Best Leo Elworth Podcasts (2024)

1
Dr. Justin Siegel: Enzyme Design, Large-scale Mutant Generation, and Cloud Labs 22:01

3y ago22:01

22:01

Dr. Justin Siegel begins this episode by explaining what enzymes are, how they have evolved, and why Dr. Siegel is motivated to try to engineer enzymes to perform functions tailored to help humanity instead of to perform functions based on how they evolved in nature. He explains the primary goal of the work discussed and relating enzyme sequence to…

1
Dr. Justin Siegel: Lab Automation, Cloud Labs, and the Future of the Wet Lab 33:25

3y ago33:25

33:25

Dr. Justin Siegel explains the past, present, and future of wet lab work and wet lab automation. We start by hearing a description of what it is like to work in a wet lab, covering the contrast between the excitement of seeing life changing results and the countless hours of monotony that is often involved to produce these results. We then begin di…

1
Dr. Afshin Beheshti: MicroRNAs and COVID-19 29:21

3y ago29:21

29:21

Dr. Afshin Beheshti begins this episode by explaining what microRNAs are and why they are emerging as an important area of biological research. He then explains how microRNAs relate to viruses, which is a recently developing area of research in this already young field of study. Dr. Beheshti then tells the story of how he started to discover that m…

1
Dr. Afshin Beheshti: The Hazards and Molecular Features of Spaceflight 48:51

3y ago48:51

48:51

This episode concludes the podcast’s series of episodes focused on space biology and space omics. NASA scientist Dr. Afshin Beheshti discusses the many high level hazards and corresponding molecular features of spaceflight throughout this episode. For instance, we begin with a discussion of the hazards of radiation and microgravity. Dr. Beheshti sp…

1
Dr. Tejaswini Mishra: Wearables Detect Pre-symptomatic COVID-19 28:54

3y ago28:54

28:54

This episode discusses Dr. Tejaswini Mishra’s recent publication in Nature Biomedical Engineering: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-020-00640-6 Dr. Mishra begins the episode by explaining the origin story of this work and how the idea for this paper came to be. She then explains how this study enrolled thousands of participants and used the p…

1
Dr. Tejaswini Mishra: The NASA Twins Study 29:12

3y ago29:12

29:12

This episode continues our series of episodes on space biology and #SpaceOmics with Dr. Tejaswini Mishra. Dr. Mishra introduces The NASA Twins Study, a cornerstone scientific work where two twin astronauts were monitored, with one twin traveling to space, and one staying on earth. Dr. Mishra explains the importance of studying long term spaceflight…

1
Wet Lab / Dry Lab Transitioning with Dr. Willian da Silveira 1:02:04

3y ago1:02:04

1:02:04

For people who work in the life sciences, a very common occurrence is for folks who work on the "wet" side of research, largely doing bench work, to become interested in or start wanting to transition to doing more "dry" research, like computational research in bioinformatics. In this special episode, dedicated to those thinking about transitioning…

1
Dr. Willian da Silveira: The Mitochondria as a Central Hub for Spaceflight Impact 47:19

3y ago47:19

47:19

In this episode we begin discussing the biology of spaceflight with Dr. Willian da Silveira. We start by hearing the story of how Dr. da Silveira's recent high profile space omics paper (https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(20)31461-6.pdf) came to be. He first describes the NASA GeneLab and how he got involved, and how his story of this paper b…

1
Dr. Hayden Metsky: ADAPT for Large-scale Viral Detection 37:08

3y ago37:08

37:08

Dr. Hayden Metsky begins by introducing the ADAPT method for doing large-scale detection of viruses. ADAPT is a computational method that aids the design of CRISPR-based viral testing. He then discusses the motivation for ADAPT and how it relates to his previous works like CATCH. In comparing ADAPT to other work, Dr. Metsky discusses, for instance,…

1
Dr. Hayden Metsky: Computational Methods for Viral Diagnostics, CRISPR-based Tests, CATCH, and More 33:38

3y ago33:38

33:38

Dr. Hayden Metsky begins the episode by describing his goal of being able to harness sequenced viral genomes to computationally design diagnostics, therapies, and vaccines. He discusses the value of having methods available that can handle all available genomic data for diverse species for diagnostics and therapies. Next, we learn how CRISPR can be…

1
Environmental Applications of Synthetic Biology 30:45

3y ago30:45

30:45

In this episode we focus on the applications side of synthetic biology for the environmental sciences and environmental microbiology with Dr. Ilenne Del Valle and Emm Fulk. To start, we walk through the more classical omics approaches for understanding environmental microbiology, setting us up for newer synthetic biology approaches. We then discuss…

1
Synthetic Biology Intro and Biosensors 40:40

3y ago40:40

40:40

Dr. Ilenne Del Valle and Emm Fulk introduce the topic of synthetic biology in this episode. I start by asking, "What is synthetic biology?" We then begin digging into some of the intricacies of synthetic biology by learning about biosensors; biosensors are a fundamental component of synthetic biology for translating environmental inputs and outputs…

1
Dr. Kyle Frischkorn: Transcriptomics vs. Proteomics 33:03

3+ y ago33:03

33:03

Dr. Kyle Frischkorn explains the interplay between different sample analysis methods such as transcriptomics and proteomics. He starts by explaining some of the basics of both transcriptomics and proteomics and gives a refresher on the central dogma. This explanation covers aspects of these methods such as a high level description of what they are,…

1
Dr. Kyle Frischkorn: How to Publish in Nature 28:46

3+ y ago28:46

28:46

In this episode, we attempt to take a look behind the machine of science with Nature Communications senior editor Dr. Kyle Frischkorn. We begin by simply asking the question, "How do you publish in Nature?" Dr. Frischkorn breaks down several of the main hurdles to getting published in Nature. These include having striking findings in the actual res…

1
Dr. Leor Weinberger: Overcoming the HIV Therapy Mismatch 27:19

3+ y ago27:19

27:19

Dr. Leor Weinberger begins this episode by talking about his motivation for developing a novel therapy for HIV. He explains the fundamental mismatch between the mutation and transmission of the disease and how our therapies work, which inspired him to take a novel approach to try and combat the disease. We discuss topics such as the potential for s…

1
Dr. Leor Weinberger: HIV vs. COVID Vaccination 35:44

3+ y ago35:44

35:44

This episode begins by asking the question, "Why is it that we don't have an HIV vaccine after 40 years, but we do have a COVID-19 vaccine after one year?" Dr. Leor Weinberger explains that the answer to this question is primarily due to the existence (or lack thereof) of natural convalescents and whether the immune system is able to beat the virus…

1
Dr. Sabrina Green: Clinical Use of Phages 29:08

3+ y ago29:08

29:08

In this episode, Dr. Sabrina Green discusses the clinical aspects of phage use. We start by going back to one of the first ever uses of phage for a bacterial infection before discussing how phages are used now. Dr. Green explains a wide range of details related to clinical phage use. Topics discussed include cases today where phages are used, the s…

1
Dr. Sabrina Green: Phages and Phage Discovery 26:20

3+ y ago26:20

26:20

Dr. Sabrina Green introduces the concepts of phages and phage therapy. She describes what phages are and gives us a bit of history on phage therapy, describing reasons why antibiotics were widely adopted despite phages being discovered first. She also discusses why phages have become so important in the light of emerging antibiotic resistant pathog…

1
Predicting COVID-19 with Wearables 27:19

3+ y ago27:19

27:19

Dr. Zahi Fayad and Dr. Robert Hirten return to continue their discussion on wearable technology. This episode revolves around the study Dr. Fayad and Dr. Hirten performed to find out if wearable devices can identify and predict COVID-19. They discuss some of the struggles they had being “largely restricted in the data they could collect”. Their fin…

1
Wearables with Dr. Zahi Fayad and Dr. Robert Hirten 26:23

3+ y ago26:23

26:23

Dr. Zahi Fayad and Dr. Robert Hirten discuss all things wearable technology. Throughout the episode we learn about the exciting potential of this technology for conducting health studies and for the general wellbeing of the population. Dr. Fayad and Dr. Hirten explain what wearables do for athletes and for the general health of the public, even pre…

1
Matthew Schechter: Metagenomics History Part 2 22:40

3+ y ago22:40

22:40

In this second part of our history of metagenomics with Matthew Schechter, we start with a description of what a metagenome contains and how you analyze this type of data. Matt explains a few high level concepts such as metagenome assembly, metagenomic assembled genomes, contigs, contig binning, and genome completeness. Matt explains how metagenomi…

1
Matthew Schechter: Metagenomics History Part 1 28:33

3+ y ago28:33

28:33

In this episode we begin our history of metagenomics with Matthew Schechter. Beginning with highlights like the initial ability to see microbes with a microscope and growing microbial colonies, we work our way through the history of metagenomics leading to modern day sequencing. Matt describes a discrepancy between culturing and what is present in …

1
Dr. Heer Mehta: How Bacteria Become Resistant to Antibiotics 26:10

3+ y ago26:10

26:10

Dr. Heer Mehta starts by going over several of the ways that bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. Dr. Mehta explains the connection between specific antibiotics and specific drugs, and how she uses this information to know what to look for when studying the outcomes of experimental evolution studies. She explains how her group can isolate indi…

1
Dr. Heer Mehta: Antibiotic Resistance and Experimental Evolution 30:48

3+ y ago30:48

30:48

Dr. Heer Mehta first goes over some basics of what antibiotic resistance is, why it is a global concern, and some related history. Dr. Mehta explains how bacteria are able to evolve to become resistant to antibiotics. She goes on further to explain how experimental evolution is one way scientists can understand this process and potentially use as a…

1
Dr. Dinler Antunes: Cancer Immunotherapy 43:05

3+ y ago43:05

43:05

We begin this episode by having Dr. Dinler Antunes explain what cancer immunotherapy is. Dr. Antunes gives an extremely thorough, clear explanation of what cancer immunotherapy is, how it works, and the many concepts involved. These concepts include how the human immune system works and how peptides are displayed on the outside of cancer cells. Fur…

1
Dr. Dinler Antunes: Protein Folding, AlphaFold 2, Molecular Docking 32:05

3+ y ago32:05

32:05

Dr. Dinler Antunes explains what the protein folding problem is and gives a bit of history on the problem. Dr. Antunes describes the types of methods for solving the problem computationally. He then discusses the rise of AlphaFold 2 for protein folding and gives his thoughts on its impact. Our discussion then shifts to the molecular docking and rel…

1
Dr. Lauren Stadler: Environmental Monitoring and Microbiology 29:53

3+ y ago29:53

29:53

Dr. Lauren Stadler describes the connection between environmental microbiology and bioinformatics. We start with an explanation of wastewater monitoring including how it is collected, cleaned, gotten rid of, monitored, and studied. Dr. Stadler defines and gives a bit of history on wastewater-based epidemiology. Dr. Stadler discusses how SARS-CoV-2 …

1
Dr. Lauren Stadler: SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Monitoring 24:54

3+ y ago24:54

24:54

What if we could know how widespread COVID-19 is in our communities, in a low-cost way, that everyone automatically opts in to, with no additional effort? In this episode, Dr. Lauren Stadler tells us how her lab shifted from studying microbial communities in wastewater to monitoring levels of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in wastewater. Dr. Stadler explains…

1
Dr. Luay Nakhleh: How to Effectively Communicate, Market, Listen, Read, and More 40:53

3+ y ago40:53

40:53

In this episode we revisit the “expanded” scientific skillset, discussing skills such as written and oral communication, marketing, people skills, listening, reading, networking, and literature search. Dr. Luay Nakhleh teaches us how to improve each of these skills. He explains how he continually asks himself, “How did I do?” He also explains how w…

1
Dr. Luay Nakhleh: The Expanded Scientific Skillset 43:27

3+ y ago43:27

43:27

In this episode, we introduce and explore the “expanded” scientific skillset. Dr. Luay Nakhleh, who was recently named Dean of Engineering at Rice University, describes how communication is a requirement for leadership. He tells us the story of when he decided to grow his own communication skills, how he began improving, and the rewards of being an…

