Mendelspod Podcast

As we begin the countdown to the new year, we take a look back at 2015 in cancer research, treatment and prevention. Mendelspod is increasingly becoming known for the coverage of genomics and precision medicine, and cancer as a disease area offers a specific window whereby we can look at practical outcomes. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get acces...

At the end of the year our goal is to bring the audience some unusual programming, some new outside perspectives on the topics we cover. As with last year, we talk today with science fiction writer, Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the Mars Trilogy, 2312, and Shaman. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod....

We set up an interview with David Spetzler, the CSO of Caris Life Sciences, to hear about some promising new liquid biopsy tests they are developing. And we do that in today’s show. But first, the interview takes a turn toward the regulation of molecular tests. Spetzler says that Caris is already doing as many quality certifications as possible short of FDA oversight. This is a public episode. If...

Angel Pizarro has watched as genomics and cloud computing have grown up together. Formerly a bioinformatics director at University of Pennsylvania, Angel is now the Technical Business Development Manager at Amazon Web Services. At U Penn, Angel was part of the shift from setting up one’s own facility with expensive computer equipment for handling the rapid growth of omics data to using a third par...

In 2004, California voters approved Prop 71 to fund the field of stem cell research by setting up the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM, with $3 billion. George W. Bush was in the White House at the time, and since 2001, his administration had been limiting research that used embryonic stem cells. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers o...

We toss the term "precision medicine" around with ease today, and yet payers continue to refuse to pay for diagnostic tests. These are tests that might indicate which treatment will work for a specific patient, thereby saving perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars, not to mention protecting the patient from unnecessary harm. These are tests which prevent invasive procedures such as unnecessary b...

Josie Briggs is Director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the NIH. She is also currently serving as interim director of the president’s new Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI). What has happened since the president announced the initiative, what is the proposed timeline going forward, and how much money will there be for the project ongoing? This is a publ...

As the FDA works away on final guidance for regulating LDTs, various professional groups unhappy with the course of the FDA have put together and hurried their own proposals up to Captiol Hill. The Diagnostic Testing Working Group (DTWG) has had their proposal drafted into legislation which has already been revised once in the House Energy and Commerce Committeee, while proposals from the College...

Here on the show, we’ve talked about the lack of reproducibility for much of biological research. We’ve bandied around various percentages--is it 50% or up to 90% that can't be replicated? And we’ve poked around various issues that may be causing such poor science. Nicole Perfito is the manager of the Reproducibility Project: Cancer Biology, an effort between Science Exchange and the Center for Op...

By listening to him, you wouldn’t know that Peter Maag, the CEO of CareDx, was fighting to keep his company from the brink. We booked Peter for the show after news came out that CMS was once again threatening to lower reimbursement rates of established diagnostic tests. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendels...

Today’s story is one of a personal quest, of groundbreaking science, and the creation of a new movement in human genomics. Jim Lupski is a professor at Baylor College of Medicine where he’s on the frontline of incorporating genomic research into everyday clinical practice. The story begins with Jim’s own genome, which is perhaps the most sequenced genome ever. Jim's life as a leading genomic resea...

Cliff Reid, CEO of Complete Genomics, is back on the conference circuit, touting a new product. After years of building his company to do sequencing as a service, Cliff presented data at last week's ASHG meeting on Complete's first sequencer as a product, or what they are calling the Revolocity supersequencer. Cliff was a pioneer in developing the service model, offering only whole human genome se...

Earlier this year, the California Life Sciences Association (CLSA) launched, becoming the first statewide policy and advocacy group for biotech. The new nonprofit, a merger between BayBio and the California Healthcare Institute, is led by CEO Sara Radcliffe, former Executive VP of Health at the international Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington. This is a public episode. If you'...

One of the popular questions on the program this past year is how those doing sequencing decide between the quality of Pacific Bioscience's long reads and the cheaper short read technology, such as that of Illumina or Thermo Fisher. Today’s guest provides the most clear and dramatic answer yet: use the PacBio system exclusively. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other su...

K Thomas Pickard is not at all into sports cars. So when he hit midlife crisis, it wasn’t a Porsche or a golf club membership that would reenergize his quiet moments. Nope. K T got his genome sequenced. 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 last time we talked with Chris Mason of Weill Cornell Medical College the Supreme Court had just decided the controversial Myriad gene patent case. How forever ago two years can seem. Since then Chris has swabbed and sequenced the microbiome of New York City and began the project of sequencing in space. His favorite research this year has been to longitudinally profile the genome, epigenome, t...

Classes for the school year begin this week at Stanford University. New to the faculty is Carolyn Bertozzi, an American chemist who made her name across the bay at Berkeley and was wooed to Stanford by a chance to do research and teach chemistry in a new interdisciplinary institute known as ChEM-H. The institute will bring chemists, engineers, biologists and medical doctors together to understand...

Though recent guests at Mendelspod say we're not quite to the $1,000 genome, we're close enough to use that benchmark in genomics discussions. But what are we getting for that almost $1,000? Mark Gerstein is the co-director of the Yale Computational Biology and Bioinformatics program where he focuses on better annotation of the human genome and better ways to mine big genomics data. He has played...

What is a human genome? Well it’s the three billion letters of our DNA. But how is it measured? How do we know when we have it accurately represented? These are questions that will have to be answered as precision medicine takes hold; for we must have defined standards that will be the basis for regulatory policy, commerce, and better research. These are also the questions that are foremost on the...

It's no secret that America's molecular testing laboratories by and large are worried that the FDA's plan to regulate laboratory developed tests, or LDTs, will severely harm patients. Now they have a new proposal which they are taking directly to Capitol Hill. Roger Klein is the Medical Director of Molecular Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic. He’s also serving as the spokesperson for the Associatio...

Diagnostics can be a tough business. The FDA is making a strong push to bring more oversight. Obtaining reimbursement can be outright Sisyphean. And clinicians are slow on the uptake. All of which makes today’s story so good. 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 race to the $1,000 genome has been full of breathtaking advances, one after the other. But is next gen sequencing reaching maturity? Will there be that many more significant innovations? 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

A slow week in life science left us scratching our heads about the purpose of some new studies. The first, a major project to study the microbes in about 1,200 homes appeared under headlines such as this from Tech Times, "Household Bacteria Can Reveal Volumes about Home Residents." Volumes? Really? A second study claimed that we are less successful at biomedical research today because life expecta...

It’s taken some time, but the NCI is finally sponsoring a big time clinical trial for cancer where the patients are organized by the genomic pathway that defines their cancer rather than the organ type. 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

Last week we attended the 2015 Rejuvenation Biotechnology Conference where we heard about the latest developments in aging research. We were fortunate enough to sit down with two of the major figures in the field of aging research, Aubrey de Grey, CSO of the SENS Research Foundation and Brian Kennedy, CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Brian and Aubrey have gone about their work in d...