Mendelspod Podcast

In our last episode, we explored the growing shift from genomics to multi-omics. But for Pacific Biosciences CEO Christian Henry, the foundation of discovery remains clear: “ DNA is still where it’s at. ” PacBio is doubling down on long-read sequencing, committed to delivering on its promise of accuracy and completeness. 2024 marks a “watershed year ” for PacBio, with the launch of the Vega system...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com It’s time for our annual deep dive into sequencing—no, wait— multi-omics ! Back on the show is our resident sequencing guru, Keith Robison, scientist at Ginkgo Bioworks and author of the OmicsOmics blog . Keith is our all time return champion, and as always, he brings technical experience alongside the storytelling in...

This week on Mendelspod , as we celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re spotlighting groundbreaking contributions from women in science. Our guest, Dr. Mirna Ghemrawi , is at the forefront of forensic genetics, where DNA analysis meets the pursuit of justice. As Associate Director at the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education, Ghemrawi applies next-gen sequencing and AI to some of t...

In this urgent and unflinching conversation, Stanford law professor Hank Greely returns to Mendelspod to address the mounting threats of the Trump administration to public science funding and the institutions that regulate medicine. As the NIH faces existential challenges and the FDA comes under fire, Greely lays out a compelling case for why government-supported research remains essential—not jus...

For decades, drug developers have struggled with so-called "undruggable" proteins—those regions of the proteome that evade traditional small molecules and antibodies. But Aikium , led by Eswar Iyer , could be changing the game. In today’s show, Iyer, a prolific scientist with over 100 patents and a background in George Church’s lab, shares how his company is tackling one of the toughest challenges...

Today Theral talks with Laura Hercher , Director of Research for Human Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College , about the growing political assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in scientific research. With the NIH facing sweeping budget cuts and DEI programs cancelled, Hercher makes a compelling case for why diversity isn’t just a social or moral issue—but a scientific imperat...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Lung cancer is the most deadly of all the cancers worldwide. Very few of those who should be— are getting screened. There is enormous medical need here, and early cancer detection through advanced liquid biopsy could be a tremendous part of the answer. Today, as part of our series on the future of genetic testing, we...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com In our first conversation with Deep Genomics, Theral sits down with Brendan Frey, the company's founder and Chief Innovation Officer, to explore the power of AI in RNA biology and drug discovery. Frey, a pioneer in deep learning who trained in the lab of AI luminary Geoffrey Hinton, shares how his personal experience...

In this Mendelspod episode, Theral explores the state of genome informatics with Ben Busby, principal scientist at DNAnexus. Busby reflects on his journey into the field, which was influenced by key projects and experiences during his time at the NCBI and his genomics hackathons. He outlines the current genome informatics landscape, emphasizing DNAnexus' role in fostering collaboration. Busby high...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com As 2025 begins, we are launching a new series The New Genetic Testing. To do that we’re welcoming today Dr. Ezra Cohen, Chief Medical Officer at Tempus to offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the company is transforming healthcare through cutting-edge AI. With its recent successful IPO, Tempus has firmly established...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com This week we welcome the innovative minds behind PredixBio, a new and groundbreaking company at the forefront of spatial biology. CEO Dusty Majumdar and co-founder Chakra Chennubhotla join us to discuss their mission to revolutionize cancer therapeutics through spatially intelligent biology. Founded in 2018 and suppor...

This year in a series co-produced with GenomeWeb we had an exclusive look into Illumina’s work in genomic AI with Kyle Farh, the VP and Distinguished Scientist leading the Illumina Artificial Intelligence Lab. "We lack a way of training genomic AI as readily as you would for natural language processing,” says Farh. "There are vast amounts of data, but there are no labels, no supervision. One of th...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com In this episode of Mendelspod, Theral sits down with Dr. Mohamad Takwa, co-founder and CEO of Epigenica, a Swedish startup revolutionizing epigenetic research. Epigenica is positioning itself at the forefront of this new and rapidly growing field with a mission to empower researchers through large-scale epigenetic pro...

