People Behind the Science Podcast - Stories from Scientists about Science, Life, Research, and Science Careers
758 episodes - English - Latest episode: 13 days ago - ★★★★★ - 282 ratingsAre you searching for great stories to ignite your curiosity, teach you to perform better in life and career, inspire your mind, and make you laugh along the way? In this science podcast, Dr. Marie McNeely introduces you to the brilliant researchers behind the latest scientific discoveries. Join us as they share their greatest failures, most staggering successes, candid career advice, and what drives them forward in life and science.
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Greetings science fans!
We’re elated to welcome you to People Behind the Science where we explore the lives and experiences of the people behind the research and scientific discoveries of today.
People Behind the Science’s mission is to inspire current and future scientists, share the different paths to a successful career in science, educate the general population on what scientists do, and show the human side of science.
In each episode, a different scientist will guide us through their journey by sharing their successes, failures, and passions. We are excited to introduce you to these inspiring academic and industry experts from all fields of science to give you a variety of perspectives on the life and path of a scientist.
Our esteemed guests will tell you:
what motivates them and how they balance their competing responsibilities
how they worked through some of the most challenging times in their careers
advice to help you through your own journey through life and science
Our Podcast
People Behind the Science is a podcast focused on the people doing fascinating research through interviews with top scientists. We are proud to have interviewed so many inspiring scientists, including U.S. National Academy scientists like Josh Sanes, Nick Spitzer, Lou Muglia, Jacob Israelachvili, Gene Robinson, Larry Squire, John Dowling, James Berger, and David Spergel, as well as popular scientists in the media like Donna Nelson (science advisor for the TV show Breaking Bad) and Jack Horner (science advisor for the Jurassic park movies). We are honored to have shared their amazing stories with people in all 50 states in the USA and in over 120 countries across the world.
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Episodes
558: Uncovering the Mechanisms Underlying Uneven Rates of Evolution Across Organisms - Dr. Martha Muñoz
June 15, 2020 07:00 - 51 minutes - 23.7 MBDr. Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. Martha is an evolutionary biologist who is working to better understand how and why evolution proceeds unevenly across the tree of life. Some features and branches or organisms are evolving really quickly, while others remain inert or nearly inert for millions of years. Her research is uncovering the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. For Martha, nature is a wonderful sour...
557: Applying Artificial Intelligence to Improve Healthcare - Dr. Wesley Gilson
June 08, 2020 07:00 - 40 minutes - 18.5 MBDr. Wes Gilson is Artificial Intelligence Lead for North America at Siemens Healthineers. Wes and his colleagues use artificial intelligence in the context of healthcare to gain insights on how to improve treatments for patients and how to improve the ways in which clinicians can deliver care. Wes is trained in medical imaging, and he looks at healthcare data in different ways to learn how they can improve healthcare outcomes and help patients recover faster. When he’s not at work, Wes enjoy...
556: Creating New Therapeutics to Treat Testosterone Deficiency - Dr. Robert Dudley
June 01, 2020 07:00 - 41 minutes - 19 MBDr. Robert Dudley is President and CEO at Clarus Therapeutics, Inc. and is a clinical pharmacologist and board-certified toxicologist. With a background in clinical pharmacology and toxicology, Bob has dedicated his career to developing new drugs to promote men’s health. Over the years, Bob has worked on developing a variety of testosterone products, including the first testosterone gel and an oral testosterone replacement drug. Outside science, Bob and his wife enjoy building new houses tog...
555: Investigating How Disruptions in the Gut Microbiome Impact Intestinal Epithelial Cells and Lead to Disease - Dr. Mariana Byndloss
May 25, 2020 07:00 - 36 minutes - 16.9 MBDr. Mariana Byndloss is Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Research in Mariana’s lab investigates how the bacteria that live inside our gut can affect our health. She is interested in how things like diet, antibiotics, or infection may change how our body behaves. This, in turn, can change how the bacteria in our gut behave and lead to disease. Mariana loves animals, and she spends a lot of her free time with her dog and new...