1
Dr. Kathryn Kundrod: Developing Low-Cost, Accessible Tests with LAMP 42:30

3+ y ago42:30

42:30

Dr. Kathryn Kundrod explains how her work has focused on making quality testing available in more resource limited settings. She discusses the design decisions involved and the tradeoffs that can be made to balance the accuracy of a test against the accessibility and cost of a test. We learn about how resource constraints apply to all COVID-19 test…

1
Dr. Kathryn Kundrod: The State of COVID-19 Diagnostic Testing; How We Got Here, Types of Tests, and Emerging Technologies 37:55

3+ y ago37:55

37:55

In this episode, we explore the landscape of COVID-19 diagnostic testing with Dr. Kathryn Kundrod. Dr. Kundrod walks us through a bit of history on how we got to where we are at with COVID-19 diagnostic testing from the start of the pandemic to now. This history includes perspectives from both the technical and regulatory sides, as well as practica…

1
Dr. Tomer Altman: Searching 5 Petabytes of Sequence Data with Serratus 33:43

3+ y ago33:43

33:43

Dr. Tomer Altman describes the atypical origin of the Serratus project and explains why Serratus is such a big leap forward from doing a sequence search with something like BLAST. Dr. Altman dives into the nuts and bolts of how Serratus works and how it was used to find entirely new branches of the tree of life, filled in with previously uncharacte…

1
Dr. Tomer Altman: Primer Design for SARS-CoV-2 Diagnostics 43:30

3+ y ago43:30

43:30

Dr. Tomer Altman explains what primers and probes are in the context of PCR tests for detecting pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 when someone is infected with COVID-19. He explains the issues he found in the original CDC primer and probe designs, as well as his thoughts on what may have caused the issues. He then walks us through how these sequences ar…

1
Dr. Melissa Haendel: Ontologies, Phenotypes, and Disease Diagnostics 37:14

3+ y ago37:14

37:14

Dr. Melissa Haendel explains what ontologies are and their usefulness in bioinformatics, genome phenome mapping, and diagnostics. We also discuss the relationship between ontologies and electronic health records.

1
Dr. Melissa Haendel: COVID-19 Clinical Informatics 34:39

3+ y ago34:39

34:39

Dr. Melissa Haendel discusses how the N3C organization she co-leads and co-founded has led the way in integrating COVID-19 clinical data to aid research efforts. She discusses how the creation of synthetic clinical data also has the potential to help COVID-19 researchers. Further topics include the current status of electronic health records in the…

1
Dr. Fritz Sedlazeck: Sequencing and Detecting Structural Variants in SARS-CoV-2 31:55

3+ y ago31:55

31:55

Dr. Fritz Sedlazeck discusses his own SARS-CoV-2 research works. He discusses a number of projects such as quantifying structural variants in the SARS-CoV-2 genome and converting a human sequencing center to a COVID-19 testing center. He also shares tips on how he analyzes genomic data sets.

1
Dr. Fritz Sedlazeck: Detecting and Interpreting Structural Variants in Genomes 28:18

3+ y ago28:18

28:18

Dr. Fritz Sedlazeck discusses detection and interpretation of structural variants within genomes. He begins by explaining the basics of what structural variants are and how they affect organisms' phenotypes. He also covers some of his own work, for instance, categorizing the effects of structural variants in tomatoes and yeast, including being able…

1
Dr. Todd Treangen: Fall 2020 Bioinformatics Roundup 48:35

4y ago48:35

48:35

Dr. Todd Treangen gives us an update on what's been going on lately in the field of bioinformatics. We begin with a discussion on the best ways to stay current in bioinformatics. Dr. Treangen discusses the roles of the wide variety of sources of information such as conferences and journals. In particular, he expands on the role of social media site…

