The Scientist Speaks

Researchers tackle the antibiotic resistance crisis with explainable neural networks and high throughput drug discovery.

The field of psychedelics research has exploded in recent years, as scientists dig deeper into the neuroscience and pharmacology of hallucinogens and how their unique properties can be harnessed to understand and treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases. Remarkably, the human body produces its own endogenous psychedelics, the reasons for which have implications for understanding the ordinary and extraordinary states of human consciousness, from creativity and dreaming to near death experiences. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Steven Barker, a professor emeritus at Louisiana State University to learn more about the human body’s ability to produce hallucinogenic compounds and their roles in physiological processes. More on this topic https://www.the-scientist.com/features/natural-high-endogenous-psychedelics-in-the-gut-and-brain-71301 https://www.the-scientist.com/infographics/infographic-what-a-trip-71303 The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Jonathan Weissman and Luke Gilbert share how they developed several CRISPR-based epigenetic editors and how these tools differ from traditional CRISPR.

Scientists discuss the advent of robotically run research and the new era of academic cloud labs on the horizon.

Researchers apply the principles of synthetic biology to address some of the most pressing human health challenges. In what some consider a science and an artform, scientists use bacterial components in creative ways to create synthetic cells for cancer research. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Kate Adamala, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and a synthetic biologist working on engineering synthetic cells, to learn more about the latest advances in using synthetic biology for cancer therapy applications. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by Namocell – a Bio-Techne brand.

Neurobiologists, computer scientists, and engineers join forces to grow mini brains using automation and make their technologies smarter with artificial intelligence.

Fecal transplantation is an established procedure for controlling recurrent Clostridium difficile infection by replenishing healthy bacteria in the gut. Researchers explore novel applications of fecal transplantation for treating other conditions, including psychiatric disorders. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Ian Carroll, an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Kylie Reed, a PhD candidate in Carroll’s laboratory, to learn how the current understanding of treating infectious disease with fecal transplantation drives new applications of this therapy for psychiatric conditions such as eating disorders.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Xitiz Chamling is an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. From vision research to the pursuit of multiple sclerosis treatments, his philosophy of science centers human-based systems to study the neuroprotective layer called myelin, which surrounds and insulates nerves cells. In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Chamling to learn more about his latest work combining stem cell and CRISPR-Cas9 technologies to break away from conventional high throughput drug screening platforms that rely on rodent cells. To learn more about Chamling's research, please check out this article.

Through a combination of basic science research and clinical trials, researchers uncover innovative approaches for targeted cancer treatment.

Jie Sun shares how his curiosity, creativity, and motivation to address clinical public health needs steer his research in immunology and infectious disease.

David Liu shares how integrating chemistry and evolution in his research has directed his work on base editing techniques aimed at developing new therapeutics.

Claire Higgins is reader in the department of bioengineering at Imperial College London. Her philosophy of science involves a problem-solving approach to research, where she models tissue growth, development, and repair using human skin and hair follicles. In their latest work, her research team transplanted hair follicles into human skin scars in an attempt to make that tissue healthy again. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Higgins to learn more about how she takes an engineering-inspired, problem-solving approach to her research. To learn more about Higgins's research, check out this article.   Science Philosophy in a Flash is a series of mini podcasts produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. With a focus on the people behind the science, this podcast highlights researchers’ unique outlook on what motivates their pursuit of science and what it means to be a scientist.

Scientists often refer to DNA as the blueprint of a cell. Whether the genetic material is single stranded or double stranded, linear or circular, organisms across the tree of life rely on their genomic blueprint for instructions on living, growing, and reproducing. Due to the amount of information carried by this blueprint, the size of the genome poses a biological dilemma; from humans to single-celled aquatic organisms, all eukaryotes must find a solution for organizing their DNA into a tiny nuclear space. In the quest for better tools to understand the 3D genomic architecture and the biological challenge of chromosome folding, a team of biochemistry and systems biology researchers investigated the unique genomic organization of unicellular marine plankton, dinoflagellates. In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Job Dekker, a systems biology professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by Arima Genomics.

