Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us Fan MailDr. Stephani Otte, Ph.D is Science Program Officer, Imaging, at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (https://chanzuckerberg.com/), who leads the organization’s Imaging program and is focused on the creation, dissemination, optimization, and standardization of transformative imaging technologies. Prior to CZI, Dr. Otte was Director of Science at a neuro-technology / microscopy company, Inscopix, involved in accelerating brain science and innovating mini-scope microscope solutions for real-time mapping of the human brain and it’s circuits. Dr. Otte received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego, and did postdoctoral fellowships in systems neuroscience at the Salk Institute and University of California, Berkeley. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is an organization established and owned by Dr. Priscilla Chan and her husband, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, with a focus on science, education, immigration reform, housing, criminal justice, and other local issues, with a mission to "build a more inclusive, just, and healthy future for everyone" and to "advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy".Support the show

Send us Fan MailXenobots are living micro-robots, built from cells, designed and programmed by a computer (an evolutionary algorithm) and have been demonstrated to date in the laboratory to move towards a target, pick up a payload, heal themselves after being cut, and reproduce via a process called kinematic self-replication. In addition to all of their future potential that has been mentioned in the press, including Xenobot applications for cleaning up radioactive wastes, collecting micro-plastics in the oceans, and even helping terraform planets, Xenobot research offers a completely new tool kit to help increase our understanding of how complex tissues/organs/body segments are cooperatively formed during the process of morphogenesis, how minds develop, and even offers glimpses of possibilities of what novel life forms we may encounter one day in the cosmos. This cutting edge Xenobot research has been conducted by an interdisciplinary team composed of scientists from University of Vermont, Tufts University, and Harvard, and our show is honored to be joined by two members of this team today. Dr. Josh Bongard, Ph.D. (https://www.uvm.edu/cems/cs/profiles/josh_bongard), is Professor, Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, University of Vermont. Dr. Bongard's lab focuses on the unique domain of evolutionary robotics with a goal of directing the evolution of increasingly complex, capable, and autonomous machines to perform a widening array of difficult tasks. Dr. Bongard completed his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from McMaster University, Canada, his M.S. in Evolutionary & Adaptive Systems, University of Sussex, UK, his Ph.D. in Informatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a post-doc in the Computational Synthesis Laboratory at Cornell University. He is the co-author of the popular science book entitled "How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence” and co-author of "Designing Intelligence: Why Brains Aren't Enough". Dr. Michael Levin, Ph.D. (https://allencenter.tufts.edu/our-team/michael-levin/), is Tufts University Professor who holds the Vannevar Bush endowed Chair in the Biology department, and who serves as both the director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology, and Director, Allen Discovery Center at Tufts. Dr. Levin’s group's focus is on understanding the biophysical mechanisms that implement decision-making during complex pattern regulation, and harnessing endogenous bio-electric dynamics toward rational control of growth and form. Dr. Levin has dual B.S. degrees, in Computer Science and Biology, and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He did post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School. Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Amy Throckmorton, Ph.D. (https://drexel.edu/biomed/faculty/core/ThrockmortonAmy/) is Associate Professor and Director of the BioCirc Research Laboratory, in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, at Drexel University. The BioCirc Research Laboratory seeks to improve the treatment strategies and therapeutic options for pediatric and adult patients suffering from acquired or congenital heart disease by developing unique features for inclusion in the design of blood pumps and to develop entirely new designs of blood pumps for patients with single ventricle or biventricular circulations as a bridge-to-transplant, bridge-to-recovery, or destination therapy. Prior to this position, in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at the Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Throckmorton served as Associate Professor and previously held the chaired Qimonda Assistant Professorship. Dr. Throckmorton received her PhD and MS in Biomedical Engineering, as well as a BS in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Virginia. After working in the chemical industry, Dr. Throckmorton served as a research assistant from 2000 to 2006 in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. After receiving her PhD, she worked, as a postdoctoral fellow, on the development of blood-contacting medical devices in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Throckmorton currently conducts research in experimental and computational fluid mechanics as related to the development of innovative treatment strategies for pediatric and adult patients suffering from heart failure secondary to acquired and congenital heart disease. Therapeutic modalities under development will augment flow and pressure in the: 1) cavopulmonary circulation (pulmonary circulatory support) in patients with single ventricle physiology, and 2) systemic circulation in patients with single ventricle or biventricular circulations as a bridge-to-recovery or transplant. Dr. Throckmorton's research addresses complex and unresolved hurdles in the field of congenital heart disease and mechanical circulatory support. Core areas of her research include the application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) under steady and transient rotational flow conditions, hydraulic performance testing of prototypes for validation of CFD predictions, blood bag experimentation, and animal testing. This research combines broad expertise in engineering, pediatric cardiology, adult cardiology, congenital heart surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and medical device design and manufacturing. Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr Charlotte Yeh, MD Chief Medical Officer, AARP Services, Inc. (https://www.aarp.org/about-aarp/aarp-services/), where she works with the independent carriers that make health-related products and services available to AARP members, to identify programs and initiatives that will lead to enhanced care for older adults. AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is a United States–based interest group focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. According to the organization, it had more than 38 million members as of 2018. Dr. Yeh has more than 30 years of healthcare experience – as a practitioner and Chief of Emergency Medicine at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Tufts Medical Center, as the Medical Director for the National Heritage Insurance Company, a Medicare Part B claims contractor, and as the Regional Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Boston. Dr. Yeh is widely recognized for her commitment to and passion for the healthcare consumer and has received numerous honors for her efforts on behalf of patients. As a health care leader, she has served on numerous boards and committees throughout her career, and currently sits on the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation Board, the Optum Labs Scientific Advisory Board, and the HX360 Executive Leadership Advisory Board. Dr. Yeh received a BA from Northwestern University and her medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School. She completed her internship in General Surgery at the University of Washington and her residency in Emergency Medicine at UCLA.Support the show

Send us Fan MailMr. Kim Nazel (also known by his stage names "Arabian Prince" or "Professor X") is a rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, DJ, founding member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame rap group N.W.A., as well as burgeoning, technologist, venture capitalist, startup mentor, and business advisor. Mr. Nazel has wide ranging interests in Animation, 3D FX, Music and Computer Digital Technologies. He is CEO of Mik Lezan Music, Owner of Hypnotic FX and One Fader, President of LA First Tech Challenge Southern California Robotics Competition, and Founder / Chief Innovator at Inov8 Next (https://www.inov8next.com/), a Silicon Beach, CA based product innovation incubator and technology center designed to empower the brightest inventors by leveraging the power of industry experience, strategic resources and advanced mentoring. Additionally, Mr. Nazel is also President of Gametime Brownies and Founder/CEO of the Streaming PC Manufacturer - Fear The GGGOAT! Some of the other publically disclosed investments in Mr. Nazel's portfolio include Streoapp, a live streaming app from nightclubs, bars & festivals, Advrtas, an AI (artificial intelligence) driven VR/AR/360 video ad platform, and Covitech, a cloud-based suite of apps helping small-to-medium size businesses access to COVID-19 screening, testing resources and often hard-to-procure protective equipment. His passion for technology led to him create a 3D animation and special effects studio in the 90’s working with companies like Saban Entertainment and Fox; including 100+ video game titles for Fox interactive and Vivendi Universal. Mr. Nazel also produced the hit single and album for J.J. Fad, "Supersonic" - The single was certified gold by Recording Industry Association of America, and also got nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance in 1989, making them the first all-female rap group to be nominated for a Grammy award. Silicon Beach is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, which is home to 00’s of technology startup companies, becoming known as one of the most prominent technology hubs in the world, as well as home to many major technology companies in the region including Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Snapchat and Tinder. Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Dean Radin, MS, PhD (https://noetic.org/profile/dean-radin/), is Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS) and Associated Distinguished Professor of Integral and Transpersonal Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). He is also Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board for the neurogenetics biotech startup, Cognigenics (https://www.cognigenics.io/). Dr. Radin's original career track as a concert violinist shifted into science after earning a BSEE degree in electrical engineering, magna cum laude and with honors in physics, from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and then an MS in electrical engineering and a PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For a decade Dr. Radin worked on advanced R&D at AT&T Bell Laboratories and GTE Laboratories. For over three decades he has been engaged in research on the frontiers of consciousness. Before joining the research staff at IONS in 2001, he held appointments at Princeton University, SRI International, and other academic and industrial facilities. Dr. Radin is author or co-author of hundreds of scientific, technical, and popular articles, four dozen book chapters, and four best-selling books including The Conscious Universe (recipient of the Scientific and Medical Network’s 1997 book award), Entangled Minds, Supernormal (recipient of the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award), and Real Magic. Dr. Radin’s books have been translated into over a dozen languages. Dr. Radin’s 100+ academic articles appear in peer-reviewed journals ranging from Foundations of Physics and Physics Essays to Psychological Bulletin, Psychology of Consciousness, and Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. He was featured in a New York Times Magazine article and he has been interviewed by dozens of television programs worldwide. He is a sought-after speaker, and has given over 600 talks for prestigious schools, government, military, business, scientific, and other groups around the world. Dr. Radin’s invited talks for industries have included Merck, Google, Johnson & Johnson, and Rabobank. His government talks have included the US Navy, US Army, the Naval Postgraduate School, DARPA, the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (India), the International Center for Leadership and Governance (Malaysia), and the Australian Leadership Retreat (Australia). In 2017 he was named one of the 100 most inspiring people in the world by the German magazine, OOOM, and as of 2021 his filmography on IMDB lists 26 documentaries he’s appeared in.Support the show

