Mendelspod Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Few founders get to build the future of genomics twice—Moran Snir is doing it a fourth time. After founding Clear Genetics and helping Invitae scale genetic services, she’s back with a new venture: Nest Genomics , a software platform aiming to make genomic care routine across U.S. health systems. * 0:00 Founder of fou...

The story of Certis Oncology begins with a patient. In 2012, Barney Berglund was diagnosed with a rare sarcoma. Standard treatments failed him, and though his doctors at UCLA tried to create mouse avatars of his tumor to test drugs, Barney passed away before the models were ready. Out of his family’s grief came a mission: to change the trial-and-error nature of cancer treatment. They joined with p...

For his first interview as CEO of Myriad Genetics, Sam Raha joined us to help kick off Mendelspod’s 15th season. Raha, who took the helm in April after serving as COO and holding senior roles at Illumina and Agilent, leads Myriad at a pivotal moment. While consumer genomics has faltered—23andMe filed for bankruptcy earlier this year—Myriad continues to double down on its clinical strategy with new...

Catching a cancer relapse before any scan could see it is the ultimate goal for minimal residual disease or MRD testing. And it’s the promise behind Foresight Diagnostics, a Stanford spin-out co-founded by scientist Jake Chabon and oncologist David Kurtz who say they have arrived at “next gen” MRD testing. In this debut interview, Jake and Dave walk us through their journey from academic research...

Epigenetics has emerged as one of the most revealing windows into cancer biology. Long before genetic mutations appear, changes in DNA methylation can initiate tumorigenesis, shape tumor diversity, and provide powerful clues for biomarker discovery. In this episode of Mendelspod, we explore Illumina’s new 5-base solution with Dr. Bodour Salhia, a cancer epigenetics researcher at USC’s Keck School...

Reinventing PCR, huh ? That’s what we asked Pranav Patel, CEO and co-founder of N6 Tec , on today’s show. After all, PCR is one of the oldest tools in the molecular biology toolbox. Isn’t that field… done? Turns out, not at all. Patel — a veteran of PacBio, 10x Genomics, and founder of 2D Genomics — is back with a bold rethink of thermocycling itself. His new platform, IconPCR , isn’t just another...

Today we sit down with renowned geneticist David Ledbetter, whose pioneering work helped uncover the chromosomal basis of Prader-Willi, Angelman, and Miller-Dieker syndromes. He served as Chief Scientific Officer at Geisinger, where he led the MyCode Community Health Initiative—one of the largest population genomic screening programs in the world. Now, he's bringing his decades of experience to be...

In this special tribute episode, Mendelspod honors the life and legacy of Dr. Atul Butte (1969-2025), a towering figure in big data and precision medicine who passed away earlier this year. Atul was more than a pioneer in translational bioinformatics—he was a mentor, a builder, and a boundless source of ideas. He sought to “lift all boats in the harbor.” Joining the conversation are three scientis...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Most cancer biomarkers aren’t found in your DNA—they’re found on a microscope slide. And according to Dr. Andy Beck, CEO and co-founder of PathAI, that slide is undergoing a digital transformation. In this episode, Andy takes us behind the scenes of modern pathology to reveal how AI is reshaping not only cancer diagno...

In this episode of Mendelspod , we’re joined by Raju Rayavarapu, bioinformatician at DNAnexus and former FDA data specialist, to discuss how regulatory science is adapting to the age of AI, big data, and cloud platforms. * 0:00 How has AI changed regulatory informatics? * 4:15 KISS * 12:50 On standards * 25:00 So nothing new about AI? The juicy question of the interview * 32:45 Raju’s life: good d...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com “Genomics works. Don’t be scared of it.” That’s the message from Mike Kreitzinger, a longtime Illumina leader now advising the Institute for Pediatric Rare Disease at Florida State University and stepping into a broader role as a genomics advocate. In this episode, Mike gives us an inside look at Florida’s newly funde...

