Mendelspod Podcast

There was a tweet thread at the end of the recent Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) conference where researchers took a moment of silence for all the sequencing companies that have announced big plans at the conference and then died. It was clearly aimed at this year’s sequencing tools entrant and buzz-generating Ultima Genomics. The company emerged from stealth the week before AGBT announcing the $100 genome with a purse of $600 million backed by funders including Khosla Ventures, Andreessen, and Founders Fund. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Has the pandemic unleashed the molecule of RNA to be the new future of drug development?Tim Mercer is the Director of the BASE Lab at the University of Queensland which has recently become one of Australia’s leading national facilities for the manufacture and research of RNA technologies. Tim is the next guest in our series on enzymatic DNA synthesis which he says is "a quantum shift” in our ability to synthesize DNA.Tim then goes on to explore the future of mRNA vaccines and other RNA therapeutics. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Heidi Rehm’s talents for genomics are legendary. Our field has devoured them like a hungry beast.Discovering an appreciation for the natural logic of genetics in her early school years, Heidi would later learn she was good at the standardization of genomic databases for clinical use. This would make her a pioneering superstar of genomic medicine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

The area of early cancer detection continues to become ever more exciting these days. Each month more companies add liquid biopsies to their product offering as new technologies advance and are able to recognize cancer with increased sensitivity and specificity, particularly from cell-free DNA in the blood. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

While we’re able to sit outside on a warm summer’s night under the ocean of stars, let us contemplate some of the bigger questions. We’re very excited to start out our twelfth season of the podcast with the chemist, Lee Cronin, from the University of Glasgow. Lee published an original and fundamental theory about the universe in the weeks after we taped which has profound implications for the question about the origin of life and could have some interesting applications in genomics. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Dr. Eric Green has been the Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2009. Two years ago, he and his colleagues at the Institute came up with a strategic plan for the next ten years. Today we discuss the plan with the director and get his outlook on the future of human genomics.Dr. Green says human genomics can be roughly divided into four chapters. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Pacific Biosciences has introduced a new method for detecting DNA methylation simultaneously with DNA sequencing. They are calling it 5-base sequencing.Today on the program, Jonas Korlach, PacBio’s Chief Scientific Officer, and Tomi Pastinen, the Director of the Genomic Medicine Center at Children’s Mercy Research Institute in Kansas City join us to describe the new breakthrough and connect it to clinical possibilities. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Alec Ford is passionate about his message. No wonder. There's an astounding fact in cancer medicine that is little known and could make a big difference. More cancer patients are dying from infections than they are from their cancers. And Alec's company has the technology to do something about it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

One of the underrated but true successes of precision medicine has been pharmacogenomics. Beginning in the ’90s with the approval of the drug Herceptin for HER2 positive breast cancer, tailoring drugs to genotype has been one of the less controversial areas of our field and will only continue to build on the early promise of sequencing the human genome.Today we talk Michelle Whirl-Carrillo, Director of PharmGKB, a one-stop go-to for pharmacogenomics data that has been funded by the NIH since 2000. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

Today we talk with John Nelson, Senior Principal Scientist at GE Research and veteran in the field of DNA synthesis. On January 7th, 2020, two weeks before the first cases of the coronavirus were reported in the U.S, John and a team of scientists and engineers proposed a new project to DARPA called NOW, or Nucelic Acids on Demand Worldwide. The goal of the project, now fully underway, is to deliver DNA-based vaccines anywhere in the world in three days. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe