Mendelspod Podcast

There are drug trial failures. And there are drug trial failures.The recent move by drug giant Biogen to halt their Alzheimer’s drug has not only been a setback for the company—their stock fell precipitously on the news—it’s also been a major setback for the whole research community focused on this disease. The Biogen trial was one of the last of the major drug companies with high hopes for a significant therapeutic step forward for the neurodegenerative disease. The last five years has seen one big pharma players after another throw in the towel. 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

You order a $99 home DNA test for some holiday pleasure. It’s a bit of fun. Right?Until it turns your life upside down. Which is when you contact a professional. 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

From recovering DNA on hundred year old envelopes to bringing it to life from 28,000 year old wooly mammoth samples, it's our genomics version of March Madness. Join Theral, Nathan and Laura for another monthly look back over the headlines. 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 history of biomedicine goes something like this:A new tool is invented. 2. New tool is used in research labs to generate new data and new hypotheses. There is new science. 3. New tool is used in clinical setting to confirm this new science with real patients. 4. Then new tool is adopted into clinical use.All the buzz these days, single cell DNA analysis instruments have just made it into step three. 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

"That’s fake news!”We hear it all the time. And often it is said about scientific facts, for example, recent studies or evidence of global warming. Or the safeness of vaccines. But has the problem with “fake news” been that much of an issue in the life science industry? 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

Our two favorite commentators are back for our February 2019 month-in-review show, and to give our own twist to Valentine's Day celebrations we take on the topic of family surprises due to DNA testing. This is a phenomenon taking the world by storm in 2019. The Boston Globe had a great headline this past week, "First came the home DNA kits. Now come the support groups." 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 2016, after President Obama announced the Cancer Moonshot in the State of the Union, a very outspoken physician researcher from the Mayo Clinic penned an open letter to Vice President Biden criticizing the project and proposing the money be better spent other ways. It included these lines: 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

Talk to anyone who’s been around diagnostics or blood sampling for long, and they’ll tell you that nanotechnology is nothing new.Today’s guest, Brett Goldsmith, the Chief Technology Officer at Cardea, says he was involved in the nano revolution that was and then wasn’t 20 years ago. (The older veterans among us might date it back even further, to forty years ago.) So what are Brett and Cardea buzzing about early this year in a new Nature paper? 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

Nathan and Laura are back for the first time this year for a wild trip past cloned CRISPRd monkeys and the first gene drive in mammals. (Just that?) But first we have to deal with our hangover from the end of last year.We talk DTC and end with a discussion of the ancient DNA controversy. 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

You’re a mother, and life is typical. You’re also a pediatrician. Then one day you hear that your daughter is autistic. OK. Then you get the news that, no, it’s not autism but a very rare disease called Sanfilippo Syndrome. From your training as a pediatrician you quickly think back and remember the MPS rare diseases, but nothing else prepares you for what’s ahead. 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