Mendelspod Podcast

K Thomas Pickard is not at all into sports cars. So when he hit midlife crisis, it wasn’t a Porsche or a golf club membership that would reenergize his quiet moments. Nope. K T got his genome sequenced. 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 last time we talked with Chris Mason of Weill Cornell Medical College the Supreme Court had just decided the controversial Myriad gene patent case. How forever ago two years can seem. Since then Chris has swabbed and sequenced the microbiome of New York City and began the project of sequencing in space.His favorite research this year has been to longitudinally profile the genome, epigenome, transcriptome, metabolome and microbiome of identical twins, one in space and one on earth. 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

Classes for the school year begin this week at Stanford University. New to the faculty is Carolyn Bertozzi, an American chemist who made her name across the bay at Berkeley and was wooed to Stanford by a chance to do research and teach chemistry in a new interdisciplinary institute known as ChEM-H. The institute will bring chemists, engineers, biologists and medical doctors together to understand life at a chemical level. We’ve often heard of biology and engineering institutes, or bringing bio and IT. This institute ups the ante and includes chemistry and 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

Though recent guests at Mendelspod say we're not quite to the $1,000 genome, we're close enough to use that benchmark in genomics discussions. But what are we getting for that almost $1,000?Mark Gerstein is the co-director of the Yale Computational Biology and Bioinformatics program where he focuses on better annotation of the human genome and better ways to mine big genomics data. He has played a big role in some of the large genomics initiatives since the first human genome project, including ENCODE and the 1,000 Genomes Project. 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

What is a human genome? Well it’s the three billion letters of our DNA. But how is it measured? How do we know when we have it accurately represented?These are questions that will have to be answered as precision medicine takes hold; for we must have defined standards that will be the basis for regulatory policy, commerce, and better research. These are also the questions that are foremost on the mind of 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

It's no secret that America's molecular testing laboratories by and large are worried that the FDA's plan to regulate laboratory developed tests, or LDTs, will severely harm patients. Now they have a new proposal which they are taking directly to Capitol Hill.Roger Klein is the Medical Director of Molecular Oncology at the Cleveland Clinic. He’s also serving as the spokesperson for the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) on the controversial topic of regulating LDTs. 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

Diagnostics can be a tough business. The FDA is making a strong push to bring more oversight. Obtaining reimbursement can be outright Sisyphean. And clinicians are slow on the uptake. All of which makes today’s story so good. 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 race to the $1,000 genome has been full of breathtaking advances, one after the other. But is next gen sequencing reaching maturity? Will there be that many more significant innovations? 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 slow week in life science left us scratching our heads about the purpose of some new studies.The first, a major project to study the microbes in about 1,200 homes appeared under headlines such as this from Tech Times, "Household Bacteria Can Reveal Volumes about Home Residents." Volumes? Really?A second study claimed that we are less successful at biomedical research today because life expectancy is not going up at the same rate as the growth in funding or the increasing number of scientists. That's a high bar to set. 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 taken some time, but the NCI is finally sponsoring a big time clinical trial for cancer where the patients are organized by the genomic pathway that defines their cancer rather than the organ type. 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