Most mammals communicate vocally but humans are unique in their ability to communicate using spoken language. Humans are not born with an innate capacity to speak and understand language, but rather learn this skill as the brain develops. The complex interplay between neurobiology, genetics, and the environment shape vocal learning, but scientists do not understand the full extent to which each of these contribute to language development or to speech and language disorders. A recent study by a team of genetics and communication sciences researchers showed an association between specific gene variants and the susceptibility to developing early childhood-onset stuttering. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Jennifer Piper Below, an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Division of Genetic Medicine, and Dillon Pruett, a postdoctoral fellow in her lab, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Neurodegenerative disorders progressively impair a patient’s ability to function. Scientists expect the prevalence of these conditions to increase as the world’s population ages, and their clinical, genetic, and pathological heterogeneity complicates disease diagnosis and prognosis. The link between the immune system and neurodegenerative diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is becoming clearer thanks to improvements in immune cell profiling. A recent study by a team of ALS researchers showed that specific immune cells in blood and cerebrospinal fluid at the time of ALS diagnosis may help predict disease progression. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Caroline Ingre, a physician and neurologist at Karolinska University Hospital, and Solmaz Yazdani, a PhD candidate at the Karolinska Institute, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Jennifer Munson is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech. Her overarching research goal is to find new therapeutic targets in the tumor microenvironment by examining cancer from an onco-engineering perspective. Munson’s work combines fluid mechanics, neuroengineering, tissue engineering, and translational cancer research. She creates personalized models of brain and breast cancer with patient-derived cells to examine the roles of interstitial fluid flow and cellular microenvironment components in cancer progression and treatment. In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Munson to learn more about how she built her bioengineering lab. To learn more about Munson's research, check out this ebook.   Science Philosophy in a Flash is a series of mini podcasts produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. With a focus on the people behind the science, this podcast highlights researchers’ unique outlook on what motivates their pursuit of science and what it means to be a scientist.

Jukka Koskela, a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute for Molecular Medicine, studies the complex genetics of various diseases, including rare diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis. Koskela began pursuing research as a requirement of his clinical training at Helsinki University Central Hospital, and through discussions shared with other scientists, he became passionate about seeking genomic avenues for personalized disease risk assessment. In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Koskela to learn more about what motivates him as a scientist. To learn more about Koskela's research, check out this article.   Science Philosophy in a Flash is a series of mini podcasts produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. With a focus on the people behind the science, this podcast highlights researchers’ unique outlook on what motivates their pursuit of science and what it means to be a scientist.

Despite the genetic basis of healthy aging, diet plays an important role in preventing inflammation, diabetes, and cognitive decline. Yet, healthy food choices are just part of the equation. Researchers are discovering how fasting can undo some of the metabolic damage imposed by the overindulgences of the typical Western diet. The human body may be wired to function optimally when exposed to periods of fasting, which reawakens stem cell activity and the body’s intrinsic capacity to regenerate. The next frontier in this research field is the brain and the ways in which fasting may help improve age-related cognitive deficits. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California and the director of the USC Longevity Institute, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by ATCC.

Paul George, an assistant professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University, taps into the bioelectrical language of the injured brain to reawaken the healing potential of neural stem cells. Inspired by his patients, he looks for innovative strategies that may one day help patients recover from neurodegenerative diseases such as stroke. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with George to learn more about what being a scientist means to him. For more on this topic, please see "Stem Cell Engineering for Tissue Regeneration." Science Philosophy in a Flash is a series of mini podcasts produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. With a focus on the people behind the science, this podcast highlights researchers’ unique outlook on what motivates their pursuit of science and what it means to be a scientist.

As humans age, cells often acquire defects that lead to cancer. However, this fate may not be set in stone, as certain animals can circumvent the ravages of time and keep their cells healthy. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Vera Gorbunova, professor of biology at the University of Rochester and co-director of the Rochester Aging Research Center, to learn about her research on naked and blind mole-rat cancer resistance.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by Mettler Toledo.

To regulate protein production, cells use sophisticated strategies to keep RNA levels in check. This balance is especially important for hormone production, particularly aldosterone—the master regulator of blood pressure. When this balance is disrupted, the risk for disorders including hypertension and cardiovascular disease increases. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Neelanjan Mukherjee, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, to learn more.

Welcome to Science Philosophy in a Flash, a mini podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. In this series, we highlight researchers’ unique outlooks on what it means to be a scientist. Andrew Pelling, a professor at the University of Ottawa with appointments in the Departments of Physics and Biology, has a fresh approach to practicing science. He uses fruits and vegetables to create biodegradable scaffolds for tissue regeneration. His lab is a cross-pollinating hive of diverse disciplines, unencumbered by the rigidity of traditional approaches that favor a narrower focus. With the creative freedom to pursue knowledge for its own sake, Andrew’s lab tests innovative solutions for some of the most challenging medical research questions. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Andrew to learn more about his unique philosophy of science. To learn more about Pelling's work, check out this article.

Sequencing the human genome in the early 2000s was an incredible feat, but the sequence was incomplete. Recently, a consortium of researchers published a telomere-to-telomere assembly of a complete human X chromosome. This accomplishment was made possible by advances in sequencing technology, allowing researchers to address the previous technical difficulties in analyzing challenging genomic regions. Filling in these gaps of the human genome represents a breakthrough in human genetics and opens the door to a wealth of future studies that will undoubtedly advance our understanding of health and disease. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Karen Miga, an assistant professor of biomolecular engineering at University of California, Santa Cruz’s Genomics Institute and a recent honoree on TIME’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2022, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Welcome to Science Philosophy in a Flash, a mini podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. In this series, we highlight researchers’ unique outlooks on what it means to be a scientist. Aimée Parker, a research scientist at the Quadram Institute’s Gut Microbes and Health Research Programme, looks to the gut as the fountain of youth. She studies how rejuvenating the microbiome can subdue chronic inflammation and prevent age-related tissue and organ dysfunction. Motivated by a commitment to collaboration and scientific discovery, her work casts a fresh perspective on aging gracefully. In this episode , Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Parker to learn more about what she values as a scientist. To learn more about Parker's work, check out this article.

Scientists have known for a long time that microbes can take up extracellular DNA fragments, and they have leveraged this transformation process to genetically modify bacteria in the lab. However, transformation is quite fickle and depends on creating the right balance of reagent concentrations and cellular conditions. How this process takes place outside of the petri dish, in more natural bacterial environments such as soil, has proven more difficult to determine. In this episode, Nele Haelterman from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Heather Kittredge, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Connecticut, and Sarah Evans, an associate professor of integrative biology at Michigan State University, to learn more about natural transformation in bacteria and its implications for the rise in antibiotic resistance. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Welcome to Science Philosophy in a Flash, a mini podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. In this series, we highlight researchers’ unique outlooks on what it means to be a scientist. Alysson Muotri, a professor at the University of California, San Diego and director of the Stem Cell program, pushes the boundaries of neuroscience research. He builds brains for a living, then sends them on missions to outer space. Motivated by curiosity and creativity, his work is advancing scientists’ understanding of brain development and aging. In this episode narrated by Niki Spahich, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Muotri to learn more about what being a scientist means to him. To learn more about Muotri's work, check out the upcoming ebook Next-Level Organoids, available on July 29th here.

Welcome to Science Philosophy in a Flash, a mini podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. In this series, we highlight researchers’ unique outlooks on what it means to be a scientist. Beate Peter, a speech-language pathologist and associate professor at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions, practices science at the interface between genetics and speech-language pathology. She created a novel program for infants called Babble Boot Camp, which trains parents to proactively boost their children’s language skills before they begin to speak. In doing so, she hopes to improve the outcomes for children born with a genetic predisposition to speech and language disorders and change the way treatment is delivered. In this episode narrated by Niki Spahich, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist's Creative Services Team spoke with Beate to learn more about what being a scientist means to her.   To learn more about Peter's work, see Nurturing Early Language Skills Prevents the Behavioral Expression of a Genetic Trait

Staphylococcus aureus is a versatile pathogen that infects many areas of the body and has a number of strategies for avoiding the immune response. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Anthony Richardson, an associate professor of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, to learn how the bacterium fine-tunes its metabolism to survive in the host and why Staph’s metabolism makes it especially dangerous for people with diabetes.

Viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 are constantly evolving to better infect their hosts. The appearance of new variants often diminishes the effectiveness of existing vaccines designed to induce immunity against pre-existing strains. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Patrick Wilson, a professor at the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Health at Weill Cornell Medicine, to learn about strategies for making universal vaccines that would impart long-lasting immunity in spite of pathogen evolution.

To understand how the gut perceives and communicates information to the brain, scientists are taking a deeper look at the sensory cells lining the gut using cutting-edge techniques such as single-cell sequencing. While there are challenges and limitations to single-cell sequencing, researchers are becoming more adept at integrating the latest sequencing technology with complementary research techniques to answer complex research questions, advance our understanding of health and disease, and develop new treatment approaches. In this episode narrated by Niki Spahich, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Maya Kaelberer, a sensory neuro-gastroenterologist and assistant professor at Duke University School of Medicine, to learn more.

In search for strategies to curb pandemics, scientists strive to understand how pathogens slip past the immune system and wreak havoc on the body. To achieve this goal, researchers study viral infection in models that mimic how different cell types interact with each other, the immune system, or the environment. Organ-on-a-chip models combine tissue engineering with microfluidics to replicate an organ’s biological and biomechanical context. Lung chips have proven instrumental for studying viral evolution, identifying drug-resistant variants, and screening for new drugs that could prevent these variants from initiating the next pandemic. In this episode, Nele Haelterman from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Don Ingber, the cell biologist who invented organ-on-a-chip technology and the founding director of the Wyss Institute for biologically inspired engineering at Harvard University, to learn more.

The cell is a fundamental unit of life that is capable of metabolism, synthesizing biological molecules, harnessing energy, and replicating. To understand how life works, researchers elucidate every detail related to cellular function and determine which processes are essential. With this information, scientists constructed the first synthetic minimal cell that encoded only the genes necessary for life in laboratory conditions. In this episode, narrated by Niki Spahich, Sejal Davla from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with John Glass, a professor and leader of the synthetic biology & bioenergy group at the J. Craig Venter Institute, about how his team achieved this scientific milestone and its significance in understanding life itself.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by Integrated DNA Technologies.

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological conditions, affecting over 65 million individuals worldwide, and is characterized by recurrent, spontaneous, and uncontrollable seizures. Seizures commonly arise in the epileptic brain after a sudden burst in neurological activity. While many anti-epileptic drugs control seizures, one-third of patients with epilepsy fail to respond to them. Managing drug-resistant epilepsies poses a challenge to scientists and clinicians alike. In this episode, narrated by Niki Spahich, Sejal Davla from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Evangelos Kiskinis, an assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, about his work modeling drug-resistant epilepsies using induced pluripotent stem cells, which offers novel disease management solutions that could translate to the clinic.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by Axion BioSystems.

As neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease wreak havoc on the brain and on our aging society, scientists race to identify factors that trigger neuronal demise and figure out how to stop them. Because neurons can’t be replaced, it is important to detect signs of stress in the brain early, before brain cells pass the point of no return. Scientists recently combined lipidomics with genetics and discovered that lipids are an underestimated player in neurodegeneration. In this episode narrated by Niki Spahich, Nele Haelterman from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Melissa Vos, a neuroscientist at the Institute of Neurogenetics at the University of Lübeck, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

As we know, far too well, infectious disease pandemics have the power to reshape the world. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are observing pathogen evolution in real time as more variants arise and spread in waves. Another infamous infectious disease pandemic, simply called “the plague,” has popped up multiple times in history. How it changed the ancient world has intrigued both historians and scientists. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Simon Rasmussen, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, to learn about his work tracking ancient plague-causing bacteria.

Plant biotechnology is becoming an accepted avenue for pharmaceutical development. Researchers have engineered plants to grow biomolecules that can be made into therapeutics, including vaccines and monoclonal antibodies. These new technologies hold the promise of more readily bringing treatments to low-to-middle-income countries and providing rapid responses to future pandemics. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Julian Ma, the director of the Institute for Infection and Immunity and professor of molecular immunology at St. George’s Hospital Medical School, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by Daicel Arbor Biosciences.

Cancers are diverse and adaptable. That is why a staggering 97% of cancer drugs in clinical trials fail to receive FDA approval. Researchers try to stay one step ahead of cancer by studying the mechanisms that lead to drug resistance, finding new drug targets, and developing novel therapies, such as immunotherapeutics. In this episode narrated by Niki Spahich, Sejal Davla from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Jason Sheltzer, an assistant professor in the Department of Genomics, Genetics, and Epigenomics and Yale Cancer Center at the Yale School of Medicine, about his work on drug resistance in cancer, chromosomal instability in cancer cells, and approaches to identify new treatment strategies.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

An estimated 107,000 people in the United States are currently on the waiting list for organ transplantation. These patients face waiting times of 3-5 years or longer before receiving an organ. Even after receiving a donated organ, organ-transplant patients face a high risk of tissue rejection. Regenerative medicine promises the possibility of laboratory-grown organs, specially tailored to the biology and needs of individual patients, but how close is this technology to reality? In this month’s episode, we discuss the potential of regenerative medicine to replace damaged organs and tissues and cases where stem cell and regenerative medicine influence health today. Tiffany Garbutt from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Anthony Atala, the W. Boyce Professor and Chair of Urology and the G. Link Professor and Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine to learn more. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by PHCbi. PHC Corporation of North America is a global leader in the development, design, and manufacturing of laboratory equipment. Products include the space-saving and energy-efficient VIP® ECO, TwinGuard® and VIP Series ultra-low temperature freezers, cryogenic and biomedical freezers, pharmacy and high-performance refrigerators, cell culture CO2 and multigas incubators, and Drosophila and plant Growth Chambers.

Many secrets are locked inside the brain, including fundamental questions of how individuals perceive the world. Some researchers are seeking answers by mapping brain activity in response to stimuli. This work typically involves human subjects, but certain scientists are branching out to understand the minds of other animals. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist at Emory University who scans the brains of dogs trained to enter MRI machines, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Viral genomes are small, but their products have large consequences for their hosts. During infection, viruses reshape the host gene expression landscape through clever mechanisms that promote viral replication and survival. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Britt Glaunsinger, a professor in the departments of plant microbial biology and molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, to learn more.   More on this topic Transforming Virology Research with Cryo-EM   Predicting the Immune Response with Single-Cell Analysis: Autoimmunity, Vaccination, and COVID-19    The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is sponsored by Sartorius.

