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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
Microbes perform functions from digesting our food to cycling elements in the environment. Aindrila Mukhopadhyay works to unpack some of their huge potential in her work. She explains to listeners
Aindrila Mukhopadhyay is a Biological Engineer Senior Scientist at Berkeley Lab. She studies types of membrane transport and stress response in microbiology, specifically bacterial stress response. She helps listeners understand her field by describing the capability of microbes, including their ability to make compounds and products that are valuable and can address some of the biggest challenges facing us. She offers some fascinating examples such as Pseudomonas putida KT2440, which can eat carbon sources that other microbes have difficulty eating.
She also explains how she works with these organisms in a lab setting, describing plasmid transport and utilizing stress responses in microbiology to allow cells to take in media. She also discusses how her work implements engineering strategies and how that dictates which organisms she may use. For example, she stays away from organisms with a bacterial stress response of spore production because manufacturing necessitates predictable and stable organism. Finally, she gives examples of current projects as part of her work with the Bioenergy Research Center funded by the Department of Energy. She leads a group that studies organisms that produce biofuels and other bio products.
For examples of her work, google her name for a list of publications and see her institution web site: biosciences.lbl.gov/profiles/aindrila-mukhopadhyay. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
What exactly does a virus do to invade our bodies? Scientist St. Patrick Reid addresses the mechanics through specific virus pathologies. He addresses
St Patrick Reid is an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology at the University of Nebraska. He focuses on the virology of proteins encoded by highly pathogenic viruses like the chikungunya virus infection. He explains what this means by describing his graduate and early career studies on Ebola and other host-pathogen interaction examples. Ebola is able to invade an organisms by encoding for proteins that block the immune system from responding. This gives the virus enough time to amplify itself and replicate. When the body is finally able to react, the virus is so pervasive it over reacts, often unleashing a dangerous over-response; in fact, this is what happens with COVID-19.
Dr. Reid than describes the history of the chikungunya virus infection and how it has made its way from one part of the world to another, including South America and the southern United States. Transmitted by mosquitoes, it often results in a debilitating arthritis that can last for years and scientists don't understand how or why. In fact, that's one of his areas of research, to understand its pathology. As an RNA virus, it does not invade the nucleus and change the genome. He explains some possible theories and his own approach to solving this mystery. He also discusses his thoughts on COVID-19 from his protein-focused research and describes the magnanimous ways researchers are working together across the world to find ways to combat its effects.
The best way to keep an eye on his work and learn more include following him on Twitter as @StPatrickReid3 as well as reviewing his university lab web page at unmc.edu/pathology-research/microbiology/virology/reidlab. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
In Kathy Louise Ruddy's lab at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are used to study the brain, improve aspects of human behavior, and generate evidence of the efficacy of a new technique in stroke rehabilitation. Tune in to learn:
For people who are recovering from stroke, there's a new therapeutic technique being researched that could hold great promise: transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS is a type of BCI that magnetically stimulates the brain to cause a response (i.e. movement) in the muscle. These responses are recorded and used as feedback for the BCI, which enables the user to see and control those responses using various strategies. For example, if the user wants to increase the intensity of the muscle response in a finger, they might imagine forcibly pushing an object with that hand; if the user wants to decrease the intensity of the muscle response, they might imagine that their hand is cold or detached from the body. The hope is that when this is applied to the affected limb of a stroke patient, it will build and strengthen the neural pathways that were used to trigger movement in the muscle prior to the stroke, thereby increasing function and use of the affected limb.
Ruddy discusses all the details of this technique and more, including past and upcoming research, results and feedback from research subjects, the use of electroencephalography to train users to control their brainwaves/neural oscillations, and what the near and long-term goals look like for Ruddy's team.
Learn more by visiting http://translationalbrainhealth.com/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Researcher Victoria Orphan implements environmental microbiology to understand the ecology of organisms in deep sea spaces unsuitable for human life. Her research has broad implications: these life forms process methane, a compound involved in global warming. In this podcast, she discusses
Victoria Orphan is the James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science and Geobiology and the director of the Center for Environmental Microbial Interactions at Caltech. She studies the ecology of microbes and the minerals and elements that they cycle. This means utilizing tools of microbiology to understand how these microorganism function. Because she focuses on deep ocean systems, these interactions are often between undomesticated organisms that exist in extreme environments like hydrothermal vents. She's trying to learn how they influence the cycling of geological systems and elements like carbon and methane.
