Mendelspod Podcast

"Welcome to the era of T2T genomics,” tweeted UCSC’s Karen Miga on August 16th of this year. Then she linked to a paper on bioRxiv that begins: "After nearly two decades of improvements, the current human reference genome (GRCh38) is the most accurate and complete vertebrate genome ever produced. However, no one chromosome has been finished end to end, and hundreds of unresolved gaps persist.”

After the summer break, Nathan and Laura, stir from their beach slumbers, to again offer their anything but sleepy opinions on the latest genomics headlines.

Cathy Smith counts herself among the Gleevec Generation after the landmark targeted cancer therapy. She’s an optimist who believes in the possibilities of precision medicine. “We are outsmarting cancer,” she says. Cathy is an Assistant Professor of Hematology/Oncology at UCSF where she is also an MD treating patients. Her area of expertise is in acute myeloid leukemia or AML...

Cathy Smith counts herself among the Gleevec Generation after the landmark targeted cancer therapy. She’s an optimist who believes in the possibilities of precision medicine. “We are outsmarting cancer,” she says. Cathy is an Assistant Professor of Hematology/Oncology at UCSF where she is also an MD treating patients. Her area of expertise is in acute myeloid leukemia or AML...

As another summer winds down, another flu season approaches. Yuuuk. When will we be able to stop living in fear of that crowded plane flight in winter months or waking up congested and wondering . . . dreading, “am I coming down with a cold?” Yes, we get that annual flu vaccine shot, but each year we still get the bug. Until now, a real universal flu vaccine has eluded drug makers, and having the flu goes on being just part of life. But it doesn't have to be.

Synthetic biology is experiencing a second renaissance and the place to be this October 1-3 is at the SynBioBeta conference in San Francisco. For those of you who are going, today’s show is your preview. For those of you who need a nudge, just listen to what conference founder, John Cumbers, has conjured up in this biggest and most diverse lineup yet.

Synthetic biology is experiencing a second renaissance and the place to be this October 1-3 is at the SynBioBeta conference in San Francisco. For those of you who are going, today’s show is your preview. For those of you who need a nudge, just listen to what conference founder, John Cumbers, has conjured up in this biggest and most diverse lineup yet.

Some Americans still resist genetic testing for fear they will be discriminated against by insurance companies. Why? in 2008, Congress passed GINA, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, to protect us from insurance companies choosing to include us or not for policies based on the genes we came with. Then in 2010, Congress passed the ACA, or Affordable Care Act, and with it protection against preexisting conditions. This includes genetic predispositions.

It’s the kind of plot that makes great science. There are genes that have been hiding in plain sight, undetected until now. They’ve gone unseen, that is, by short read sequencing. Today’s guest and his colleagues call them “camouflage genes,” and a couple in particular may play functional roles in Alzheimer’s disease...

We’ve interviewed several CEOs over the years since the Theranos fiasco who avoided any mention of the blighted company whenever the comparison came up. But today’s guest, Murielle Thinard McLane, the CEO of Ontera, jumped at the chance before Theral could get to it. "Some people might say, well that's the Theranos model. They (Theranos) didn't get it wrong. The demand for a fast, comprehensive point-of-care solution near the patient is there...