Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textDr. Lily Brown, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Director at the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety, Perelman School of Medicine, at University of Pennsylvania ( https://www.med.upenn.edu/ctsa/LilyBrownPhD.html ).  Dr. Brown received her Bachelors of Science Degree in Psychology at Drexel University and her Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology and Learning and Behavior Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  In graduate school, Dr. Brown researched mechanisms of change in fear conditioning and extinction, with a particular focus on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), in the Anxiety and Depression Research Center.  She completed her predoctoral internship at Brown University in the Psychosocial Research Department where she completed research on the rate of suicidal behaviors in patients with PTSD.   Dr. Brown’s current research focuses on treatment development and implementation to mitigate suicide risk in patients with anxiety disorders and PTSD.  She specializes in cognitive-behavior therapy for anxiety disorders, including Exposure and Response prevention (EX/RP) for obsessive compulsive disorder, and has been trained in the treatment of borderline personality disorder.#LilyBrown #Psychology #CognitiveBehaviorTherapy #CenterForTheTreatmentAndStudyOfAnxiety #PerelmanSchoolOfMedicine #UniversityOfPennsylvania #PTSD #Suicide #PosttraumaticStressDisorder #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #OCD #Panic #SocialPhobia  #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textProfessor Dr. Dan Blumberg, Ph.D. is the Vice-President for Regional and Industrial Development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev ( BGU - https://www.blumberg.bgu.ac.il/ ), an elected Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and Chair of the Israel Space Agency ( https://www.space.gov.il/en ), a position he was appointed to by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology ( https://www.gov.il/en/departments/ministry_of_science_and_technology/govil-landing-page ) in 2022.Prior to these positions, Prof. Blumberg completed five years as Vice President and Dean for Research and Development at BGU and before that he fulfilled several positions including Deputy Vice President, Chairperson of the Department of Geography and Environmental Development and the founder of the Green Campus initiative at BGU which gained the University an international ranking of #18.Prof. Blumberg earned a Ph.D. from Arizona State University (1993) where he studied and worked in the Planetary Geology Group and focused on aeolian processes and microwave radar remote sensing to study arid zone environments and planetary geology.  He was a Co-Investigator on the SRL (Spaceborne Radar Laboratory) mission, SRTM (Spaceborne Radar Topography) mission and other space missions. Prof. Blumberg has been working for the past 20 years on analysis of multi-parameter remote sensing data including radar, hyperspectral, multi-spectral and ground penetrating radar data. He has also published numerous papers in the areas of target and anomaly detection and combined field studies with the use of remote sensing data.  He also led the development and successful launch on February 15, 2017 of a Nanosatellite, BGUsat. Prof. Blumberg has also been a key leader in the development of the cyber eco-system in Beer-Sheva ( https://www.blumberg.bgu.ac.il/_files/ugd/d86da1_7750b399fc5843af9763fd4e1ffe59af.pdf ), which brought 39 multi-national companies and 70 startups to the advanced technologies park in Beer-Sheva. Additional roles include as Director of the Homeland Security Institute ( https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/hsi/Pages/Board.aspx ) and Simon Family Chair in Remote Sensing at BGU.#DanBlumberg #RemoteSensing #Mars #Venus #BenGurionUniversityOfTheNegev #Astronautics #IsraelSpaceAgency #NASA #Geology #Geography #BaruchBlumberg #Astrobiology  #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textDr. Parag Mallick, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Stanford University ( https://profiles.stanford.edu/parag-mallick ) and Co-Founder of Nautilus Biotechnology ( https://www.nautilus.bio/ ), a development stage life sciences company, engaged in creating a platform technology for quantifying and unlocking the complexity of the proteome for a new era of scientific discovery. Originally trained as an engineer and biochemist, Dr. Mallick’s research spans proteomics, computational and experimental systems biology, cancer biology and nanotechnology. Dr. Mallick received his B.S. in Computer Science from Washington University in St. Louis. He then obtained his Ph.D. from UCLA in Chemistry & Biochemistry, where he worked with Dr. David Eisenberg. He completed his post-doctoral studies at The Institute for Systems Biology with Dr. Ruedi Aebersold. Dr. Mallick’s group has been pioneering systems-biology approaches towards understanding disease mechanisms, discovering biomarkers and enabling personalized medicine. Most recently, his group has been developing model-based and physics-based approaches to machine learning that enable learning over domains that span a wide range of time and length scales. Dr. Mallick has over 100 publications and holds patents in the fields of artificial intelligence, proteomics technology, biomarker development, and nanotechnology. Additionally, he serves as an advisor to numerous biotechnology and diagnostics companies and is an accomplished magician. Dr. Mallick is a member, and frequent performer at the prestigious Magic Castle in Hollywood. He has performed all over the world for clients ranging from A-List Celebrities to Fortune 500 companies.#ParagMallick #Proteomics #Proteome #StanfordUniversity #NautilusBiotechnology #LifeSciences #DrugDiscovery #Diagnostics #Cancer #Alzheimers #Ashwgandha #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textRonnie Vasishta is Senior Vice President, Telecom at NVIDIA ( https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/author/ronniev/ ), where he leads all aspects of NVIDIA's telecom business from business management to product go-to-market strategy.  His organization is responsible for defining and architecting next-generation virtualized, open 5G advanced and 6G networks, which act as a software-defined overlay on telecommunication networks powered by  accelerated computing. His team is working with telecom operators around the world on their transformation journeys using NVIDIA’s full-stack accelerated computing platform and extensive developer ecosystems. Ronnie joined NVIDIA in 2020 from Intel, where he most recently served as the vice president and general manager of the Network and Configurable Logic Division, Data Products Group. At Intel, Ronnie’s team managed the company’s programmable business with telecom manufacturers and communication service providers. Ronnie formerly served as CEO of privately held eASIC, which focused on the telecom and storage markets and was sold to Intel in 2018. Previously, he was vice president of technical marketing at LSI Logic, a pioneer in the custom ASIC business. At LSI Logic he also held a series of engineering roles extending across wafer processing, chip design, IP and packaging.Ronnie studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nottingham Trent University.Important Episode Resources -NVIDIA State of AI in Telecom 2024 Survey Report - https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/lp/industries/telecommunications/state-of-ai-in-telecom-survey-report/?ncid=ref-inor-605102-vt26NVIDIA AI Solutions for Telecommunications - https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/industries/telecommunications/?ncid=ref-inor-463257-vt26#RonnieVasishta #Telecom #NVIDIA #6G #Telecommunication #RadioAccessNetworks #DigitalTwins #ArtificialIntelligence #InternetOfThings #QuantumComputing  #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textProf. Dr. Alan Widgerow, MBBCh, FCS, MMed, FACS, is Division Chief, Research, Center for Tissue Engineering ( https://sites.uci.edu/ctelab/team/ ) and Adjunct Professor Plastic Surgery, Dept of Plastic Surgery, University of California, Irvine ( https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6048 ) and Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Skin Science Center of Innovation at Galderma ( https://www.galderma.com/ ).Prof. Widgerow is a plastic surgeon who ran a solo private practice in South Africa for over 20 years. Prof. Widgerow completed his undergraduate and post-graduate studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He has held various positions in numerous academic and professional associations including that of President of the Association of Plastic and Reconstructive surgery of Southern Africa (APRSSA). He is author of over 190 plastic surgical related publications and 2 books. He was also the founder and medical director of 13 wound clinics in South Africa. Prof. Widgerow relocated to Irvine California in Dec 2009 to pursue his interests in medical device innovations, cosmeceuticals and wound care, but he still plays an active role in academic medicine world-wide. In 2012 he was appointed to the Faculty of the University of California Irvine Plastic Surgery Dept as Full Adjunct Professor and Director of the Center for Tissue Engineering and in 2021 was appointed as its Division Chief of Research. He is involved in multiple projects related to adipose derived stem cell and adipose decellularized matrix, wound healing and transplantation. In 2018 he was awarded the Distinguished Faculty Mentor of the year Award by the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, UCI. Prof. Widgerow has developed and licensed multiple products in the US and South African markets. In 2015 he joined ALASTIN Skincare, Inc. an early start up professional skin care company as their Chief Medical Officer. Over the past 6 years he has spearheaded the scientific innovations team introducing multiple new products based on novel wound healing pathways. The resulting products have been validated with gene expression, in vitro and ex-vivo testing, biopsies, and multiple clinical trials resulting in a range of products that have surpassed previous scientific validations in this space. He continues to pursue patented novel concepts, peptide technologies and vigorous testing thus contributing to Alastin Skincare’s position as the fastest growing professional skin care company in the US for the past 4 years. In 2021, Alastin Skincare was acquired by Galderma, the largest privately owned dermatology company in the world, and in June 2022, Prof. Widgerow was appointed Chief Scientific Officer of Galderma, Head of the Skin Science Center for Innovation and Head of Alastin innovations. He is involved in aesthetic, prescription and consumer product science research and development.#AlanWidgerow #CenterForTissueEngineering #PlasticSurgery #UniversityOfCalifornia #Irvine #ChiefScientificOfficer #SkinScience #Galderma #Dermatology #ExtracellularMatrix #StemCells #Exosomes #ECM #Aging #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textDr. Ryan Potts, Ph.D. is Vice President and Head, Induced Proximity Platform at Amgen ( https://www.amgen.com/science/research-and-development-strategy/multispecifics-and-other-modalities ) which is focused on novel ways to bring two or more molecules in close proximity to each other to tackle drug targets that are currently considered “undruggable.” He also leads Amgen’s Research & Development Postdoctoral Fellows Program ( https://www.amgen.com/science/scientific-community-initiatives/postdoctoral-fellows ).Dr. Potts obtained his B.S. in Biology from the University of North Carolina and his Ph.D. in Cell and Molecular Biology from UT Southwestern in 2007. In 2008 he was awarded the Sara and Frank McKnight junior faculty position at UT Southwestern Medical Center.  During this time his lab focused on answering a long-standing question in cancer biology regarding the cellular function of cancer-testis antigen (CTAs) proteins. In 2011 he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, and Biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. His lab’s work defined a function for the enigmatic MAGE gene (Melanoma Antigen Gene) family in protein regulation through ubiquitination. In 2016 Dr. Potts lab moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he was an Associate Member in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. There his lab continued to work on CTAs, with a focus on elucidating the biochemical, cellular, physiological and pathological functions of the MAGE gene family. In 2020 Dr. Potts moved to Amgen, Inc. in Thousand Oaks, California to build a new department called the Induced Proximity Platform (IPP).Important Episode Link - Amgen Molecular Matchmakers Science Cartoon -https://wwwext.amgen.com/stories/2020/10/new-video-multispecific-medicines-that-work-as-molecular-matchmakers?_gl=1*1ygduyj*_ga*Mjc5OTk2NDUzLjE3MjI0NTk5Nzc.*_ga_CBMSV0J9VL*MTcyMjQ2MzI0MS4yLjEuMTcyMjQ2MzUyMC4zOC4wLjA.#Amgen #RyanPotts #InducedProximityPlatform #MultispecificDrugs #UndruggableTargets #MolecularMatchmakers #PROTAC #RNATAC #Proteasome #Lysosome #UbiquitinLigases #Ubiquitination #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textDr. Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD is the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene ( https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/about/about-doh/the-commissioner.page ).Dr. Vasan is a primary care physician, epidemiologist and public health expert with nearly 20 years of experience working to improve physical and mental health, social welfare and public policy for marginalized populations here in New York City, nationally and globally. Since 2014 he has served on the faculty at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and he continues to see patients as a primary care internist in the Division of General Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.Dr. Vasan most recently served as the President and CEO of Fountain House, a national nonprofit fighting to improve health, increase opportunity, and end social and economic isolation for people most impacted by mental illness. During his tenure, he grew the organization from a New York-based community mental health organization to a national network across eight markets, and grew the budget by nearly $20 million annually. He helped navigate the organization through COVID-19 by driving new telehealth and digital mental health programs while its physical locations closed, as well as developing new community-based outreach and accompaniment programs. Further, Dr. Vasan led the creation of a national policy office in Washington, D.C., working to change national mental health policy on the issues of crisis response services and funding for and quality of community-based mental health services.From 2016 to 2019, Dr. Vasan served as the founding Executive Director of the Health Access Equity Unit at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which focused on the intersection of clinical and social services for the care of people involved in the justice system and other vulnerable populations — a first-of-its-kind government program in the nation. Under his leadership the team launched the NYC Health Justice Network — an innovative partnership between community-based primary care providers, criminal legal system reentry organizations, the Health Department and the Fund for Public Health — to embed tech-enabled, peer community health workers to promote health and wellness of people reentering the community from incarceration, and their families. Early in his career, Dr. Vasan spent nearly a decade at the intersection of global health, HIV and primary care, working with the nonprofit Partners In Health (PIH) in Rwanda, Lesotho and Boston, and at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Uganda and Geneva. At PIH, he led efforts to improve integrated primary care and HIV care delivery using WHO Integrated Management guidelines and training. Dr. Vasan worked as a Technical Officer under Dr. Jim Yong Kim on the WHO/UNAIDS "3by5 Initiative" to expand HIV treatment access in the developing world, focusing on pricing and access to HIV medications, and on health worker training and education.Dr. Vasan received his BA in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles; his ScM in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health; his MD from the University of Michigan; and his PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He completed his clinical training in internal medicine-primary care at New York Presbyterian Hospital.#NewYorkCity #AshwinVasan #Commissioner #PublicHealth #GlobalHealth #HIV #SocialDeterminantsOfHealth #MentalHealth #PaulFarmer #ColumbiaUniversity #Aging #Healthspan #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #InSupport the show

Send us a textThe Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative ( DAC - https://www.davosalzheimerscollaborative.org/ ) is a pioneering worldwide initiative to cure Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, seeking to mirror the success of global efforts against infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, Covid, and Malaria. Absent effective action at scale around the world, by 2050, more than 150 million families and half a billion people will be personally impacted by Alzheimer’s, creating a social, financial, economic, and global security disaster of historic proportions. DAC was launched in Davos in 2021 by the World Economic Forum and the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Tim MacLeod is the Director of the Systems Preparedness workstream of the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC) where he executes on a mission to facilitate the implementation of national, regional, and global commitments to provide access to future innovations in treatment, diagnosis, and care. Drawing on his background in implementation science and innovation consulting, Dr. MacLeod guides the development, execution, and dissemination of multi-site, real-world implementation studies that generate evidence about the facilitators and barriers to adopting and scaling novel technology in the ADRD space. Before joining DAC, Dr. MacLeod led the award-winning human-centered design studio Bridgeable as Managing Director, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies in the financial service and health spaces on significant innovation initiatives. Dr. MacLeod holds a Ph.D. in community psychology and has published widely on health innovation and implementation science. His research with the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi team scaled the Housing First model from 5 pilot sites to over 20 cities nationally through multi-level policy change. Dr. Vaibhav Narayan is Executive Vice President at the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), which he joined after 13+ years at Johnson & Johnson (J&J) where he was Vice President of Digital Health Innovation and Head of Data Science for Neuroscience R&D. At J&J, Dr.  Narayan created and led programs that utilized multi-modal data from ‘genomics to digital’ to understand disease subtypes and develop AI/ML driven digital health solutions for prevention, early detection, disease course monitoring and prediction in Alzheimer’s and neuropsychiatric diseases. Dr. Narayan also previously served as Head, Discovery Informatics, Eli Lilly and Company, and as Director, Computational Sciences, Celera Genomics.  He also currently serves a role as Chief Industry Officer, UK Mental Health Mission, University of Oxford.Dr. Narayan obtained a PhD from Yale University in computational biology and an Executive MBA from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.Important Episode Links The Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative Healthcare System Preparedness(DAC-SP) Early Detection Blueprint - https://www.dacblueprint.org/Alzheimer's Association International Conference 2024 - https://aaic.alz.org/#Alzheimers #Dementia #Davos #Neurology #Neuroscience #HealthyAging #BrainHealth  #TimMacLeod  #VaibhavNarayan #DavosAlzheimersCollaborative #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textDr. Andrea Choe, MD, Ph.D. is the CEO and Co-Founder of Holoclara ( https://www.holoclara.com/ ), a company focused on creating novel, safe, orally bioavailable worm-derived therapeutics with a focus on indications such as allergies and autoimmune disorders.While pursuing her doctorate at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Choe uncovered a unique pheromone language shared by roundworms that may have evolved over hundreds of millions of years.Dr. Choe’s research, including her discovery of novel molecules derived from worms that blocked formation of disease in animal models of allergic and autoimmune disease, has led to advances in the fields of evolutionary biology and extreme biology. Her work has become the foundation of Holoclara’s technology and mission to pioneer a new class of therapeutics that can provide relief for millions of people living with chronic and debilitating diseases. Dr. Choe is a winner of the Emerging Women Founders in Biotech Award. She received her MD at USC Keck School of Medicine and her PhD at Caltech. #CaenorhabditisElegans #WormDerivedTherapeutics #AutoimmuneDisease #Allergies #Nematodes #AndreaChoe #Holoclara  #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilities #IraPastor #Podcast #Podcaster #ViralPodcast  #STEM #Innovation #Technology #Science #ResearchSupport the show

Send us a textDr. Abdulelah Alhawsawi, MD is the CEO of Novo Genomics ( https://novogenomics.sa/ ), a company located in KSA with a vision of being the regionally trusted, globally recognized biotech leader in the field of genomics & multiomics.Dr. Alhawsawi is the former Founding Director General of the Saudi Patient Safety Center ( SPSC - https://www.spsc.gov.sa/English/Pages/Home.aspx ), and MOH Advisor on Patient Safety and was involved in the core efforts establishing SPSC as a WHO Collaborating Center for patient safety policies and strategies (1 of only 5 WHOcc worldwide in this field). Dr. Alhawsawi is a consultant to several national and international quality and safety organizations and recently became a board member and Vice President of the Global Sepsis Alliance ( GSA - https://globalsepsisalliance.org/ ) as well as a Board member of Joint Commission Resources Board. He was part of the Expert Panel on the 3rd Global Patient Safety Challenge of the WHO and chaired the Organizing Committee for the 4th Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Dr. Alhawsawi has helped introduce Patient Safety as a G20 priority in the 2020 G20 of Saudi Arabia. Currently, Dr. Alhawsawi is part of the WHO’s Global Patient Safety Action Plan Taskforce and is a Global Ambassador of the G20 Health & Development Partnership (  https://g20healthpartnership.com/dr-abdulelah-alhawsawi/ ).Dr. Alhawsawi holds a bachelor’s degree in Medicine from King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is Dual board certified in transplant and hepato-biliary surgery (American – Canadian), and he completed his training in Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York. He is a member of numerous medical societies and national quality committees.#AbdulelahAlhawsawi #PatientSafety #SaudiArabia #PreventableHarm #Sepsis #AntimicrobialResistance #HealthDiplomacy #ScienceDiplomacy #NovoGenomics #Genomics #Multiomics #PersonalizeMedicine #Agrigenomics #Premarital #Prenatal #NewbornCare#HereditaryDiseases #Oncology#GeneticsCounseling#ClinicalGeneticsSupport the show