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Copyright: © Richard Jacobs
Approximately 120,000 people in the U.S. alone are waiting for an organ transplant, and there are many more who could benefit from one but haven't made the list because there simply aren't enough organs available. But what if the supply could be increased by utilizing the organs of another species? The process is called xenotransplantation, and its what Dr. Joseph Tector and his team have been working on for years now.
As the director of the University of Alabama Xenotransplant Program, Dr. Tector explains the main roadblock to xenotransplantation: rejection by the receiver's antibodies. However, he and his team have genetically modified pig organs in a way that—in conjunction with immunosuppressant drugs—will decrease or eliminate the human antibody response, thereby preventing rejection. Ten people on the waitlist have already been tested and shown to have no detectable antibodies to the pig cells, making them candidates for transplant.
Press play for all the details.
A shortage of about 100,000 physicians is expected in the US by the year 2025, which will force many people into long waiting periods and delays in the detection and treatment of potentially life-threatening conditions. In terms of providing health care in a timely manner to the growing population, we are reaching the limits of human capacity. So, where do we turn? According to the team at Geisinger, the answer is machines.
Brandon K. Fornwalt, MD, PhD, and associate professor and director of the Geisinger Department of Imaging Science and Innovation, and Aalpen Patel, MD and Chair of the Geisinger System of Radiology join the podcast to discuss the problems with the current system of medicine and diagnostic imaging, how the implementation of machines and machine learning can help, and the specific projects they're working on to improve patient outcomes and help physicians to be more efficient.
In a recent project, the team at Geisinger trained a computer model to predict death in patients by using over 700,000 videos of the heart. The result? The machine made predictions with an accuracy level far superior to that of clinicians, allowing for early intervention for heart attack and stroke. Tune in for a compelling discussion, detailed description of other projects in the works, and Geisinger's long-term goals.
To learn more, check out geisinger.org.
Imagine visiting your primary care doctor and receiving a whole read out of your genomic data within 10 minutes for as little as $10, equipping your doctor with the information needed in order to deliver you individually tailored medical treatments and therapies. Thanks to the work being done at Roswell Biotechnologies, this is well on its way to becoming a reality.
As the founder, president, and CEO of Roswell Biotechnologies, Paul Mola realizes the need to sequence genomes at scale in order to obtain the level of understanding and interpretation needed for making precision medicine a reality. What we really need, he says, is a "genomic encyclopedia" of genetic variances and corresponding phenotypic descriptions, treatments, and drug therapies. Until now, the high cost and slow process of genomic sequencing has stymied this development and kept enormous amounts of useful information largely inaccessible and unaffordable for the average person.
Mola has discovered a viable solution by merging nanochemistry with CMOS technology (which is the same technology that's used to manufacture computer chips), which allows for direct electronic monitoring of the process by which DNA is copied. It's time-saving, cost-effective, and scalable, and there's nothing else like it out there. Rather than taking 24 hours and costing $1,500 to sequence a genome, the Roswell solution will take just an hour and cost $100, and packs a ton of opportunities for improvement down the road.
Tune in for all the details and visit roswellbiotech.com to learn more.
Having practiced medicine for over 20 years now, Dr. Sandeep Jain has witnessed firsthand how the increasing predominance of electronic medical records has lowered the amount and damaged the quality of communication that occurs between doctors and patients and between members of a patient's health care team. He argues that electronic medical record keeping has not only made communication across systems impossible by limiting doctors to their organizations or hospitals, but also subtracted from the patient experience by forcing providers to document excess data rather than simply listen to the patient. The problem is only worsened by the fact that doctors are monetarily incentivized to document through this system in a particular manner.
"Important, essential insight becomes a needle in a haystack, and doctors have to hide needles of information in a lot of hay because that's how they make their own hay…money," says Dr. Jain. But what if the needles could be shared without the hay and across systems so that a patient's entire care team could be on the same page at the touch of a button? These were the ideas that compelled him to found ListenMD, a secure, HIPPA-compliant app that allows patients and every member of their treating team to communicate with one another in real time, sharing those essential bits of information that would otherwise get buried in the excess. The app also allows providers to delay less important messages and prioritize urgent ones, which keeps disturbances to a minimum and lessens the barrage of data doctors already deal with.