She discusses some of her ventures into the ocean, describing the curious yeti crabs she observed—crabs that have a symbiosis with oxidizing bacteria and wave their arms over sulfur-rich vents to feed these bacteria that coats their arms and that they then eat. A lot of her focus, however, is on the microscale ecology of what is happening in these spaces. This includes microorganisms that are involved in the transfer of methane. She describes her study of a microbial symbiosis that is occurring between an archaea and a bacteria that use sulfates from seawater, removing methane. She expounds on the challenges of such a study and how this may help understand what exactly ends up in the atmosphere and causes warming.
To find out more, see her lab's website: orphanlab.caltech.edu. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Researcher Marc Vermulst and his team have discovered how years of prion-like proteins cause neurodegenerative disorders. He explains
Marc Vermulst is an assistant professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California. He has had a lifelong interest in the human aging process and signs of aging and studies how our genome changes. He measures that change and works to understand how this impacts our health. Early in his career while studying premature aging syndromes, he noted that most were characterized by an instable genome—in other words, these early signs of aging were accompanied by a genome that faced changes at a faster pace than most normal genomes. This pushed him to his current interest in genome change and aging.
He's been trying to link the natural aging process in a mechanistic way to age-related diseases. He comments that while we see those disease occur as a result of the aging process, what exactly is happening to cause those diseases has not been clear; however, his work has identified what they think may be a key cause, namely misfolded proteins that lead to prion-like proteins, which result from transcription errors. These proteins take on a life of their own and force other proteins to conform to their shape, a shape that seems to be toxic to cells. He explains this process in more detail and suggest long term goals these findings may address such as medically relevant therapies.
For more, see his website: https://gero.usc.edu/faculty/marc-vermulst-phd/ Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Associate Scientist in Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Amy Apprill, joins the show to share insight on her area of expertise: the microbes of the animals in the ocean and the marine ecosystem in general. Tune in to discover:
A coral reef is an entire ecosystem with its own rocks, animals, and plants in the most biodiverse environment in the ocean. Apprill's work is centered around research on the microbiome of corals.
She and her team have found that different microbes inhabit three primary regions of the coral: the mucous layer, the tissues, and the skeleton. She explains how the use of microscopy has helped shed light on the role of different bacterial communities within the coral depending on where they live. The team has also been looking at the composition of microbes and cells that can live as symbionts with the corals in the water within the 30 centimeters surrounding corals. She shares what they've learned so far from this research, and what's to come.
Apprill also describes some of the signs which indicate unhealthy coral, and the research they're doing to determine what factors help healthy corals stay that way. She talks about the importance and sensitivities of ocean ecology, and the impact of human activities on coral reef microbial communities.
To learn more about Apprill's work, visit https://www2.whoi.edu/site/amy-apprill/. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Biodiversity and protected area specialist, Julian Bayliss, shares the details of his interesting work in conservation biology, ecology, and area management over the years, with a special emphasis on his discovery of a lost forest. Tune in to learn:
Over 15 years of biodiversity research and surveys in Africa eventually led to the discovery of a lost rainforest atop Mount Lico in Northern Mozambique. The expeditions that led to this are a part of a larger conservation program that aims to bring attention and focus to the importance of protecting the high-altitude mountains and biodiversity in this region. Ultimately, it is about providing the necessary evidence to justify the funds for protecting and managing this region of Africa.
According to the locals surrounding the base of the mountain, no one had ever been up there…up the steep circle of rock cradling a rainforest about one kilometer in diameter. With this information, Bayliss and his team set out to explore the secret forest he'd identified through satellite imagery, with the expectation that they would be the first humans to ever step foot there. However, they were in for quite a surprise when they discovered three upturned clay pots arranged in a triangular shape beside a stream. How did they get there? When were they put there? And by whom…and why?
These are a few of the questions Bayliss talks about on today's show. He also explains what types of new species were found in the rainforest, the DNA sequencing they're doing to learn more about the animals found, and what he's planning for the future.