The brain requires a lot of energy generated by mitochondria to function properly. Researchers suspect that mutations and deletions in the mitochondrial genome have a bigger effect than previously appreciated, with implications for neurological disorders, such as major depressive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, and beyond. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Brooke Hjelm, assistant professor of clinical translational genomics at the Keck school of medicine at the University of Southern California, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Since the 1950s, there has been a rapid rise in the incidence of allergic diseases, particularly in western countries. Experts agree that the rapid increase in cases is not due to increased awareness, and the genetics behind allergies have not changed. But the environment has changed. Genetic predisposition affects the likelihood of developing allergies, but the environment acts on genetic background. In this month’s episode, we discuss the epigenetic origins of allergies and asthma and explore the environmental exposures that affect our generation and the next. Tiffany Garbutt from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with John Holloway, professor of allergy and respiratory genetics and associate dean of research at the University of Southampton, to learn more.

Cell therapies treat and repair the body using stem cells or their derivatives. These cells possess great therapeutic potential, but their beneficial effects often fade away over time. In this episode, we explore strategies to improve the persistence of stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes in the effort to remuscularize hearts after cardiac infarction. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Sara Nunes Vasconcelos, an assistant professor at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, and a scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute, to learn more.   More on this topic  Technique Talk: 2D Stem Cell Culture   Experimental Cures for Fragile Patients: Prenatal Stem Cell and Gene Therapies  Quality Control for Cell Therapies   Highlights in Precision Medicine   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Odors bombard the human nose every day, whether the odors register consciously or not. The way the human brain processes these odors has the potential to characterize disease and shape everyday human interaction. In this month’s episode, we explore the world of odor and how scientists use the sense of smell to better understand the human brain, disease, and behavior. Tiffany Garbutt from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Noam Sobel, Sela Professor of Neurobiology and Director of the Azrieli National Center for Human Brain Imaging and Research at the Weizmann Institute of Science, to learn more.   This month’s episode is sponsored by MilliporeSigma and 10x Genomics.  MilliporeSigma is a leading company for innovative, trusted products for genomic and protein sample prep, reliable antibodies, proteins, and enzymes, advanced cell culture, and lab water solutions. They provide researchers with best-in-class technologies, expertise, and services to accelerate discovery, including ZooMAb® recombinant antibodies that offer high specificity and reliable consistency. 10x Genomics builds solutions for interrogating biological systems at a resolution and scale that matches the complexity of biology. Their rapidly expanding suite of products, which includes instruments, consumables, and software, enables customers to make fundamental discoveries across multiple research areas, including cancer, immunology, and neuroscience.

Most infectious disease research focuses on the battle between host and pathogen. While an individual’s abilities to resist infection and combat microbes are important, this process is only half of the story. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with David Schneider, professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University, to learn why it is crucial to consider how organisms tolerate disease, and to explore how he maps the paths individuals take through infection and back to health. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This episode is sponsored by MilliporeSigma.

Welcome to The Scientist Speaks, a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This episode is brought to you by 10x Genomics. 10x Genomics builds solutions to interrogate biological systems at a resolution and scale that matches the complexity of biology. Their rapidly expanding suite of products, which include instruments, consumables, and software, has enabled customers to make fundamental discoveries across multiple research areas, including cancer, immunology, and neuroscience. While T cell immunotherapies effectively battle certain cancers, many cancers do not respond to these treatments. To find solutions to this problem, researchers use modern genetic techniques, such as genome-wide CRISPR-based screens, to enhance the anti-cancer immune response and increase cancer cell susceptibility to treatment. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Sidi Chen, assistant professor in genetics and systems biology at Yale University, to learn more. To hear a fascinating story about using CRISPR screens, stem cell technology, and single cell sequencing to understand neuron stress and neurodegenerative diseases, check out our latest LabTalk episode at www.the-scientist.com/labtalkepisode2.

In this month’s episode, Repurposing Living Systems to Fight a Pandemic, we discuss how one synthetic biologist pivoted his research to join the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Tiffany Garbutt from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Michael Jewett, Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and director of the Center for Synthetic Biology at Northwestern University, to learn more. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we will bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month's episode is supported by Daicel Arbor Biosciences, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, and PHC Corporation of North America. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.

