The Genetics Podcast

How can precision medicine techniques be used to develop potential new treatments for genetic Parkinson’s disease? In the latest episode of our Precision Pioneers miniseries, Patrick speaks to Dr Carrolee Barlow, Chief Medical Officer at ESCAPE Bio, about the challenges of accessing genetic testing for Parkinson’s patients, how genetically guided treatments could help patients with the LRRK2 gene, and how new technologies such as wearable devices could help catch Parkinson’s cases at an earlier stage.

Can the speed and success of COVID-19 trials teach us how to run other trials 5x faster going forward? Can polygenic risk scores be effectively integrated into healthcare systems? Why do 'unique datasets' hold the key to future drug discovery? And why is there a disparity between precision medicine development in cancer and all other disease areas? Dr Vineeta Agarwala, General Partner at the Andreessen Horowitz Bio Fund, answers all these questions and more as she discusses the future of biotech and genomic medicine with Patrick.

What have gene editing and gene therapies got to do with rockets and satellites? Oscar Segurado, Chief Medical Officer at ASC Therapeutics, explains in the sixth episode of our precision pioneers miniseries. Oscar joins Patrick to discuss the future of precision medicine and how CRISPR gene editing technology can be applied to treat haemophilia.

On this episode of the podcast, Patrick is joined by Josh Friedman, Senior Director of Research at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. Alnylam works on the discovery and development of RNA interference therapeutics; treatments for genetic diseases which work by ‘switching off’ the specific genes associated with a given condition. In this fifth episode of our precision pioneers miniseries, we explore how RNA interference can be applied to treat common and rare genetic diseases, and dive deep into the genetics of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH.

On this episode of the podcast Patrick is joined by Robert Green, a geneticist, Professor of Medicine at Harvard, and Director of the Preventive Genomics Clinic at Brigham Health, whose work centers around accelerating evidence based implementation of genomic medicine. Through the Genomes2People research programme, Robert has led numerous randomised control trials of genetic sequencing in adults and newborns. Patrick and Robert discuss topics including testing for common complex disease risks in healthy adults, genetic testing for newborns, and what major barriers need to be overcome to realise the full potential of personalised medicine.

Continuing with our mini series of Precision Pioneers, Patrick is joined by Phil Vickers, President and CEO at Faze Medicines. Phil discusses his career, including his time with companies such as Merck and Shire Pharmaceuticals. Topics discussed include: The differences between drug development in common and rare disease The unique and patient-centric approach to rare disease research at Shire How genomics has impacted drug development in the past 20 years How to balance affordability of new medicines with company profitability and continued R&D investment The role of 'platforms' in drug development, including both technology platforms and 'knowledge' platforms

This week Patrick talks to Nihar Bhakta as part of our series of ‘Precision Pioneers’. Dr Bhakta is the Chief Medical Officer at Aristea Therapeutics, a clinical-stage drug development company developing novel therapies to treat serious inflammatory diseases. Dr Bhakta specialises in precision medicine and in this episode they focus on his work developing precision medicines for both common and rare diseases. This is the second episode in a mini-series on ‘Precision Pioneers’ - stay tuned for more episodes in this area and find previous episodes by searching for The Genetics Podcast on any podcast provider.

This week Patrick is joined by Dr Kaja Wasik, CSO and co-founder of Variant Bio. Prior to Variant Bio, Kaja co-founded Gencove, a spin-out from the New York Genome Center and an innovator in low-pass whole genome sequencing and imputation. In this episode Patrick and Kaja discuss Variant Bio's approach to using human genetic data for novel drug development and their model for engaging deeply with communities who donate genetic samples and offer a share in the companies revenues. This is the first episode in a mini-series on 'Precision Pioneers' - stay tuned for more episodes in this area.

On this episode, Patrick is joined by Jason Mellad, CEO and Co-Founder at Start Codon, a healthcare startup accelerator that helps develop healthcare startups. Patrick and Jason discuss how Start Codon identifies new technologies and businesses that have a potential to make an impact, Jason's approach to mentorship, diversity and inclusion, and even The LAB, a science-themed cocktail bar in Cambridge that Jason co-owns.

This week we talk to ‘The Girl With MS’, Caroline Craven. A Multiple Sclerosis patient advocate, Caroline has written thousands of blog posts about her journey with the condition to help others manage MS as well. They discuss options for treatment, what it’s like being a patient advocate in this space for over 10 years, and the importance of a good neurologist.