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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
This podcast brings cutting edge theory to standard, everyday cancer treatment, calling for a new approach. Professor and author James Shapiro is speaking about evolution and cancer at the Cancer & Evolution Symposium in October. Lucky listeners get a preview of his revolutionary ideas in this podcast where he connects lessons from cancer biology to evolutionary biology. He applies those ideas to a push for better cancer therapy treatment through an effective combination of big idea shifts with specific examples. Listeners will finish this enlightening podcast with a better understanding of
James Shapiro is a professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago and author of Evolution: A View from the 21st Century. Cancer is an evolutionary disease, he says. Think about it: each stage follows evolutionary steps, from a benign cancer cell, to a malignant cancer cell, then a metastasizing cell, and eventually to cellular diversification and resistance to all kinds of agents. This tremendous ability to diversify so rapidly caught his attention and it seemed worthy to look at what cancer's ability for rapid change implied about evolution. He then sets the stage for listeners by describing the connection between cell damage and "insults" to the beginnings of cancer. He discusses the role of events like chromothripsis (chromosome shattering) and polyploidy in cancer development and connects them with earth-shattering events like asteroid collusions that resulted in mass extinctions. These events on earth were followed by rapid evolution and new organism development. Similarly, cancer leaps ahead into tremendous heterogeneity and diversification as it progresses.
He then makes these ideas applicable: cancer treatment needs to stop this rapid evolution capability. This is the main goal of the symposium—to address cancer in a different way because it adapts and rapidly evolves as it reacts to present treatments. He gives examples of how some oncologists are attempting this already, using "adaptive" therapy where they tone chemotherapy down to try to avoid triggering the evolution. He also emphasizes that cancer can help evolutionary biologists better understand evolution. Cancer, he says, is a demonstration of the inherent potential for evolutionary change; furthermore, it can show evolutionary biologists that organisms have the ability to change themselves and increasingly so. Cancer shows us how much potential and capability exists in cells to change their heredity and acquire new characteristics. Listen in for more of this rapid evolutionary change happening in cancer and evolutionary biology disciplines.
For more about the symposium, see cancerevolution.org. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
There are ten million viruses in one single drop of seawater, and many more viruses than stars in the universe. How does this understanding shape how we perceive them, us, and life in general? Press play to discover:
Viruses have affected every organism on the planet since the start of life. Most of them infect their host in a persistent way, which means they don't kill the host, but try to invade the genome of the host where they will remain. But are they alive? According to Guenther Witzany, they absolutely are. His reasoning is based on the fact that viruses depend on the genetic code. Furthermore, they cooperate, compete, and communicate with one another, which means they exhibit biotic behavior.
Witzany is an accomplished author and philosopher of science, language and communication, and biology. In the late 1980s, he proposed a concept of life as a communicative structure. His work revolves largely around understanding the association between language and communication and the genetic code, and how the cells of an organism and viruses coordinate their behavior and interactions to reach a common goal. He discusses his view on the dividing line between living and nonliving entities, provides examples of specific forms of communication used by plants, the idea of communication as a prerequisite to coordination between cells, toxin-antitoxin systems in biology, what might dictate whether a virus is lytic, lysogenic, or endogenizing, and more.
Check out Witzany's authoritative books and research on the topics of communication and coordination in cellular organisms, and the abundance and significance of the role of viruses on the planet. Follow the link here: http://www.biocommunication.at/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Professor François Fuks researches epigenetics in human diseases. Along with our immune response process, scientists know that genetic alterations have a say in cancer progression. Professor Fuks researches how this interacts with epigenetic alterations and his work has led to a much sharper distinction between different types of cancers. Listeners will learn
François Fuks is a professor of epigenetics at the Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. He's the director of the Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics and the Cancer Research Center and founded a company that seeks to address the epigenetic field called Epics Therapeutics. He explains the gist of his research in terms of the careful and ground-breaking work his team has down with epigenomics and epigenetics in cancer. If cancer were a book series, he says, one volume is known but he and others are discovering another volume: this volume shows epigenetic chances and effects that have implications for diagnosis and therapeutics.
He describes these implications in careful detail, describing a tight interplay that can lead to alterations in cancer progression. Genetic and epigenetic events are very tightly connected. These dynamic modifications can switch back and forth, adding marks but also removing. He explains this crosstalk in detail, how the different "lations" from demethylation to phosphorylation work in epigenetics and genetic forces, and how imprinting plays a role. He then addresses an exciting discovery. Scientists had asked if epigenetics could present a more complete picture than the subgroups we already divide cancer into. The answer is yes, epigenetics has enabled a better picture, adding subgroups and better classification for cancer treatment. Listen in to learn more about this as well as what "epidrugs" might offer future patients. For more about his work, see his lab's web page: http://fukslab.ulb.be/ Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Efforts to stop SARS-CoV-2 in its tracks have been ongoing for months, and now there might be something tangible that makes it happen. Press play to learn:
Fueled by a long-standing fascination with infectious diseases and pandemics like the Black Death, Dr. Armand Balboni earned a dual MD/PhD degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Having spent 17 years in the US military as an officer working on a number of infectious diseases including Ebola, dengue fever, and malaria, he discovered unmet needs in the marketplace, and wanted to design a socially-conscious company to meet those needs. In 2014, this goal manifested as Appili Therapeutics, a pure play anti-infectives company.
Today, the team at Appili Therapeutics is working on phase II and phase III clinical trials for the most advanced product that is an oral tablet for COVID-19: an antiviral medication called favipiravir. This medication has already undergone three phase III clinical trials in the US and been approved for pandemic flu in Japan and China. The expectation is that the current phase II and phase III clinical trials will show that favipiravir is safe and effective specifically for the treatment of COVID-19. Dr. Balboni anticipates that this medication will be available for use against COVID-19 by early next year.
Dr. Balboni explains the importance of each stage in the US clinical trial process, the specific mechanism of action by which favipiravir works against viral replication, Operation Warp Speed as it applies to both vaccines and therapeutic drugs, possible side effects of favipiravir, and more.
Visit https://clinicaltrials.gov/ and https://www.appilitherapeutics.com/ for more information. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
A Tyrannosaurus rex prompted a successful radiologist of over 30 years to redirect his focus on something completely different: evolutionary biology. Press play for a fascinating look into the mind of William B. Miller, Jr., where medicine, evolution, and virology intersect. Press play to explore:
As a radiologist, Dr. Miller noticed recurring patterns of overlap between infectious diseases and cancer. At the time, scientific evidence provided Dr. Miller with no explanation as to why he was noticing these reiterative patterns. Then he met Sue, one of the world's best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimens. He noticed several features of the skeleton that were shared by the human skeleton, and his interest was piqued like never before. He dove into a new understanding of evolution of life on earth: evolution based on cognition. Rather than subvert Darwinism, it explains it in an arguably better way, and according to Dr. Miller, leads directly to the question of how to place viruses in the correct evolutionary schema.
This conversation leads to so many compelling topics, including how infectious disease and evolution mirror each other, the concept of the virocell, forms of communication between viruses, a new science called sociovirology which involves the ideas of cooperation, codependence, and collaboration between viruses, why a virus is either lytic, lysogenic, or endogenizing, philosophical implications of the virome, what Dr. Miller means when he refers to viral "personalities," in what way the principle of parsimony seems violated by the sheer number of incomplete virions in certain viral infections, how the idea of quasi-species has been used as one of the origin of life theories, where he believes the field of virology needs to go, and so much more.
