Mendelspod Podcast

Booking 26 million viewers, the voice of Warren buffet, the endorsements of Olympians Joey Cheek and Tara Lipinski—this company was going for the gold with their ads during the Olympics this year. Of course, we’re talking of the direct-to-consumer genetic testing company, 23andMe. What was the take of our monthly commentators, Nathan Pearson of Root and Laura Hercher of Sarah Lawrence College?Also, for all the doomsday predictions, has Donald Trump been any worse after one year for our industry than the biohacker?Join us for this month’s 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

Sequencing geeks are fresh off the trail from AGBT, and it’s time for our annual look at the sequencing tools space. This year we sit down with the longtime Omics! Omics! blogger, Keith Robison, who not only can answer all your questions about the topic, he even knows which sequencer you’re using right now, and in which department.Keith jauntily runs through the Big 3--Illumina, Pac-Bio, and Oxford Nanopore--and has a few odds and ends to say about the "niche developers." 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

Nanopore sequencing has arrived. Passing test after test this past year--including one we discuss today--this technology which was being hyped decades ago is delivering on its promise.Winston Timp joins us today. He's an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins and one of the leaders on a recent large scale project to directly sequence RNA on an array of nanopores. Winston's is the first in a series of shows we've lined up with users of Oxford Nanopore's technology.Why RNA-seq? Hasn’t this been done for 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

Some stocks are up on news of big biotech mergers, but others are down on hearing of the latest difficulties of gene therapy. One thing’s for sure—blood diseases are where it’s at.Speaking of the latest difficulties, we start our January review by going back to that paper out of Stanford about a new obstacle to using CRISPR as a new drug platform. It’s called the human immune system. Major roadblock or small warning light? 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

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