The Scientist Speaks

Smelling Illness: Volatile Organic Compounds as Neurological Disease Biomarkers

Early diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease is critical to slowing its progression. Long before neurological symptoms appear, patients exhibit early signs, some of which are associated with specific chemical scent signatures known as volatile organic compounds. Researchers study these as early biomarkers of disease for future diagnostics applications.

In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist spoke with Drupad Trivedi, a University of Manchester biomedical researcher and lecturer in analytical and measurement science, to learn more about how fatty skin secretions in Parkinson’s disease and one woman’s sensitive nose may lead to early detection and intervention.

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.

Understanding the Role of Autophagy in Infectious Disease

Just like people declutter their homes to prevent the accumulation of broken or unwanted items, cells use autophagy to maintain homeostasis. This essential cleaning process enables them to capture and degrade unnecessary or dysfunctional macromolecules, such as damaged organelles, protein aggregates, and microbial pathogens. As a result, autophagy is a fundamental defense mechanism employed by cells to control and clear viral infections.

In this episode, Charlene Lancaster from The Scientist spoke with Josephine Thinwa, an assistant professor in the departments of internal medicine and microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, to learn more about the importance of autophagy in mitigating viral infections and how understanding this process could help physicians treat a rare neurodevelopmental disorder.

More on this topic: Macrophages Curtail Tuberculosis

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.

Linking Fasting to Health and the Gut Microbiome

Gut microbes affect humans in many ways, including altering the gastrointestinal tract’s function and influencing a person’s body weight, and the nutrients that people ingest can affect the microbiome. Researchers now ask how popular weight loss strategies involving calorie restriction change the bugs in our guts and human health overall.

 

In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist spoke with Alex Mohr, a postdoctoral fellow in the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes at Arizona State University, about his work comparing the effects of calorie restriction versus intermittent fasting with protein pacing on the gut microbiome, weight loss, and other health indicators.

 

More on this topic https://www.the-scientist.com/you-are-when-you-eat-71487

The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. We bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research.

Catch Me If You Can: Sequencing Screens for Rare Disease Genes

Rare diseases often remain undiagnosed due to unknown etiologies. In recent years, researchers have made headway in characterizing the molecular causes of rare diseases thanks to progressively powerful sequencing technologies, such as whole genome and exome sequencing.

In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist spoke with medical geneticist and chair of the department of pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital, Wendy Chung, to learn how the rare disease field has evolved alongside advances in next generation sequencing.

 

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The Sequencing Revolution

Scans of Sundry Variant Types Uncover Autism-Linked Genes

The Scientist Speaks is a podcast produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. Our podcast is by scientists and for scientists. We bring you the stories behind news-worthy molecular biology research. This month’s episode is sponsored by Velsera.

Organoids in Space: The Next Frontier

Building miniature brains may sound like a page out of a science fiction novel, but fact is indeed stranger than fiction. Researchers around the world grow brain organoids—3D miniature brains—to better understand brain development, aging, injury, and other disorders, as well as to test new treatment strategies. Some scientists take brain building to the next level by launching their brain organoids into outer space.

In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist spoke with Alysson Muotri, a University of California, San Diego professor and Stem Cell Program director to learn more about how microgravity affects the cellular and molecular biology of brain organoids and how these discoveries can improve human 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 month’s episode is sponsored by ACROBiosystems and Molecular Devices.

Science Philosophy in a Flash: Shifting Parturition Perspectives in Perinatology Research

As a maternal-fetal immunologist at the Washington University School of Medicine, Nardhy Gómez-López investigates the immunobiological pathways that underlie pregnancy complications. Having trained and researched across the globe alongside caring and curious physicians, Gómez-López became hooked on perinatal immunology research. Motivated to help solve the prevalent problem of preterm birth, she currently looks at labor and birth, also called parturition, through a basic research lens.

In this Science Philosophy in a Flash podcast episode, The Scientist's Creative Services Team spoke with Gómez-López to learn more about her recent work investigating cellular changes in the maternal-fetal interface during parturition and what motivates her clinically collaborative research perspective.

 

To learn more about Gómez-López’s research, check out this article.

Science Philosophy in a Flash is 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.

Understanding the Effects of Extrachromosomal DNA on Cancer

In the 1960s, researchers in England noticed an anomaly when investigating chromosomes from surgically removed human tumors. Distinct from the intact chromosomes visible underneath the microscope were numerous “very small double chromatin bodies,” which are today better known as extrachromosomal DNA. Thanks to modern sequencing and imaging techniques, researchers now know that these tiny bits of circular DNA play a big role in cancer outcomes.

In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist spoke with Lukas Chavez, an assistant professor in the Cancer Genome and Epigenetics Program at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, to learn more about his team’s multiomic exploration of extrachromosomal DNA and how it influences medulloblastoma progression and treatment.

 

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 newsworthy molecular biology research.

This episode is brought to you by biomodal. 

 

Science Philosophy in a Flash: Understanding the Symphony of Human Brain Development

As the Golub Family Professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University, Paola Arlotta seeks to understand how the human brain is formed and what makes it unique. After being inspired by her high school science teacher, Antonio Vecchia, Arlotta pursued a research path that led to her current work exploring the cerebral cortex by growing human organoids in 3D cell culture and investigating their development with single cell sequencing techniques.

In this Science Philosophy in a Flash podcast episode, The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Arlotta to learn more about her path from a curious child in Italy to her current work exploring the complexities of human brain development using organoid models.

To learn more about Arlotta's research, check out this article.

 

Science Philosophy in a Flash is 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.

Explainable AI for Rational Antibiotic Discovery

Researchers now employ artificial intelligence (AI) models based on deep learning to make functional predictions about big datasets. While the concepts behind these networks are well established, their inner workings are often invisible to the user. The emerging area of explainable AI (xAI) provides model interpretation techniques that empower life science researchers to uncover the underlying basis on which AI models make such predictions. 

In this month’s episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist spoke with Jim Collins from Massachusetts Institute of Technology to learn how researchers are using explainable AI and artificial neural networks to gain mechanistic insights for large scale antibiotic discovery.

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Artificial Neural Networks: Learning by Doing

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 LabVantage, serving disease researchers with AI-driven scientific data management solutions that increase discovery and speed time-to-market. Learn more at LabVantage.com/analytics.

Natural Trip: Endogenous Psychedelics and Human Physiology

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.