising findings as dog behaviors are explained.
For more about her work and some lovely dog photos, see caninebrains.org. You can also find her on Instagram and Twitter. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Light is addictive, according to Dr. Kruse. And if one of the types of late we're getting all day is harmful, we have a problem. Listen to this podcast to find out more about blue light damage. Listen to hear
Dr. Jack Kruse and Lucia Eyes CEO Daniel Huber talk about blue light's effect on sleep and additional health concerns. Dan Huber tells his troubling story of experiencing several health pitfalls after moving into his new house. After numerous tests and doctors, he finally figured out that he was having a strong reaction to mold in his house. After more research, he found that constant exposure to blue light was making him extremely sensitive to this mold. This started a journey that led him to start Lucia Eyes, where they create high quality eye protection in the form of blue light filter glasses that are suitable for the whole family.
Dr. Kruse explains the science behind these effects. He tells listeners that blue light by itself is present in the sun, but sunlight balances it out with other colors that are its antidote, like red light. Unfortunately, our screens are dominated by this blue light and have a set color temperature equivalent to solar noon. Constant exposure to this disturbs our circadian rhythm. How? Well, this light exposure can affect dopamine and other hormones and can even cause psychological problems. In fact, the hormone melatonin controls our mitochondrial energy production. Blue light disrupts melatonin production and we breathe less, sleep less, and suffer effects on our basic metabolic rate from overexposure. Some research even shows effects in memory. Together, Dr. Kruse and Dan Huber explain how Lucia Eyes has made glasses to combat this blue light exposure with both daylight and evening options. They explain the numbers and levels behind different blue light filters and Dan explains how their blue light glasses have worked to improve the health of his entire family.
For more about Lucia Eyes, see luciaeyes.com, and for more about Dr. Jack Kruse, see jackkruse.com. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK Here is a 10% off on the entire order!! Use the code: GENIUS10
Do dogs really love us? Are they really feeling guilty when they give us that unmistakably guilty look? Can dogs outsmart children when put to the test? Tune in to explore these questions and more, including:
Angie Johnston is an assistant professor at Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences whose work revolves primarily around two simple, yet very compelling questions: what can dogs tell us about dogs, and what can they tell us about humans? Johnston is studying dogs closely in an attempt to grasp what's really going on in their minds, and to better understand which parts of our psychology are uniquely human, and which are shared with our furry best friends. She does this by conducting studies which compare dog behavior and problem-solving with that of human toddlers around the age of four or five.
Some of the most surprising results came from a study looking at over-imitation, which is the tendency to imitate silly, unnecessary steps in a procedure, even when knowing they are silly or unnecessary. The findings would suggest that dogs are smarter than children, at least in this regard. And while that may be the case, Johnston explains why the findings actually make sense when viewed through a social and cultural lens.
She also explains the dog's propensity to learn new words, the quantitative measures of their "love" for us and how they differ between domesticated dogs and wolves, the facial coding system in dogs and the evolution of that "puppy dog eyes" expression, and how the COVID-19 lockdowns have actually prompted Johnston and others to conduct virtual studies, which capture more purely the dog's behavior in their home environment.
Tune in for the details and check out https://sites.bc.edu/doglab/ to learn more. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Cancerous tumors have their own microbiome, a unique method of energy production, strategies for evading host immune systems, specialized extracellular vesicles, and one real goal: to expand and replicate at the expense of the environment. Press play to discover:
Returning guest, Jo Bhakdi, is the founder of Quantgene, the world's leader in liquid biopsy technologies when it comes to precision. It's a technology that uses next-generation genome sequencing in combination with AI and cloud systems to detect cancer in the early stages in the blood. The team at Quantgene has pioneered the ability to have single-molecule precision across a very high number of locations on DNA. This core sequencing technology is being embedded in advanced AI cloud systems that also have whole exome sequencing data. Together with genetics, medical records, and family history data, these technologies render a 360-degree precision profile for each patient. In essence, it's a giant, sensitive detection tool for cancer, and it holds promise for fulfilling the same role for other diseases.
Bhakdi discusses all aspects of cancer, including how it spreads, how it's acted upon epigenetically, and the potential of certain therapies. In particular, he says, "One of the greatest breakthroughs in my opinion, that is not fully exploited yet, is immunotherapy, because every time you have something very complex…you need another system that's equally complex and capable to indirectly handle it."
He talks about the indirect screening trade-offs of liquid biopsies, the general problem of over-diagnosing, the relationship between the heterogeneity of tumors and mutation profiles, and more.
Learn more at https://www.quantgene.com/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Dr. Amanda K. Gibson an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia. Dr. Gibson joins the show to dissect the relationship between parasitism and evolution. In this episode you'll learn:
Dr. Gibson's lab focuses on the genetic change driven by parasitism on both the parasites and hosts. This evolutionary relationship is challenging to unravel given the complex biotic interactions a parasitic organism encounters. As an example, parasites in humans need to successfully compete with the both the thousands of human microbiome bacteria and viruses as well as the human immune system.
First, Dr. Gibson asked the question how do parasites reproduce, and then linked this idea to the evolution of parasites over time. If fit parasites or hosts were genetically well equipped to produce progeny why would they not reproduce asexually transferring that fitness to their progeny? Why would either engage in sexual reproduction which would change the genetic makeup of their offspring?
