Mendelspod Podcast

Fifteen years ago, folks in the industry were buzzing about RNAi the way they talk about CRISPR today. Then things went quiet for the technology, at least in the news. Until last year.In September of 2017, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, the leader in the RNAi space, announced such positive phase III study results that most experts in the business expect an FDA approval soon. It will be the first for an RNAi drug. 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 major chapter in the history of medicine has been written by UC San Francisco. They are writing the next for precision 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

Reproductive testing is one of the hottest fields in which genetics is going mainstream, a field hurdling us rapidly into the future. It’s an area we’ll be following closely in 2018.Gary Harton serves as the Chief Operating Officer in the US for Igenomix, a company in the reproductive testing space with a vast global presence. The company has labs in the US, Japan, India, Turkey, Rome, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, and are headquartered in Valencia, Spain. 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 first show of the year is an outlook on genomics for 2018. To do this we’re joined by our regular commentators, Nathan Pearson and Laura Hercher, and also by a special guest to mix things up a bit, Misha Angrist, Associate Professor at Duke University and Editor in Chief of Genome Magazine. 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

Sharon Begley joins us for our last show of the year to look back over some of the year’s top stories. She’s the senior science writer at STAT News where she covers genetics, cancer, neuroscience and other fields of biomedical research. Prior to joining STAT, Sharon was the senior health and science correspondent at Reuters, the science columnist at the Wall Street Journal, and the science editor at Newsweek. 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

“I love low tech,” says today’s guest.It’s not your typical catch phrase for 2017. But then today’s guest is not your typical genome scientist.A professor in the Department of Chemical Physics at Tel Aviv University in Israel where he runs the NanoBioPhotonix Lab, Yuval Ebenstein came to the genome from an unusual direction. As a physical chemist he started working with DNA as “just a material.” 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 topic today: biotech leadership. What makes a good biotech CEO? Are there unique issues to biotech and diagnostics that shape and demand a different kind of leadership? 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 didn’t take long to come up with our lead story for November’s month in review show. Looking at the pictures of the boy in Germany playing soccer after successful treatment of his rare skin disease is just the kind of images we had in mind when we first heard of stem cell therapies. 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

Carla Grandori was for thirty years a cancer researcher most recently at the Fred Hutch in Seattle. She had her personal reasons for working on cancer, she tells us in today’s show. Now, she’s the CEO and founder of SEngine, a startup offering something completely new for oncologists around the country.Carla says she was motivated to step out of the research lab when two patients came to her personally and asked her, “can you study my cancer?” 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

Immuno oncology is now the dominant topic at Mendelspod. From shows with CEOs presenting new panels of predictive biomarker tests, to the firsts at the FDA with the CAR-T approvals as well as the first approval of a drug (Merck’s Keytruda) based on a common biomarker (MSI) rather than on a tumor type, to scientists discussing rare cells of the immune system, we had more podcasts on this topic than any other in 2017. 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