Discovery Matters

While it may not be here tomorrow, scientists around the world are racing to develop viable COVID-19 vaccine candidates. In this episode, Dodi and Conor share the perspectives of two researchers on the vaccine development team for the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology - Professors Trent Munro and Keith Chappell. Learn how Trent and Keith's team identified their lead vaccin...

Dodi and Conor welcome colleague Kaycee Palumbo for the Discovery Matters special of "Did you know?" Sources:  Drugged-out hallucinating zombie cicadas   Zombie ants 30 000-year-old fruit in Siberian permafrost 50 interesting facts about Biotechnology The human genome - about 99.9% of human DNA is the same. It is the other 0.1% that codes for all of the differences that make each person unique. Th...

Without baking and brewing, there'd be no biotech.  Join Dodi and Conor through the discovery of fermentation, bags of wheat at the Stockholm Brewing company, and too much pizza dough on Sundays at The Bakery.  Guest on this episode are: Anna Roswall, Head Baker at The Bakery; Michel Ahlin-Wigardt, Head Brewer at The Stockholm Brewery ; Nigel Darby, Senior Advisor at Cytiva and Paul Goodwin, Scien...

Excited about the combination of biology, engineering and computing being the 21st century's big leap forward? Do you see biological computing actually becoming a thing? Join Dodi and Conor to discuss how all the lines are blurring: where there used to be separate industries we can all learn from each other.  Guests on this episode are Prachi Bogetto of Cytiva , and Cristian Norlin from Ericsson. ...

The Scandinavians have done it again.  In this episode Conor and Dodi are (not really) surprised to find out that, just like chromatography, protein A has also been discovered in the North of Europe.  What makes protein A special, though? What about protein G or protein L? Surely protein A is not the most popular because of alphabetical order? This episode's hosts are joined by Josefin Bolik, prot...

How do birds know where to go in the winter? And why are plants so efficient at making food? Conor and Dodi chat with researchers studying whether quantum biology might offer answers. Transcript Keywords: quantum mechanics, quantum biology, photosynthesis, magnetoreception.

In this episode, Dodi and Conor take 2 minutes to celebrate the birth of Cytiva, company formerly part of GE Healthcare Life Sciences. Yes, only 2 minutes because they're immediately more interested in the science behind choices our brains make. They are joined by Uma Karmarkar, Assistant Professor in Marketing at UCSD focusing on Decision Neuroscience, and Tim Arthur, currently a radio presenter...

"Vaccines are a way to educate our immune system to recognize foreign and dangerous stuff," says Daria Donati, Director of Business Development and Innovation at Cytiva. Dodi and Conor embark on a journey in this episode of Discovery Matters: the journey of a vaccine. They are joined by Adrian Hill, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford and Consultant Physician, and Rebecca Chand...

How do big companies stay at the forefront of the industry? How do small companies "make it big"? In this episode of Discovery Matters, Conor and Dodi chat with 3 guests to find some answers. Please welcome Kath Mackay, managing director at Alderley Park, Steve Bates, CEO of the BioIndustry Asociation (BIA) and Oliver Hardick, board member of the BIA and business leader at Cytiva.  Transcript Keyw...

In this episode, Conor tells Dodi the story of Roy Muhrbeck. It all started 4 years ago when new parents, Hugo Muhrbeck and Maja Ödmann brought home their first child. They were excited and nervous as so many first time parents are. But after a short while, they started to think that maybe everything wasn’t exactly how it should be. Soon after, their son Roy was diagnosed with spinal muscular atro...

So, what does yogurt have to do with wound healing? In this episode, Evelina Vågesjö from Ilya Pharma helps Conor and Dodi see the connection. It’s all about getting help from our small bacterial friends, lactic acid, and chemokines. Tune in to learn how it all connects. Transcript Keywords: wound healing, how to heal wounds faster, heal wounds fast, Ilya pharma, yoghurt.