Coming from the field of digital pathology, Joachim Schmid has a unique perspective on the evolution of multi-omics.  Schmid was recently appointed as Vice President of Multiomics Data Solutions at Illumina. In this episode, Theral dives into the burgeoning field of multi-omics—integrating data from various omic layers such as genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics—and the massive data challeng...

Dr. Mark Lewis is a well known GI oncologist at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gifted with a passionate communication style, he has over 93,000 Twitter followers. Next month, he will live-tweet his upcoming colonoscopy.   In this episode, Dr. Lewis joins Theral in our ongoing series on minimal residual disease (MRD) testing, a revolutionary blood test that is helping detect residual...

When Bill Clinton announced the sequencing of the human genome in 2000, the New York Times ran the following headline on the front page: "Genetic Code of Human Life is Cracked By Scientists.”We’re still living up to that headline. Ed Abrahams has led the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) for twenty years. Before his retirement in December, we asked him to join us to reflect on his tenure and t...

In this episode, Theral delves into the groundbreaking role of microRNA as a cancer biomarker with Tim Williams, professor of clinical pathology at the University of Cambridge Veterinary School, and Paola Ulivi, a leading researcher at the Instituto Romagnolo Per Lo Studio Dei Tumori Dino Amadori (IRST) in Italy. MicroRNA, which recently garnered its discoverers a Nobel Prize, has emerged as a pow...

Jacob Rubens is having quite a career.  Studying at  MIT in the Synthetic Biology Center with Professor Tim Lu, he invented gene circuits that allow engineered cells to do novel analog, digital, and hybrid computations, enabling the emerging field of “intelligent” cell therapies. In 2017, he was honored in Forbes 30 under 30 and, in 2021, in Business Insider’s list of 12 young serial entrepreneurs...

Human genomics is complex. With new, scalable tools, we are unraveling that complexity. For example, we don’t just each have one genome; we have trillions, as each cell has a unique genome. Analyzing biology at the single-cell level continues to be one of the major frontiers in research. To learn how Single Cell Discoveries (SCD), a contract research organization in Utrecht, the Netherlands, has s...

Vik Bajaj is bullish on genomics in the age of artificial intelligence. A pioneering figure in biotech—co-founder of Verily and Grail—Bajaj now leads Xaira Therapeutics, where he's exploring how AI can revolutionize drug development. In today’s episode, he joins Theral to break down how the intersection of AI and genomics is unlocking new possibilities in drug development, with the potential to ac...

Singular Genomics launched its fast and flexible mid-throughput sequencing platform, the G4, in the heady days of the pandemic when we saw a renaissance in new technologies and companies. At AGBT earlier this year, the company unveiled its latest offering in development, the G4X Spatial Sequencer, an upgrade to the G4 that unlocks the system to perform high-throughput in situ multiomics.  The plat...

Ellen Matloff is back on the show today to discuss the changing landscape of genetic testing and counseling in 2024. She is the founder and CEO of MyGeneCounsil and a strong advocate for the critical role of genetic counselors in healthcare. She also writes a regular column for Forbes magazine. In 2024, we’ve seen a dramatic transformation of the genetic testing landscape, with big labs buying the...

Depending on your age, DNA sequencing is experiencing a second or third renaissance. New sequencing tools continue to make genomics one of the fastest-growing industries of all time. All this scaling can create a bottleneck in sample prep. Volta Labs, a company founded out of the MIT Media Lab by Udayan Umapathi, has just commercialized a new instrument for sample prep called Callisto. The instrum...

Genetic studies of human populations have become a major tool for drug development. In the last few years, these studies have moved toward comprehensive proteomics profiling as well. In late 2023,  a paper was published in Nature  by the Pharma Proteomics Project, which characterized the plasma proteomic profiles of 54,219 UK Biobank participants. This was a precompetitive biopharmaceutical consor...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com A new blood collection device offered by startup company Tasso is a blood lancet that collects whole liquid blood samples. Its ease of use for at-home collection could dramatically improve patient testing compliance and impact the scale of clinical trials. Ben Casavant is the co-founder and CEO of Tasso. He joins us t...