Finding Genius Podcast

Despite the type 1 and 2 labeling, there are more than two groups of diabetes. Researchers like Toni Pollin are accelerating their work on these lesser known groups. This podcast presents a monogenic diabetes review, interviewing a specialist and a patient who, along with her two daughters, has this heritable disease. Listen and learn The history behind the discovery of the monogenic diabetes genes and diseases, The symptoms, or lack of, for this group of diabetes and examples of several types within the group, and The treatments available, opportunities for research, and resources to find out more. When Emily Moore was sixteen, she underwent a screening for a routine procedure and tests found unusually high blood glucose levels. She happened to have a doctor a little ahead of the game and, rather than just call it type 1 diabetes, he gave her a monogenic diabetes diagnosis, sometimes called MODY: Maturity Onset Diabetes of the Young. Through treatments less extreme than what type1 diabetics usually face, she was able to control her numbers. But when she had her own kids, she wanted to learn more. Enter Professor Toni I. Pollin of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who was running a study that Emily enrolled in. Professor Pollin explains that in the '70s, an astute group of scientists noted that some kids had a type of diabetes that seemed milder than other type 1s, and even responded successfully to pills rather than insulin. Unlike other types of diabetes that develop from genetic and environmental factors, this monogenic diabetes is inherited through an autosomal dominate manner. Such patients might control it with a CGM sensor or diabetes monitor and make diabetes lifestyle changes accordingly. Medication can help and in some cases, insulin may be indicated. The blood sugar patterns of Emily and her teenage daughters, who have been diagnosed, along with Richard, who has experienced prediabetes blood sugar levels, gives Dr. Pollin an opportunity to evidence how complex and individualized all types of diabetes are, even within the same group. It's that much more important to start with the "low-hanging fruit" of a correct diagnosis, adds Dr. Pollin. For more, look to the web page for the new consortium they've started, MDRAC, which includes links to helpful resources. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Anxious about the future? You're not alone. Rapid change plus overflow of information has pushed many to adapt a dystopian outlook on the future. This podcast shares a conversation with two authors who are challenging that mindset. Po Bronson and Arvind Gupta discuss their new book, Decoding the World. Listeners will hear How the background and mindset of each author informs the direction of the book, Why the book tries to get "science out of its silo," and why that's important for a brighter future, and How the book applies this mindset to subjects from cancer causes and the chemotherapy process to cryptocurrency trading and bitcoin currency explained. Arvind Gupta is founder and venture advisor at Indie Bio and co-leads Mayfield's engineering biology practice. Po Bronson is a journalist, author, and managing director and partner at Indie Bio. Together they've written Decoding the World: A Roadmap for the Questioner (The Convergence Trilogy). Po opens up the premise of the book by talking about the work of Indie Bio, which took biotech out the limits of the health care sector and applied it to food, materials, and energy. This book wants to do the same with the reader's mindset, and take the domain of genetics out into the real world. Arvind adds, "we have a lot to look forward to . . . we can use the tools that we have to make a better future." Both authors emphasize getting out of a deterministic mindset; rather, nothing is inevitable, even climate change. We can do something. They give some enlightening examples from the book, including a chapter on cancer and how they address cancer causes and prevention through a personal story alongside facts about cancer cells, which serves to elucidate the present and future in a unique way. They also take on the idea of bitcoin as the currency of the future, explaining why, in particular, venture industries use cryptocurrency. This chapter opens up the subject in a way that uses bitcoin future predictions to make the process understandable and free from deterministic economics. Finally, the authors even discuss a chapter based on the Jason Borne story. Listen in to find out how that theme fits with an exciting way to determine our futures. For more about Indie Bio, see their website: indiebio.co. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Pathogens easily grow on plastics, and plastics travel far and wide in the ocean. That has marine biologists like Joleah Lamb looking for solutions. This podcast dives deep into the complex world of aquatic ecology and biodiversity and how our actions impact it. Listen and learn What startling statistics exist about changes in marine aquatic ecosystems and the environment and ecology, How scientists are exploring this ecosystem and sampling water in bivalves and around seagrasses with interesting findings, and What possible mitigation factors might help these ecology and evolutionary biology impact factors. Joleah Lamb is an assistant professor in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology School of Biological Sciences with the University of California, Irvine. She runs their Oceans and Human Health Laboratory, which focuses on solutions in a research-driven program at the interface of public health and ecosystem function. She gives listeners a wakeup call: the global population is expected to surpass 9.7 billion people by 2050, and more than