Absolute Gene-ius

Season 2 of  Absolute Gene-ius comes to a close with a look back at the topics and inspiring conversations that have defined the series. From exploring innovative uses of  digital PCR to uncovering its synergy with other molecular tools, this season was packed with insights for scientists at all levels. Dive into the details as co-hosts Jordan Ruggieri and Christina Bouwens revisit memorable episo...

The statistics of  Poisson distributions can seem complex at first but are simpler than you think, which is important to know given their relevance to  digital PCR . In short, they dictate the confidence you can have in the absolute quantification provided by dPCR.  Dr. Dave Bauer, Thermo Fisher Scientific’s very own dPCR Product Applications Specialist and statistics whiz, joins us once again for...

Same may think of the pathologist’s toolbox as only the microscope and their eyes, but in reality  today’s pathologists are using more and more  molecular methods like NGS and PCR in additional to their traditional tools.  Meet Parker Wilson, MD, PhD. Parker is a faculty member  Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on using modern molecular tools to investigate ch...

Modern science, especially in the genetic and molecular biology spaces, generate  vast amounts of data , and require vast amounts of data to be generated for thorough analysis. For example, finding a rare gene mutation such as  BCR-ABL as a biomarker for  chronic myeloid leukemia is like searching for a needle in a haystack. For a situation like this, dPCR is an ideal method, but high-throughput a...

The potential of  mRNA medicines was postulated for years, but it took the COVID pandemic and emergency use authorizations for that potential to be demonstrated. By now, most of us have received at least one  mRNA based vaccine and the  platform has been mostly derisked. However, if you’re not one of the major players in this space, generating high-purity mRNA, let alone a GMP-grade mRNA-based  dr...

Viral vectors are a cornerstone of gene therapy and many employ experts in the viral vector services space to help design and produce their specialty vectors. These service providers are experts at making sure you get the vector you want with a titer and purity you need for your application.  We’re joined in this episode by Dr. Cliff Froelich, Head of Analytical Development for a viral vector serv...

When you have a good thing going you often want it to last forever, but we know that can never happen. Life and the world around us are fluid, dynamic, and we’re always finding the balance of fighting or harnessing entropy and inevitable change. As we encounter unexpected changes, we see them as chances to evaluate the foundations of our podcast's success while finding opportunities to evolve it a...

The fields of  Cell and gene therapy are booming and poised to change the treatment and prevention of disease. These research areas require the transfer of genetic material to cells, and viral vectors are commonly used here. Specifically,  adeno-associated virus (AAV) and lentiviral vectors (LVV) are vectors of choice.  We’re joined for this episode by MinGin Kim and Kimberly Gomez, both scientist...

Organ transplantation is a modern marvel, with more than 157,000 solid organ , and more than 9,000 marrow and blood transplants occurring worldwide in 2022. Organ donor and recipient matching and compatibility screening has progressed significantly in recent decades as molecular methods have progressed rapidly to support this and other fields. Specifically, typing of human leukocyte antigens (HLAs...

Before the 1990s, small bits of RNA were considered junk by most, but the 1993 discovery of microRNA (miRNAs) began to reveal that bits of only 19-24 nucleotides of RNA can have an important gene regulation function in cells. Since their discovery, there has been a flurry of work to catalog known miRNAs and understand their functions, which include being tied to specific disease states such as leu...

Designing a successful PCR assay is all about selecting the right primers to deliver the sensitivity and selectivity for which PCR is known for. But anyone that’s designed an assay themselves will know that doing so successfully is a lot harder it sounds.  We’re joined by two PCR assay design pros for this episode. Kimi Soohoo Ong, and Dr. Rounak Feigelman, both from Thermo Fisher Scientific, shin...

Blood is a symbol of life, which makes sense given that it plays such an important role in so many body functions, including our immune system. Blood makes up approximately 8% of your normal body weight and unfortunately, cancers of the blood, including lymphoma and leukemia , account for ~10% of all diagnosed cancers in the U.S. each year.   CAR-T cell therapy has emerged as a promising method to...

