Finding Genius Podcast

Mariano Vázquez, Ph.D., co-founder, and CTO of ELEM Biotech, discusses the many possibilities for testing and advancing treatments by utilizing virtual humans. Mariano Vázquez, Ph.D., has spent many years as a prominent researcher at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and he has worked in tandem with many multi-disciplinary, international researchers with diverse backgrounds spanning physics, mathematics, computer sciences, and engineering. By activating the most powerful supercomputers on the planet, researchers seek to gather a more sophisticated understanding of nature by developing a computational world for their ongoing research. Vázquez talks about their work at ELEM Biotech. Their simulations of complex systems such as the human body, open up many doors for further research and testing. Overall the company is immersed in biomedical simulations, cloud, machine learning, the cardiovascular system, and the respiratory system, advanced medical devices, etc. Vázquez explains that while ELEM Biotech is interested in many areas of study and development, they are mostly focused on the cardiovascular system. Their information states… "Imagine a virtual human, not made of flesh and bones, but bits and bytes." As Vázquez explains, they create virtual humans with the goal of facilitating the testing of medical devices and pharmaceuticals, etc. Ultimately, virtual humans are created in a cloud infrastructure, where pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, etc. can test their products and fine-tune treatments to best-fit patients. In theory, so many devices and systems can be tested, from pacemakers to valve replacements, as well as stents and anti-arrhythmic drugs. Additionally, treatments for asthma, obstructive pulmonary diseases and so much more can be set up for study. Vázquez talks about the future study they hope to approach. He explains the manner in which they develop their models and the relative complexity. He details how they combine systems to work in coordination. He further elaborates on their desire to link systems in a more advanced way, such as the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Vázquez explains also, the wonderful possibilities to test devices in relation to male versus female, for as he states a pacemaker, for example, is designed for both male and female, but the hearts are different. Finally, Vázquez talks about the research and development they expect to delve into in the coming months and years

According to a meta-analysis study in 2015 that considered 226 studies, the practice of oral and breathing exercises lowered subjects' apnea–hypopnea index (an index of the severity of apnea based on how many times and for how long breathing ceases per hour of sleep) by 50%. So, what exactly are oral exercises? It may sound a little odd at first, but Sarah Hornsby is a myofunctional therapist who teaches people how to strengthen their tongue, throat, breathe through their nose, and keep their tongue resting at the roof rather than the bottom of their mouth through a series of exercises she leads via Skype-based appointments, video programs, and YouTube videos. Her goal is to make this knowledge and resource globally accessible to the many people who are unnecessarily suffering or unaware that there is an actual fixable problem underlying their daily fatigue. "It really is something that actually addresses root causes, and I appreciate that so much because I feel like a lot of what we do in modern medicine and dentistry is just about treating symptoms," says Hornsby. In addition to sleep apnea, headaches, jaw pain, neck pain, teeth grinding, and chronic sinus issues are just a few of the symptoms associated with oral myofunctional and breathing problems. Ultimately, a person's overall health and well-being can be severely compromised by something that's treatable without the use of pills or bothersome devices. Hornsby makes for an insightful and eye-opening conversation that covers everything from craniofacial development and growth in children (and how it can be altered by the position of the tongue in the mouth), why snoring shouldn't be brushed off as simply a nuisance, the importance of the respiratory disturbance index in evaluating the seriousness of a person's sleep apnea, and what an initial consultation with her would look like. Press play to hear the full conversation, find her videos on YouTube, and visit https://myfaceology.com/ to learn more.

About two years ago, a group of highly talented senior researchers from a startup named Unanimous approached Dr. Matthew Lungren, assistant professor of pediatric radiology at Stanford University Medical Center, with an inquiry: in what ways, if any, could technology designed to harness the power of collective human intelligence benefit the world of radiology or medicine in general? A collaboration between these researchers and Dr. Lungren commenced soon after, around the time when Stanford researchers released data showing that the detection of pneumonia on x-ray could be accomplished by AI with the same level of accuracy as human radiologists. The investigative question then became whether or not collective human intelligence could outperform the independent power of both AI and human radiologists. So, what exactly is collective or 'swarm' intelligence and how is it better than just having a conversation with colleagues about a particular problem or decision? Dr. Lungren describes it like this: "If you can imagine a puck on ice that can be slid around, and each person has a magnetic force that they can apply to that puck to pull it toward the answer they believe is correct…eventually a decision is reached…and it's fascinating to see how accurate they end up being as a group." Unlike sitting around a table with your colleagues and eventually coming to a conclusion, no one knows the identity of anyone else in the swarm, which immediately eliminates the hierarchical and sociological influences of decision-making processes that involve perceived leaders or people of power; even if subtle, the dynamics that emerge from such heterogeneous groups often play influential roles on the final decisions that are made. Swarm intelligence removes that influence, and replaces it with distributed anonymity in decision making. The possible use cases of this technology extend far beyond the world of radiology and hold promise for a future filled with better, more accurate diagnoses and decision making in medicine, but that's not to say it's not without its challenges and drawbacks. Press play to hear the full conversation, learn more by visiting the web page of the ones who started it all (unanimous.ai) and feel free to email your questions to Dr. Lungren at mlungren@stanford.edu.

In Canada, 27 people are going to die today because of an adverse drug reaction, and in the US, ten times that number will die for the same reason. But with the right patient-specific prescribing software and enough time for thorough patient-doctor conversations prior to choosing or prescribing a new medication, many of these deaths can be prevented. GenXys is a company that's developed software that considers every relevant aspect of an individual's health history, current health status, and current drug list before providing a comprehensive list of the drugs that could be used to treat a particular condition, along with information about risk factors, warnings, adverse drug interactions, efficacy, and more. Current drug interaction software programs are designed to send alerts only after a drug has been chosen, thereby acting as more of an afterthought warning for what's already been decided. GenXys software delivers these warnings to clinicians before they even sit down for the discussion with their patients. "In the end, what we're trying to do is give the physician and the patient all the drug options and the information about those drugs options precisely and very, very quickly…you want to have the time in the consultation focused on the discussion, not on the software, so our aim is to make the software almost in the background, so you don't notice it as the clinician or as the patient," says Dr. Martin Dawes, MD, Co-Founder, and Chief Scientific Officer of GenXys. He brings a wealth of information to the conversation, discussing the current state of affairs in drug development and approval, the current process of deciding upon and prescribing drugs, and the importance of changing the status quo in these areas. Press play for the full conversation, and visit https://www.genxys.com/content/ to learn more.

Bacteria, yeast, and viruses inhabit our mouths, but the role they play in the overall health of our bodies is just beginning to be explored. Currently, factors contributing to sick mouths are being cross-referenced and studied with up to 57 systemic diseases—diseases that would otherwise seem unrelated to oral health, such as colorectal cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, pancreatic cancer, chronic high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and even dementia. Dr. Doug Thompson runs his own practice that's based around the mouth-body connection and aptly named Integrative Oral Medicine. "You can't separate the mouth from the body; it's absolutely integrated, and as dentists become more and more aware, they're helping patients become a lot healthier," he says. He joins the podcast to discuss the specifics of how poor oral health contributes to and indicates the presence of other diseases, and how medical doctors and dentists can collaborate to identify these connections and improve—and sometimes even save—the lives of their patients. Dr. Thompson is also the founder of the Wellness Dentistry Network, which he uses as a platform to teach dentists how to provide better care to their patients by embracing a more holistic view of oral health and to provide resources on best practices and new methodologies in the field. Visit https://ioralmed.com/ and https://www.wellnessdentistrynetwork.com/ to learn more.

Dr. Eric Scerri, noted scientist and author of the book, "The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance," and many others, delivers a fascinating overview of the origin and importance of the periodic table. Dr. Scerri is an experienced scientist who has logged many years in the field of chemistry. His formal education was primarily with the Universities of London, Cambridge, and Southampton. Interested in sharing his love of science with hungry young minds, Dr. Scerri spent a decade teaching chemistry at various private colleges in the London area. Dr. Scerri completed postdoctoral fellowships with the London School of Economics and Caltech then went on to teach again at Purdue University and Bradley University, eventually landing at UCLA in 2000. The science expert talks about his background and how he became interested in the periodic table in his early childhood years. He recounts how the periodic table truly encompasses all the stuff from which everything is made. No other science has anything quite like it, which is remarkable and makes the periodic table that much more intriguing scientifically. He talks in depth about some of the more obscure elements and where they exist or might exist, in the universe. And he provides detailed information about the life of elements and their half-lives. The chemist talks about the origin of the periodic table, as well as the discovery of the atom, etc. He explains many surprising insights that he has encountered in relation to the early equations that explained the complexity of the atom. He goes into detail about various equations from the pioneers of quantum mechanics that set out to explain the periodic table. Dr. Scerri goes on to explain how superficial behavior can be misleading, and that deeper examination is required to fully explain and classify elements within scientific study. He talks about how every object is quantum mechanical, and that quantum mechanics is the more fundamental theory. Dr. Scerri discusses the various areas of his study and recounts some of the commonly asked questions he has fielded over the years in the many and various interviews he has taken part in. Additionally, the science author explains how there is a fundamental unity of everything, and how this concept is often lacking in western philosophy and literature. He talks in detail about how science is, in fact, one unifying area, and that the individuals are less important than the overall advancement of science.

It's only within the last decade or so that there's been an understanding and growing appreciation of the ways in which cancer cells interact with the body, and the important clinical impacts of these interactions. Prior to this, the main focus was on developing therapies that only targeted the tumors themselves. However, due to the hyper-evolving nature of cancer cells and their ability to manipulate and adapt to the environment in ways that promote their growth, therapies designed to attack only them don't always provide clinical benefit for the patient. Masoud Tavazoie, MD, Ph.D., is the CEO and co-founder of Rgenix, a company with a scientific approach to this problem that models the interactions between tumors and tumor microenvironments to not only learn more about the ways in which tumors communicate with the body, but also identify specific targets on immune cells that, when provided with novel therapeutics, will bolster the body's ability to mount an effective response against tumor growth. Since the therapies being developed by Rgenix don't necessarily act on the cancer cells themselves but on the body's ability to combat them, they have the potential to treat multiple types of cancer. Rgenix currently has several drug programs in clinical development, and Dr. Tavazoie joins the podcast to discuss each of them, as well as a range of other important and interesting topics in this new and exciting realm of cancer technology. Tune in and visit https://rgenix.com/ for more.

Imagine an experience so immersive it truly feels like you've been transported to another world or transformed to fit the mold of a flying bird, your seat moving in tandem with the visual experience, your feet hanging in mid-air. Imagine being able to conveniently access such an experience with the whole family, leaving with a newfound sense of insight, motivation, inspiration, and appreciation for life. This is exactly the type of experience MacGillivray Freeman, the family filmmaking company based out of Laguna Beach, CA, aims to provide for as many people as possible. "We are really good storytellers and that's what we pride ourselves on, so being able to have something that is not only really cool and immersive but also emotional and inspirational, we strive for," says Shaun MacGillivray, president of MacGillivray Freeman. He goes on to explain the impressive and important impacts of their films. For example, by partnering with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Coca-Cola in a text-to-donate campaign inspired by their film To The Arctic, four million dollars were donated for a protected place for polar bears. Shaun MacGillivray joins the podcast to discuss how the company began, how it's evolved, what they've accomplished, and what's in store for the future. Press play to hear the full conversation, check out a handful of their films on Netflix and YouTube and learn more by visiting http://macgillivrayfreeman.com/our-story/.

With the creation of an entirely inorganic robotic system about the size of a red blood cell—just seven to ten microns in diameter—the team in the lab of Michael Strano at the MIT Department of Engineering is reaching previously inaccessible locations in the human body and various other environments found within and useful to industry, such as chemical reactors, oil pipelines, and soil matrices. In 2018, they published landmark papers detailing two prototypes of these tiny robotic systems, one which was used as a component of aerosolizable electronics in which they were nebulized and sent through a pipe, light enough to travel along with the air flow. The robots were able to detect different chemicals and respond to light within the pipes, and then be gathered for the collection of data. The second prototype was launched into a body of water where it was capable of detecting various chemicals and responding to magnetic fields, and therefore able to detect nutrients in soil matrices that were good or bad for plant growth. Albert Liu is a presidential fellow and member of Michael Strano's lab at MIT, and he has an extensive laboratory background. He brings a wealth of knowledge to the conversation, explaining the ins and outs of this new technology, the challenges that come along with creating and powering such small systems, and the tradeoffs between artificial and biological systems. Press play for all the details, and learn more by visiting https://srg.mit.edu/. Mass producing colloidal electronics (with a video): http://news.mit.edu/2018/how-mass-produce-cell-sized-robots-1023 Strano website: https://srg.mit.edu/ Albert website: https://albert-t-liu.com/ Nature Nano reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-018-0194-z Nature Materials reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-018-0197-z

Jarett Boskovich, cofounder and chief marketing officer at WowYow Inc. (wowyow.com), delivers a comprehensive overview of his AI-based company's exciting technology. Boskovich has more than a decade of solid entrepreneurial experience and has worked with many successful Fortune 500 companies. With a distinguished background operating in sales and marketing, Boskovich seeks to bring all of his skills to WowYow Inc., the advanced AI-based company he cofounded. Boskovich's company has developed sophisticated technology that can scan video content to unlatch fresh supply and demand sources that can solve an assortment of digital media problems. Boskovich talks about WowYow's position in the digital media space as a forward-thinking visual AI company. As he states, WowYow's AI can be used to identify, index, search, and monetize visual content, across multiple platforms and devices. It's people, places, products and things… in useable metadata delivery. As he explains, users can literally search video and unlock the data within. Imagine seeing a pro baller's sneakers in a game, and wanting to know what they are, and if you could buy them for yourself… WowYow can help. The tech entrepreneur talks about the depth of data that companies can use to create business opportunities. He states that while many things can be identified in video content, not every piece needs to be, or should be, so the technology is expanding as are the safeguards. Boskovich discusses the kinds of content in which the AI can be utilized to assist consumers. The innovative company seeks to turn the industry on its ear, to literally change how we interact with and monetize deep visual content to provide an intense, original experience for businesses and companies as well as consumers interacting from various devices and platforms. Boskovich has high expectations for his company, and the company is working continuously to expand further into augmented reality, television, gaming consoles, and virtual reality. Moving forward, Boskovich states they will be rolling out many new platform innovations that will create all new ad experiences for consumers. As the technology expands, Boskovich will be working with his team to bridge all tech gaps to make the consumer experience more exciting and productive.