half will live within 80 kilometers of a coastline. We know about the ocean's impact on humans, but most also consider the reverse. From microorganism on coral reefs to biofilms that might be introduced through tiny pieces of plastic in the ocean, scientists like Dr. Lamb are thinking carefully about how these systems may clash. Only two years ago, she says that scientists didn't even have a number about the amount of plastics going in and settling on sea floor and corals. Through careful surveys, they have found that corals with plastics touching them had a 20 fold increase of contracting a disease. This was the first study to show that plastics that were in contact with animals could cause a disease outbreak. She also shares some remarkable findings about sea grasses and environmental microbiology. Seagrasses are the rainforest of the marine environment and capture even more carbon than trees. They've found that seagrasses can actually kill human pathogens, and areas with seagrasses show a healthier water column. Listen in for more ways scientists like Joleah Lamb are working for a better ecology. For more about her work, see her lab's website: oceanhealth.bio. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

The mortgage space spits out a seemingly insurmountable level of complex numbers. Accessing clean data from interest rates and housing markets alongside numerous other elements in the mortgage space is no small feat. This podcast presents the CEO of one company that says they can do just that. Listen to hear how big data and its importance meets data democratization. Listeners will learn How Li Chang's career path in big data analytics and housing market economics led her to start Recursion Co. and its new approach to data, What big data versus data science means in the context of "cleaning up" data by arranging and normalizing it into usable information, and What her company has been able to achieve thus far and what types of customers they are seeking. Li Chang is the Chief Executive Officer of Recursion Co. After achieving a graduate degree in computer science, she returned to get her PhD in mathematics while working full time at Morningstar. She worked for a hedge fund soon after graduating as a financial engineer and has been working in the mortgage space ever since. She started Recursion Co. in 2015 when she needed a new challenge and saw a clear need for such a company in the industry. Mortgage data is so immense, she says, that is too big for most companies to handle. Plus, because she knew the capabilities of computer science and data science, she felt Wall Street was not taking advantage of Silicon Valley advancements. Analyzation systems in the mortgage space were very clumsy and "messy." Li Chang realized that she had the ability, tools, and know-how to put these very complicated numbers together and address the mortgage space data issues in a much more efficient way. She also knew she could make it affordable for a broader audience, calling this effort "data democratization." What exactly does this look like? They rearrange and normalize the chaotic data, bringing it together from many sources in a way that tells the whole story. Currently, they are looking for smaller companies in the mortgage space as customers. They can help companies who don't have a lot of human resources or technology in-house by providing them with the equivalent resources as if they have a big company behind them. For more about their work, see their web page, recursionco.com and follow their blog on LinkedIn. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Weight loss and stress management seem to top everyone's list. But our attempts at achieving all types of fitness may be overwhelming. We strive for physical fitness motivation while understanding the importance of mental fitness—it's a lot. But JJ Flizanes stands out with a unique and inspiring science-based approach that simplifies and calms these claims on our attention. This podcast explores her approach to the laws of attraction. Listeners will hear How her training in anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, and physics led to this larger understanding of the frequencies we inhabit, Why being in a place where you are mentally, physically, and emotionally drained indicates the type of mirror you are reflecting on the world, and How to begin to adjust one's approach and what resources her work offers to listeners to learn more. Flizanes is a podcast host, author, speaker, trainer, and Director of Invisible Fitness. Her work to become a trainer opened up her understanding of scientific principals and as she researched even more, she came to understand how we literally have our own operating frequency. She says that "the law of attraction is actually physics: when you apply physics and realize that, it's a game changer." Listeners will have an opportunity to hear more about this game-changing approach as the conversation continues. She says that the frequencies we live with everyday are the same frequencies in our bodies, and these are reflected in our emotions. In other words, how we experience the world is a reflection of where we are, not what we want. She adds that eighty-eight percent of our mind is at a subconscious level, so simply thinking positive thoughts isn't going to lead to change. Rather, the law of attraction is about adjusting that feedback loop and takes a lot of practice beyond a list of mental fitness tips. However, she provides inspiration to start down that path. For more about her work, see her website, which links to her podcasts and other programs: jjflizanes.com. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Scientists have come to visualize cancer as species in itself, with its own evolutionary patterns and characteristics. Furthermore, researchers like Henry Heng are realigning how we think about evolution. This podcast presents a fascinating conversation about both and how each informs the other. Listen and learn How the importance of genetics in cancer has evolved into the importance chromosome packaging and reshuffling in cancer, Why this means cancer genetics and genomics must focus on the topological arrangement and interactions of genes, and Why our dynamic mechanism for adaption can lead to too much change, resulting in cancer. Author and Professor Henry Heng is with the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics at Wayne State University School of Medicine. His research centers on how cancer evolution occurs, what is the unique pattern of cancer evolution, and how to develop tangible tools for a cancer biomarker and treatment leading to a greater molecular medicine impact factor. Author of numerous books, including Genome Chaos: Rethinking Genetics, Evolution, and Molecular Medicine, he also presents an intriguing realignment in how many scientists think about evolution. In fact, he uses the nature of cancer evolution as a model to understand how evolution works overall. Think about it: cancer is always under attack by our system; it's always evolving and fighting back and presents an interesting model to understand how competition occurs. For a long time people thought of cancer as a problem of over growth, he says, and tried to find genetic reasons for this overgrowth. But scientists like Heng understand that this was the wrong emphasis. Rather than overgrowth, he says, cancer is just another evolutionary system with its own signature. The question is then, rather, what is the overall trend. This leads to an interesting explanation of how nonsexual reproduction, or fission, opens cells up to the kinds of changes that lead to cancer. Cancer is a type of punctuated evolution, a reshuffling resulting from the dynamic mechanism our cells use for successful adaptation: cancer is simply too much change. Listen in for the implication of how this may affect genetics biology and cancer treatments in the future. For more about Henry Heng's work, he suggests his recent books, including Genome Chaos: Rethinking Genetics, Evolution, and Molecular Medicine and Debating Cancer: The Paradox in Cancer Research. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Curious about how to make a two-headed flatworm? Michael Levin's lab has done just that. This podcast explores exciting regenerative medicine achievable in our lifetime. Listen in to hear how Professor Michael Levin has found a way to manipulate biological molecules, altering electrical triggers in cells to direct different anatomical constructions. He discusses How he conceives of cellular and biological agency in a way that direct his study for the best possible outcome, What types of molecular mechanisms his work engages with to redirect information structures and mapping so that cells make a different anatomical structure, and How this work, including regenerating limbs in frogs, will apply to human limb regeneration. Michael Levin is a Distinguished Professor at Tufts University as well as the Vannevar Bush Professor, the Director of Allen Discovery Center, and Director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. His lab addresses regenerative medicine through the intersection of three areas: developmental biology, computer science, and cognitive science. He establishes his approach to cognitive biology: "It's not a question of philosophy but a very practical empirical engineering question. You have a system and you are trying to reverse engineer it," he explains. His investigations of molecular mechanisms in cell biology that determine pattern building strives to present achievable actions toward limb regeneration and altering molecular mechanisms of diseases like cancer. His work doesn't engage with the molecular mechanisms of DNA replication or genetics, but rather cellular gap junctions, or "voltage-gated current conductance," which hold the property of memory. His lab is not changing the structure or state of the circuit, but eliciting an electrical trigger. He makes this analogous to hardware versus software: this is not a hardware-level change, but one on a software level. By identifying the bioelectric circuit that holds spatial distribution for certain state in planarian (flatworms), they've found a way to rewrite the electrical pattern that determines what cells are going to build after they are injured. Thus far they've used this to grow flatworms with two heads, for example, and produced limb regeneration in frogs. They also are working on redirecting cancer cells to move to a healthy state. To find out more about this work, see his lab's website: www.drmichaellevin.org Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

After Matt Shields experienced a heart attack during his daily run in 2016, he decided to change the world as much as that morning changed him. This podcast explores his inspiring effort to improve the process of stent manufacturing and deliverability. Listeners will hear How he experienced a heart attack at age 40 despite years participating in performance sports like running and cycling exercise, Why he turned to collecting data about stent manufacturing after getting one of his own implanted, and What his new software tracking stent usage hopes to accomplish for the industry. Matthew Shields works for CSRIO, Australia's national research science agency. He'd spent years supporting telescope systems by creating an efficient tracking system for telescope parts. But after his heart attack in 2016 during a winter morning run, he recalibrated his job focus toward making a difference