SKRAPS: Deep Dive

How do we even know what constitutes the heart beat? What was the reason for all those abnormal rhythms of the heart? Why does it happen? The answer lies in the small, cylindrical glass tube called the micropipetter, which was used to create a microelectrode. Here it is, on how the microelectrode changed the face of cardiology. SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, under...

What connects Tudor England, Ann Boleyn, Henry the VIII, autonomic nervous system and a flash mob like wave of a deadly disease? There is only way to find out. Inspired by this paper and Dr. Ali Christy's X thread . SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, underappreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology and innovation. Created &...

This story was inspired by the post on X by Dr. Farsad Mostashari . Center for Disease Control has been at the forefront of many of the alerts (true and false) and now it's officially gone... This is a sombre take on what has happened. SKRAPS is your podcast, where we on your behalf explores unsaid, underappreciated and sometimes, untold stories of sparks of brilliance in science, technology and i...

This is conclusion of the mini-series! In this episode, we uncover the question, is the "cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex" nerves entirely vagal? The answer is not so straightforward. Building on good work by Davide Martelli and Robin McAllen , we uncover crucial role of the efferent arm of the reflex to "also" be sympathetic. And at the end, we also talk about the importance of understanding...

With the set up of how vagus signalling was deduced by careful and meticulous experiments of Linda Watkins , who built on some amazing results from Hugo Besedovsky, we turn our attention to how the hypothesis moved from tackling acute inflammatory models (e.g. Sepsis) to chronic inflammatory models and disease conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis. We are joined by Tony Arnold , ex-CEO of SetPoint...

What happens in the vagus, stays in vagus?? Not with us at SKRAPS. “Science Is a Team Sport” If we truly mean this - I mean, really and truly mean that science is a group effort and not the effort of one person, let’s really dive in to this and embrace our opportunities to set the record straight. And I mean let’s start  right now!   As we endeavor to understand The Wanderer, we must als...

Can you tell me the last time that you know of that we eulogised and attributed even the most difficult concepts to a single eureka moment?  Was it yesterday?  Was it last week? Was it last month?  We have this image of a human jumping out of a bathtub and running naked, shedding your rica or an apple falling from a tree or in the case of psychedelic medicine, the famous bicycle tri...

JoJo and Arun are producing some key content that will make you turn your heads in disbelief. Until then, we thought it would be good to get your mind focussed on that wonderful molecule - serotonin that has received fresh life due to its impact on mental health, be it with psychedelics or with electrical stimulation for depression etc. This episode details some wonderful history of how our body i...

What  Is  a BCI? And just as importantly, what  isn’t  a BCI? This is an unusual episode and an incredibly fun one. Arun and JoJo enlisted some of the field’s top folks to talk through what’s in and what’s out in this exciting field.  Amy Kruse  is a general partner at Prime Movers Lab and a self-professed Founder turned Funder (and a neuroscientist by training),&nbsp...

At SKRAPS, we are always looking to get behind the veil of the happenings in the field. We want to go beyond the facade of the news headlines. In recognition of this, we are now reading the slug for part 1 of candid conversations or plainly put - “Cutting through the crap in Bioelectronics”. So, we are joining Dr. Robert Spoelgen, Head of Bioelectronics at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, 🇩🇪 (They are very...

Julia Child was a master. She was not a classically trained chef, but pursued cooking as a hobby. Her super power? Passion. A passion for making gastronomy accessible, to deliver an honest and attainable presentation, and she possessed a pure, unadulterated joy for her craft. While Michael Ackermann isn’t a neurotechnolgy hobbyist, he does share other qualities with the inimitable Child. He brings...

Skraps is turning two. Or is it our second anniversary? I can't quite decide so let's celebrate both. Join us as we walk down memory lane with some highlights (and hopefully no lowlights) of the past two years of their audio partnership. Re-live some of our favorite moments - laughter, tears, learning, and even occasionally, listening. We revisit early episodes (and see how far we've come) with Ki...

Hello friends and dear listeners,   Recently, we were urged by a couple of our British listeners and experienced audio producers in the podcasting space, to nominate our last season’s science documentary podcast on Psychedelics for the British Podcast awards.   Without further adieu, here is the 30 minute tape we sent for the second stage of the nomination. SKRAPS is your podcast, where...

Funding for Bioelectronic Medicines does not come from traditional venture capital. It also comes from grant funding agencies. While the most well known grant funding bodies are NIH and DARPA in this area, there is also a renewed deeper interest in funding early research to develop products for clinical applications from the EU as well. So we invited, Dr. Enrique Claverol-Tinture (Enric) , Program...

“Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone” is a famous quote from the author Anthony Burgess. Sleep Apnea affects 425 million adults over the age of 40. Yet, good treatments are unavailable. In this episode we address how Bioelectronic Medicines helps to alleviate the problem. Links as promised: Inspire Medical - the first hypoglossal nerve stimulation product on the market....

We are joined by Imran Eba of GlaxoSmithKline's Bioelectronic Medicine fund - Action Potential Venture Capital to talk about investing in Bioelectronic Medicines. APV is the only fund that invests exclusively in bioelectronic medicines - and they've been here since the beginning. This leads to the ongoing question: what is and what is not a bioelectronic medicine (hear all three answers.) After we...

Most of us can pretty certainly say that we are alone within our heads. We may joke about inner voices, but what really happens when there genuinely is an external influence deep within a brain? The answer? In the case of two research pioneers, Ian Burkhart and Benjamin Stecher , the answer is nothing short of a miracle. These two souls both underwent life altering surgeries - not just in terms of...

PUT YOUR HEADPHONES ON! What does a 4 cm long and 25g in weight crustacean have to teach us about Bioelectronic Medicine and human health? And what does its feeding habits have to tell us about how we deal with tumours? Well, there is more than what meets the eye! If we reveal more than this, we are breaking the plot to you and making your life easy. So, it is time to do the hard yards and go on t...

The saying, as grotesque as it might be, goes "there's more than one way to skin a cat." In our case, there's more than one way to stimulate a nerve and we've gathered some experts leading the charge (pun very much intended.) Gather around the fire, bring some marshmallows and listen in as we chat with Hubert Lim of the University of Minnesota, Christopher Puleo of GE Research, and Mikhail Shapiro...

Have you ever wondered what decisions go behind deciding if  a pharmaceutical is to be administered either orally or intravenously or via inhalation. Who decides that? Well, the short answer is that it is decided based on a tested pharmaceutical developmental framework that has stood the test of time. First, it is determined by a clinical need, then by what the drug does to the body (pharmaco...

Join Arun & JoJo as they go behind the wall of the science that underpins new treatments for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). While MDD is the leading cause of both personal and societal disability, there are still inadequate treatment options. But the advent of two very areas are bringing hope! The first area is psychedelic assisted psychotherapy that we covered in our psychedelic series - Ep...

The NIH's Neuromodulation Prize was announced on Jan 17, 2002. The $9.8 million dollar prize pot will be awarded over three phases. So we did an interview for  Ladan Jiracek & Neural Implant Podcast around this prize, purely because Arun has experience in working as part of the team that did the GSK Innovation Prize . If anyone has not listened to Ladan's podcast and if you work in the ar...

What in the world is a Bioelectronic Medicine?  As promised, link to schema below 👇🏻👇🏻 Link to Schema on Bioelectronics Medicines Framework: here SKRAPS will remain free, but the production is not. If you would like to help us, please visit here.   Episode Description:   “Tis but thy name that is my enemy;  Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.  What’s Montague? It...

What is a Bioelectronic Medicine? How many of us really even know what it is and understand it?  This trailer serves as a primer to the season dedicated to Bioelectronic Medicines where our hosts go behind the veil to explore the idea of how medicines that get on your nerves are made. 

As promised last month, here is part 2 of the story of sound design for the PsychedeRx series - a documentary exploring the therapeutic potential of psychedelics.  This series in its entirety can be accessed here using this LINK and PODCAST PLAYER of your choice . The transcripts of every episode is located at our website: www.psychederx.com Remember to rate us on Spotify and subscribe to our news...