Mendelspod Podcast

When excitement around early cancer detection first surfaced, we heard about the “pan-cancer” test that would look for any and all cancers, and early. Now that we’re some years into it, the approach is turning out to be more of a narrow one. Which cancer will we likely see targeted first with an FDA cleared test? Colorectal, according to today’s guest. 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

Winter is here.  In America, we're just back from the Thanksgiving holiday when many of us travel and get together.  And so far there is no great COVID surge this year. Or is there?Today's guest says there likely is, and we don't know it because of the most significant shift in our pandemic response: at-home testing. 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 spatial biology company, Vizgen, makes their debut on on the program.When Vizgen CEO Terry Lo was first involved in developing what we now call spatial biology at Perkin Elmer, he admits that he never thought it would have a genomics side to 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

It’s the age of multi omics. Or multi comics, if you don't catch spell check. A few weeks ago at the annual meeting of the American Society for Human Genetics, we were pleased to find not only genomics companies but some proteomics outfits finding a home. As we chatted with one of these, Olink Proteomics, we were blown away to hear that they were announcing the publication of 1,000 scientific papers. It wasn’t so long ago that genomics companies were boasting this kind of milestone. Has proteomics finally achieved scale? 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

Have you ever heard of proximity ligation? We knew of it in research form back in the day, but not that it had been commercialized until this summer. It’s not every day we come across a powerful new genomics tool on this program. Which begs the question, where have Ivan Liachko and his company, Phase Genomics, been hiding?The company received a grant this summer from the Bill Gates Foundation as well as the NIH to pursue phage therapeutics. That’s using viruses to go after bacterial infections, particularly those which are developing antibiotic resistance. 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

Last week, during the first International Conference on Newborn Sequencing, a landmark study to sequence the genomes of 100,000 newborns was announced. Called the GUARDIAN study, the project is the brainchild of Wendy Chung, Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University. The study will take place in New York State and is somewhat similar to an ongoing project in the U.K. being done by Genomics England. 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

Pharmacogenomic testing, or PGx, is considered low-hanging fruit, a no-brainer for the application of genetic testing in the clinic. And some may think it is small fruit. Not so, says today’s guest, Kristine Ashcraft."Currently we lose a life every two minutes in the United States to non-optimized medications,” says Kristine in today’s show. She has spent over twenty years working to see pharmacogenomic testing adopted into standard-of-care medicine. Kristine serves today as the Medical Affairs Director for PGx at the genetic testing company Invitae. 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

Last week with a crowd of 1,200 customers in a Los Angeles nightclub, sequencing company Pacific Bioscience launched two new sequencers, both long and short read, Revio and Onso. It was a night of great technology, music, and anticipation. Their customers have waited a long time for this moment. Revio offers long read whole genomes at scale for under $1,000. 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

A new generation of biologists is pushing the limits of third-generation sequencing, furthering the technology's development and defining new applications to answer biology’s most pressing questions.This is the express goal for the lab of Vijay Ramani, assistant professor at UCSF in the department of Biophysics and Biochemistry. Vijay also has an appointment in the Institute of Data Science and Biotechnology at the Gladstone Institute, and in 2019 he was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 rising stars in healthcare list. 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

In our age of specialization, today’s guest, Dr. Will Hwang of Massachusetts General, went against the trend and received three bachelor degrees in different fields.Or is this the new trend?Will says that despite the diversity of pursuits, there was a thread that ran throughout his life as a student. He always liked to look at things at the fundamental unit. 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