554: Using Rehabilitation Robotics and Noninvasive Brain Stimulation to Promote Recovery After Brain Injury - Dr. Dylan Edwards
May 18, 2020 07:00 - 41 minutes - 19.2 MBDr. Dylan Edwards is Director of the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute as well as an Institute Scientist and Director of the Human Motor Recovery Laboratory there. In addition, he is Professor of Neuroscience at Edith Cowan University in Australia, and Faculty at Harvard Medical Schools Continuing medical education program in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. In his research, Dylan studies the recovery of movement following damage to the nervous system that may occur after stroke or sp...
553: Examining the Impacts of Exercise on Cardiovascular Health After Stroke - Dr. Ada Tang
May 11, 2020 07:00 - 39 minutes - 18.4 MBDr. Ada Tang is a physical therapist, an Associate Professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, and a Clinician-Scientist with the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation. We know that exercise is an important part of healthy living for everyone, but it can be more difficult for people with stroke to exercise as a result of mobility problems and other factors. Unfortunately, exercise is typically not a strong focus in stroke rehabilitation. Ada and her research team ...
552: Making a Mechatronic Tremor Suppression Glove for People with Parkinson’s Disease - Dr. Ana Luisa Trejos
May 04, 2020 07:00 - 41 minutes - 19 MBDr. Ana Luisa Trejos is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as Biomedical Engineering at Western University in Canada. She is also an Associate Scientist at the Lawson Health Research Institute. Ana Luisa’s research is in the area of mechatronic systems engineering. This field combines mechanical, electrical, computer, and software engineering to develop smart machines that can perceive what is happening in the environment and react intelligently. In particu...
551: Applying Insights from Human Genetics to Create New Cancer Therapies - Dr. Tim Behrens
April 27, 2020 07:00 - 40 minutes - 18.8 MBDr. Tim Behrens is Senior Vice President of Human Genetics at the biotech company Maze Therapeutics and Adjunct Professor of Medicine in Rheumatology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. In his research, Tim is working to apply lessons and insights from human genetics to develop new drugs for different diseases. For example, Tim and the team at Maze Therapeutics are working on developing a drug that activates the immune system in new ways to fight cancer. Tim is an avid outdoors enthusiast, ...
550: Developing Novel Drugs to Treat Autoimmune Disease and Inflammation - Dr. Paul Changelian
April 20, 2020 07:00 - 54 minutes - 25.2 MBDr. Paul Changelian is Vice President of Biology at Aclaris Therapeutics and Director of Biology at Confluence Life Sciences. He is working to discover new drugs to treat autoimmune disease and inflammation in conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and multiple sclerosis. In these conditions, the immune system inadvertently attacks cells in your body. He and his team are working to identify and test small molecule drugs that patients could take by pill tha...
549: Unearthing Clues to Reveal How People Lived in Early Mesoamerican Cities - Dr. Verónica Pérez Rodríguez
April 13, 2020 07:00 - 44 minutes - 20.4 MBDr. Verónica Pérez Rodríguez is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). Verónica is an archaeologist and anthropologist who is interested in studying people and life in cities over time. Through her work, she examines how people lived many years ago, what brought them to cities, what made them stay, what were the tradeoffs, and what were the environmental impacts. Her work focuses on the highlands of the Mixteca Alta in the sou...
548: Studying New Cellular Mechanisms of Memory Involving Myelin - Dr. Douglas Fields
April 06, 2020 07:00 - 46 minutes - 21.6 MBDr. R. Douglas Fields is Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section at the National Institutes of Health and Adjunct Professor in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition, Doug is the author of numerous books and magazine articles about the brain, including the recently released book Electric Brain: How the New Science of Brainwaves Reads Minds, Tells Us How We Learn, and Helps Us Change for the Better. Doug s...
547: Examining Episodic Memory and Making Sense of Memory Failures - Dr. Ayanna Thomas
March 30, 2020 07:00 - 36 minutes - 16.7 MBDr. Ayanna Thomas is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Graduate Program in Psychology at Tufts University. Ayanna conducts research to answer a wide variety of questions related to memory. She aims to better understand how our memories work, how our memories fail, how we perceive our memory function (metacognition), how memories change over time, and what are the impacts and implications of these aspects of memory for our everyday lives. In her free time, Ayanna loves watching movi...
546: Investigating the Impacts of Geochemistry and Nanoscale Materials on our Planet - Dr. Michael Hochella
March 23, 2020 07:00 - 51 minutes - 23.5 MBDr. Michael Hochella is a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Virginia Tech. Michael’s research is at the intersection of nanoscience and environmental geochemistry. He studies very small things that can impact the health of the planet and the health of humans. Since childhood, Mike has been fascinated by airplanes and flying, and he received his pilot’s license as an undergraduate student. Over 45 years later, Mike still delights in seeing Earth from the pilot’s seat thousands of...
545: Applying CRISPR Technologies to Advance Food Science, Health, and Sustainability - Dr. Rodolphe Barrangou
March 16, 2020 07:00 - 46 minutes - 21.4 MBDr. Rodolphe Barrangou is the Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences at North Carolina State University. He is also Editor-In-Chief of The CRISPR Journal and co-founder of Intellia Therapeutics, Locus Biosciences and TreeCo. Rodolphe’s research is focused on CRISPR gene editing technologies that allow us to modify the DNA in organisms ranging from bacteria to trees to humans. His lab primarily works to study and apply CRISP...
544: Scientist with Her Sights Set on Using Stem Cells to Study and Treat Retinal Degeneration - Dr. Natalia Vergara
March 09, 2020 07:00 - 42 minutes - 19.7 MBDr. Natalia Vergara is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. Natalia uses stem cells to understand how the retina forms during development and how it degenerates during disease with the goal of developing therapies to help patients who suffer from vision loss. In her free time, Natalia loves hanging out, cooking, and enjoying food with friends and family, including her husband ...
543: Working to Purify and Preserve Our World's Water Supply - Dr. David Sedlak
March 02, 2020 08:00 - 41 minutes - 19.1 MBDr. David Sedlak is the Plato Malozemoff Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Co-Director of the Berkeley Water Center, Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Reinventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure, and Director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, he is author of the book Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's ...
542: Studying Water on the Surfaces of Planetary Systems - Dr. Jonathan Toner
February 24, 2020 08:00 - 40 minutes - 18.5 MBDr. Jonathan Toner is a Research Assistant Professor in Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. Jon conducts research on planetary surfaces, such as Earth, Mars, and the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. He is interested in identifying and better understanding sources and potential of water in these environments. This work has important implications for future exploration endeavors and the search for possible life. In addition, Jon studies how the environmental conditions on...
541: Learning How Long Non-Coding RNAs Contribute to Lung Cancer Development - Dr. Crystal Marconett
February 17, 2020 08:00 - 39 minutes - 18.1 MBDr. Crystal Marconett is Assistant Professor of Research Surgery in the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Crystal’s work centers around understanding the molecular origins of lung cancer. She is interested in how cancer arises in the lungs, what types of cells are involved, what genetic mutations may be happening, and the causes of these mutations. In addition, Crystal’s lab is working to develop new cures for lung cancer and determine which patients will resp...
540: Developing DNA Vaccines and Treatments for Cancer and Other Diseases - Dr. David Weiner
February 10, 2020 08:00 - 43 minutes - 20.1 MBDr. David Weiner is Executive Vice President, Director of the Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center, and the W.W. Smith Charitable Trust Professor in Cancer Research at The Wistar Institute. He is also Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In the lab, David and his colleagues are creating drugs using the same DNA codes and signals that our bodies use naturally. The drugs they are creating are natural compounds t...
539: Investigating Issues at the Intersection of People, Policy, and Marine and Coastal Environments - Dr. Ana Spalding
February 03, 2020 08:00 - 38 minutes - 17.6 MBDr. Ana Spalding is Assistant Professor of Marine and Coastal Policy and Affiliate Faculty at the Pacific Marine Energy Center at Oregon State University. She is also a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama as well as at the Coiba Research Station in Panama. As a social scientist who works in marine and coastal policy, Ana’s research is focused on the intersections of people, the environment, and policies. She is interested in understanding people...
538: Finding Out How the Brain Controls Movement in Moths During Flight - Dr. Simon Sponberg
January 27, 2020 08:01 - 54 minutes - 25 MBDr. Simon Sponberg is Dunn Family Professor and Assistant Professor in the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences, as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Through his research, Simon is interested in understanding how the brain works with muscles to make bodies move. Animals move gracefully in nearly all environments on Earth, and many types of movement can be difficult to perform in robotics and...
537: Examining Extreme Weather Events and Earth's Most Intense Storms - Dr. Kristen Rasmussen
January 20, 2020 08:00 - 38 minutes - 17.7 MBDr. Kristen Lani Rasmussen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Research in Kristen’s lab focuses on studying extreme events, particularly weather events such as heavy rainfall, thunderstorms, hail storms, and other events that have a big impact on humans and society. She is interested in examining these extreme event systems in the context of our current climate and how they may change in the future. In addition to spending quality ti...
536: Studying Stroke Patients to Understand How the Brain Controls Perception and Action - Dr. Laurel Buxbaum
January 13, 2020 08:00 - 28 minutes - 13.3 MBDr. Laurel Buxbaum is Associate Director of the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute, Director of the Cognition and Action Laboratory, and Research Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. Laurel’s research examines how the brain controls perception and action. She studies people who have had strokes in particular parts of their brains to uncover where in the brain strokes may cause certain difficulties or impairments. She also uses a wide variety of techniques ...
535: Developing Novel Materials with Wide Applications from Medicine to Manufacturing - Dr. Tim Long
January 06, 2020 08:00 - 41 minutes - 19 MBDr. Tim Long is Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Macromolecules Innovation Institute at Virginia Tech. Tim’s lab is working on a wide variety of research projects that are focused on novel macromolecular structures to tailor the properties and processing of polymers. His work has applications across many industries, including the development of chemotherapy treatments and electro-active devices important for prosthetics in medicine. In his job, Tim spends a lot of time in his offic...
534: Investigating How the Development of Agriculture Has Shaped the Ecology and Evolution of Insect Pests - Dr. Yolanda Chen
December 30, 2019 08:00 - 42 minutes - 19.6 MBDr. Yolanda Chen is a Gund Fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont. Through her research, Yolanda is working to understand the origins of insects as pests in agriculture. To do this, she investigates the origins of agriculture and crop domestication, and how these processes have changed biodiversity and the interactions between crops ...
533: Using Astrophysics to Unravel the Enigma of Quantum Entanglement - Dr. Andrew Friedman
December 23, 2019 08:00 - 49 minutes - 22.9 MBDr. Andrew Friedman is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is also a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As an astrophysicist and cosmologist, Andy is studying the history of the universe from the Big Bang through present day. Andy and his colleagues use the universe as a laboratory to learn more about how things work. Specifically, Andy uses observations of ...
532: Applying Physics and Nanotechnology to Understand Mechanics and Shape in Biological Systems - Dr. Sonia Contera
December 16, 2019 08:00 - 41 minutes - 19.1 MBDr. Sonia Contera is an Associate Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Oxford Physics Department, and a Research Fellow of Green Templeton College. She is also the author of the recently released book Nano comes to Life. Sonia is interested in biology and the mechanics of biology across different space and time scales. She develops experiments and techniques to understand the physics that allow biological systems to build nano-scale molecules into cells, organs, tissues, and ...
