Ep. 117: “Biology and Beer” Featuring Peter Lengyel

Guest: Peter Lengyel is the co-founder and “Beer Commander” of Kings County Beer Collective in Brooklyn, NY. Pete managed big name laboratories at Rockefeller University, UCSF and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals but after spending a huge amount of his time brewing beer first as a hobbyist, he made the leap to brewing full time. Pete started his first professional brewing enterprise in Bushwick Brooklyn a couple years back as a collaboration with two other brewers, which they called the King County Brewer’s Collective, and they have taken the craft brew scene by storm with high praise in local and national critical circles. Resources and Links Artificial Intelligence Using Wiring Similar to Human Brain - An AI that mentally maps its environment, much like mammals do, could help solve a mystery about the navigational nerve cells in our brains. Telomerase at High Resolution – The authors present the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the substrate-bound human telomerase holoenzyme at subnanometre resolution, showing two flexibly RNA-tethered lobes: the catalytic core with telomerase reverse transcriptase and conserved motifs of telomerase RNA, and an H/ACA ribonucleoprotein. First Small Pox Treatment Close to FDA Approval - Fears that the disease could be used as a biological weapon have risen in light of anthrax attacks and other terrorist acts of this century. Turtles That Change Sex in Warm Temperature - Scientists have identified a gene in the red-eared slider turtle, that makes embryonic turtles turn male or female depending on nest temperature. Stem Cells and Organoids to Understand Neanderthal Brains -A team of geneticists from the Max Planck Institute in Germany genetically altered human stem cells by combining them with Neanderthal DNA. The team hoped to grow miniature brains from these engineered human stem cells. Fasting Boosts Stem Cells’ Regenerative Capacity - Intestinal stem cells from mice that fasted for 24 hours, produced much more substantial intestinal organoids than stem cells from mice that did not fast. Blastocyst-Like Structure Generated from Stem Cells - Trophoblast and embryonic stem cells cooperate in vitro to form structures that morphologically and transcriptionally resemble embryonic day 3.5 blastocysts, termed blastoids. Reprogrammed Stem Cell-Derived Neurons Survive Long-Term in Pigs with Spinal Cord Injuries  - Scientists demonstrated that syngeneic porcine induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neural precursor cell transplantation to the spinal cord in the absence of immunosuppression is associated with long-term survival and neuronal and glial differentiation. Photo Reference: Courtesy of Peter Lengyel Subscribe to our newsletter! Never miss updates about new episodes. Subscribe