Mendelspod Podcast

Go about anywhere in the life science industry, and you’ll run into someone who once worked at Affymetrix. Since the founding of Affymetrix and the development of what’s come to be known simply as the Affy chip, the company’s history has been intertwined with that of biotech and the genomics revolution. But what has become of the company today? 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

Join Theral for a quick wrap-up of the week's biotech news:The biggest news this week has been the flow of stories coming from last week’s AGBT conference held in Florida. This is the annual all out party for the all out darling of our industry, the sequencing space. Like a debutante ball, it’s where anybody who’s anybody comes out and does their curtsy to society. 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

Keira Havens is the co-founder of Revolution Bioengineering, and this week the company launched a crowd funding campaign (see video below) to produce flowers that can change colors.And what is the revolution?“We want to change the world,” says Keira. “We really want to make a difference in the way people think about biotechnology. For a long time it’s been the realm of large companies and behind-the-scenes labs, and we want to make it a part of folks' everyday lives.” 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

Today we bring you a story which you probably wouldn’t have heard at last week’s AGBT conference at Marcos Island. While PacBio and 10X Genomics were getting most of the buzz at the annual show on all things sequencing, it could be the new BGI/Complete Genomics platform that steals the show later this year, says David Smith, a cancer researcher at the Mayo Clinic.In his research, David uses sequencing to analyze the connection between the human papillomavirus (HPV) with oropharyngeall 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

For many years, the trend in biotech was for drug development companies to pursue one or maybe two drug candidates, or assets, as they’re called in industry parlance. Go lean and attract the attention of big pharma or investors in the late stage trials. But today’s guest says there is more innovation when the biotech organization invests in a technology platform that produces multiple drug candidates. Paul Hastings is the CEO of OncoMed, a company developing drugs that target cancer stem cells. He’s built OncoMed in what he says was the old model. 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 today’s special studio interview, the health tech duo, David Shaywitz and Lisa Suennen, walk us through the changing paradigms around healthcare. They offer their thoughts on some of the new digital health and peer-to-peer social platforms which are becoming integrated in daily clinical care. 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

One of those attending the recent White House gathering where Obama announced the Precision Medicine Initiative was a woman who has worked tirelessly as a patient advocate for over twenty years. She’s an award winning scientist and the CEO of the Genetic Alliance: Sharon Terry joins us to kick off a new series, Personalized Medicine and the Consumerization of Healthcare. 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

Today we bring you a story which fits nicely in the vein of personalized medicine. But this time with a twist.We talk with the CEO of Protagen, a company that has developed a platform to find new biomarkers for disease, particularly autoimmune diseases such as SLE, or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. But the platform is based on the hunt for genetic mutations. Rather the company is using antibodies, or proteins to better define disease and disease populations. The company is able to stratify auto-immune diseases better than we’ve done with genomics. 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

This past month one of the most successful genetic testing companies, Myriad Genetics, has been settling one gene patent case after another. Also, the FDA has been attempting to regulate some very complicated lab testing. So we figured we better talk to a lawyer about the devil in the details. We’ve chosen Antoinette Konski of the law firm, Foley and Lardner.Antoinette agrees that the Myriad settlements indicate the end of an era with gene patents. So how is she advising her life science clients in securing IP? 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

David Schwartz was focused on long read sequencing and the structural variations of the genome—the big picture—long before the current trend. His lab at the University of Wisconsin at Madison developed optical mapping and posted the first optical map of the human genome several years ago. And last year, they published the first optical map of a cancer genome. 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