There are many other features and perks of the app designed to simplify, streamline, and improve patient care. Tune in for more information and download the app to try it for yourself.
Dr. Daryl Gioffre, celebrity nutritionist, author, alkaline and ketogenic diet expert, gives a detailed presentation on the power of good nutrition and how everyone can make improvements for increased energy, better health, and longevity.
Dr. Gioffre has a lot of interests. He is a sought-after speaker and educator, a certified raw food chef, live blood microscopist, and reiki master. And as a former self-described sugar addict, he has found a way to lead a healthy life and has a passion for sharing his knowledge with everyone. Dr. Gioffre is particularly interested in the root causes of inflammation and chronic illnesses. His method involves moderation, using cutting-edge nutrition practices to achieve and maintain the best health possible. Dr. Gioffre is the founder of the Gioffre Chiropractic Wellness Center, as well as the popular brand and website, Alkamind. His celebrated book, Get Off Your Acid – 7 Steps in 7 Days to Lose Weight, Fight Inflammation, and Reclaim Your Health & Energy has been attracting a lot of attention and intensifying the dialogue about good health and nutrition.
Dr. Gioffre discusses his path to good health, including his past issues with weight and nutrition, especially sugar. He states that as he followed the evidence, to understand his addiction to sugar, that that evidence led him to acid—acid was inflammatory to his body. He describes how he integrated nutritional elements into his diet, such as green juices, and reclaimed his energy, life, and lost weight dramatically, not to mention eliminating his sugar addiction in the process.
The nutrition expert discusses specific green juices, which are comprised mostly of vegetables and are highly alkalizing. He states that all green juices are certainly not created equal, so it is important to understand what makes a green juice healthy. In order for green juices to be alkaline they must be high in minerals, high in fiber, and low in sugar. He talks about the benefits of highly concentrated powders comprised of organic greens, which is an easy way to get a large amount of the right kinds of organic greens into your body without a lot of effort. Dr. Gioffre explains how taste buds can shift about every two weeks, so what you are putting into your body will affect how you respond to new foods and beverages. Thus once you make the switch to healthier options, your body's taste buds will come on board and begin craving the good stuff. Dr. Gioffre states, shockingly, that research has shown sugar is literally eight times more powerful than cocaine. Therefore it is a powerful addiction to overcome, but once you start to put the good foods into your body in a larger volume than the bad foods, your body will help you make the shift, as cravings will adjust to the new good nutrition.
Dr. Gioffre underscores the importance of balance. He states that the first step toward better health is a changing of one's diet, but it is equally important to reduce stress as stress can create acid, and finally… it is important to find a way to make the new changes sustainable. He talks about Alkamind, and the many products they provide for people who want to take charge of their health, and improve their well being. He details how anyone can implement a new nutritional program, and utilize healthy minerals to neutralize acid. He states that the more healthy minerals we can put into our bodies, such as kale and avocados, etc., the better chance we have to neutralize the acid in our body.
Dr. Gioffre talks about his daily and nightly regimens, and how he personally supplements for improvement of health. He discusses the importance of oxygen, and improvement of our breathing. He details the 3-6-5 power breath method, which is essentially breathing in through the nose for 3 seconds, holding it for 6 seconds, and then exhaling out the mouth for 5 seconds. He stresses the importance of doing this every morning to oxygenate, alkalize, and energize our blood. Dr. Gioffre states that hydration is equally important, and that "the solution to pollution is dilution." Drinking more water is something most everyone needs to do daily. Additionally he describes other important healthy additions to our lives such as particular types of exercise, and he reiterates the critical importance of eating the right foods and letting green goodness, healthy minerals, begin to repair the body.
The successful nutrition advocate talks about his program for good health and some of the people who come to him for specialized input. He discusses the importance of making the transition to good health with an advocate on your side as it is sometimes difficult when the body starts to detoxify—help is a good thing. A support network or person can help people maintain their program and have a better chance for success.