Illumina’s new interpretation software, Illumina Connected Insights, signals a turning point in oncology genomics—where sequencing power meets end-to-end clinical utility. On this episode of Mendelspod, host Theral Timpson sits down with Jing Gao, VP of Software Engineering at Illumina, to explore how the company is extending its leadership from sequencers to software. “We’ve moved from offering m...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Can we finally replace animal testing in drug development—and still know a drug is safe and effective? That’s the provocative question at the heart of this episode, as we sit down with Andrei Georgescu, co-founder and CEO of Vivodyne . The company is developing robotic, AI-enabled systems for growing living, biopsy-li...

In this episode of Mendelspod, Theral welcomes Dr. Rita Shaknovich, Chief Medical Officer in Agilent’s Life Sciences and Diagnostics group, for a high-level and deeply insightful look at where liquid biopsy technology stands today. With her background in hematopathology and molecular diagnostics, Rita brings clarity to a field that has long promised transformation—and is now delivering. “It’s not...

In this episode of Mendelspod , Theral speaks with Frédéric Debode, Scientific Director at CRA-W in Wallonia, Belgium, about the evolving landscape of GMO detection in the age of gene editing. From early work in real-time PCR to the latest in next-gen sequencing and target enrichment, Debode has been on the front lines of tracking genetically modified organisms—often when the modifications leave a...

“We’re going to be rewriting the textbooks on how tissues work.” In this compelling reunion with spatial biology pioneer Joe Beechem and a first-time visit from Oliver Braubach , we explore the rapid evolution of spatial technologies at Bruker , a legacy instrumentation company newly resurgent in the spatial space. Following Bruker’s acquisition of Nanostring and Canopy, the company has emerged as...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com In this episode of Mendelspod , Theral sits down with Rob Neely, co-founder and CSO at Tagomics, to discuss how his company is fusing genomics, epigenomics, and fragmentomics into a single, assumption-free assay for early cancer detection. The conversation begins with breaking news: Tagomics has just received a new gr...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com In this premium episode of Mendelspod, we’re joined by one of the few people speaking clearly and globally about biosecurity in the era of synthetic biology and AI: Sophie Peresson . A consultant and leader in responsible innovation, Sophie brings an unusually broad and grounded perspective. With experience spanning i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com As artificial intelligence continues to influence the life sciences, some researchers are questioning not just what it can predict, but what it can explain. On this episode, Mike Kiebish, VP of Platform and Translational Sciences at BPGbio, discusses the company’s “biology-first” approach to drug discovery—one that be...

In this episode of Mendelspod , we plunge into the shape-shifting world of RNA with Dr. Gavin Knott, associate professor at Monash University and alum of Jennifer Doudna’s lab. Knott is part of a new generation of researchers setting structural biology ablaze with AI, decoding RNA-guided systems and expanding the CRISPR toolbox far beyond its original scope. Knott introduces the listener to RNA no...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com For decades, drug discovery has followed two main roads: small molecules that can slip into cells but often lack precision, and biologics that offer specificity but struggle with delivery and manufacturing. In this episode, Christian Schafmeister introduces us to a third path: spiroligomers —synthetic, fused-ring mole...

What if drug design didn’t depend on pre-existing biological data? In this episode of Mendelspod , Theral sits down with Aridni Shah, co-founder and CEO of Immunito AI, a Bengaluru-based biotech startup reinventing how we develop antibody therapies. Shah and her team are using artificial intelligence to design antibodies from scratch , bypassing traditional animal-based and data-heavy methods. “We...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Yes, the Trump economy has been tough on life science tools—but according to today’s guest, the business model was failing us anyway. It’s time to go back to rethinking the basics. Today we’re joined by Stephane Budel , founding partner at DeciBio , one of the leading market research and consulting firms focused on li...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com On today’s episode of Mendelspod , Theral sits down with Giovanna Prout, CEO of Scale Biosciences , to explore a how the company is achieving new orders of magnitude of scale in the single cell space. "In the past, single cell was one cell per well—maybe 96 cells per experiment," Prout explains. "Now, with our Quantum...

What if you could step inside a molecule ? On today’s episode of Mendelspod , we talk with Steve McCloskey, founder and CEO of Nanome , the company bringing virtual reality into the world of drug discovery and molecular modeling. A former nanoengineering student at UC San Diego and a self-described futurist, Steve founded Nanome to create what he calls the "ultimate scientific interface"—a way for...