The Scientist is bringing you a new podcast series of special edition episodes! Get a sneak peek here and subscribe to the The Scientist's LabTalk channel for access to additional science stories.   The Scientist’s LabTalk podcast is produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. We explore topics at the leading edge of innovative research.This episode is brought to you by Keystone Symposia. Don’t miss their upcoming virtual eSymposium on myeloid cells and innate immunity in solid tumors on September 21-23, 2020. Find more information at http://keysym.us/Myeloid21ScientistOne of the eSymposium’s speakers is Miriam Merad, a professor in Cancer Immunology and the Director of the Precision Immunology Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Merad about her research investigating how antigen presenting cells enhance anti-tumor immune responses and her recent advocacy work fighting against the foreign scholar visa ban.

For a long time, scientists have searched for cures for genetic diseases. As stem cell and gene therapies proved to be viable therapeutic options, researchers turned to prenatal applications to see if they could develop ways to bring fetuses with life-threatening conditions to term. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Amy O’Connell, a neonatologist at Boston Children’s Hospital, and Tippi MacKenzie, a Professor of Surgery at the University of San Francisco Medical School, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.   If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.

Researchers are developing a new set of tools for studying previously intractable diseases by differentiating and growing stem cells into 3D organ-like structures called organoids. In this month’s episode, we discuss using brain organoids to understand neurological conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Sergiu Pasca from the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford University and the Uytengsu Director of the Stanford Brain Organogenesis Center, to learn more.   The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.   If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.

The Scientist Speaks, is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we will bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. In this month’s episode, brought to you by The Scientist and sponsored by 10x Genomics, we discover how scientists use the principles of evolution to model tumor dynamics and develop new treatment strategies for cancer. Tiffany Garbutt from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Robert Gatenby, chairman of the radiology department and co-director of the Center for Excellence for Evolutionary Therapy at the Moffitt Cancer Center, to learn more. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.

In this month’s episode, we learn that human brains differentiate musical pitch a way that macaque monkeys do not. In fact, speech and music shaped the human brain’s hearing circuits. Researchers are studying these circuits with an eye on developing treatments for neurological disorders. Kathryn Loydall from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Bevil Conway, an Investigator at the NIH's National Eye Institute, to learn more. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we will bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.

In this month’s episode, we explore how results from the Human Microbiome Project have impacted our understanding of human health and disease. Kathryn Loydall from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Lita Proctor from the National Institutes of Health, former Director of the Human Microbiome Project, to learn more. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we will bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.  If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.

Antimicrobial resistant infections are a major threat to global public health. In this month’s episode, we explore using bacteriophages to combat these deadly infections. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Jason Gill, associate director of the Center for Phage Technology at Texas A&M University, and Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean of Global Health Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, to learn more. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.   Special thanks to Dr. Steffanie Strathdee and Dr. Jason Gill for sharing their experiences. Steffanie Strathdee and Thomas Patterson's book about his illness is "The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir." More information can be found at ThePerfectPredator.com.   If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.

Mosquito-borne diseases afflict a large portion of the world. In this month’s episode, we consider genetic methods to eradicate diseases such as Zika fever, Dengue fever, and malaria. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Omar Akbari, professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of California, San Diego, to learn more. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we will bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.     Music attribution: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In this month’s episode, we explore the neural mechanisms behind birdsong and what they tell us about human vocal learning and speech deficits in diseases such as autism spectrum disorder. Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services team spoke with Stephanie White, professor of Integrative Biology and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, to learn more. The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. Once a month, we will bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.   Special thanks to Dr. Stephanie White from the University of California, Los Angeles for the normal, isolate, FoxP2, and Cntnap2 birdsongs Dr. Yoko Yazaki-Sugiyama from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology for the Bengalese finch cross-fostered birdsongs The Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics at The Ohio State University for the American Robin bird sounds.   If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to The Scientist Speaks on your favorite podcast platform.   Music attribution: Danse Macabre Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/