Kismet, Alchemy & the Power of a Single Conversation: My Interview with Alex Marson, MD, PhD

My guest this week is someone I have wanted to interview on my podcast since the FIRST SEASON.

This someone is not only a groundbreaking researcher and scientist, he is also my dear friend, Dr. Alexander Marson. 

Alex is the Director of Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology, a senior investigator at Gladstone Institute, and an Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at UCSF. 

Alex is interested in how DNA controls the behavior of cells in the human immune system. He and his team are using the power of CRISPR technology to genetically engineer cells to fight cancer, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases.

My intention for recording this particular conversation was to get Alex’s take on communicating complex messages in a more accessible way. It’s something the scientific community is really wrestling with these days, perhaps now more than ever: 

How do you communicate complicated and immense topics in a way that is repeatable and interesting? How do we approach critical information, currently understood by only a few, to make it accessible to the rest of us?

This is also a conversation about the alchemy that happens when the right people make contact at the right moment, and something new is born. 

Pour that beverage, or lace up your sneakers and leash up that hound. Because you are gonna love this one.