for patients and doctors working on heart health. His long recovery gave him time to think, and this combined with the realization of the importance of the timing of the stent implant he received helped point to this new path. He understood that to make a difference on a global scale, he could energize and streamline the stent manufacturing process, which was filled with missing links and inefficient trends. His software tracks stents through the supply chain and utilizes metrics like delivery time from the factory, where parts are made, and how the supply chain of raw materials functions. As they "cascade down this waterfall," he says that by the time they end up in Australia, the stents might have been damaged and there's no way to really return them or even trace their origin. From his personal experience, he knows how important a stent's availability is and how vital is it is for various stakeholders to be aware of correct supply location and amount. By creating a dialog around the parts transfer at a granular level as well as the deliveries, he hopes to correct inconsistences, inefficiencies, and redundancies. In addition to this work, he is involved in exercise and sports cardiology, reaching out to those who are both heart patients and sports enthusiasts. For more about his sports cardiology work, see his website: epichearts.com.au. For more about the software he's working on, see the CSRIO web page. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Listening has always been instrumental to diagnoses, but have listening instruments changed over time? This podcast touches on this interesting history and spotlights a healthcare innovation making the most of wireless stethoscopes when safe distances are even more important. Listen and learn Why Clive Smith of Thinklabs thought a digital stethoscope project would benefit the medical community, How artificial intelligence matched with this stethoscope can combine to offer medical professionals a plethora of helpful information, and How One Digital Stethoscope is especially useful with the pandemic. Clive Smith started Thinklabs in the early '90s after graduate work at Cal Tech in electrical engineering. He focused on electronic and signal processing and was eager to start a company specializing in the innovation and application of electronics and technology. The name says it all—he went with Thinklabs to signal a company that would handle and solve interesting problems with hands-on lab work. When he encountered the lag of stethoscope advancement in the mid '90s, he knew he'd found an important project. But he soon found that it was a "very nontrivial problem" to extract sound from the human body, and it took eight years to come up with this innovation in digital healthcare technologies. While the product has been on the market for about 17 years now and sees wide use in normal clinical medicine and telemedicine, the COVID crisis has made its remote abilities especially useful. Furthermore, now that AI technology has caught up a bit, numerous studies can take place to recognize its true potential. At the most basic level, doctors are able to hear things much more clearly and enable earlier diagnoses of conditions. But it's expected that data collecting and analyzing will reveal patterns and correlations with even more implications. To find out more, see the website for Thinklabs. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Diabetes complications are well known, but how exactly does high blood sugar affect one's eyes or kidneys? Professor Median explains that vascular complications of diabetes start with blood vessel damage. Therefore, his research has zeroed in on a way to heal the damage that blood vessels face from high glucose. Listen and learn Which pathways such as glycolysis lead to vascular changes in diabetes, How he's working on a cell therapy to treat vascular diabetes complications by injecting treated stem cells into this ischemic (damaged) tissue, and What complications arise from this therapy and how his team addresses these challenges in their research. Reinhold Medina is a professor in the School of Medicine at Queen's University in Belfast. He specializes in diabetes and vascular disease with an emphasis on diabetic vasculopathy. His research is centered on blood vessel damage because, "that's what impacts the quality of life." He adds that the complications in heart health, increased risk of stroke, and damage to the eyes and kidneys all result from what happens to blood vessels when they handle high glucose levels, inflammation, and oxidative stress. The endothelial cells, which line the inner layer of blood vessels, are damaged and die. Blood perfusion then decreases in those damaged areas, and tissue physiology is hampered. That's where his research comes in: utilizing stem cells for diabetes. He says that there a couple of ways scientists think endothelium can repair, and one such way is with progenitor or stem cells. They're trying to develop a cell therapy by isolating stem cells or progenitors in the lab from tissues like umbilical cords. They are showing that by injecting these cells into damaged tissues of mouse models, they can form new blood vessels where needed as well as repair damaged vessels. This will translate as a therapy for lots of other diseases—any, in fact, that cause this kind of tissue damage. There are challenges to this process, but they are working on each. For example, he explains the importance of injecting the cells in the penumbra area and addresses how the cells must engraft and join the vascular network through immunosuppression measures. For more about his work, he suggests following him on Twitter at ReinholdMedinaLab@Belfast. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK