Finding Genius Podcast

As a research fellow in clinical medicine, Sharee Basdeo focuses primarily on tuberculosis (TB), which has co-evolved with the human immune system for thousands of years. By tuning in, you'll discover: How the three general responses to TB exposure differ, and why it's been difficult to determine why only some people develop active TB disease after exposure What is problematic about drug therapies and the vaccine for TB What Basdeo believes is the next step in TB-related research There are roughly three categories of responses to TB: a person can be exposed to TB but mount no immune response and show no signs of having been exposed, a person can be exposed and their immune system can mount an effective response which contains the TB infection and puts it in a dormant state, or a person can be exposed and develop active TB disease. So, what determines which course of action will occur? This is a question that has yet to be answered, and one that many people are actively researching. Basdeo discusses this topic, along with many other fascinating subjects, including how those who harbor latent TB can develop active TB as they age, innate immunity, what happens when the wrong drug or wrong dose of drug is taken for TB, how the lung and gut microbiome might be related to the immune response for TB, the mutagenesis of TB and why it is difficult to kill TB, how TB finds ways to tune down the immune response to allow itself to exist undetected, and the importance of Th17 cells. Visit https://www.tcd.ie/research/profiles/?profile=sbasdeo to learn more about Basdeo's work. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Filipe Cabrerio researches how a host's microbiome and physiology interact in the context of different conditions such as aging and metabolic syndrome while taking various medications. He shares some his lab's research with listeners, explaining What they found when studying colorectal cancer drugs and microbial metabolism, How metformin interacts with microbial physiologies to alter metabolic syndrome, and What future studies he hopes to instigate involving the vast genetic diversity in some of these microbes, even within the same species, and medical impactions for treatment. Filipe Cabreiro holds a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship in the London Institute of Medical Sciences at the Imperial College of London. His lab works to understand how the microbiome interacts with a host's physiology—how the microbes that one produces interact with others, especially when both are challenged by daily medications taken to deal with disease and in the conditions of aging. The lab recently made an important discovery in the context of cancer drugs: they found that classic drugs for colorectal cancer were modified by microbial metabolism that reduced or amplified the action of the drugs. Further, they found that certain components of food could change that response. He also discusses a study on metformin, a drug taken for type 2 diabetes, and its interaction with the microbiome. They found that nutrients, the host's microbiome, and the drug interact in an important way. Metformin makes selective pressures on certain gut microbes, which translates into longer lasting change associated with positive effects. They think metformin pushes for certain conditions that allow some healthful microbes to survive and also pushes strong metabolic change. The consequences of that change is the production of molecules such as fatty acids and others that can actively regulate the host's physiology and metabolism. He explains the nature of this interaction and the significance in more detail along with challenges to these kinds of studies, further hypotheses, and future research he hopes to take on. For more, see his lab's web page: cabreirolab.org. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Professor Clive Shiff is an entomologist who shares fascinating insight into his work. Tune in to discover: What sleeping sickness is and how it's transmitted What it was like living in the African Bush for over two years and coming face-to-face with wild animals Where schistosomiasis is found, how it is contracted, and what it does to the body For two years, Shiff lived in the African bush, where he encountered elephants, rhinoceros, leopards, hippopotamuses, and many other animals face-to-face. He shares his experiences, what he learned during this time, and what he did to avoid deadly parasites and diseases like malaria and sleeping sickness. Shiff discusses the efforts to eradicate malaria in the 1950s, parasitic diseases such as sleeping sickness and schistosomiasis, what therapies and sanitations efforts have been implemented in response to schistosomiasis and why it has been so difficult to combat, and how he is trying to improve diagnostics for parasitic diseases. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Professor John Hogenesch studies circadian rhythms and the genome. He talks about The influence of cues on our circadian rhythm and how lighting and even medication timing can affect us, Studies on hospital-specific lighting and how two new hospital wings in Cincinnati are designed accordingly, and Some unusual sleep patterns, such as Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, and how it can affect people. Dr. John Hogenesch is Professor of Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Human Genetics and Immunobiology at the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics. He specializes in genome biology with a focus on the molecular mechanisms of circadian rhythms in mammals. He explains to listeners the basics of circadian rhythm as a daily rhythm of behavior and physiology that persists in the absence of external cues. He discusses how healthcare and specifically hospital design and schedules are often at odds with most patients' rhythms. In fact, he mentions one study in which NICU patients under a cycled light schedule went home two weeks earlier than babies under constant dimmed light conditions. He discusses his hospital's design of two new areas for NICU and PICU patients under the advisement of his lab that will integrate beds with circadian natural-light systems. He adds ways in which medication delivery and procedure timing could also be better paired with circadian rhythms and efforts to do so. Dr. Hogenesch also talks about Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS). Richard has such a sleep pattern and the two discuss how it manifests itself, as well as other sleep patterns, and how they affect those who experience them. He also addresses how cortisol's peak has an effect as well as how external cues interfere or work with our sleep patterns. For example, he mentions our eating timing, light exposure, and light temperature and type. He discusses how the pandemic is pushing many of us to later sleep schedules and possible hypothesizes for why. Along the way he offers some suggestions for eliminating excessive blue and green light and other similar measures. For more, see his lab page at cincinnatichildrens.org/research/divisions/h/genetics/labs/hogenesch and the Society for Research in Biological Rhythms, which publishes helpful blog posts and articles. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Dr. Alex Richardson is an expert in nutrition and health and uses a multidisciplinary approach to epidemiology. In this podcast, she connects food health and physiology, explaining to listeners How the classic paradigm for research studies fails to take into account how our complicated physiology processes food and other factors, Why common medications for stomach acid may decrease our ability to prevent cognitive decline, and What comparing the differences between the British Victorian diet and habits with our modern lifestyle tells researchers about food health. Dr. Alex Richardson is the founding director of Food and Behavior (FAB) Research and is a Research Associate with the Department of Physiology, Anatomy, and Genetics at the University of Oxford. She has been a part of several seminal studies that involve connections between nutrition and brain health. In this podcast, she focuses specifically on the epidemiology of cognitive decline diseases and nutrition. She begins by describing the very limited approach historical studies have take thus far, commenting that the accepted model of research is incapable of taking into account how our body and nutrition work together. Specially, she identifies how the randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trials only handle one nutrient or medication at a time and tells listeners why this is so inadequate. She also entails several ways this study pattern has harmed our understanding of what medications can do and provides some recent findings of how proton pump inhibitors have a multi-pronged means of harming cognitive strength. In addition, she describes studies that show what's actually good for us, enumerating a study on the British Victorian Era's lifestyle and diet and resulting health and lack of disease. She then moves into a discussion about the harm in our modern-day diet and talks about how harmful sugar is, the importance of B vitamins and in what form, fatty acids, and other healthful choices and why. For more about Dr. Richardson, see her profile at https://www.fabresearch.org/viewItem.php?id=7412 Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Dario Simões Zamboni is a professor in the Department of Cell Biology at the Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, and he joins the show to discuss the ins and outs of his important and fascinating research. In this episode, you'll discover: What type of cell death actually leads to an immune response capable of controlling the replication of pathogens in the body What types of parasites and bacteria are able to subvert the function of cells that are crucial to the immune response How innate immune memory works Zamboni's research focuses on the interactions between host cells in the human body and microbial pathogens. According to Zamboni, understanding the processes that occur in relation to these interactions is key to understanding the outcome of certain diseases. When a pathogen is able to replicate in the host's body, severe illness and even death can result, but under certain circumstances, the body can fight a pathogen and regain homeostasis. So, what dictates what will happen? This is one of the questions Zamboni spends his days investigating. Of particular interest to Zamboni are the intracellular parasites Leishmania and Trypanosoma cruzi, and the intracellular bacteria Legionella and Coxiella burnetii. These pathogens are considered virulent, which means they are adapted to subvert the function of certain cells, such as macrophages which are integral to the immune response. In the presence of these pathogens, macrophages are rendered unable to kill the pathogen or recruit other cells to kill the pathogen. Zamboni's goal is to better understand how exactly this process of modification by the pathogen works, and what exactly dictates whether the host or pathogen wins. Among other topics, Zamboni talks in detail about the process of phagocytosis, pathogenesis, innate immune memory, the many receptors we have that are ready to sense the most abundant components of bacteria, and bacterial secretion systems for modulating immune cells. Tune in and check out https://lpm.fmrp.usp.br/en/ to learn more. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Epidemiologist Syed Ahsan Raza has been looking at several different epidemics and associated cancer viruses in multiple countries. He explains What an epidemiologist does and how that helps physicians treat more effectively, How he and his colleagues and have worked to eliminate neonatal tetanus and what still needs to be done, and What trends he's found in different populations for the human papillomavirus and the cancer viruses hepatitis B and C and how that will help designate resources. Syed Ahsan Raza is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and a Cancer Prevention Research Institute (CPRIT) fellow. At the outset he explains some misconceptions about epidemiology and then describes what he and fellow epidemiologists do and how their work helps medical workers fight pandemics. He says it is all about studying epidemics—not treating the diseases, but studying the spread and looking for insights and predications that people who are treating can use for more effective methods. He then describes some of his research. He started looking at neonatal tetanus in graduate school, which significantly affects infant and maternal mortality. He explains that the umbilical stump acts as a vehicle of delivery of the bacteria because of the unhygienic delivery practices in some areas. The spores that cause it are widespread so it can't be eradicated, but rather eliminated. He describes some of the measures to achieve this elimination like vaccines and even inexpensive clean birth kits. He tells listeners how much more needs to be done. He also talks about his work with cancer viruses like the human papillomavirus and hepatitis B and C, describing the population studies he's done across the globe, patterns he's identified, and how this will help medical personal target certain areas. For more about him, see his profile at bcm.edu/people-search/syed-raza-29119. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Dr. Steve Luby is a communicable disease epidemiologist who joins the show to discuss his work over the years, as well as provide insight on the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, you will discover: How low-income countries with a high population density are being affected by COVID-19 In what ways and what countries strict lockdown measures have actually resulted in more deaths, directly and indirectly Why the COVID-19 pandemic might change the way politicians think about infectious diseases, and how it will shape the future of economic and global health Unlike many communicable disease epidemiologists, Dr. Luby spent a long time living in low-income countries including Pakistan and Bangladesh with the goal of seeing problems firsthand before trying to sort out how to address them, and identifying opportunities to make a difference. Through this experience, Dr. Luby gained unique insight into the patterns of infectious diseases and transmission in different areas of the world. He uses the current COVID-19 pandemic as an example of such patterns, explaining that the high population density in areas like Bangladesh make social distancing measures impossible, and encourage the efficiency of infectious diseases like COVID-19. The result? It's tragic in the short term, he explains, but in the long-term it will result in fewer people in the area remaining susceptible to the virus. By virtue of the virus moving through these areas so quickly, these areas are likely to normalize a lot sooner than the US and other high-income countries where better medical infrastructure exists and social distancing measures are possible. In addition to a number of other important and interesting topics, Dr. Luby explains why it can be so problematic for governments to make ill-informed decisions out of a desire to simply "take action" amid a pandemic, and the importance of sound scientific support for political leadership worldwide. Tune in for the full conversation and learn more about Dr. Luby's work by visiting https://woods.stanford.edu/people/stephen-luby. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

While many think of epidemiology as indicative of infectious disease, it actually designates the study of patterns of disease. Amanda Phipps explains this and her research into colorectal cancer. She discusses How a cancer epidemiologist begins to approach colorectal cancer, What types of samples they are able to find and what types of patterns they are looking for, and How microbiomes factor into their studies and what may be significant. Amanda Phipps is Associate Professor of Epidemiology and the Associate Chair of Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She explains that cancer epidemiology entails asking what puts some people at risk, why do some people develop certain kinds of cancer like breast cancer while others don't develop any or develop different kinds. Further, among those who do develop cancer, what predicts a good prognoses versus bad? She remarks that researchers try and get very specific about their subsets of study. Even with the same type of cancer like breast or colorectal cancer, each cancer is very different. There are different sets of genetic changes, risk factors, and courses of treatment. She discusses her research into colorectal cancer and the effort to gather as much data about their subjects as possible to identify certain patterns. She is also looking at the microbiomes from the tissue samples of these patients, comparing cancerous and noncancerous tissues. She explains their methodology and tests they perform, including the DDR PCR test, as well as a bacterium they've identified that seems to show a significant pattern in relation to colorectal cancer. She also touches on some other studies and future interests including immunotherapy responses and investigating associations between sleep apnea and certain cancers. To find out more, see her faculty web page: https://epi.washington.edu/faculty/phipps-amanda Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK

Professor Benayoun grew interested in studying aging and becoming a gerontologist as an undergraduate working with a key study. Now an assistant professor of gerontology, she explains her current work to listeners. When you listen, you'll hear her talk about Why it is important that the FDA has not categorized aging as a disease, What transposons have to do with epigenetics, aging, and our immune system, and How differently the sexes respond to the aging process and why that should be centered more in most research. Berenice A. Benayoun is Assistant Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. She tells listeners about how she became interested in the field and why it asks such complicated and engaging questions applicable to us all. She gives some background first on how scientists had to reframe their view on aging after a seminal study by biologist Cynthia Kenyon that found a mutation in a roundworm doubled its life. Benayoun explains that previously aging was thought only in terms of decay, but Kenyon's finding changed this view. Benayoun started her own lab at USC about three years ago. She's researching two main concepts, which she explains in more detail: first, her lab is looking at sex differences on aging. She says that some aging interventions have completely different effects on eah sex. Further, the majority of past studies have steered toward male subjects. Her lab is also looking at transposons, which are endogenous viruses in our genomes, and how they regulate aging. People had thought of them as part of junk DNA in the past, but because they become active when we age, they are likely significant. She explains other elements of aging that involve epigenetics, methods that show promise for delaying aging such as modulating the insulin cell-signaling pathway, and future steps in her field. For more see her lab page at gero.usc.edu/labs/benayounlab and find her on twitter as @BBParis1984. Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myKhttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1169016854