Mendelspod Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Chapters: 0:00 World’s longest oligo 8:45 Why is it difficult to synthesize long DNA? 12:00 Proprietary TdT conjugate 16:00 A billion-dollar market 24:20 The computation model and its challenges 28:35 More customers using generative AI Mendelspod is now reader supported. Please consider upgrading to a paid subscriptio...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Chapters:0:00 Novel Cas enzymes help overcome CRISPR challenges11:37 New pipeline of therapies will go after novel targets14:52 How does the new platform open up possibilities for new diagnostics?21:05 What risks do you think about?26:47 What are the company’s two-year goals?31:07 On the possibilitiesCRISPR technology...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com 0:00 Latest paper on multi-omics microsampling6:30 Is it useful?  Two scenarios13:00 How might entrepreneurs bring this to healthcare?18:15 How do you convince physicians?25:48 Are you a reductionist?31:00 Impact of generative AI38:15 Thoughts on the renaissance in proteomics We open our 13th season here at Mendelspod...

Ten years ago this week, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that genes could not be patented. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Today we feature Quantum-SI, one of the new wave of proteomics tools companies.  The company was founded by serial life science entrepreneur, Jonathan Rothberg, originally as a long read sequencing company.    Though the company pivoted to proteomics, they kept the sequencing part. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...

SynBioBeta is the largest gathering of the synthetic biology community worldwide.  It’s taking place May 23-25 in Oakland, California.  John Cumbers is the founder and CEO of the conference, and he joins us to talk about trends in the space and preview this year’s confab. First, we discuss the impact Washington D.C. is having on the field.  What doe’s Biden’s love for bio mean for synbio? This is...

It’s a thrilling time to be in proteomics.  Today we discuss a recent paper in PLOS One demonstrating how new technology has revealed a novel biomarker for non-small cell lung cancer previously undetected by other methods.  The paper could be a model for new proteomics research going forward.  Our guests are Margaret Donovan, Product Marketing Manager, and Asim Siddiqui, Senior VP of Research, bot...

Philosophers talk about various kinds of knowledge.  There is knowing that something is.  We learn that the sun is 90 million miles from the Earth.  There is also knowing how to do something.  This includes skills we learn like riding a bike or cooking spaghetti.  Knowing how is different from knowing that. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acces...

Long DNA has arrived.   Elegen, a new company based in San Carlos, California,  is out this year offering just long DNA.  According to their founder and CEO, Matt Hill and today's guest, the company’s product is twenty times more accurate than anything else presently available. What does this mean for the world of biology and the world in general that we're seeing the emergence of a new subindustr...

"We’re not a sequencing company," says Molly He, CEO and co-founder of Element Biosciences in our first interview with the leader of the hot new sequencing company which seemed to come out of nowhere this past year. “We’re a biology company.” Not a sequencing company? Element has just taken the lead in the race toward cheap clinical genomes, and their CEO is putting that news aside in today’s inte...

Biology is complex, and the life science tool kit continues to expand to meet the challenge of that complexity taking us into the world of multi omics and beyond. Today we talk about 3D genomics and what this additional three-dimensional structural information is telling not just researchers, but clinicians, particularly in oncology. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with oth...

Today we talk with Simon Fredriksson, CEO and co-founder of Pixelgen Technologies, a company just out of stealth offering spatial technology that maps cellular surface proteins at the single cell level. Called molecular pixelation, the breakthrough technology is designed to first target immune cells. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

Editor's Note: Theral's mic malfunctioned in this interview. Fortunately the not as good backup mic did work and John has a good mic.  Our apologies. John Greally joins us today. He is the founding Director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Center for Epigenomics. He’s a pediatrician and a clinical geneticist with appointments in both at Einstein. This is a public episode. If you'd like...

Last month the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) took a quite remarkable step, putting out a formal statement of apology for its past history of involvement with eugenics. Some say it’s long overdue while some of us didn’t know about this history. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscri...

23andMe occupies its own place in the world of genomics. Known for its vision to democratize human genomic information, the company has always gone big and bold, and sometimes controversial. Today we don’t hear much controversy—is that because their approach has won out? In any case, they have certainly achieved a scale that surpasses any other genetic testing company. This is a public episode. If...

Remember all those firsts for synthetic biology that we heard about coming from Craig Venter’s company, Synthetic Genomics in San Diego? The first genome of a whole organism transplanted. First genome synthesized. First synthetic life created. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Oncology has emerged as the most successful disease area for precision medicine. Last year, as the genetic testing industry went through a royal shake-up brought on mostly by external market forces, it's been no surprise that precision oncology has been touted as a core strength. As the industry now works "to be more lean and profitable"--new language one hears these days, cancer testing will be a...

To begin the year, we head across the pond for an outlook on the thriving community of synthetic biology in the United Kingdom. Paul Freemont was a co-author of the UK's synthetic biology roadmap and co-directs SynbiCITE, the national center for the commercialization of synthetic biology. A few years ago the government put an initial investment of $300 million pounds into the field, and "everythin...

Our goal with today’s show was twofold: bring you a practical holiday gift idea and to take you into the world of a synthetic biology entrepreneur. Our guest: Zack Abbott, CEO of ZBiotics. Zack is a scientist turned businessman who is on a mission to change the conversation around GMOs. His first product is a genetically engineered probiotic that alleviates the morning-after hangover by breaking d...

When excitement around early cancer detection first surfaced, we heard about the “pan-cancer” test that would look for any and all cancers, and early. Now that we’re some years into it, the approach is turning out to be more of a narrow one. Which cancer will we likely see targeted first with an FDA cleared test? Colorectal, according to today’s guest. This is a public episode. If you'd like to di...

Winter is here.  In America, we're just back from the Thanksgiving holiday when many of us travel and get together.  And so far there is no great COVID surge this year.  Or is there? Today's guest says there likely is, and we don't know it because of the most significant shift in our pandemic response: at-home testing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers...

Today spatial biology company, Vizgen, makes their debut on on the program. When Vizgen CEO Terry Lo was first involved in developing what we now call spatial biology at Perkin Elmer, he admits that he never thought it would have a genomics side to it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

It’s the age of multi omics. Or multi comics, if you don't catch spell check. A few weeks ago at the annual meeting of the American Society for Human Genetics, we were pleased to find not only genomics companies but some proteomics outfits finding a home. As we chatted with one of these, Olink Proteomics, we were blown away to hear that they were announcing the publication of 1,000 scientific pape...

Have you ever heard of proximity ligation? We knew of it in research form back in the day, but not that it had been commercialized until this summer. It’s not every day we come across a powerful new genomics tool on this program. Which begs the question, where have Ivan Liachko and his company, Phase Genomics, been hiding? The company received a grant this summer from the Bill Gates Foundation as...

Last week, during the first International Conference on Newborn Sequencing, a landmark study to sequence the genomes of 100,000 newborns was announced. Called the GUARDIAN study, the project is the brainchild of Wendy Chung, Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University. The study will take place in New York State and is somewhat similar to an ongoing project in the U.K. being done by Genomics En...