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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
Researcher Gopike Nair and her colleagues have produced in vitro cells that make insulin and have successfully implanted them in mice, curing them of type 1 diabetes. She shares her research with listeners, explaining
Dr. Gopkia Nair is a stem cell biologist working as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. She has been working on stem cell research and diabetes in order to reintroduce insulin-producing cells into patients who've lost these cells and suffer from diabetes type 1. She begins by explaining the physiology in different types of diabetic conditions and how these generated cells act like beta cells in the pancreas that produce insulin. While her focus is on type 1, she says the therapy will be applicable to both types.
In order to explain how this therapy works, she explores the cause in more detail, reviewing the immune system's overdrive that attacks insulin-producing cells after some sort of trigger. Researchers have found that the disease starts at the beta cell level, exposing a certain protein on the surface that the immune system recognizes and attacks. Scientists are still not sure what the trigger is, but this helps them know they must address this in the cells they've created from the stem cells.
She addresses different ways they are protecting the cells from the immune system and how they will introduce the cells into the body of the patient, most likely through a patch in a vascularized area. Finally, she expects this therapy to be available to patients in 5 to 10 years at the latest.
For more, see her LinkedIn page and personal research web page. cwV3jwflKxO27ijDlaMV
Seqster Founder and CEO Ardy Arianpour explains how the company integrates multiple data sources regarding health care into one system. He discusses
Ardy Arianpour is a genomics executive and serial entrepreneur in the biotechnology industry and has launched several clinical and consumer-based genetic tests in past companies. He co-founded Seqster in January of 2016. He describes the company as a SaaS healthcare platform used by enterprises in health care fields. It enables organizations to drive efficient healthcare via a comprehensive collection of medical records and electronic health record (EHR) data. It also includes a patient's genomic profile and human genetic information along with any wearable device data and puts this all in one place, allowing individuals to share that data and create a longitudinal health record.
He addresses issues of privacy as well, emphasizing the patient-centric mode of this information and the empowering nature of the data alongside protective technology. He provides examples of the usefulness of this platform such as a caregiver's handling of a relative's cancer treatments, having to deal with six different health systems. Rather than lugging binders and CDs of information, all data can be shared across institutions with Seqster.
Finally, he shares some recent additions to the system such as a covid-19 compass symptom checker module that is built into the platform for research subjects who may have been exposed. He adds that they are assessing the growth in telehealth, and says that a weakness in telehealth is sharing data, a weakness that Seqster can address.
For best ways to learn more, see seqster.com, follow them on twitter through @Seqster, and find them on LinkedIn.
Amar Vutha is the Canada Research Chair in Precision Atomic & Molecular Physics at the University of Toronto, and he joins the show to discuss the nature of his fascinating work. In this episode, you'll discover:
Everything we see around is—including every galaxy identified telescopically—comprises only 5% of the universe. The consensus among scientists is that this 5% of the universe is understood fairly well, but Vutha second guesses that position. Rather than the questions that can be answered in physics, Vutha is interested in the questions that cannot be answered…or at least haven't been answered yet.
By studying and conducting precision measurements of the properties of atoms and molecules, Vutha aims to understand more about how the universe and the laws of physics work. He discusses what he believes to be three of the most important unsolved problems in physics, emergent properties and energetically-favored states of molecules, how highly-charged ions are able to resist perturbation by external stimuli (and why this is useful in making atomic clocks), the absence of identifiable natural antimatter in the universe (and why scientists reason that we should be able to identify it), and so much more.
Visit https://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~vutha/ to learn more about Vutha's research.
Associate professor at UNC Department of Epidemiology, Dr. James Thomas, joins the show to discuss his line of work in health care ethics, and how it has changed in response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak.
Tune in to learn the following:
For much of his career, Dr. James Thomas has studied the social determinants of infectious diseases, focusing particularly on the effects of mass incarceration on the communities left behind. Over the last decade, he has done a lot of work involving health information systems in developing countries. Just as he was moving toward a study of digital data and how they are used in public health, COVID-19 hit.
Dr. Thomas discusses the social determinants of this virus, which includes a look at how incarcerated individuals are being affected by the virus, the level of constraint being placed on the general public in this country and across the globe, the unprecedented implementation of digital surveillance in China and the US, why COVID-19 presents unique challenges to health care ethics and decision-making, what he sees as the primary ethical mishap of this pandemic, what he thinks will happen as states begin to reopen across the country, and so much more.
To learn more about the current pandemic, Dr. Thomas suggests visiting the CDC website.
U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center Director Jonathan Sleeman explains the process for observing and reporting issues with wildlife.
This podcast explores
The U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center has been in action since 1975 and has a mission to advance wildlife health science for the benefit of animals and the environment. Jonathan Sleeman has been the director since 2009 and explains to listeners some of the vital work of his team. This includes general surveillance of wildlife diseases including investigations into viral diseases and other pathogens when die offs of wildlife are observed.
He discusses the effect of the current coronavirus pandemic on their work. He says that one concern is that it could do a reverse spillover to our bats. Therefore the center is doing risk assessments to see the probability of this by analyzing human and bat wildlife interaction among other things. Bats, felines, mink, and deer are some animals that potentially could be affected. After the risk assessment is complete, they'll design a system to monitor these animals
He covers some of the other wildlife pathogens the center monitors and tells the history behind discovering white nose syndrome in bats in North America and the continued monitoring of bird flu and chronic wasting disease.
For more information, see their web page at https://www.usgs.gov/centers/nwhc and the email contact is asknwhc@usgs.gov.
Mr. Sleeman urges listeners to enjoy wildlife from a distance; however, if you see sick or dead animals that seem out of the norm, contact your state wildlife management group.
Recanati Family Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, Ken Cadwell, discusses the virome and how it relates to infectious and inflammatory diseases. In this episode, you will learn the following:
Understanding the role of the virome in health is an emerging field of research. In fact, many people aren't even familiar with the term 'virome,' which refers to the collection of viruses that inhabit living things, which of course includes humans.
Dr. Caldwell's lab is focused on understanding the functional consequences of viral infections primarily through the use of mouse models and cultured human cells. Through a collaborative network, Dr. Cadwell's team is also trying to make correlations with humans directly in order to examine how viral exposure changes in individuals with certain diseases, such as irritable bowel disease (IBD).
Dr. Cadwell explains the approach they take in determining what viruses are present in a particle sample, whether it be in a mouse model or the human gut. The approach involves sequencing everything that's there…which means sequencing a lot of bacteria and bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria. Dr. Cadwell says that about 90 to 95 percent of the viruses they sequence are identified as bacteriophage.
So, what comprises the remaining five to 10 percent of viruses? Although it's a small percentage relatively, Dr. Cadwell explains that identifying these other viruses is of high interest because these are the viruses that infect animal cells directly, rather than bacterial cells. The team at Cadwell's lab is interested in seeing what viruses are present in healthy people, and why. Dr. Cadwell also shares some exciting new research findings that show the human immune system is capable of reacting to certain bacteriophages that are supposedly only inside bacteria, suggesting that researchers need to be paying a lot more attention to bacteriophages that don't seem to directly infect animal cells.
Dr. Cadwell discusses a number of fascinating topics, including the norovirus (in mice and humans), symbiotic relationships between viruses and hosts and how they are similar to symbioses between humans and the human gut microbiome, why it's difficult to define what constitutes a healthy microbiome, and so much more.
Tune in and check out www.cadwelllab.nyu.edu to learn more.
Chantal Abergel studies giant viruses, which are a relatively new discovery. She tells listeners how the size offers new observations in virology. She explains
Chantal Abergel is the Research Director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She achieved her Ph.D. in Material Science in 1990 from Aix Marseille University. Dr. Abergel co-founded the Structural and Genomic Information (IGS) Laboratory at the CNRS. She specializes in a study new to virology, namely giant viruses. She tells listeners that their very size made them undetectable previously because of filtration measures assuming a certain size, which kept these viruses out of the literal scope of study.
