BioPOD

Welcome to a new BioPOD series: Scotland's Biotech Stories. In this installment, BioPodder Liz Gaberdiel interviews Dr. Marcus Wilson on Cryogenic electron microscopy ( CryoEM), a  technique that has undergone some serious upgrades since its initial development in the 1960s. Introduction by Neelakshi Varma & Editing by Sam Haynes Media by Hanna Peach and Chris Donohoe 

Dear listeners, Welcome back to another episode of BioPod ! Today we walk you through to potential of cyanobacteria: turning tasty sunlight into a high-product value delight! Apple Chew interviews Anton Puzorjov   from The McCormick Lab at The University of Edinburgh on his project supported by ScotBio Art by Christian Donohoe , Editing by Apple, Media by  Hanna Peach

In the fourth and final installment of BioPOD's #Vaccine15 miniseries, we have Liz Gaberdiel interviewing Professor Neil Babbott on how vaccines can block viral transmission. Edited by Ruby White , Media by Hanna Peach . 

Ever wondered how vaccines are made in smaller batch scales, then upscaled to a world market? Hint: it's not the same as cooking a larger lasagne when family comes to visit. Tune into our third installment of #Vaccine15 to learn about the large scale production of vaccines. In this episode, BioPodder Liz Gaberdiel interviews Dr Prerna Vohra . Editing by Hanna Peach . Enjoy, and #GetVaccinated...

In this episode of our four-part vaccine 15-minute miniseries, biopodder Chris Donohoe   interviews Dr. Thomas Williams on how to track and tackle the different COVID variants. edited by Apple Chew (Yen Peng) media and art by Hanna Peach

Our #Vaccine15 four-part 15-minute miniseries begins today! This week is all about how COVID vaccines were developed and designed with @CTaitBurkard from @EdinburghUni @roslininstitute Interviewer and Art @donohoho Editing by @_applechew Media and Art @hanna_peach_  

In this episode, we talk about the Darwin Tree of Life: Sequencing the Biome of the Great Britain with Professor Mark Blaxter & Dr Alex Twyford The Darwin Tree of Life project aims to sequence the genomes of all 70,000 species of eukaryotic organisms in Britain and Ireland. It is a collaboration between biodiversity, genomics and analysis partners that hopes to transform the way we do biology,...

This episode is about the use of synthetic organisms to produce pharmaceuticals and other high-value products.   Preceding the development of synthetic drugs in the 18th and 19th centuries, medicine relied on the use of products found in nature. It is not surprising even nowadays that a lot of drug discovery undertaken by the pharmaceutical industry incorporates compounds found in nature. Biotechn...

The parasite Trypanosoma brucei is transmitted via tsetse flies. It causes a disease known as trypanosomiasis or sleeping sickness in humans, but in cows, it's known as nagana or animal African trypanosomiasis. In this episode, Joan Cortada García interviews Maria Contreras-Garcia from The Roslin Institute on her work to validate and characterize the use of a small RNA as a diagnostic test fo...

How can we produce useful materials from Bacteria? Today we have PhD Student Jack Suitor to tell us how we can modify bacteria against their own nature to act as mini-factories to convert guaiacol, a paper industry byproduct, to adipic acid, a key component of Nylon production that is otherwise produced from oil! Our CODA is a special dive into microbiology with our resident microbiologist Hanna P...

Join us for this interesting installment of BioPod featuring Associate Professor Kyle Dexter, interviewed by Hazel Huang . from the department of Geosciences here at the University of Edinburgh. The episode is about monitoring the carbon dynamics of the dry tropics and climate change.  A lot of people know about vegetation, biodiversity, and the abundance of wet tropics such as the Amazonian Rainf...

Three PhD students, a genomic epidemiologist studying Ebola virus, a molecular epidemiologist  studying Polio virus, and an infectious disease modeller studying anti-microbial resistance dynamics between humans and livestock. So, what do these three researchers have in common, you might wonder? Well, they all lent their expertise to study the COVID-19 pandemic.  In this episode, we will be learnin...

A special 1-hour feature episode with two inspiring and highly successful academics from the University of Edinburgh: Prof Lynne J. Regan, the Head of the Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology.  Lynne is also the Chair in Interdisciplinary Science at the Center for Synthetic & Systems Biology and Prof Meriem el Karoui the Director of SynthSys, and Systems Biology Ch...

Ep 7: Crops , Robots and Rolling Pins featuring PhD student  @TaraCanelaWight interviewed by @donohoho has dropped! Happy weekend curious beings!  Stay tuned until the end to hear our resident microbiologist Hanna Peach 's story of the rich history of whisky in Scotland + zero waste uses for whisky waste: MiAlgae, Celtic Renewables.

Have you ever wondered what a fulfilling scientific life is like? A life full of dreams, failures, success, fame? Professor Jean Beggs has retired from the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology after a long career. She is a trailblazer, who became an independent researcher, PI and was awarded professorship. In this episode, she talks about her successful career in science, alongside important issues su...

Episode 5: Dr Alex Makarov In this episode, Chris sits down with Dr Alex Makarov who recently completed a PhD in Eric Schirmer's lab in the Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh.  His research focused on Lamin A proteins, an important structural protein which gives cells their flexibility and shape.  Dr Makarov recently published his novel work on the alternative met...

Have you ever wondered how plant scientists discover new species in a genus? In this interview, we sit down with Dr Mark Hughes, a begonia researcher from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, who tells us some fantastic stories about wild begonia. Mark is a plant biologist, focusing on the taxonomy and biogeography of the mega-diverse flowering-plant genus Begonia. He has traveled across Southeast...

Completing his PhD in geomicrobiology at the UK centre for astrobiology, Dr Samuels investigated the extreme conditions that microbes can live in such as shale cliffs and acid mine draining sites. Now a post-doctoral research associate at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology Dr Samuels researches the adaptation of Southern Ocean plankton to ocean warming. Our very own Verity Hill interviews Dr To...

BioPOD is back with an episode on Smartphone Biosensors and the importance of Synthetic Biology in today's global landscape.  This episode focuses on a fluorescent bacterial biosensor that quantifies levels of toxic arsenic in the environment and  connects to a smartphone. Stay tuned for this episode where we interview Dr Baojun Wang and Dr Xinyi Wan from the Synthetic Biological Engineering...

Chickens that are genetically modified to produce human proteins in their eggs can offer a cost-effective method of producing certain types of drugs, research suggests. Researchers say the findings provide sound evidence for using chickens as a cheap method of producing high quality drugs for use in research studies and, potentially one day, in patients.