531: Breaking Down the Mysteries of Digestion in Animals With Unusual Diets - Dr. Donovan German
December 09, 2019 08:00 - 38 minutes - 17.7 MBDr. Donovan German is Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He studies how guts work, aiming to better understand how materials move through the gut, which enzymes are secreted during digestion, what microbes are present, and what role these microbes play. In particular, Donovan focuses his research on animals with unusual diets, such as fish that eat wood or algae, to understand how these foods are...
530: Researching River Food Webs in Temperate and Tropical Rivers - Dr. Mary Power
December 02, 2019 08:00 - 55 minutes - 25.6 MBDr. Mary E. Power is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley as well as Faculty Manager at the Angelo Coast Range Reserve and Director of the California Biodiversity Center. Mary is also a contributing scientist in a new documentary film called The Serengeti Rules. Over the course of her career, Mary has studied the ecosystems of four different rivers. Her work to understand the food webs in those rivers has involved observation and taki...
529: Creating Sustainability Solutions Through Science - Dr. Gayle Schueller
November 25, 2019 08:00 - 45 minutes - 21 MBDr. Gayle Schueller is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Sustainability and Product Stewardship at 3M. In her work, Gayle has the opportunity to use science to have an impact on the world through the development of innovative products. These products span electronics, healthcare, consumer products, and other areas. She brings together teams of talented people to find innovative solutions and address sustainability problems. In her free time, Gayle enjoys biking, food, fe...
528: Studying the Physics of How Cells Self-Organize - Dr. Jennifer Ross
November 18, 2019 08:00 - 51 minutes - 23.6 MBDr. Jennifer Ross is a Professor in the Department of Physics at Syracuse University. Through her research, Jenny is working to better understand how living things can organize themselves. An animal starts with one cell and then develops into a full organism through self-organization and self-assembly. Jenny and her lab are working to identify simple rules and develop models using physics to explain how biological processes work. In her free time, Jenny enjoys doing activities with her two k...
527: Creating Compounds to Treat Pain and Slow Tumor Growth - Dr. John Talley
November 11, 2019 09:00 - 52 minutes - 23.8 MBDr. John J. Talley is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Euclises Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In addition, John is Co-Founder, Partner, and Vice President of Chemistry at Emmyon, Inc. John is an organic chemist who works to identify targets that can be modulated by chemicals. Currently, the two areas that John is focusing on are developing non-opioid treatments for acute and chronic pain and developing a new medicine that can be used with immune checkpoint inhibitors to slow or reverse tum...
526: Studying the Role of Sea Otters in Kelp Forest Ecosystems - Dr. Jim Estes
November 04, 2019 08:00 - 45 minutes - 20.9 MBDr. Jim Estes is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In addition, Jim is author of the book Serendipity: An Ecologist’s Quest to Understand Nature, and he is a contributing scientist in a new documentary film called The Serengeti Rules. Most of Jim’s career has been spent as a research scientist studying topics in ecology. He is interested in how nature works, and how species interact with one a...
525: Developing Gene Therapies for Rare Inherited Retinal Diseases - Dr. Daniel Chung
October 28, 2019 07:00 - 35 minutes - 16.2 MBDr. Daniel Chung is the global medical strategy lead for ophthalmology at Spark Therapeutics. Spark Therapeutics concentrates on discovering, developing, and delivering gene therapy for rare diseases. Dan works in the area of ophthalmology, and he and his colleagues brought the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease to market. This therapy was created to treat an inherited retinal disease that results in blindness and is caused by variants or mutations in the RPE65 gene. When ...
524: Researching How Plant Cells Sense and Respond to Internal Forces - Dr. Elizabeth Haswell
October 21, 2019 07:00 - 41 minutes - 18.9 MBDr. Elizabeth Haswell is a Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)-Simons Faculty Scholar. Liz’s research examines how the molecules, cells, and tissues within plants can sense and respond to forces. In particular, she studies a type of proteins that is really sensitive to mechanical signals called mechanosensitive ion channels. Liz is working to understand how these mechanosensitive ion channels sense and respond to internal fo...