Check out Dr. Miller's book, The Microcosm Within: Evolution and Extinction in the Hologenome, and visit his website at http://www.themicrocosmwithin.com/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Returning guest Nils G. Walter examines RNA molecules from every possible angle, literally and metaphorically. His lab at the University of Michigan brings multidisciplinary minds together to discover what RNA research may offer the medical community. Listeners are in for expert assessments on
Nils G. Walter is a professor of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan. Early in his career he mentored with Nobel Laureate Manfred Eigen, who developed the quasispecies theory, a way to understand how molecules in the precellular RNA world evolved into more complex life forms. This experience underpins much of his present work as well as how he answers Richard's questions. For example, when Richard asks about the viral-like qualities of ribosomes and plasmids, Dr. Walter describes his work with the ARC protein, which his lab is studying. He describes its action sequence and adds that it is highly related to retroviral packaging proteins and carries information in our neurons. ARC, he says, has a way to communicate information between cells and reprogram the recipient cell just like a virus does. In other words, the relatedness of these particles is evident.
Relatedness, in fact, is the name of the game. He comments that his lifetime of research reveals all of biology as connected—and this is why he is such a fan of Avatar. A dominate reason for this connection is this exchange of genetic material endemic to viruses, bacteria, and other infectious diseases and basic biological processes. For example, as extracellular vesicles transfer genetic information from one to another, so are there similar means of communication between compounds and molecules as well as environmental impacts (think epigenetics) that all come together to change genotypes. He shows this in concrete ways as he answers questions about viral agency or cellular "choice" by describing how many factors and interactions lead to different results. Rather than "choice," he asserts that the molecular environment changes the balance systems to go in new directions.
For more about his work, see his lab's web page: sites.lsa.umich.edu/walter-lab. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Professor Robert Steneck started researching lobsters in 1983 and was one of the first people to explore the ecosystems of lobsters in their natural habitat, which, given lobsters' solitary and cautious nature, is no easy task. He gives listeners the opportunity to see this hidden world up close, discussing
Robert Steneck is a professor in the School of Marine Sciences at The University of Maine. He studies marine ecology as well as the importance of marine ecosystems to those who depend on them for their livelihood. While his studies include many aspects of ocean life and nature, he has an especially long history studying the Maine lobster population. He first gives the audience a helpful picture for how lobster fisheries and scientists have viewed the Maine populations the last several decades. In fact, when he begin observing and recording data in the 80s, popular thought held that lobsters numbers were declining. He showed that the population actually was increasing from 1985 until 2016.
Now, climate change is changing lobster habits, and he and his students are involved in assessing this more carefully. He describes the effects warmer water seems to have on mating ages of lobsters as well as the lower oxygen numbers in the water from these same higher temperatures and rotting invasive seaweed. Along the way, however, he gives listeners an interesting glimpse into these ancient creatures' habits and activities, from the capacity to live about a hundred years to their ability to excise a claw for protection. He adds interesting details about their mating life, including the facility of a female to hold onto part of a sperm packet and fertilize a second batch of eggs a year or two after mating. He also describes what it is like to observe these creatures while SCUBA diving, how they use submersibles and recording devices, and what they've studied this past summer regarding lobsters no longer using their hiding nooks and crannies in underwater rock formations. Listen in to hear about this timely study and more amazing details about a day in the life of a lobster.
For more about Robert Steneck's work, he suggests searching for him in Google scholar. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Despite a US moratorium on gain-of-function research on the basis of it being simply too dangerous, Dr. Anthony Fauci continued funding it. If you don't even know what gain-of-function research is, you're not alone. In fact, there may even be a reason you don't know. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the information offered up by returning guest, Pamela Popper. Press play to discover:
A Pennsylvania judge recently ruled that the coronavirus-related lockdown provisions are unconstitutional. Will this spur more people in power to take a similar stance? Not long ago, a top virologist and whistleblower who worked in the WHO reference lab told FOX News that the COVID-19 virus was not mutated from bats and did not originate in the wet market, but was engineered and deliberately released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Will this compel more people to think critically about the narrative they're being told?
