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Dr. David Heath, founder, and CEO of Cutitronics (cutitronics.com) provides an overview of the skincare industry and his company's mission to revolutionize the way we care for our skin.
With a thirst for knowledge, Heath set out on a journey to better understand science and engineering. His long academic career awarded him degrees in physics and engineering. Throughout his Ph.D. and post-doctoral research, Dr. Heath has continually targeted specific areas of interest including transdermal medical technology. Dr. Heath's research led him to discover that transdermal medical technology could be utilized to solve some of the significant challenges facing the cosmetic skincare industry. His innovation in the area garnered recognition from the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the ERA Foundation.
Dr. Heath discusses his extensive background in biomedical engineering and the development of medical devices. He talks about his work that involved research to better understand the dynamic nature of skin, and how it led to his motivation to bring digital technology and engineering together to work with chemistry and formulation to ultimately improve skin and skincare. Dr. Heath explains microdermabrasion and other techniques that are common in the multibillion-dollar skincare industry today. He explains that the dynamic nature of skin needs to be understood in detail in order for products to be successful and that in and of itself is a challenge, as skin is somewhat complex. He discusses fat-soluble and water-soluble solutions, the benefits versus potential issues, as well as how products and technology used on the skin affect the microbiome. It is important to maintain balance he states, and we need to all be conscious of the products we use on our skin.
The skin expert discusses clinic trials, and how people may not be disciplined enough to use products in a manner such that clinic trial results can be achieved during home use. Dr. Heath discusses how they have achieved a way for their devices to dispense the amount of product that a particular user needs to see progress and eventually—results. By using progress bars or by gamifying it, users may be more motivated to keep working toward their goal. He details other technology aspects of the industry, and as he states, consumer compliance is critical in order to get consumers to use products properly, such that they will see benefits.
The skincare doctor provides some information on the prevalence of skin specialists and diagnostics in the US versus Europe. He states that their handheld devices help to extend specialized care into the home, to make it easier for individual users to take care of their skin in the proper way, as their specialist would recommend.
The Cutitronics team seeks to continue launching disruptive technology into the skincare market, to help everyone achieve better results in their quest for healthier skin.
Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, senior research officer, National Research Council of Canada, delivers a detailed analysis of her intensive research at the cellular level of life sciences.
Cuperlovic-Culf earned her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from UC Santa Barbara and her postdoc in biophysics from the University of British Columbia. Cuperlovic-Culf is extremely interested in the development of applied research collaborations in all the life sciences. She has tremendous experience that has yielded patents and publication of her work in biomarker discovery and (clinical) validation, metabolomics, cheminformatics, as well as bioinformatics.
Cuperlovic-Culf discusses the ways that she and her team use machine learning in their research within the life sciences. Specifically, she details how they collect data and use machine learning to analyze it. She discusses disease development, and the methods they use to dig deeper into this area of research. Their work delves into the metabolic analysis of cell cultures, and has many potential applications and advantages to the currently used methods for cell line testing. Research shows that metabolite concentrations represent important, sensitive markers of both genomic and phenotypic changes. Cuperlovic-Culf discusses their research of potentially deadly brain tumors. As cancer is known to have an appetite for glucose, and other specific energy sources, Cuperlovic-Culf studies metabolism within cells to better understand genetic changes.
The biophysics expert gives an overview of the various metabolic signatures of cells. Specifically, cancer cells have several detailed metabolic features, which have been explored for targeted therapies. She talks about the unique characteristics of cancer cells, such as their lactic acid content, etc. which is not typically seen in normal cells. And by utilizing simulations, Cuperlovic-Culf and her team can get a better idea of where the cell is going so to speak, to learn more about its development in hopes to find new ways to treat disease. The PhD discusses other diseases that have important metabolic components as well, such as Alzheimer's disease, and type 3 diabetes, etc. Dr. Cuperlovic-Culf states that once we understand the relationships we can develop better, more-focused drugs for treatment.
Cuperlovic-Culf speaks about the incredible wealth of data that is unfortunately still missing, and as such much more research needs to be done. She discusses microorganisms in soil and how they interact, in regard to biodegradability. Cuperlovic-Culf states that she wants to further her research, to look at metabolites beyond metabolism, how cellular processes are being inhibited, why, and what it all means for disease development, and hopefully drug development as well.
Ed Lorenzini, president, and CEO, and Scott Chase, CTO, of Analyze (analyzecorp.com), deliver a useful overview of data analytics and how it can help every business target new potential customers, as well as retain existing customers.
Ed Lorenzini has over 30 years combined military and commercial experience and is a retired Air Force officer. He is a proven leader as evidenced by his long, successful career. Lorenzini's interests are in behavioral analytics, intelligence fusion, and intent recognition. Scott Chase, CTO, has spent his career focused on distributed computing and large scale data analytics. Chase has a particular interest in federal-sector cybersecurity analytics and is an innovator in the space. Together, Lorenzini and Chase have built their business, Analyze, into a powerful data analytics company.
Lorenzini talks about Analyze's specialization in predictive analytics, especially in the area of consumer behavior. He explains how they use AI in the development of the front end of their platform, Analyze Clients. Analyze Clients produces essential consumer insights with only names and addresses. By bringing together millions of records into a huge database of cloud-based knowledge, the platform allows users to enter a customer's first and last name, address, and then zip code, and begin to analyze it all, in order to build a detailed analytical report on customers. He discusses how advertising companies are utilizing their service for direct mail, calls, and more. As Lorenzini states, they have invented a way to develop an automated, custom algorithm on the fly.
Chase talks about the many variables that exist within available data on consumer households, and how over 200 of the 380 variables are consumer lifestyle variables, for example: owns a dog, subscribes to magazines, enjoys boating, etc. Chase explains that they can use the available data to build a model based on specific lifestyle variables that will allow businesses to understand whom their product will resonate with.
Lorenzini discusses consumer buying patterns and the various demographics that exist. He explains that the data is good at helping businesses understand their consumer base and to make assessments about growth and marketing. He explains the changes that have taken place in ecommerce and the digital economy overall. The founders of Analyze cite examples of some success stories from users of their platform, some that have seen as much as 300% revenue growth based on customer insights they began receiving via the platform.
Data analytics combined with consumer behavior can bring dramatic major benefits to companies seeking to expand, and data insights can help entrepreneurs and business owners develop successful strategies for growth.
An unbelievable amount of useful data is stored in our genes—data which could help us make better decisions about our health and guide us toward lifestyle changes which could decrease our chances of developing certain diseases. With a price tag between $10,000 and $30,000, however, the process required to generate this data, which is referred to as genomic sequencing, simply isn't a feasible option for most people.
Just a few years ago, the team at Veritas Genetics set out to change this, believing that anyone should be able to obtain this genetic info for under $1,000. In contrast to the technology used by companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, Veritas Genetics' technology sequences the entire genome—all six billion bases. "We generate more data in a week than all of the data 23andMe has generated in the last 11 years," says Rodrigo Martinez, Chief Marketing Officer at Veritas Genetics. He explains that one of the primary benefits of this extra data is that it confers the ability to identify completely new information within the genome, rather than simply ask questions to which we already have the answers.
A report form Veritas Genetics can inform you about your risk or predisposition to the development of certain diseases, whether or not you are a carrier of certain conditions which could be inherited by your children, and what types of substances you may have sensitivities to. Once your genome has been sequenced by the team at Veritas, you can refer back to all of the data at any point in the future, which may become particularly useful in light of findings from new research.
Interested in getting started today? Tune in and visit veritasgenetics.com to learn how.
Elsa Montagnon, BepiColombo Spacecraft Operations Manager, discusses the latest mission to Mercury, its complexity, and what scientists hope to discover.
Elsa Montagnon is an interplanetary spacecraft operations expert. She earned her engineering degrees from the Ecole Centrale Paris and Technical University of Munich. Montagnon joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1999. Before her work as the BepiColombo spacecraft operations manager, Montagnon was the flight operations system engineer on ESA's groundbreaking Rosetta mission. The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe's premier, advanced agency that serves as the entrée to space. The ESA formats and oversees the development of Europe's space capability to track progress and make sure that the investment in space is properly benefitting the people of Europe as well as the world community.
Montagnon discusses ESA's collaboration with a partner Japanese space agency, JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. She gives an overview of the BepiColombo's mission: to explore planet Mercury. She states that Mercury was visited twice before by man-made machines, missions that introduced many questions for researchers as would be expected. She details the importance of putting satellites into different orbits to maximize their findings. Their mission intends to launch a lower orbit survey of the chemical composition of Mercury's surface, etc., with JAXA's higher orbit survey satellite that will analyze the magnetosphere and other important issues. A magnetosphere is a region of space that surrounds an astronomical object in which various charged particles are manipulated or impacted by that object's overall magnetic field.