To watch a National Geographic special on the lost forest, click on the link here: https://youtu.be/aDoanNM7O_s. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Dr. Pamela Popper is the president of Wellness Forum Health, a company that's been offering a number of health and wellness services for the past 25 years. In this episode, critically important questions about COVID-19—the ones you won't hear in mainstream media—are asked and answered. You'll learn:
At first, we were told by health officials that masks couldn't stop the spread of the virus, and even worse, that they might increase the likelihood of contracting it, but now we can't buy food in most parts of the country without wearing one. Conflicting information has been coming at us through mainstream media outlets since day one, yet at the same time, popular platforms like Twitter and YouTube are actively censoring anyone who shares information that doesn't align with a very specific narrative—the same narrative that's touted in 24-hour news cycles, commercials, social media platforms, billboards, and even by many of our friends, family members, and neighbors.
There is no end in sight. Will there be a second wave? Or are we already in the second wave, and waiting for the third? Is this really the "new normal" that we all just need to accept, one in which our children can return to school only if they wear a mask and stay far apart from their peers and teachers at all times, or else risk death? In this landscape, honest and credible medical doctors are being barred from documenting their clinical stats and perspectives on the handling of this virus. We must ask why.
What about the doctors who admit that they're being pressured and monetarily incentivized to write COVID-19 on death certificates? What about the conflicting results from multiple COVID-19 tests on one person, or the fact that the PCR test used isn't a diagnostic tool at all, but a laboratory technique?
How do we make sense of all of this? Dr. Popper provides a compelling answer that she can back of with extensive research and evidence, explaining "That's how you destabilize a population, and that's what this is really all about…If you want to completely take control of people, you make arbitrary rules and change them often, you make sure that people are separated and they can't assemble…you turn the people against one another, and then you can take over a population of people…Hitler...Stalin…Castro did it…What we're watching is how you can take over the world using the same strategies…"
Dr. Popper provides a concise list of the four things that were necessary in order to bring about this pandemic, and what the powers that be—namely the CDC and WHO in conjunction with other powerful actors—didn't count on. To learn more about making sense of the state of the world, and to unite with like-minded Americans, visit https://makeamericansfreeagain.com/. To find information on Dr. Popper and Wellness Forum Health, visit https://wellnessforumhealth.com/. To check out Dr. Popper's informative and eye-opening videos on COVID-19, search for her channel on YouTube. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
David Berger is an associate professor of economics at Duke University who joins the show the discuss his expertise on the current and future economic climate in the U.S. Press play to learn:
As an empirical macroeconomist, Berger researches a variety of topics having to do with the interactions between government policy and the housing markets, as well as issues around imperfect competition in the labor market (i.e. the economic effects of firms that have the power to set wages).
In this episode, Berger talks about the current housing market and how mortgage interest rates have trended over the past 30 years, state-level implementation of unemployment insurance administration amid the coronavirus pandemic, what Berger thinks should happen if cases of foreclosure increase, the increasing rate of permanent job loss each month, and the economic importance of reopening elementary schools.
He also discusses reasons why the current recession is different from other recessions, such as the fact that wealthier households are not spending money, perhaps because they've cut back on eating out and travelling due to the pandemic. This is having a devastating effect on a lot of retailers, and Berger doesn't think it will improve until the public health problems improve.
Press play for all the details, and learn more about Berger's work at https://sites.google.com/site/davidwberger. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
Robert Siegel is a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University and commentator on coronavirus for several news outlets. He joins the podcast today to share his expertise. Tune in to discover:
Siegel started teaching about viruses over four decades ago during a course on the biology and causes of cancer. He teaches in public education, and works for a number of non-governmental organizations doing prevention work on HIV in regions of Africa, and malaria in Papua New Guinea.
Most recently, he's been working with students on a review of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission of the current coronavirus. He explains where the gaps in our knowledge lie with regard to the current pandemic, for example knowing what percentage of people who are positive for the virus yet asymptomatic will become symptomatic. He discusses mutation rates and replication of coronaviruses more generally, and the speed with which the molecular biology of COVID-19 has been understood.
"It's possible that we may have a vaccine in six months, or a year, or two years, or five years, but we can't be sure; it's possible we may have some very effective therapeutics by the end of the year, or in two years, or five years, but don't know for sure; the only thing we know for sure is that behavioral interventions are capable of stopping this virus," says Siegel. He goes on to explain the things that get in the way of behavioral intervention, which include psychological, economic, and political impacts. He advocates for a long-term perspective when it comes to thinking about this virus, and shares what he believes needs to happen right now in order to start getting rid of it. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK
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