There were three general groups of people when this whole thing started, says Popper, President of Wellness Forum Health:
(1) The people who were immediately frightened and convinced to believe everything they were told by mainstream news outlets; (2) The people who immediately detected that something was amiss; (3) And the people who were just simply trying to survive while their governments chose to pull the rug out from beneath them.
And now? Now, exhaustion is setting in—exhaustion over the arbitrary rules that aren't justified by the data, exhaustion over being robbed of our civil liberties, and exhaustion over the double standards that aren't hard to find. And now, the only groups gaining in numbers are the second and third. Tune in for all the details.
For access to Popper's videos and newsletters, email her at pampopper@msn.com. Visit https://makeamericansfreeagain.com/ to learn more and stay up-to-date on the Ohio coronavirus-related lawsuits. Check out https://wellnessforumhealth.com/ for more information about Popper's company. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Professor Michael Betts articulates the dramatic directions our human immune system can take responding to viral pathogenesis. He studies how humans combat viral pathogens and diseases through adaptive immune responses like T and B cell activity. He shares his perspective on virus capabilities with lively and clear language as Richard asks questions for his upcoming virus book project. Listeners will learn
Michael Betts is a professor of microbiology with the Penn Institute for Immunology Studies in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He researches the human immune response against viruses in relation to HIV infection and SARS-CoV-2 by focusing on T cell function. He is able to use his expertise to add interesting perspective to the pathogenesis or protective human immune response. He is able to use examples for his extensive HIV studies to elaborate on how our immune system reacts to all that viruses can send our way.
As they move into Richard's questions to get at virus characteristics, Dr. Betts gives his take on whether viruses are alive and why they have evolved to have such a variety of interesting shapes. He describes some of his favorites and adds that while the shapes differ, the strategy is the same. They've evolved to protect and deliver genetic material into the cell. He adds that these different machines act like spring-loaded mechanisms, and once they get the proper trigger and deliver the genetic payload, we see consequential downstream effects. Even eukaryotic infections, he adds, that are even more complex have this goal—HIV has a wrapper that induces protein confirmation change and shoots the genetic material into the cell. He describes other fascinating examples of viral pathogens in humans as he answers Richard's questions, filling in more details about the vast world of viruses.
For more about his work, see his lab's website: bettslab.org. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Managing member of Norred Law, PLLC, Warren V. Norred, discusses several suits his firm has filed on behalf of plaintiffs in Texas who have faced unfair COVID shutdown infractions. This podcast shares details of these cases but also the bigger picture of how Norred hopes to chip away at the top-down nonsensical enforcements. He explains
Warren V. Norred practices bankruptcy law, business litigation, and intellectual property law, which includes patent law and all things associated with it. About ten percent of his work is what he calls "white hat law," where he files suits due to matters of injustice. He talks about how Texas has moved into top-down mandates regarding COVID business procedures, often resulting in scenarios that make little sense and have hurt businesses. Furthermore, the governor and local bureaucracies are entangled in a way where no one is taking responsibility for these bad policies.
Norred says his firm is "adding spice to the recipe of the public discussion." He then talks about specific cases like that of Shelly Luther who was put in jail for contempt by continuing to operate her business after the court told her to stop. He describes the governor's retrograde statement about such jail time and then he gives a convincing description of how the Disaster Act of 1975 along with the 2005 amendment gave local leaders too much control in these situations. In addition, the act was written for major disasters, not disease management. He gives powerful descriptions of how unevenly the laws have been applied, which leads him to explain the most effective strategy: filing cases that show the Disaster Act is unconstitutional as applied.
Norred gives an impassioned explanation about filing these COVID lawsuits: it's not about the economy, but about people being able to live their lives. He's happy to take emailed questions from attorneys about how to join in on these kinds of battles. See the Norred Law website and send him an email, warren@norredlaw.com. He advises attorneys to look for over-the-top enforcements and think outside the box. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
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