Send us Fan MailMs. Nashira Layade is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Business Services, at Realogy Holdings Corp. (https://www.realogy.com/), and she leads Realogy’s technology infrastructure, security, operations, and support strategies. Realogy Holdings Corp. is an American publicly owned real estate and relocation services company which owns and franchises several real estate brands and brokerages (including Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate, Cartus, Century 21 Real Estate, Citi-Habitats, Coldwell Banker, Corcoran Group, ERA Real Estate, Sotheby's International Realty and ZipRealty), which supported approximately 1.4 million home transactions in 2020, and offers relocation, lead generation, title, and settlement services. Most recently, Ms. Layade served as senior vice president, chief information security officer for Realogy, responsible for establishing and maintaining the enterprise vision, strategy, and programs necessary to ensure the adequate protection of Realogy’s digital information assets and technologies. Ms. Layade’s background includes nearly 20 years experience as an executive and thought leader in information security, data privacy, and risk management for multinational Fortune 500 firms in the financial services, media & entertainment, and real estate industries. Prior to joining Realogy in July 2016, Ms. Layade served as an executive director for information security at Time Warner Inc. for nearly five years, and before that served as a director of information security for Prudential Financial. From 2005 to 2009, Ms. Layade held key senior leadership positions at Citibank, including vice president and senior risk control officer, and prior to Citi, spent three years working as a global head of information security for Bloomberg LP. Ms. Layade holds an M.S. in Telecommunication Networks from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. She obtained a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania and is also an alumna of the prestigous Phillips Academy Andover.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Clarice D. Aiello (https://samueli.ucla.edu/people/clarice-aiello/), is Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, at the UCLA Samueli School Of Engineering. Dr. Aiello is also leader of the new Quantum Biology Tech (QuBiT) Lab, a new center dedicated to interdisciplinary research on the possible quantum underpinnings of biological processes, within the UCLA California NanoSystems Institute (https://cnsi.ucla.edu/). With her Ph.D. from MIT in electrical engineering, and postdoctoral appointments in bio-engineering at Stanford, and in chemistry at Berkeley, Dr. Aiello's research group, the Quantum Biology Tech (QuBiT) Lab, is focused on performing quantum measurements on “living sensors,” such as proteins, cells and microorganisms, to understand how they interact with their environment. This knowledge can lead to a broad range of discoveries, for example, how animals navigate, advanced therapeutics for metabolic-related diseases, and quantum information strategies for computing.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Ken Paller, Ph.D. (hhttps://psychology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core/profiles/ken-paller.html) is Professor of Psychology and James Padilla Chair in Arts & Sciences, Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program and the Training Program in the Neuroscience of Human Cognition, Fellow of the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center, and Fellow of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, at Northwestern University, Department of Psychology. Dr. Paller’s collaborative research with his students and colleagues focuses on human memory, consciousness, and related issues, and recent research publications have examined various themes including sleep’s role in memory and memory dysfunction, sensory processing during sleep to reinforce prior learning, the neural substrates of conscious memory experiences, and the juxtaposition of those memory experiences with various ways in which memory can influence our behavior in the absence of awareness of memory retrieval, such as in the case of intuition. His investigations make use of various behavioral measures of memory, analyses of brain electrical activity from the EEG, patterns of cognitive deficits in neurological patients, and MRI methods. Dr. Paller received a PhD in Neurosciences from UC San Diego following undergraduate training at UCLA. He held postdoctoral positions at Yale, Manchester, and Berkeley. He is a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, journal editor at Neuropsychologia, and program committee chair for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. He received the Senator Mark Hatfield Award from the Alzheimer’s Association, and research funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal agencies and private foundations.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Tohru Minamino is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine (https://juntendo-cvbm.com/en/about.html). He also serves as Director of the Cardiovascular Medicine, Juntendo University Hospital. He received his MD from the Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine in 1989 and his PhD from Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo in 1997. Dr. Minamino is a medical cardiologist and research scientist focusing on molecular mechanisms of aging. He started his major research focusing on cardiovascular aging at Harvard Medical School (1997–2000), and his research interests have currently been growing in the biology of aging including metabolic pathways of longevity and senolysis. He has published more than 100 papers including in Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Cell Metabolism, and Lancet. Dr. Minamino has won several awards including Satoh Memorial Award in Japanese Circulation Society, and Erwin von Bälz Award (1st prize). Support the show