1
Dr. Todd Treangen: The Hidden Diversity of SARS-CoV-2 50:00

4y ago50:00

50:00

A diverse population of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can exist inside of a single person who is infected with COVID-19. Dr. Todd Treangen explains how his background in analyzing microbial genomes set him up to investigate this "hidden" diversity. He also discusses related work in co-developing a COVID-19 diagnostic test and co-founding and co-leading the …

1
Dr. Krista Ternus: Scientific Career Paths 29:18

4y ago29:18

29:18

For those considering a scientific career, Dr. Krista Ternus explains the wide array of scientific career paths in depth, from academia to companies to government labs to non profits and more. We also discuss leading a lab and winning scientific funding outside of academia. Finally, Dr. Ternus shares tips on writing successful grants and how to han…

1
Dr. Krista Ternus: Metagenomics, Biosecurity, and Clinical Applications; "What's in my sample?" 16:38

4y ago16:38

16:38

Dr. Krista Ternus explains how studying metagenomics leads to being able to answer what is in an unknown sample, and describes the multiple applications of metagenomics. Dr. Ternus also explains applications of bioinformatics in synthetic biology and biosecurity.

1
Dr. Krista Ternus: Analyzing SARS-CoV-2 Sequence Data 29:09

4y ago29:09

29:09

As more sequence data becomes available from the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, there are a number of considerations to make when analyzing read datasets coming from genome sequencers. Dr. Krista Ternus explains common steps to take when analyzing these data sets, potential pitfalls, and interesting scientific questions that can be answered using this type o…

1
Convalescent Plasma Therapy (with Dr. Michael Joyner and Dr. Rickey Carter) 53:40

4y ago53:40

53:40

What is Convalescent Plasma Therapy and how can it be used as a treatment for COVID-19? In this episode, Dr. Michael Joyner and Dr. Rickey Carter give us a lesson on the past, present, and future of convalescent plasma therapy. From its origins to its role in the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We get a glimpse of both the clinical sid…

1
Adrianne Gladden-Young: Sequencing Previous Outbreaks 17:50

4y ago17:50

17:50

Adrianne Gladden-Young has been involved in the sequencing and surveillance of past outbreaks of emerging pathogens for many years. She discusses, for instance, her previous involvement in outbreaks such as Ebola and Zika. How can we be better prepared for future outbreaks?

1
Adrianne Gladden-Young: Sequencing and Analyzing the SARS-CoV-2 Genome 30:16

4y ago30:16

30:16

Adrianne Gladden-Young tells us about her work in sequencing the very first SARS-CoV-2 genome in Massachusetts. She explains the full bioinformatics process of sequencing and analyzing SARS-CoV-2 genomes, starting from collecting a sample from someone who is sick, and ending with computational analyses leading to a better understanding of how COVID…

1
Dr. Luay Nakhleh: Modeling Evolution (Complexities, Cancer, The Role of Evolution in Bioinformatics) 25:59

4y ago25:59

25:59

One of Darwin's original drawings of an evolutionary tree had "I think" written next to it. Dr. Luay Nakhleh explains how evolution underlies much, or perhaps all, of bioinformatics analyses. This includes his own research where he computationally models the evolutionary process, with a focus on cases where evolution violates Darwin's original assu…

1
Dr. Luay Nakhleh: What is Bioinformatics? 30:52

4y ago30:52

30:52

What is Bioinformatics? What is the Bioinformatics and Beyond Podcast? What is the difference between Bioinformatics and Computational Biology? What skill sets are required to become a Bioinformatician? How would someone take their first step into the world of Bioinformatics? What career options are out there for Bioinformaticians?…

1
Richard Copsey, Open Innovation Manager (Part 2) 20:01

4+ y ago20:01

20:01

In part 2, we further discuss the role of the gig economy via the crowd in data science and machine learning, now and in the future.

1
Richard Copsey, Open Innovation Manager (Part 1) 31:51

4+ y ago31:51

31:51

Richard Copsey introduces the idea of looking "beyond the walls" for data science and machine learning solutions. New approaches like crowdsourcing can bring data science work in from a wide, external talent pool. We also discuss three specific oil and gas problems that were solved in part by the crowd.…

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Leo Elworth Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

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