Education matters for sure. But what is special about biopharmaceutical education? And what does the future hold? Dodi and Conor are about to find out. Their guides in this episode are Killian O’Driscoll at NIBRT , Ireland, and Ron Kander at Thomas Jefferson University, US. Transcript Keywords: education, Thomas Jefferson University, NIBRT, biopharmaceutical education.

Can you trust the scientific claims on products you buy?  Conor's curiosity led him down a three-pronged investigation about what you can and should believe, when it comes to statistics and statements about science.  Transcript Keywords: sense about science ask for evidence, sense about science.

Blockchain is everywhere. Is it the technology we've all been waiting for? Sometimes, and sometimes not. Dodi and Conor talk with Dr. Catherine Mulligan about what blockchain is, and how it's most useful for us. Transcript Keywords: blockchain in healthcare, blockchain, blockchain technology, Imperial College London, Dr Cathy Mulligan.

Follow Dodi as she dives into the world of innovation. More specifically, the difference between talking innovation and being innovative. Meet Tobias the cyborg that likes thinking inside the box and learn what Gaud has to say about the concept of jugaad in India. Transcript Keywords: innovation, cyborg, jugaad, jugaad innovation.

Conor has, what he calls "microbiomania". Whatever the topic, he is able to bring it back to microbiomes in about 3 sentences. So imagine how excited he was to interview Colleen Cutcliffe , CEO of Pendulum whose mission is to make millions healthier through microbiome-targeted medical solutions. Another guest on this episode is Jacques Ravel , professor extraordinaire of The Human Microbiome and W...

During a lively lunch chat about the popularity of wearable fitness trackers, the curious question came up: with all this data we are generating, what if we were able to do it 50-70 years ago - where would medicine and healthcare be now? Hearing the question Dodi immediately remembered The Framingham Heart Study. Its objective was to identify the common factors or characteristics that contribute t...

This episode is a more immediately serious story than previous topics we've covered.  This story is about a discovery where a number of people had to go through unimaginable pain so that it can become useful for others.  This is the story of Emily Whitehead, the first pediatric patient enrolled in a clinical trial investigating CAR T-cell therapy CTL019, now known as tisagenlecleucel, at Children’...

We humans have been mapping things since the beginning of time. In our endless quest to figure ourselves and our world out, there are projects galore. Does the 150-year-old periodic table ring any bells?  In this episode, Dodi takes Conor on an explorer’s journey, destination: Human Protein Atlas project.  Strap on your seatbelt, it’s a bumpy ride connecting the dots between explorers, chemists, g...

A pandemic starts with a picnic.  But can pandemics be prevented without cancelling feel-good gatherings? Enter Artificial Intelligence into the world of healthcare and life sciences.  Dodi meets up with an expert panel on the topic and gets examples of the real potential of this very trendy topic. Transcript Keywords: pandemics, ai, data, infectious diseases, healthcare, outbreak, ebola outbreak,...

Dodi and Conor discover how jam played a part in paving the way for biopharmaceutical drugs. 60 years ago, Swedish scientists happened upon a new method of protein separation through chromatography. The very same technique continues to be the foundation for modern biomedical manufacturing. Transcript Keywords: protein separation, chromatography, dextran, jam, protein, gel, Swedish, pectin, affinit...

Little did you know, but a single hamster has been a force of innovation and massive biomedical production. Scientists devote entire careers to so-called CHO cells from this Chinese hamster’s ovary. Dodi and Conor meet a couple of them to figure out why this hamster rules the biopharma world.  Transcript Keywords: cells, protein, hamster, CHO, patient, dna molecules.

The list of people needing kidney transplants is tragically long, and donor lists are desperately short. Conor and Dodi find scientists who are coming up with alternative solutions to this problem. Some enable transplantation of less-than-perfect organs, and others dream of 3D printing important organs. Transcript Keywords: organ, transplant, dialysis, kidney, transplantation, donors, patient, org...