He discusses the pros and cons of the keto diet, and notes how keto is an acid forming diet, and is not sustainable. Thus Dr. Gioffre's program pulls from the keto diet, only its best elements— the healthy fat component. Avocados, raw nuts and seeds, healthy oils, etc., are all excellent healthy fat elements that anyone can introduce into their daily diet to help achieve optimum health. Good fats are essential, but too much animal protein turns to sugar, and can be acid forming. By combining vegetarian elements and keto, Dr. Gioffre's program can boost energy, create better health, and help prevent disease. And he triple underscores one critical point, that it is never too late to begin, and that everyone, literally everyone, can find ways to improve their health by making simple changes and working toward their goal.
Jennifer Kan, postdoctoral researcher at the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, provides an overview of the exciting new possibilities that could arise as researchers utilize bacteria to create silicon-carbon bonds.
Kan's research and interest lies at the intersection of science and engineering. Kan is excited about her work as a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Frances Arnold, the first woman to be awarded the $1.1 million Millennium Technology Prize, for her groundbreaking work on directed evolution. Directed evolution is a process that allows for the creation of desired traits within enzymes. According to scientific findings, silicon and carbon are quite similar in regard to their chemistry, with both maintaining the capability to produce extended chains of molecules, such as DNA and proteins.
Kan talks about the lab's work and mission: to engineer proteins to do incredible things that have not been seen in nature. Via directed evolution, researchers have used a bacterium to create a silicon-carbon bond in a natural manner, which previously had only been accomplished synthetically. She states that while silicon is the second most abundant element on our planet, for some reason living organisms have never integrated silicon into their native biochemistry. But in the lab, Kan says it is possible for proteins to activate this chemistry. Interestingly, this groundbreaking discovery may have cleared a path toward integrating computer chips with the human body, though Kan stresses that potential possibility is a long way off in the future, so for now we'll still have to experience this in Hollywood movies only.
The researcher and biochemistry expert states that silicon is extremely prevalent in our lives and products and that it is truly the core element that makes modern life possible. Kan discusses the benefits of binding silicon to carbon, and how that bond is crucial for the manufacturing of materials that are necessary in our world. She explains the incredible significance of this new development in science—utilizing biology to make these bonds—and how it can open the door to programming life.
Kan states that scientists must ask the right questions, in regard to biological systems, in order to analyze and discover their potential with respect to chemistry.
The lab's work could create a seismic shift in how medicine and materials are manufactured and produced. Kan feels that there will be a number of valuable applications for this work, for many reasons, two of which are cost reduction, and the newer process is better for the environment compared to the old way of making silicon bonds.
Kan explains how their work involves creating metabolic pathways, convincing bacteria to use the silicon-containing building blocks to create things that are potentially useful for biology. She discusses the many possible uses for this scientific achievement, notably—the use of bacteria to create silicon-containing drugs. She talks about the incredible environmental benefits and how this process can diminish the need for the use of toxic chemicals.
The chemistry expert talks about some of the other innovative uses of their silicon bonding work. She outlines the possible molecules that could be experimented with in her lab, and how the introduction of new elements can literally change functionality. Kan details some of the complexities of the chemical processes and elements, and what her lab's team hopes to find as they dig deeper into the bonding experimentation. Additionally, Kan lays out their schedule and timeline for this new, exciting work, and talks about their latest publishing and interesting findings. Now that they can actually see what is happening within the proteins, Kan hopes that soon they will be able to complete the story so to speak, and more fully understand how silicon bonds can be made in proteins.
Murray Thom, director of software and cloud services at D-Wave Systems, The Quantum Computing Company (dwavesys.com), delivers a thorough overview of quantum computing and its many uses.
Thom is a seasoned professional in the technology and computing arena. He is heavily involved in multiple areas that are key to D-Wave's operations, and success. Thom plays an instrumental role in the R&D at D-Wave, including design and manufacture of crucial components and elements. Additionally he provides important technical support to the sales team that relates to his in-depth knowledge of applications, algorithms, and more.
