For Whom the Cell Tolls: Emerging and Established Cancer Biology podcast

01.03.2024

024 - Resistance - How Healthy B-cells Fight Back Against Your Tumor

Hello! I’m recently returned from my annual ASH meeting where I see all of the latest advances in blood cancers. This specific facet was my favorite: small, insurgent populations of healthy B-cells portend better survival because they prime your T-cells...

02.28.2023

023 - Depleted - How we are Beginning to Visulize the Tumor Microenvinroment

Welcome back! It's been a while. I'm excited to get going again with an episode on the emerging science of "ecotyping" the cells around tumors - the microenvironment. Ecology and Evolution of lymphoma tumors is only half the story. We...

10.10.2021

022 - What if we DNA Sequenced Everybody?

What do you think? Would the immensely powerful amount of data be a game-changer for medicine? Or does DNA sequencing miss too much of the picture to be worth the cost? This question is an example why we need leaders...

04.25.2021

021 - Netflix’s The One (is it possible) Part II

Can your genome match you with a soulmate? Sort of, but we’d need more than just mammal genomes to know... I hope you enjoy, and collect your thoughts on the proposal at the end of the episode if you’re interested!

03.24.2021

020 - Netflix’s The One (is it possible?) Part I

The Netflix series The One is based on a book with a similar premise: via genome sequencing, we can match you with your best possible partner. The show is a great watch, and the science is not too far outside...

06.16.2020

019 Viral Gene Therapy: Augment Your DNA

This episode covers how gene therapy may emerge as a critical tool for medicine as we seek to treat the previously untreatable. Can we ADD genes to specific cells to help humans overcome fated genetic ailments? Why has this process...

04.14.2020

018 BONUS - The Top 20 Insights for Students Interested in Medical or Healthcare Graduate Programs

BONUS EPISODE - I collected the top 20 insights from my personal and professional colleagues that completed or are currently undertaking medical school or another healthcare program to share with my students. This episode is a recorded conversation with several...

04.02.2020

017 Journeys Into Biology Education

Join me and Gustavus Adolphus College colleague Katie Peterson to discuss our research, how we teach, our paths to becoming professors, and student questions! In this episode we address interdisciplinary connections between evolution, environmental change, and cellular biology. We hope...

10.26.2019

016 Tumorigenesis - How Cancer Begins and How it Can End

This episode covers the basics of how a cancer begins. Genetic mutations can often knock out genes responsible for keeping an eye on how many cell divisions are allowed. Once these are out of the way, aggressive growth genes can...

07.21.2019

015 CAR-T Cell Therapy: The Age of Living Cancer Drugs

Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cells (CAR-T) represent one of the most profound and exciting advances in modern medicine and science. Many lymphoma patients fail therapy after therapy with little recourse. CAR-T aimed to stop that. Taking immune T-cells from the patient,...

07.11.2019

014 Social Media, Medicine, and Trust

We live in an age where social media provides a platform for everything - good and bad. I wanted to summarize how ideas can be spread, weaponized, and distorted, much like a disease. We also briefly go over the differences...

05.23.2019

013 B-cell Biology, Rampant DNA, and Lymphomas

Today’s episode details my research area: B-cells and the resulting lymphomas. The journey of a B-cell is violent and chaotic. To produce the best possible antibody protein against pathogen, the body employs an all-or-nothing tool: DNA modification. Nowhere else in...

03.12.2019

012 The Viruses Within Us and How They Help Treat Cancer

This is an exciting and quick episode that mainly covers the findings of a recent Daniel D. Carvalho paper in Nature Reviews called “Epigenetic therapy in immune oncology” where the authors elaborate on new mechanisms of cancer treatments. Essentially, the...

03.01.2019

011 Domestication: Fear, Behavioral Genetics, and Why Your Dog Loves You

Domestication is a very interesting process and was first performed millions of years ago. The relationships between humans and dogs is of particular interest, as are the genetic and developmental changes that make them possible. We also delve into controversy...

12.14.2018

010 Pandora’s Box Exists, and it’s Called CRISPR-Cas9

Everything you’ve heard about CRISPR is likely closer to the truth than not. The possibilities are exiting, and the possibilities are terrifying. This episode dives into the logic and ethics behind CRISPR-Cas9’s DNA-changing capabilities and what it means for science,...

12.06.2018

009 Creators vs Created, Bioethics, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Today’s episode is the first one that is primarily driven by literature and philosophy, namely borrowing themes explored in Frankenstein and Paradise Lost. Victor Frankenstein’s fraught relationship with his creature is a devastatingly emotional purview into what life is. The...

11.21.2018

008 Superpowers of Survival and Evolution

Today’s episode covers the basics of evolution so that we can address a case of extreme survival in some of the smallest organisms to exist: yeast! Cancer evolution makes appearances as well, including new mechanisms of tumor evasion that can...

11.15.2018

007 Cancer Therapy - 20 Traditional and Emerging Directions

The days of chemo-only cancer treatment ended years ago. This episode introduces 20 diverse therapies that scientists and clinicians are turning to in the face of ever-evolving tumors. This is an especially exiting episode, as I believe there is so...

11.06.2018

006 The Arms Race: Our Immune System vs. Pathogen

The power of immune system is on full display every day of our lives and has been throughout our history. As pathogens try to enter our bodies and hurt us, the immune system rises up to fight and counter new...

11.06.2018

The Arms Race: Our Immune System vs. Pathogen

Chapter 1.6: The power of immune system is on full display daily and has been throughout our history. As pathogens try to enter our bodies and hurt us, the immune system rises up to fight and counter new disease mechanisms...

10.31.2018

005 The Microbiome - How Human do You Feel?

Internal human ecosystems? Transmissible personality traits? Tune in for the best episode yet where we get you up to speed on the human microbiome, a collection of thousands of partner bacterial species that live inside and on us. Our microbiome...

10.31.2018

The Microbiome - How Human do You Feel?

Chapter 1.5: Internal human ecosystems? Transmissible personality traits? Tune in for the best episode yet where we get you up to speed on the human microbiome, a collection of thousands of partner bacterial species that inside and on us. Our...

10.26.2018

004 The Wolf, His Brother, and Infinite Genes

This episode goes over why DNA and the information it encodes could be what defines life. Organisms are finite things, but the information coded by successful genes persists through generations, possibly indefinitely. We’ll also touch on instincts surrounding survival, family,...

10.26.2018

The Wolf, His Brother, and Infinite Genes

Chapter 1.4: today’s episode goes over why DNA and the information it encodes could be what defines life. Organisms are finite things, but the information coded by successful genes persists through generations, possibly indefinitely. We’ll also touch on instincts surrounding...

10.24.2018

003 Welcome to the Jungle - Tumor Evolution

Cancer is more than cells that proliferate and survive like mad; it's a lethal combination of Genetics and Evolution. They also rely on parasitizing resources and evading immune system predators. Cancer evolution represents the greatest challenge for scientists and clinicians,...