We are all the product of a reproductive process, yet  reproductive biology , or the study of the processes and mechanisms involved in reproduction, is not well understood. Deepening our understanding of reproductive biology is crucial to advancing  assistive reproductive technologies (ART) and advancing our collective comprehension of inheritance and evolution.  Our guests for this episode are a...

Welcome back Gene-iuses!  Jordan and Cassie kick us off with a fun teaser of what’s to come in Season 2 of the Absolute Gene-ius series.    We’ll be featuring another great season of interesting guests, all using dPCR to progress their diverse research applications. This includes conversations about reproductive biology, liquid biopsy and transplantation research, CAR-T research, the role of bioin...

It’s not every day that you discover a new podcast series you like, and it’s not every day that you start hosting a podcast series either!  To bookend this inaugural season of Absolute Gene-ius, Jordan and Cassie interview each other to provide a retrospective look at the season and to learn more about each other and their respective career paths. In their recap of the season, we revisit the diver...

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was discovered in 1983 by Kary Mullis and Michael Smith, who were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. Since then, PCR has been a cornerstone method that has been a pillar of discovery and applied science. The various types of PCR are sometimes confusing, and the relative pros and cons of each method are not always clear, which is why it’s so great...

Bioinformatics is a relatively new field of science that is very interdisciplinary in nature. Its practitioners use a mixture of biology, chemistry, physics, statistics, and computer science to develop methods and software aimed at helping integrate and understand biological and other data.   Our guest for this episode is Nikhil Ram Mohan, Staff Scientist at the Stanford University School of Medic...

There are very few remaining locations on Earth that are untouched by humans, and those that do remain are in very extreme environments that are difficult to access.  However, accessing and studying life in these extreme environments can provide unique insights to the biology of life. Understanding how simple organisms adapt and survive in seemingly unlivable conditions is a unique field of study...

This mid-season message from Cassie includes the announcement of the arrival of Jordan’s first baby, which will mean a short delay in production of the second half of the season.  We will be back soon though with more great conversations with the Gene-iuses using dPCR to progress their science.  In the meantime, we hope you’ll constructive feedback via absolute.geneius@thermofisher.com or in a rev...

Microbial consortia are groups of diverse microorganisms that have the ability to act together in a community. Such consortia are common in nature and are known to play important roles in many ecosystems but are not always well understood. Soil management and nutrient mobilization are one area where complex communities of microbes are known to be important, whether it be a naturally occurring cons...

The use of model organisms in science dates to ancient Greece and represents an important way humans have progressed our collective understanding of biology and disease. We’ve probably all heard of using mice, rats, or even Drosophila melanogaster (i.e., fruit flies) in the lab, but zebrafish have surged in their use as a model organism. Zebrafish are small, more cost effective to maintain, have a...

Parasites may bet a bad rap overall, but they play a vital role in healthy ecosystems. In this episode, we focus on the role parasites play in freshwater ecosystems. Specifically, we’re talking about the role of avian schistosomes, a very interesting parasite that infects waterfowl, but that also uses snails as a host in its larval stage. Larvae also infect humans to cause what’s know as swimmer’s...

Visit the Absolute Gene-ius page to learn more about the guest, the hosts, and the Applied Biosystems QuantStudio Absolute Q Digital PCR System. The details of what make digital PCR (dPCR) different from real-time, or quantitative PCR (qPCR) are relatively simple but not always explained very well. Likewise, it’s not always clear which use cases are a good fit for dPCR, and which others simply don...

Visit the Absolute Gene-ius page to learn more about the guest, the hosts, and the Applied Biosystems QuantStudio Absolute Q Digital PCR System. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been around for a while and has been used to track drugs of abuse, chemical waste, and pathogens alike. It may not be the most glorious of samples to work with, but wastewater has proven to be a valuable way to do c...

This series and season 1 intro is a perfect bite-sized taste of the Absolute Gene-ius podcast series. You get to meet the hosts, Jordan and Cassie, and hear about their backgrounds while sampling their hosting style and sense  of humor. They cover what their goals are for the series and some of the interesting digital PCR topics and applications that will be covered in the inaugural season of this...