Dr. Abergel shares many traits and processes of the families they've been able to identify thus far. For example, bigger viruses are more complex with genomes that can be as large as 2.5 million base pairs. She gives a bit of the history, telling listeners about the first giant virus discovery called the Mimivirus as well as the family she's currently studying, the Pandoravirus. Their size makes them easier to isolate and observe. Dr. Abergel and her colleagues are studying their relationship with amoeba and have observed processes such as the capsid opening and contents transferring into the cell cytoplasm. Some explains that some viruses divide up and reproduce in the cytoplasm and some transfer and unfold into the nucleus and use cell machinery to duplicate.
She shares many fascinating processes that have implications about giant virus evolution. For example, after causing the overexpression of nuclear proteins inside of amoeba to address the question of whether the viruses are really cytoplasmic replicators, they observed the transcription machinery was not in the virus capsid and the virus didn't enter the cell nucleus to replicate. Rather they observed proteins leaving the nucleus of the amoeba and going to the virus for transcription. She remarks that this implies that these viruses may have been independent of the cell and this is a demonstration of how they coevolved.
To learn more, see her lab web page at CNRS, http://www.igs.cnrs-mrs.fr/en/the-lab/?lang=en, and search for her articles, which include pictures of some of these recorded processes.
Dr. Bezerra specializes in biliary atresia research. It's the single most common cause of end-stage liver disease in children and the number one indication for pediatric liver transplants. He explains to listeners
Jorge A. Bezerra is Director of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and Medical Director of the Pediatric Liver Care Center at the University of Cincinnati. He is also a professor in the Department of Pediatrics. In this podcast, he carefully explains the progression of pediatric biliary atresia and research addressing this disease of the liver. He tells listeners that this indicates a closure or obstruction of the liver's biliary ducts in the first three months after birth. In the first few weeks of life, parents notice yellow jaundice in the infant's eyes and pale stools. He remarks that immediate treatment including surgery offers the most benefit.
He then explains a few gastroenterology hypothesizes for when this actually starts. A recent study found that babies that develop this disease often have slightly abnormal bilirubin increases at birth, which indicates that it most likely is a prenatal disease. He adds that if a baby is diagnosed early and taken to surgery, there's a much higher possibility that surgery will work.
He finishes with several breakthroughs in treating this disease and means of testing. For example, researchers have developed a novel test that can be given very early with fast results. Testing normally requires a liver biopsy and as long as two weeks for results. He also talks about liver organoid research that has led to a new way to treat the epithelial cells of the ducts.
For more, see his lab's website: https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/research/divisions/g/gastroenterology/labs/bezerra.
Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist and writer who has written a book about the vast world of fungi while pursuing a plant study involving fungi symbiosis. He shares with listeners
Merlin Sheldrake has studied plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He has his Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama. He was awarded the position of research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute while pursuing his Ph.D.
Merlin has just published the book Entangled Life, which describes how fungi affect our world. He shares many of these effects in this conversation, starting with his own fascination as a child for how natural objects transform. As he studied about decomposers and learned about symbiosis, plant study and research into plant and fungi relationships was a natural direction to pursue.
He explains that fungi exists in plant roots and spread deep into soil but also live in plant leaves and stems as endocytes. In fact, there are no plants found without endocytes. Therefore, he says, fungi are a fundamental part of planthood, even more than roots and leaves, as fungi existed in symbiosis with plants even before roots evolved. He tells listeners more about this relationship, current studies on communication between plants, fungi, and other plants and the necessity of fungi for health soil.
For more, find his book Entangled Life, which was just published, and see his website: merlinsheldrake.com.
Director of Pediatric Rheumatology at UAB Hospital, Dr. Randy Cron, joins the show to discuss his work and research as a physician-scientist. In this episode, you will learn the following:
Dr. Randy Cron holds an MD and a PhD in immunology. As a physician-scientist, he sees both sides of the coin: the research and the clinical medicine it informs.
Dr. Cron primarily sees patients in the field of pediatric rheumatology and is currently studying macrophage activation syndrome, which is a potentially life-threatening type of cytokine storm syndrome that is a complication of some rheumatic diseases and infections—including COVID-19. Dr. Cron aims to study the genetics behind this syndrome in order to identify patients who are predisposed to developing it, and to learn more about the pathophysiology of the syndrome in order to improve treatments.
He also explains the basics of certain rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and touches on a number of other interesting topics.
Tune in to learn more.
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