Explaining this paradox Dr. Gibson highlights the fact that greater genetic diversity in parasites yields a higher likelihood that some of the parasites are able to infect the hosts available, whereas for the host genetic diversity means a higher chance of being resistant to new versions of parasites. Parasites reproduction may be affected in the opposite way as well, with monoculture crops perhaps encouraging asexual reproduction among parasites.
Supporting this idea Dr. Gibson points out that more monoculture crop fields tend to be destroyed by parasites than fields with multiple genotypes. This effect could be seen with as little as two different genetic backgrounds. Finally, Dr. Gibson extends her research to humans explaining a tantalizing yet poorly studied theory that humans might be drawn to mate with people who have different major histocompatibility complexes than themselves in order to give their children a broader defense against potential parasites.
To hear about more examples of coevolution between parasites and hosts see Dr. Gibson's work at coevolving.org . Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
As the cell employs its machinery to shut down the virus that's inside it, the virus makes proteins to shut down the cell's efforts. The scene is set, but how will this arms race end? The answer depends on many, many factors.
Listeners can tune in to explore the following:
Since 2004, Matthew Frieman, PhD has been researching coronaviruses. In 2009, he established his own research lab at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he is an associate professor in the area of microbiology and immunology. First it was SARS-CoV, then MERS-CoV, and now SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. With each new coronavirus, he learns a little bit more about the tricks they use to enter and infect cells. He also learns more and more about therapeutics which could potentially combat the current virus and viruses to come.
A focal point of the research in Frieman's lab is on the role of comorbidity in disease progression, and how an understanding of this in lab mice might be reflected in humans. For instance, why do those with underlying conditions appear significantly more vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2, and more likely to suffer severe symptoms? His research is also focused on developing a broadly antiviral drug not only for SARS-CoV-2, but for viruses that emerge in the future.
The conversation covers the similarities and differences between SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2, two primary entry methods of SARS-CoV-2, the role of the ACE2 receptor and TMPRSS2 protease, why more virions per cell means fewer ACE2 receptors, which means decreased capacity for lung tissue repair, how cells detect the presence of a virus and respond accordingly, characteristics of viral spread, structure, and function, virus-host interactions, research aimed at combining antibodies to create a dual antiviral effect against SARS-CoV-2, and so much more.
Visit https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/profiles/Frieman-Matthew/ and follow Frieman on Twitter @MattFrieman. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
That neck pain and foot twinge might be more connected than you realize. Doug Bertram takes time to carefully explain why as he describes his company's approach to common orthopedic conditions. This podcast provides a new appreciation for how important structural balance is to pain-free activity. Listen and learn
Doug Bertram, the CEO of Structural Elements, says they originally started as an educational company. His enthusiasm for and ability to explain how our bodies work makes that evident. He gives valuable lessons to listeners for how our movement, from the fall of our foot to our posture at the computer, determines a lot of the misalignments and stresses that cause pain. "People think we're an engineering company," he says, and "that's the approach we take to the human body. We look at quantified mechanical vulnerability to stay ahead of joints wearing out prematurely."
He talks a little bit about the kinds of clients that come to them and explains that while they promote that they treat an active population, they mean this in a relative sense. So while they might treat intense athletes, they also consider someone just wanting to spend pain-free time with their grandkids as an active client. He adds that they also want to establish an active goal instead of just mitigating the pain—what would a client want to actively do if that pain were gone? He gets specific about how their treatments help regulate the autonomic nervous system by addressing the stress response, which is controlled by the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. So while patients may come with orthopedic symptoms, addressing the nervous system is an important part of treatment. "We look at the body as a complete system," he adds, and this informs their whole-body approach. So listen in for an education on this integrative approach.
For more about their work, see structuralelements.com. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
While Vinod Scaria specializes in computational biology regarding non-coding RNAs, he's lab has diverted their energies to focus most of their data analysis specifically on the genomics of COVID-19. He gives listeners a global picture of the data and also explains the significance of small non-coding RNAs, long non-coding RNAs as well as categorizing functional RNA types. Listeners will learn
Vinod Scaria is a principal scientist at the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB). His lab works with clinicians across India to help them with difficult diagnoses that often end up being rare genetic conditions. However, the pandemic has caused them to repurpose their labs and into the space of virology. First, he gives the audience a nice refresher on what computational biologists do. Computational biologists, he says, look at genomes and the proteomes of organisms but with a computer instead of a microscope. They work on algorithms and sequences to develop hypotheses that can later be validated in labs.
He gives a really interesting glimpse into their COVID research, explaining that they look at the genome of the virus and try to understand its genetic epidemiology. The virus mutates at a very constant rate, he explains, and therefore they can use information in a specific way to trace the epidemic spread. These computations tell them about how the virus spreads, if there have been undocumented outbreaks, and the origin of outbreaks. All this together helps inform policies for better containment such as helpful social measures and where lockdowns might be most effective. Basically, he says, they use computational biology to make far more effective interventions to prevent spread.
For more about his work, see his lab's website: vinodscaria.rnabiology.org/home. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
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