Mendelspod Podcast

It seems to be human nature to value and pay up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a little white pill that we can drop on the floor--and granted, can do wonders for us, but we want to pay nothing or very little to be told what is wrong with us so that we might know which little white pill to use in the first place. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscriber...

It’s a question we’ve asked on the program before. Are we over relying on the genomics route getting us to biomedical research paradise? Should we be putting more eggs in other baskets? After combing through lots of clinical trials data, Tony Letai of Dana Farber and the Broad, found that a majority of cancer patients have not benefited from precision medicine. On today’s show he says we need to r...

She’s a force of nature, and she’s back on Mendelspod. A decade ago, Carolyn Compton was hired by the NCI to solve a problem that has plagued the world of not just cancer research, but all of biomedical research. To this day, there are no standards in place for the acquisition, collection, storage, and delivery of human biological samples used for research. The leader of the NIH has acknowledged t...

Nathan Pearson and Laura Hercher are back for a look over a busy month of headlines. May took us into the era of the free genome as Geisinger planted the genomic medicine flag on an even higher peak. And did you know California was keeping a genetic database for every baby born? Meh. . . says Laura. Every state does it. Old news. And mosaicism is old scientific news, says Nathan, but he likes the...

If you’ve been in the field of genetic testing then you know about the Greenwood Genetic Center. With an address on Mendel Circle in Greenwood, South Carolina, this non profit diagnostic testing laboratory has basically written the book on diagnosing and understanding genetic disorders. Chances are, too, that you know the director of their cytogenetics lab and our guest today, Alka Chaubey. Her hu...

You know him, but do you know what he does for a day job? Over the past two years, Nathan Pearson has dazzled us with his broad knowledge of the genomics space on our regular monthly reviews. Today we’re talking to Nathan about his new company that he soft launched last December, Root Deep Insight, a venture into what he calls “direct-to-lay folk genetics.” This is a public episode. If you'd like...

"In a world turned upside down, this is an area where I don’t think he’s had much effect. I don’t think he knows how to spell “DNA.”" So begins Hank Greely in today’s interview on genetic testing in the age of Trump. Hank is a Professor of Law and, by courtesy, Professor of Genetics at Stanford. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus e...

A few years ago they were the new kid on the block, and now they are a leader of mainstream genetic testing. Last year their revenue and profit were significantly up. And yet in today’s interview, CEO Sean George does not sound like someone sitting back on his laurels. In fact, he says his business model has got to change. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscrib...

After decades on the loose, it’s cool the cops finally caught him. But is it cool how they caught him? Nathan Pearson and Laura Hercher are back for April’s headlines. AACR had some more good news about Keytruda, and we take a look at the cancer prediction space. DNA Day, the first cannabis based therapy to be recommended for FDA approval, the Zuckerberg hearing—there’s lots in here today. This is...

Sequencing goes to the world of infectious disease. 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

We can all recognize that PacBio has laid down the railroad tracks in the frontier of long read sequencing. What many are asking is just how close on their caboose is Oxford Nanopore? And just what exactly will be the differences between the two technologies? Chia-Lin Wei is the Director of Genome Technologies at the Jackson Laboratories. When we called her up for today’s interview to talk about h...

Hanlee Ji is the Senior Associate Director of the Stanford Genome Technology Center as well as an oncologist at Stanford. He’s also a clinical geneticist. In other words, he doesn’t need to take off his glasses and spin around in a phone booth to be able to do about everything. “I was in fellowship for a long time,” he says in todays interview. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss th...

23andMe steals the headlines yet again. “If somebody is worried about breast cancer susceptibility in their family, they should certainly not be using this test.” That’s our monthly commentator and genetic counselor, Laura Hercher, talking about BRCA going DTC. But wait a minute. Then she says the test could be good in some instances. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with ot...

“I think the field has just really come to life over the last five or seven years. We’ve got all this sequence data. We’ve got the population data. We’ve got gene editing. I’ve been at this thirty plus years, and we haven’t had a culmination of technology and data like this before. I think everyone has to be excited in some way or other.” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this wit...

The Personalized Medicine Coalition advocates for a wide group of constituents, including scientists, health care providers, entrepreneurs, payers, and patients. Which is why we’ve often wondered how the organization can be absolutely clear in their priorities. Today, PMC President Edward Abrahams joins us to answer that question. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other...

"We like to refer to it as consumer initiated, but physician supervised,” says Eric Schadt today when asked if his new test is direct-to-consumer. Eric is the Dean for Precision Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and since 2016 has served as CEO of Sema4, a spinoff that he founded out of the Mount Sinai Health System. Sema4 launched a newborn screening panel, Sema4...

Booking 26 million viewers, the voice of Warren buffet, the endorsements of Olympians Joey Cheek and Tara Lipinski—this company was going for the gold with their ads during the Olympics this year. Of course, we’re talking of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing company, 23andMe. What was the take of our monthly commentators, Nathan Pearson of Root and Laura Hercher of Sarah Lawrence College? Als...

Sequencing geeks are fresh off the trail from AGBT, and it’s time for our annual look at the sequencing tools space. This year we sit down with the longtime Omics! Omics! blogger, Keith Robison, who not only can answer all your questions about the topic, he even knows which sequencer you’re using right now, and in which department. Keith jauntily runs through the Big 3--Illumina, Pac-Bio, and Oxfo...

Nanopore sequencing has arrived. Passing test after test this past year--including one we discuss today--this technology which was being hyped decades ago is delivering on its promise. Winston Timp joins us today. He's an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins and one of the leaders on a recent large scale project to directly sequence RNA on an array of nanopores. Winston's is the first in a series...

Some stocks are up on news of big biotech mergers, but others are down on hearing of the latest difficulties of gene therapy. One thing’s for sure—blood diseases are where it’s at. Speaking of the latest difficulties, we start our January review by going back to that paper out of Stanford about a new obstacle to using CRISPR as a new drug platform. It’s called the human immune system. Major roadbl...

Fifteen years ago, folks in the industry were buzzing about RNAi the way they talk about CRISPR today. Then things went quiet for the technology, at least in the news. Until last year. In September of 2017, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, the leader in the RNAi space, announced such positive phase III study results that most experts in the business expect an FDA approval soon. It will be the first for an...

A major chapter in the history of medicine has been written by UC San Francisco. They are writing the next for precision medicine. 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

Reproductive testing is one of the hottest fields in which genetics is going mainstream, a field hurdling us rapidly into the future. It’s an area we’ll be following closely in 2018. Gary Harton serves as the Chief Operating Officer in the US for Igenomix, a company in the reproductive testing space with a vast global presence. The company has labs in the US, Japan, India, Turkey, Rome, Brazil, Me...

Our first show of the year is an outlook on genomics for 2018. To do this we’re joined by our regular commentators, Nathan Pearson and Laura Hercher, and also by a special guest to mix things up a bit, Misha Angrist, Associate Professor at Duke University and Editor in Chief of Genome Magazine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus ep...

Sharon Begley joins us for our last show of the year to look back over some of the year’s top stories. She’s the senior science writer at STAT News where she covers genetics, cancer, neuroscience and other fields of biomedical research. Prior to joining STAT, Sharon was the senior health and science correspondent at Reuters, the science columnist at the Wall Street Journal, and the science editor...