Springer Nature

The COVID-19 pandemic severely affected health and healthcare systems worldwide and could have resulted in changes in fetal and neonatal outcomes. In this episode, we speak to Early Career Investigator, Vivek Shukla from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Using machine learning techniques, he performed a population-based study to identify changes in fetal and neonatal outcomes during the ini...

Kamolphat Atsawawaranunt and Anna Santure discuss how they have used diverse samples of DNA to trace the introduction history of the common myna from its native range across its invasive distribution in the Pacific.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of telemedicine was limited in pediatric primary care. Then, in 2020 it increased exponentially. However, early COVID-19 reports described inequities in telemedicine use across multiple specialties. In this episode, we meet Early Career Investigator, Kelsey Schweiberger from the University of Pittsburgh. In a recent paper, she describes the factors associated...

In this episode, Richard Bernstein (Institute for Bee Research Hohen Neuendorf) discusses the development of the first genomic prediction model for honey bees. Genomic prediction is well established in the breeding of many commercial species, but wasn’t possible in honey bees until now. Richard fills us in on what genomic prediction actually is, why its useful and why prediction for bees is so tri...

In-person treatment for substance use disorders is an incredibly important tool, but there’s a high failure rate — more than 50 percent of people who enter drop out within the first month. There hasn’t been a highly accurate method of identifying who might leave and who might succeed, and knowing this could help centers allocate resources to give the right type of assistance to the right people at...

Heart rate characteristics and demographic factors have long been used to aid early detection of late-onset sepsis, however respiratory data may contain additional signatures of infection. In this episode we meet Early Career Investigator Brynne Sullivan from the University of Virginia. She and her team developed machine learning models to predict late-onset sepsis that were trained on heart rate...

In this episode, Prof Thomas Madsen (Deakin University) discusses how a long-term study of an adder population has provided evidence that polyandry and non-random fertilisation can have positive effects on genetic diversity. Thomas argues that factoring in mating dynamics could help to improve conservation genetic analyses.

Antisocial personality disorder, or ASPD, is a difficult disorder to study. There have been studies on psychopathic individuals, and on youth with psychopathic traits, but most studies on ASPD to date have been on incarcerated adults. A team of researchers at Heidelberg University wanted to study individuals who are not incarcerated and see what these findings could elucidate about the brains, in...

In this episode, Anna Hewett discusses how different factors have led to the patterns of homozygosity observed in a population of red deer living on the Scottish Isle of Rum.

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is the most common morbidity among very preterm infants. Commonly, nutritional interventions are focused on achieving optimal body weight gain. However, very preterm infants with evolving lung disease often experience disproportionate growth in the neonatal period, which may contribute to the odds of developing BPD. In this episode of Pediapod, we speak to Early Ca...

After five years with the journal, James Burgon is leaving the Heredity Podcast. But fear not! Because the podcast is being left in a pair of safe and familiar hands. In this episode we meet our new host: Michael Pointer. Also joining the episode is new Editor-in-Chief Prof. Sara Goodacre.

Kawasaki disease is a common childhood vasculitis and its global incidence appears to be increasing. Although this disease is self-limiting, the associated vasculopathy can cause cardiovascular complications. In this episode of Pediapod, we meet Early Career Investigator Cal Robinson at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada who performed a population-based cohort study using Ontario heal...

Children with medical complexity typically require multiple medications throughout the course of their treatment. These individuals also increasingly undergo genome-wide testing early in life as a diagnostic test. Since many medications prescribed to children have established gene-drug interactions, could this genetic data be repurposed to aid precision prescribing in this priority pediatric popul...

It’s clear there are diversity issues in science, both in terms of who does or doesn’t receive research grants, as well as who is or isn’t represented at the highest levels of scientific research. When Caleb Weinreb and Daphne Sun began their PhD program at Harvard University Medical School in systems biology, they took this on as an issue. They learned from others in their department, and they ev...

Tom Oosting discusses his research on the population demographics of the Australasian snapper, an economically important fish found in the waters around New Zealand. This study combines modern sampling with museum samples collected from pre-colonial Māori middens. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Mitochondrial genomes reveal mid-Pleistocene population divergence, and post-glacial...

Neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) represents a major public health problem in the US with a high socioeconomic burden. The pathophysiology of this condition is not yet fully understood. Data from animal models have shown that opioids modulate brain reward signalling via an inflammatory cascade, however no such data exist for opioid-exposed neonates. In this episode of Pediapod we meet Ear...

Every year, Heredity publishes some outstanding student-led papers, and to recognise the quality of this work the journal runs a student paper prize. So, what makes a paper stand out? Find out, as Co-Editor-in-Chief Aurora Ruiz-Herrera joins the podcast to explore the three best student-led papers of 2022. Find the full Student Prize Longlist Collection here: https://www.nature.com/collections/bvt...

Rare diseases affect millions of people in the USA. However, access to subspecialty care is not distributed equitably and there may be other barriers to clinic attendance. Furthermore, once established within the genetics clinic, families may still face barriers along the path to getting a molecular diagnosis. In this episode, we meet Early Career Investigator, Monica Wojcik, a neonatologist and g...

Psychedelic drugs have received attention recently for their potential use as treatments for psychiatric disorders. Single, high doses of LSD have shown promise for treating depressive disorders. But there’s another way in which people have been using LSD, and it’s what’s known as micro-dosing, taking LSD at below noticeable levels, where it doesn’t seem to have a psychedelic impact—but users say...

Dr Emiliano Trucchi (Marche Polytechnic University) and Dr Céline Le Bohec (University of Strasbourg; Monaco Scientific Center) discuss the genetic basis of cold adaptation in the emperor penguin. Céline also shares her experience of visiting Antarctica. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Selection-driven adaptation to the extreme Antarctic environment in the Emperor penguin” https:...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) causes significant long-term morbidity and mortality, particularly in children. There is some evidence that the innate immune system, in particular neutrophil activity, can be compromised in adult-onset lupus. Yet there is a paucity of data on neutrophil activity in pediatric SLE. This month on Pediapod, we join Early Career Investigator, Rakesh Kumar Pilania, an...

Adenoid Ameloblastoma is a very rare benign odontogenic tumor characterized microscopically by epithelium resembling conventional ameloblastoma, with additional duct-like structures, epithelial whorls, and cribriform architecture. Dentinoid deposits, clusters of clear cells, and ghost-cell keratinization may also be present. These tumors do not harbor BRAF or KRAS mutations and their molecular bas...

In this episode, Dr Sara Nilson (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Dr Jared Decker (University of Missouri) and Prof. Leslie Lyons (University of Missouri) discuss their quest to find the geographical origins of cat domestication. This episode explores the recent Heredity paper: “Genetics of randomly bred cats support the cradle of cat domestication being in the Near East” https://www.nature.com/ar...

Although prophylactic lymph node dissections do not improve survival, the prognostic implications of a positive sentinel node and the benefi ts of removing nodal metastases for loco-regional disease control remain important. There is a strong interest in novel approaches that can improve patients’ selection for sentinel lymphnode biopsies (SLNB) given that 85% of these procedures are negative and...

After a traumatic event, women are more likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Research has been conducted on what might be causing this higher rate of diagnoses; for instance, perhaps women had more cumulative trauma in their lives than the men in question. But scientists say that even taking prior childhood trauma into account, women are still diagnosed at a higher...