Mendelspod Podcast

Cathy Smith counts herself among the Gleevec Generation after the landmark targeted cancer therapy. She’s an optimist who believes in the possibilities of precision medicine. “We are outsmarting cancer,” she says. Cathy is an Assistant Professor of Hematology/Oncology at UCSF where she is also an MD treating patients. Her area of expertise is in acute myeloid leukemia or AML. She joins us today to...

As another summer winds down, another flu season approaches. Yuuuk. When will we be able to stop living in fear of that crowded plane flight in winter months or waking up congested and wondering . . . dreading, “am I coming down with a cold?” Yes, we get that annual flu vaccine shot, but each year we still get the bug. Until now, a real universal flu vaccine has eluded drug makers, and having the...

Synthetic biology is experiencing a second renaissance and the place to be this October 1-3 is at the SynBioBeta conference in San Francisco. For those of you who are going, today’s show is your preview. For those of you who need a nudge, just listen to what conference founder, John Cumbers, has conjured up in this biggest and most diverse lineup yet. This is a public episode. If you'd like to dis...

Some Americans still resist genetic testing for fear they will be discriminated against by insurance companies. Why? in 2008, Congress passed GINA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, to protect us from insurance companies choosing to include us or not for policies based on the genes we came with. Then in 2010, Congress passed the ACA, or Affordable Care Act, and with it protection agai...

It’s the kind of plot that makes great science. There are genes that have been hiding in plain sight, undetected until now. They’ve gone unseen, that is, by short read sequencing. Today’s guest and his colleagues call them “camouflage genes,” and a couple in particular may play functional roles in Alzheimer’s disease. Mark Ebbert is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic where h...

We’ve interviewed several CEOs over the years since the Theranos fiasco who avoided any mention of the blighted company whenever the comparison came up. But today’s guest, Murielle Thinard McLane, the CEO of Ontera, jumped at the chance before Theral could get to it. "Some people might say, well that's the Theranos model. They (Theranos) didn't get it wrong. The demand for a fast, comprehensive po...

If you’re not on the long read sequencing train, you’re not landing in the world of genomics. A new paper out begins, "Structural variants contribute greater diversity at the nucleotide level between two human genomes than another form of genetic variation.” 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/subs...

The great promise of liquid biopsy technology is in early cancer detection. That is, it's the great future promise. Right? This past month at the annual cancer conference, ASCO, we heard about one such flagship company announcing just which technology they were going to use to do it--DNA methylation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bo...

Nathan and Laura join Theral for our final review show before the summer break. Have you already headed out on vacation? Take us along and stay current with the top stories in genomics. This month it's gene patents (yes, Congress is really reviving that debate), another gene therapy with another astronomical price tag, and remembering Dr. Henry Lynch of Lynch Syndrome fame. This is a public episod...

Those of us watching every shift in the level of adoption of genomic medicine have our eyes closely glued to Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania. Adam Buchanan is the Co-Director of Geisinger’s MyCode Genomic Screening and Counseling program, and today we talk to him about the rationale of making genomic screening part of routine medical care. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss...

Our two reigning champions are back for a month packed with news. It’s Nathan Pearson of Root and Laura Hercher of Sarah Laurence College and Host of The Beagle Has Landed Podcast daring to go where no genomics commentators have gone before. 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

Storylines repeat in genome science every decade or so. The human genome is complete. No. Now it's complete. Or, in the 90's, it was first announced that the first chromosome was sequenced. We have the same story for you today--breaking news from a paper that has not even been published yet: the first “complete” assembly of a human chromosome, end to end, telomere to telomere. So what’s going on?...

"DTC is now too big of an arena to put everything in the same bucket.” This was a line from Laura Hercher, one of our monthly commentators a couple shows back. The statement made its way around Twitter, so we thought we’d have Laura back to the program and ask her to come up with some more buckets. It turns out it’s not that easy.  Direct-to-consumer genetic testing is a dynamic and complex space...

Today we're joined by Matt Plavan, President of Arcadia Specialty Genomics. The last time we talked with someone from Arcadia Bioscience, a biotech company working on plant genomics in Davis, California, they were confronting GMO regulatory hurdles. Which was a pity. They had created these great new strains of rice and soybeans, among other crops, that were being held from market due to regulation...

April was a tough month for some genomics companies. The FBI raided the offices of uBiome and two other pioneers in the field failed. Are there broader implications? Nathan and Laura have returned to first give us some facts and then to throw their hats in the ring. Lots happened this month in the world of DNA. Tune in and catch it all. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with...

Two years ago Veritas Genetics began offering whole genome sequencing for a thousand dollars. It was a significant milestone—and still is!—not only for what it means about the company providing the genomes but also what it means about the demand for such a product. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.c...

There are drug trial failures. And there are drug trial failures. The recent move by drug giant Biogen to halt their Alzheimer’s drug has not only been a setback for the company—their stock fell precipitously on the news—it’s also been a major setback for the whole research community focused on this disease. The Biogen trial was one of the last of the major drug companies with high hopes for a sig...

You order a $99 home DNA test for some holiday pleasure. It’s a bit of fun. Right? Until it turns your life upside down. Which is when you contact a professional. 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

From recovering DNA on hundred year old envelopes to bringing it to life from 28,000 year old wooly mammoth samples, it's our genomics version of March Madness. Join Theral, Nathan and Laura for another monthly look back over the headlines. 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

The history of biomedicine goes something like this: A new tool is invented. 2. New tool is used in research labs to generate new data and new hypotheses. There is new science. 3. New tool is used in clinical setting to confirm this new science with real patients. 4. Then new tool is adopted into clinical use. All the buzz these days, single cell DNA analysis instruments have just made it into ste...

"That’s fake news!” We hear it all the time. And often it is said about scientific facts, for example, recent studies or evidence of global warming. Or the safeness of vaccines. But has the problem with “fake news” been that much of an issue in the life science industry? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendel...

Our two favorite commentators are back for our February 2019 month-in-review show, and to give our own twist to Valentine's Day celebrations we take on the topic of family surprises due to DNA testing. This is a phenomenon taking the world by storm in 2019. The Boston Globe had a great headline this past week, "First came the home DNA kits. Now come the support groups." This is a public episode. I...

In 2016, after President Obama announced the Cancer Moonshot in the State of the Union, a very outspoken physician researcher from the Mayo Clinic penned an open letter to Vice President Biden criticizing the project and proposing the money be better spent other ways. It included these lines: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus epis...

Talk to anyone who’s been around diagnostics or blood sampling for long, and they’ll tell you that nanotechnology is nothing new. Today’s guest, Brett Goldsmith, the Chief Technology Officer at Cardea, says he was involved in the nano revolution that was and then wasn’t 20 years ago. (The older veterans among us might date it back even further, to forty years ago.) So what are Brett and Cardea buz...

Nathan and Laura are back for the first time this year for a wild trip past cloned CRISPRd monkeys and the first gene drive in mammals. (Just that?) But first we have to deal with our hangover from the end of last year. We talk DTC and end with a discussion of the ancient DNA controversy. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes...