Mendelspod Podcast

Here’s a title for you. Chief Genomics Officer. Today’s guest is also the VP of Genomic Medicine and a faculty investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. 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 past few months have seen the first approvals at the FDA for CAR-T cancer therapies. But trials have been going on for years. And not just by big pharma.Today’s guest, Dr. Michael Jensen, is a researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital and started his first CAR-T cell trial back in 2002.“It’s been a long road to get to the point where we understand enough about the science and physiology of this technology to make it work int he clinic," he tells us in today's interview. 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

Modena, Italy is the town where one of the world's rarest cars were first developed and built: the Ferrari sports car. It’s also home to one of the world’s oldest universities where today’s guest spends his time studying rare human cells. 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 1999 to 2013, Deanna Church was a staff scientist at the NCBI where, for a time, she headed the Genome Reference Consortium. This was the effort to continually update, improve and maintain the reference genome. Then Deanna went into private industry, first to Personalis--a genome interpretation company, and now she’s Director of Applications at 10X Genomics--the tools company offering linked read sequencing technology. 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

If today's guest were a super hero, he'd be High Resolution Sequencing Man.Bobby Sebra is the Director of Technology Development at the Icahn Institute of Genomics and Multiscale Biology at Mt Sinai in New York. He has the complete arsenal of DNA sequencers in his lab. He specializes in long read applications, and today he goes into several of those spaces, including infectious disease and oncology.How has sequencing changed since we last had Bobby on a couple years ago, and how does he see it changing in the next two years? 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

To honor Laura's pentametric thirst,We write the summary today in verse. Was it a quake that had no epicenter,That silly paper out by J. Craig Venter? And after years of silencing the marketHas RNAi at last knocked out its target? Then Nathan gives to yuppies devil's choice.Which one libs: gluten dough or GMOs? 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

We’ve heard a lot this year about the search for new structural variants and the hope that scientists will find new causal linkages for diseases such as cancer. But will the genome still yield dramatic genetic signatures such as KRAS, BRAF and EGFR that have been so helpful in cancer treatment?Today’s guest says, yes, and he’s on the trail. 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

When we first talked with Tim Triche of LA Children's Hospital, we found out he was a bit of an outlier among cancer researchers. He was an advocate for poking around in the non-coding RNA.Today we welcome Tim back to the show to talk about a new gene panel that he has designed specifically for childhood cancers. It’s a first of its kind and was modeled quite closely on the gene panel for the NCI’s MATCH trial.The new panel has both a DNA and an RNA component, and the RNA side is by far the biggest. 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

Back in 2009, University of Washington professor, Jay Shendure, wrote a definitive paper offering up a roadmap for exome sequencing. Since then, the cost of sequencing has come down so far that many have debated whether or not to do whole genome sequencing vs. just the exome. 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

Back from summer vacation, Nathan and Laura are smoking hot as they look back over some exciting headlines.The summer boiled over with plenty to talk about, but it was just this week that delivered most of the news for our discussion today. Novartis’ gene therapy based on CAR-T technology was approved Wednesday, making it the first gene therapy to be approved ever in the US. Analysts will be trying to figure out how high high is when it comes to the price tag, but Nathan and Laura explain why this therapy is a big deal for patients. 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