523: Physicist Figuring Out How Materials Deform and Fail - Dr. Karen Daniels
October 14, 2019 07:00 - 40 minutes - 18.7 MBDr. Karen Daniels is a Professor in the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University. Karen’s lab investigates the physics of how materials change state (e.g. from solid to fluid), how they deform, and how they may ultimately fail. She studies these questions across a variety of length and time scales, from microscopic phenomena that occur in less than a second to shifts in land that occur on geologic timescales and may lead to landslides. Travel is a passion for Karen. While tra...
522: Generating Genomic Therapies to Treat Huntington's Disease and Other Conditions - Dr. Edward Rebar
October 07, 2019 07:00 - 30 minutes - 14.3 MBDr. Edward Rebar is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Sangamo Therapeutics. Ed and the team at Sangamo are developing genomic medicines. They use different techniques including gene therapy, ex vivo genome editing (using cells sourced from outside the body), in vivo genome editing (using a patient’s own cells within their body), and in vivo targeted gene regulation to downregulate their genes of interest. When Ed isn’t at work, he loves being outside with his wife, going ...
521: Examining the Role of Epigenomics in Development and Disease - Dr. Joyce Ohm
September 30, 2019 07:00 - 42 minutes - 19.7 MBDr. Joyce Ohm is an Associate Professor of Oncology in the Department of Cancer Genetics and Genomics at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Joyce’s research examines the epigenomics involved in development and disease, particularly in cancer. In her free time, Joyce enjoys cycling as well as hiking and kayaking with her two adorable dogs. She recently cycled 500 miles from New York City to Niagara Falls in the Empire State Ride, and it was an amazing experience. She was awarded he...
520: Deciphering Genome Differences Associated with Diseases Like ALS - Dr. Molly Gale Hammell
September 23, 2019 07:00 - 32 minutes - 15 MBDr. Molly Gale Hammell is an Associate Professor in Quantitative Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. She sequences genomes and analyzes genome sequences to understand which differences in our genomes are due to random variation between individuals, and which are associated with diseases. In particular, she focuses on studying elements of the genome associated with neurodegenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In her free time, Molly loves gathering a group of fri...
519: Exploring Causes, Degenerative Mechanisms, and Potential Therapies for Parkinson's Disease - Dr. Kim Tieu
September 16, 2019 07:00 - 39 minutes - 18.3 MBDr. Kim Tieu is Professor and Interim Chair in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences in the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work at Florida International University. Kim’s research focuses on three related areas. The first is understanding why people develop Parkinson’s disease (PD). The genetic or environmental causes of PD are unknown in about 90% of cases. Kim is studying the effects of environmental toxins on the development and progression of PD. The second ma...
518: Examining Emotions and How They Affect Our Actions - Dr. Jessica Tracy
September 09, 2019 07:00 - 42 minutes - 19.6 MBDr. Jessica Tracy is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Emotion and Self Laboratory at the University of British Columbia. In addition, she is a University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business Distinguished Scholar and author of the book Take Pride: Why the Deadliest Sin Holds the Secret to Human Success. Jess conducts research in the field of social and personality psychology. Her lab focuses on better understanding the self-conscious emotions we feel w...
517: Investigating How Insects Transmit Plant Pathogens And How To Prevent Propagation - Dr. Michelle Heck
September 02, 2019 07:00 - 39 minutes - 18.4 MBDr. Michelle Heck is a Research Molecular Biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), an Associate Professor at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the school of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. Michelle studies interactions between the insects that infest plants, the pathogens that those insects can transmit, the diseases that can occur as a result, and new ways to control the s...
516: Dedicated to Clinical Care and Conducting Research to Combat Childhood Cancers - Dr. Uri Tabori
August 26, 2019 07:00 - 37 minutes - 17.5 MBDr. Uri Tabori is a Staff Physician in the Division of Haematology/Oncology, Senior Scientist in the Genetics & Genome Biology program, and Principal Investigator of The Arthur and Sonia Labatt Brain Tumour Research Centre at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). In addition, Uri is a Professor in Paediatrics and Associate Professor in the Institute of Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto. Uri works as a physician treating kids with cancer, particularly brain tumors. Through hi...