D-Wave Systems is the first quantum computing company and they are continually striving to make rapid advancements in the computing space. Notably, D-Wave recently released its 1000+ qubit D-Wave 2X system. And the impressive system was installed at the NASA/Google Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Lockheed Martin. The dramatic results from Google on the D-Wave 2X showed a 100,000,000 times speed increase over a traditional system for specific types of problems.
Thom talks about D-Wave's mission: to unlock the power of quantum computers for real world solutions. He states that for nearly 20 years the company has been building quantum computers and servicing the clients, users, and developers who need them. Thom discusses some of their collaborative work with clients and customers over the past decade that has led to great advances and early applications for their quantum computing systems. He details some of their specific client projects, such as their work with Volkswagen on traffic flow optimization.
D-Wave's quantum computer utilizes quantum dynamics to accelerate and create innovative methods for solving optimization, material science, sampling, and machine learning problems and issues. Through a process known as 'quantum annealing' it stimulates the tendency of real-world quantum systems to access new low-energy states. To consider optimization in terms of high and low points within a landscape, every coordinate represents a potential solution and the elevation represents its energy. And the optimum solution is the one with the lowest energy that corresponds to the lowest point across the landscape.
Thom outlines how quantum computers are different. A traditional computer stores information as 'bits' with assigned values of either 1 or 0. A quantum computer works with information that is preserved in quantum bits, known simply as qubits. And a qubit can hold a value of 1 or 0, essentially any quantum superposition of these two represented states. This is how quantum computers can process enormous volumes of information so easily. Quantum memory has incredibly impressive capacity. Though it seems small, it can store a tremendous amount of information, which enables users to search massive solution areas and find answers fast. Thom details D-Wave's exciting project known as Leap, which is an environment for developers to literally build and operate their own specific quantum applications. Leap is cloud-based, and as such it provides real-time access to an operational quantum computer. Developers and researchers are provided the opportunity to work with open-source tools, and are given access to interactive demos, coding examples, and detailed information articles. Leap provides an open pathway to incredible collaboration within the active online community.
Thom cites specific examples of how quantum computing solutions impact advertising buys and budgets, and overall optimization, and the decision-making process of business leaders with respect to their advertising and marketing. From providing hotel recommendations to travelers, to optimization of workflow in factories, Thom discusses the numerous ways that quantum computing is changing how businesses operate.
Conventional systems are inept in many ways and quantum computing is stepping up to provide more advanced problem-solving assistance. Quantum computing provides the potential to solve many complex and extremely technical, scientific, defense, and commercial problems and Thom expects that it will deliver results in a myriad of industries and areas.
As an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, Dr. Steven Y. Park sees many patients with chronic issues, but it wasn't until he started ordering sleep tests that he discovered many of these patients were also suffering from sleep apnea. Since then, he's continued to collect data on the connection between sleep issues and chronic ENT conditions, high blood pressure, anxiety, diabetes, and digestive problems.
According to Dr. Park, breathing problems can be brought on by and contribute to a variety of factors, many of which could help us better understand, manage and treat common illnesses. He joins the podcast to discuss variations of apnea, how exactly it's diagnosed, what happens physiologically during episodes of apnea, upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS), fragmented sleep that involves restless legs and teeth grinding, how simple snoring can lead to apnea, and tips for handling different levels and types of sleep disturbances.
Tune in and check out his book Sleep, Interrupted: A Physician Reveals the #1 Reason Why So Many of us are Sick and Tired for more.
Michael Breus, PhD Clinical Psychologist, Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine, Fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, author of several books on sleep disorders, and regular guest on The Dr. Oz Show joins the podcast to discuss the latest in what nearly half of the country has some sort of struggle with sleep. He fell in love with clinical sleep medicine just a couple days into the rotation during his medical residency and has since been established as what many would call the ultimate sleep expert.
There are three major areas at the forefront of current research on sleep medicine: the connection between sleep and cannabis, the connection between sleep and the gut microbiome, and the relationship between sleep and school-aged children. Dr. Breus touches on each one, as well as a range of other topics, including the role of genetic chronotypes in sleep, five steps to getting the best sleep, and why a high-carb snack before bed might actually benefit you.
Interested in hearing more? Press play and visit thesleepdoctor.com for a range of articles on a variety of topics on sleep.
Mark Thomas, co-founder and CEO of ZenSports (zensports.com), provides a detailed overview of their groundbreaking new sports betting platform.
Thomas is a savvy technology entrepreneur and the enthusiastic CEO of ZenSports, an exciting new peer-to-peer, decentralized sports betting marketplace that utilizes modern cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Thomas has extensive experience in the tech space, notably as an original co-founder and CEO of Reesio, a top venture-backed startup in real estate technology that was successfully launched then subsequently acquired by News Corp's Realtor.com. Additionally, Thomas founded Thomas Executive Resources, a recruiting agency that flourished, which he later sold in 2008. Thomas currently owns and operates a diverse real estate investment company as well: Mark Thomas Realty Holdings. Self described as a serial entrepreneur, Thomas is passionate about startups, tech, investing, and real estate.
He brings many skills to the table as CEO of ZenSports, including executive leadership and business development, marketing, product management, recruiting, and finance. He has successfully worked with many venture capitalists and angel investors and is well versed in strategic planning.
Thomas discusses his background and motivation for entering the blockchain and cryptocurrency arena. His interest in advancing tech, and sports, pushed him to launch ZenSports, which as he describes was a meetup recreational sports app in which users could meet and play sports for money. As Thomas became more interested in the expanding cryptocurrency market, and he began investing, he was intrigued and wanted to dive deeper into the emerging digital financial and blockchain space. He saw a way to weed out the middlemen through decentralization in the sports industry. Thomas decided to utilize blockchain to create a better world within the sports industry, one that was more open to everyone. They set out to develop a better sports betting product utilizing blockchain and cryptocurrency to weed out the middlemen and bookmakers and keep it focused on users and the action. The platform puts betters in control of their action, in control of the bets they want to place, directly and immediately. ZenSports offers peer-to-peer sports betting in an active marketplace in which anyone can create and accept sports bets with anyone else in the entire world, with bookmakers no longer needed or necessary.
The technology guru details the workings of their platform—how the system functions and operates. As he explains, users of the platform can input the kind of bet they want to place and the platform will match them up with those in the network who are willing to take that bet. When a match is made, the platform will lock them into a contract so the bet is secured and official, so neither side can back out of the bet, etc. Additionally, makers of the bets are responsible for submitting the results of the bets. Their system involves a created token economy that can sit a small escrow fee aside, and in case the results submitted are incorrect, the taker of the bet can dispute those results. Disputes are settled in the marketplace as all other betters vote on what the actual outcome was. Thus the majority of the marketplace votes on the correct result, keeping the bets accurate and efficiently managing the system.
Thomas talks about the other betting platforms in the market. He states that what sets ZenSports apart from the pack is that they are truly focused on traditional sports betting, their platform is 100% peer-to-peer, and their system is completely decentralized via the use of cryptocurrency and blockchain. While other competitors are doing some of these things, no one else is really mastering all three the way ZenSports has, which gives them a competitive edge and opens their platform up to more action in the biggest market of all.
The sports betting aficionado gets specific about their platform's details and the minutiae of how users can configure it to really work for them in an exciting way. He states that in the truest sense, ZenSports is really a matchmaker, matching people who have similar interests in sports betting who want to bet and enjoy the process. Thomas talks about some of the new developments that are on the horizon for ZenSports. He says they are working on their cryptocurrency token, to streamline transactions and keep it simple to use. Additionally, they are adding more and more sports and leagues to their app, as well as new features nearly weekly. Thomas states that they are constantly doing user testing so the product they deliver is not only thoroughly enjoyable but also top of the line and tested for success and precision. Easy and fun is what it is all about, and Thomas is pleased to bring the ZenSports platform to sports lovers everywhere.
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