She explains some of the difficulties with a mission to Mercury, due to its close proximity to the sun and the complex trajectory needed to make the journey there. She describes the year-by-year trajectory that must be made in order to approach Mercury, specifically discussing energy and orbit. Survival itself is a challenge in such a high-temperature environment. Near Mercury, the energy from the sun is approximately ten times that of what we experience on Earth. As such, much research and effort goes into coatings and thermal blankets that are absolutely necessary to protect any craft that is approaching Mercury due to the excessive temperature.
The space-engineering expert discusses some of the extra advantages of a Mercury mission, such as the ability to study solar flares and gather new information about the sun. Montagnon explains that the latest mission has literally just begun and that the Mercury arrival will not happen until 2025. She discusses the technical aspects of some of the instruments that will be utilized during the mission, and how they track the mission and the data. Montagnon states that there is a full laboratory on board that allows for exploration and discovery, as scientists seek to take full advantage of every aspect of the mission from beginning to end, from capturing never-before seen views of Venus and other important mission activities.
Cedric Savarese, founder and CEO of FormAssembly (formassembly.com), delivers an overview of his company's platform and how it is revolutionizing the way we use data and manage forms in an ever-increasing digital world.
Savarese's company, FormAssembly, is a prominent provider of data collection and management solutions. Savarese oversees the company's direction and overall growth. Savarese is a skilled business entrepreneur with a passion for technology and innovation. He earned a master's in computer science from the prestigious Université Paris Descartes.
Savarese discusses the premise of FormAssembly as a platform that enables users to collect data via online forms and surveys for business improvement and efficiency; but Savarese stresses they also have a primary goal of helping users to be responsible stewards of this personal data. He gives an overview of the data that is available and collected online and how it is compiled. From surveys to online competitions to college applications, there is a wealth of data online, and as our society becomes more and more dependent on devices, more data will be coming, with a large percentage of it available for collection.
FormAssembly helps customers streamline, change or improve processes across a variety of departments, groups, and organizations. And their streamlined visual editing and publishing simplifies the creation and management of complex forms. The platform features forms that utilize conditional logic, calculated fields, save functions, and much more, to help business people create successful online forms. The FormAssembly advantage enables users to create and integrate, with a full spectrum of forms for sales, payment collection, authorizations, and beyond—all available through a complete self-service platform. Savarese discusses privacy issues, confidentiality, and other standards that are regulated when sensitive data is handled. As he states, compliance and regulation are key issues in the field.
Savarese details intake processes and database issues that are part of their industry. Ultimately, efficiency is paramount and Savarese is convinced that the FormAssembly platform can provide easy convenience to individuals and businesses everywhere. Additionally, he discusses the many use cases for their platform, from the small community theater that needs help with their form to collect donations and sell tickets, to Fortune 500 companies with immense funding behind them that prefer to use the FormAssembly platform to save time, and money. Finally, Savarese delivers an overview of the user experience and the type of users that come to their platform, general best practices, their platform's built-in filters, and some interesting past experiences he and others have been through in regard to data and form usage.
One of the major roadblocks to human tissue engineering has been the ability to vascularize tissue, confining the majority of tissue creation to that which doesn't have a strong blood supply in the body. The team at Aspect Biosystems, however, is working to change this by developing innovative strategies and opening their platform to collaborative efforts with academic partners around the world. For instance, they've partnered with UCLA in the development of new vascular technology as well as researchers around the globe who are working on the creation of kidney and skin tissues.
Tame Mohamed is the CEO of Aspect Biosystems and joins the conversation today to discuss all of this and more, including their muscle portfolio composed of intestinal, cardiac, and smooth muscle tissue, liver drug testing platform, and pancreatic tissue program for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. He also explains the ins and out of the technology behind their work, and what to look forward to in the near future.
Press play for the full conversation and learn more by visiting aspectbiosystems.com.
The FCC estimates that in 2014, over 10,000 lives could have been saved if only there had been a way for 911 telecommunicators to identify the specific location of 911 callers. It may come as a surprise to many that the technology currently used by 911 systems dates back to the 1960s, and is, therefore, unable to accommodate lifesaving data, such as the location of a caller, the severity of a car crash, or the number of individuals who may be trapped in a burning building.
Considering that over 650,000 911 calls are made across the US every day—many of which are being made by callers who are experiencing the worst moments of their lives—RapidSOS, an advanced emergency technology company, has asked the following question: how do we upgrade these outdated analog voice systems to rich data networks that don't just overload the system with info that isn't ultimately lifesaving? They've spent the past four years holding various focus groups with hundreds of 911 centers across the country and partnering with major tech companies in order to provide this lifesaving data during emergencies.
RapidSOS now manages 60 percent of US 911 traffic and provides data to over 2,200 different public safety agencies in major US cities, and have seen response times improve by anywhere from 30 seconds to seven minutes; when even a single second can be the difference between life and death, this technology is rightly considered lifesaving.
Michael Martin, founder of RapidSOS, joins the podcast to discuss the implementation of this new technology and their plans for international expansion. Tune in for all the details and visit rapidsos.com for more.
Dr. Brandon Milholland, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Genetics, delivers a thorough overview of the aging process, why we age, and how lifespan has been viewed historically.
Dr. Brandon Milholland earned his Ph.D. in genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, one of the nation's most respected centers for research, medical education, and clinical investigation. During his time there he collaborated with other associates from two different teams to research the specific biology of aging. Dr. Milholland has particular expertise in genomics, bioinformatics, and big data. He has published seven papers in peer-reviewed journals, and there are, upcoming, an additional six manuscripts currently under review or already in press. Dr. Milholland received his BA in natural sciences from the prestigious University of Cambridge.
Dr. Milholland discusses his interest in aging, and his transition into the private sector, consulting with pharmaceutical companies. His passion for studies on aging has led him to write on the subject and continue his research. He talks about the lifespan and life expectancy of past generations and cultures, and the differences between the two in how people interpret them. He details how infant mortality rates have affected overall historical records, and discusses how famine and epidemics have impacted past generations and cultures, in terms of lifespan and aging. Dr. Milholland discusses the possibilities of age anomalies in which people outlive the typical age of expected life and historical records that list extremes.
The genetics expert outlines some of the reasons why life expectancies have increased. He discusses theories as to why age plateaus. As he explains, one reason for possible decreases in life extension is that as we age many biological systems may be beginning to fail, but medical treatment often focuses on one major issue alone, not the combination of potential problems. Dr. Milholland discusses aging at the cellular level, and how that impacts the body. He talks specifically about somatic mutation, which is genetic alteration acquired by a particular cell that can then be passed to the descendants of the mutated cell through the course of cell division.
Dr. Milholland specifically delves into the subject of telomeres. Telomeres become shorter each time a cell divides, and when they get too short, that cell can no longer divide thus it becomes inactive or dies. And unfortunately, this process can be associated with many health issues from aging, to cancer, and potentially poses a higher risk of death.
Dr. Milholland delivers information on his research, and other studies, regarding life expectancy, and whether life span is improving or not. As he states, there are many theories and opinions on the matters of aging, and more research is needed.
Dr. Florian Neukart, principle scientist at Volkswagen, delivers a comprehensive analysis of quantum computing and simulation utilized for research.
As principal scientist at Volkswagen Group, Dr. Neukart, focuses on intensive research in the fields of quantum computing, quantum machine learning, artificial intelligence, as well as materials science. He is a skilled computer scientist, mathematician, and noted scientific author. His particular study in the area of reverse-engineering the mind by systematically replacing the biological brain with manufactured components, such as quantum nanobots, electrodes, etc. has drawn a lot of interest in the scientific community.
Dr. Neukart discusses quantum systems and their extensive research utilizing quantum systems for simulation. By simulating molecules and atoms, Dr. Neukart hopes to gain a better understanding of materials' properties, which could prove very useful for battery materials, regarding cathode and anode. Traditional, non-quantum, simulations leave a lot to be desired, and Dr. Neukart is excited about the accuracy in simulation that can be provided via quantum computers. He details the specifics of algorithms and artificial neural networks in relation to quantum computers with the goal of developing algorithms that are more accurate, and learn faster.
The quantum computing scientist details the movement of specific atoms and electrons, and the process during simulation of working with nuclei to better understand the energy surface of the molecule, to learn more about materials' properties. Dr. Neukart explains how they use machine learning in their study, and the specifics of training models with quantum chips, to eventually be used in products. Dr. Neukart outlines the types of quantum computers they use in their research and how they work, as well as the potential difficulties each may present.
Dr. Neukart discusses the third area of interest in their research, beyond materials simulation and machine learning, and that is optimization. He discusses optimization in terms of traffic mobility, citing specifics with transportation services such as taxis, subway, buses, etc. He explains how optimization models can reduce wait times for passengers and increase productivity and efficiency. And this is an area where quantum computing can truly accelerate innovation.
Dr. Neukart earned his Ph.D. in quantum computing and artificial intelligence from the Transilvania University of Brasov, and a master's degree in information technology from the CAMPUS 02 University of Applied Sciences in Graz. Additionally, Neukart holds a master's degree in computer science from the Joanneum University of Applied Sciences in Kapfenbergn.
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