515: Studying Young Stars to Shed Light on Planet Formation - Dr. Meredith Hughes
August 19, 2019 07:00 - 41 minutes - 19 MBDr. Meredith Hughes is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at Wesleyan University. In her research, Meredith uses large radio telescopes to study how planets form around other stars. After stars are formed, disks of leftover gas and dust go on to form planets. Meredith studies how this process works, the conditions that exist in these early disks, how the disks form planets, and the types of planets that form around stars. Studying this process in other star systems helps us learn more about...
514: Examining the Effects of Environmental Stress on Fish and Aquatic Invertebrates - Dr. Susanne Brander
August 12, 2019 07:00 - 43 minutes - 19.8 MBDr. Susanne Brander is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University. Susanne is an ecotoxicologist who studies the effects of environmental stress on wildlife. She particularly focuses on aquatic organisms that live in coastal areas, estuaries, and marine environments. Her research examines how environmental stressors affect organisms’ ability to function, reproduce, grow, and survive. In addition, Susanne assesses the risk of ...
513: Recovering Rare and Endangered Butterfly Populations through Conservation Corridors and Other Strategies - Dr. Nick Haddad
August 05, 2019 07:00 - 59 minutes - 27.6 MBDr. Nick Haddad is a Professor in Integrative Biology at Michigan State University and a Senior Terrestrial Ecologist at the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. In addition, Nick is the author of the recently released book The Last Butterflies: A Scientist's Quest to Save a Rare and Vanishing Creature. Through his research, Nick searches for the rarest butterflies in the world and works to understand what factors cause the decline of these butterflies and what we can do to conserve them. Outsid...
512: Developing New Cancer Treatments Using T Cell Receptor-Based Biologics - Dr. David Berman
July 29, 2019 07:00 - 42 minutes - 19.7 MBDr. David Berman is Head of Research and Development at Immunocore, a leading T cell receptor biotechnology company. David and his team are working on new therapies that can train the immune system to recognize and kill cancer. This approach to treating cancer is called immunotherapy. Immunocore is taking a novel approach to immunotherapy by leveraging the mechanisms used by T cell receptors to identify indicators of cancer within cancer cells. Much of David’s time outside of work is spent d...
511: Getting Straight to the Point Studying the Shape and Function of Shark Teeth - Dr. Lisa Whitenack
July 22, 2019 07:00 - 41 minutes - 19.2 MBDr. Lisa Whitenack is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Biology and Geology at Allegheny College. Through her research, Lisa aims to better understand how animals work from a mechanical perspective. She studies how sharks have used their teeth over their 400 million years of evolution, how salamanders jump, and how stone crabs perform pinching movements. When she’s not at work, Lisa loves getting creative with a variety of crafts such as crochet, cross-stitch, and painting. She al...
510: Creating New Compounds to Treat Central Nervous System Disorders - Dr. Al Robichaud
July 15, 2019 07:00 - 37 minutes - 17.5 MBDr. Al Robichaud is Chief Scientific Officer at Sage Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to developing and commercializing novel medicines to treat life-altering central nervous system disorders. The team at Sage Therapeutics is focused on delivering new medicines for people with central nervous system disorders, such as depression. The compounds they have developed modulate the activity of receptors in the brain that respond to specific neurotransmitters. Outs...
509: Studying Social Behavior, Reproduction, and Health in Female-Dominant Species - Dr. Christine Drea
July 08, 2019 07:00 - 41 minutes - 19.3 MBDr. Christine Drea is the Earl D. McLean Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, as well as Professor in the Department of Biology, the University Program in Ecology, and the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences at Duke University. Research in Christine’s lab examines animal behavior from an integrative perspective. She and her colleagues are investigating the genetic, behavioral, cognitive, sensory, and endocrine mechanisms involved in social interactions and communication in socially complex ...