Abstract: The Future of Science

Abstract: The Future of Science

By Jeremy UllmanScience
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Abstract: The Future of Science episodes

  • Ep. 36 - Revolutionizing Cancer Treatment ft. Samuel Little

    Our guest this week is Samuel Little, a bioengineering PhD candidate at Concordia University. His current research is focused on developing an innovative treatment known as CAR-T Therapy, in which an individual's immune system is removed from the body, genetically modified, and reinserted into the body to fight off cancer with unprecedented strength and efficiency. Sam brings the heat and turns the knowledge volume up to 11, if that makes sense -- this is a crazy episode, in the best way possible. I've already listened to it thrice from start to finish! What are you waiting for? Hey are you still reading this? 

    Questions Answered

    How has bioengineering paved the way for a new innovative cancer therapy?
    How can we beat cancer at its own game?
    Why is cancer a more perfect version of us?
    Are we on the brink of a revolution in cancer treatment?
    How can we manipulate our own immune system to maximize its efficacy?
    Is it worth engaging in research for research sake?
    And many, many.... many more!

    Topics & Concepts

    A Day in the Life of an Interdisciplinary Lab
    Microscopic vs. Macroscopic Engineering
    The Biological Scale
    Somatic Gene Therapy
    CAR-T: Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy
    Cancer's Invisibility Cloak
    ALL: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
    Cancer: A More Perfect Version of Us
    Immune System Evasion
    Famous Papers: The Hallmarks of Cancer
    Blood Cancers: A Starting Point for CAR-T
    Chemotherapy: Thank You Dr. Sidney Farber
    The CD-19 Protein
    Microfluidics
    Electroporation
    CRISPR
    Research for Research's Sake
    The Dream: Mechanizing CART-T Therapy

    Sam's Book Recommendation:
    The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddhartha Mukherjee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_of_All_Maladies

    Jeremy's Book Recommendations:

    Originals - Adam Grant
    The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
    Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
    The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
    Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Richard Carlson

    Follow & Subscribe: Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

    For Feedback or To Reach Out: [email protected], or any of the above ^^^

    39 min
  • Ep. 35 - Musical Complexity, Predictability & Enjoyment ft. Alexander Albury

    Our guest this week is Alexander Albury, PhD candidate in Psychology at Concordia University. His research is focused on uncovering the relationship between complexity, predictability and liking of music! Tune in for:

    Questions Answered

    Is music more of an art or a science?
    Can we tell the difference between human-made and artifical music?
    What makes music complex and how do you even quantify complexity?
    How do we differentiate the same note played on different instruments?
    How do we meaure musical learning?
    Who are the better predictors of melody: Jazz or Classical musicians?
    Is learning language like learning an instrument?
    and many more!

    Topics & Concepts Covered

    Music: Art vs. Science
    Artificially Composed Music
    The Duality of Complexity & Predictability
    Cultural Idiosyncrasies
    Musical Experience
    Timbre
    Timing & Beat
    Expectancy & Liking
    Quantifying Complexity
    Machine Learning: Predicting Music
    Psychophysics & Inverted U-Shaped Relationships
    Measuring Learning: Raw Accuracy & Asynchrony
    Language vs. Music
    Statistical Learning Theory

    We Want To Hear From You, Yes, You!

    Got ideas, feedback, questions, topics or guests for future episodes, harsh criticism, love and praise for the show, ambivalence about the content, anything at all? You're in luck, we're VERY reachable:

    Email us by email: [email protected]

    Message us on Facebook: facebook.com/abstractcast

    Tweet us on Twitter: twitter.com/abstract_cast

    DM/Comment/Tag us on Instagram: instagram.com/abstractcast

    39 min
  • Ep. 34 - Pain Perception, Venoms & The Peripheral Nervous System ft. Stephanie Mouchbahani-Constance

    Our guest this week, Stephanie Mouchbahani-Constance, is working towards her PhD in Physiology at McGill University. Her current research is focused on characterizing the sensation of pain inflicted by lionfish stings, as well as the pathways through the nervous system along which they travel. She's an endless repository of animal facts and has nearly boundless knowledge of the peripheral nervous sytem, it's kinda scary, and very impressive. Need I say any more? Keep reading...

    Questions Answered:

    Where does pain originate in the body and how is it perceived?
    What can facial expressions tell us about individual experience?
    Why can't I read braille with chest?
    Where can I find saliva in the animal kingdom?
    What's the difference between venoms, poisons and stings?
    and much, much, much.... more!

    Topics & Concepts

    The Great Caribbean Liofnfish Invasion of the late 90s and early 00s
    Pain: Sensation & Perception
    Hargreaves Device
    Movies of Mouses Licking Themselves
    Jeffrey Mogil's: The Grimace Scale
    Distraction: The Strongest Analgesic
    The Nervous System: Central & Peripheral
    Pseudounipolar "Waystation" Cells
    Dorsal Root Ganglia (DRG)
    Receptive Fields & Mechanoreceptors
    Myelination, or a Lack Thereof
    Nerve Fibers
    End Organs: Tiny Structures in Your Skin
    Poisons, Venoms & Stings
    Chemical Weaponry for Petite Organisms
    Venoming Apparati & The Wacky Lil' Cone Snail
    Saliva is Everywhere
    PteroTech: A Startup Born Out of Lionfish Venom Research

    Hit us up with your electrifyingly juicy (and tantalizingly moist) feedback at: [email protected] and facebook.com/abstractcast and twitter.com/abstract_cast and instagram.com/abstractcast!

    Support PteroTech: Buy StingMaster now from pterotech.com/buy, and follow StingMaster on Instagram at @sting.master.

    41 min
  • Ep. 33 - Vaccine Design, Antibodies & COVID ft. Audrey Kassardjian

    Our guest this week, Audrey Kassardjian, is completing her PhD in Immunology at the University of Toronto. Join us this week for a hyper-relevant discussion surrounding vaccine design, antibodies, spike proteins, parasites and the immune system! 

    Questions Answered

    What goes into vaccine design?
    How do we differentially target parasites versus viruses?
    What's so abnormal about COVID-19?
    What are the types, functions and morphologies of antibodies?
    Does our lymphatic system have a memory of its own, independent of the central nervous system?
    and much, much, much, much, much.... more!

    Topics & Concepts

    Parasites vs. Viruses
    COVID-19 & Abnormality
    Biological Barriers
    What's in a vaccine?
    The Central Dogma of Biology
    Surface Proteins
    Intro to Antibodies
    Developing a Vaccine
    In-Vitro Assays
    The Immune Response
    Lymphatic Memory
    Spike Proteins
    Antibodies: Type, Function, Morphology
    Mentorship

    Additional Links: 

    Audrey's Publication: Here (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33252273/)

    Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith (Book): Here

    Reach out:

    38 min
  • Ep. 32 - Sustainable Engineering & The Buildings of the Future ft. Sam Shulman

    Our guest this week, Sam Shulman, is completing his Master's of Sustainable Engineering in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia (UBC). His research is focused on developing an advanced, multi-material connection for prefabricated mass timber buildings that allows for efficient assembly/disassembly at the building’s end-of-life. 

    Questions Answered:

    Can we construct a fire-resistant building out of wood?
    What are some of the biggest mass-timber structures we can build?
    What does sustainable infrastructure look like?
    Are we going to run out of concrete?
    How can we maximize the renewability and sustainability of our cities?
    ...and much, much more!

    Topics & Concepts

    Sustainability
    Old Growth vs. Harvested Forests
    Carbon Abatement
    Forest Protection & Timber Constructions
    Carbon Sequesteration
    The Industrial Revolution
    Mass Timber: A Revolution in Fire Safety
    The End of Concrete
    Wood: It's Renewable!
    Oxymoron of the Day: Building Disassembly
    Empire State of Wood
    Land Conversion: The Great Enemy of Forests
    Ethical Considerations
    Engineering Design: Form & Function
    The Philosophy of Structure & Design

    Note: For a deeper dive into climate change, check out Episode 8 with Alex Pace!

    Please send us any and all feedback about this week's episode, or any of the 44 releases so far -- reach us at [email protected]

    Sam would love to hear from you too -- reach him at [email protected]

    39 min
  • Ep. 31 - Harvard Astrophysics: Machine Learning & Interstellar Dust Clouds ft. Andrew Saydjari

    Our guest this week, Andrew Saydjari, is midway through his PhD in Astrophysics at Harvard University. Andrew's research lies at the intersection of Astrophysics and Machine Learning, and he's studying the massive dust clouds in our very own galaxy. Tune in to tap into the wealth of knowledge that Andrew's bringing to Episode 31!


    On this week's episode we answer questions like: 

    Why should you care about interstellar dust clouds that are a million times as wide as the earth's orbit around the sun?

    What do spectrums of light tell us about the molecular make-up of these clouds?
    How much information can I glean from just a single image of a molecular cloud out there in space?
    And how does the symmetry of molecules factor into all this?

    Topics & Concepts
    Data Collection in the Physical Sciences
    Group Theory & Symmetries
    Spectroscopy, Optics & Lasers
    Rotating Bodies & Moments of Intertia
    Space Dust: Building Blocks of The Universe
    Relative Size & Scales of the Universe
    Nebulae & Infrared Imaging
    Fluid Dynamics, Simulations
    Hot Gases & Plasma
    Isotropy
    Magnetic Fields & Symmetry-Breaking
    JPEG Compression
    Fourier Transforms
    Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
    Wavelets

    Further Reading - Related Research
    https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.11963

    VIA (Virtues in Action) - 24 Character Strengths Survey
    https://www.viacharacter.org/account/register

    39 min
  • Ep. 30 - Mechanochemistry & DNA Synthesis ft. James Thorpe

    Our guest this week is a McGill University PhD in Bioorganic Chemistry. Say hello, to James Thorpe. "Hi James!" On today's episode we answer the big questions, like:

    How does a farmer's definition of Organic differ from that of a chemist?

    How do you patent a scientific methodology?
    Will we ever be able to eradicate the use of toxic solvents?
    Can you grow DNA at the push of a button?
    Why is 99% of our DNA absolutely useless

    Topics & Concepts

    Green Chemistry
    Mechanochemistry
    Oligonucleotide Synthesis
    "Organic" Chemistry
    Carbon Chains
    Short DNA and RNA
    Therapeutic Applications
    How to Patent
    Bead & String Model of DNA
    Protecting Groups (of DNA)
    Kinetic Energy
    Solid Phase Synthesis
    Deoxyribonucleic Acids (DNA)
    Ribonucleic Acids (RNA)

    Pretty please, send me some feedback on the show. Did you enjoy this episode? When do you listen to Abstract? What's your favorite element of the show: music, intros, guests, duration, content...? 

    Guest

    James would love to hear from you too, and you can reach out to him at [email protected]

    37 min
  • Rapstract | "Best Of" Behavioral Neuroscience ft. Pcenna

    Rapstract is a rap album study tool, conceived, written, recording and performed by yours truly (Jeremy Ullman AKA Pcenna) for the McGill University undergraduate Psychology course PSYC 211: Intro to Behavioral Neuroscience.

    This is a compilation of some highlights from the album. 

    All 10 tracks are available on the Abstract podcast page.

    I also released an album this year called Life As We Know It, available now on SoundCloud, BandCamp and YouTube for your listening pleasure.

    I'd love to hear what you think, so PLEASE send any and all feedback, whether positive, constructive or outright malicious to: [email protected].

    Thank you, and enjoy! 

    Jeremy // Pcenna

    7 min
  • Ep. 29 - The Neurobiology of Mental Disorders ft. Ilya Demchenko

    Our guest this week is Ilya Demchenko, a graduate from McGill University's MS Neuroscience program. With a strong background in biology, he ventured into the world of the brain sciences, gaining a keen interest in psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience with a research focus on the Neurobiology of Mental Disorders. Join us for a winding discussion from interventional psychiatric programs, to social role playing, brain imaging and beyond! 

    Topics & Concepts

    Defining Clinical Research
    From Molecular to Macroscopic Systems
    Novel interventional psychiatry program
    Treatment resistance depression
    Brain Stimulation, Ketamine Injection, Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
    Three Axes of the Program Hierarchy: (1) Brain Stimulation, (2) Anaethesia, (3) Digitization
    Repetitive Transcranical Magnetic Stimulation (RTMS)
    Dimensional vs. Categorical Models
    Schizotypy
    Social Roles: Extraordinary vs. Ordinary, Favorable vs. Unfavorable
    Personality vs. Pathology
    Experimental Design
    Semantic Activation and Decision-Making
    EEG Peaks as Biomarkers for Psychological Disorders
    Placebo vs. Nocebo Effect

    The paper that laid the foundation for Ilya's thesis:
    Fernandez-Cruz et al. (2016)
    https://www.nature.com/articles/npjschz201635

    39 min
  • Ep. 28 - Surgical Innovation & Heart Pumps ft. Andrea Sanchez

    Our guest this week is Andrea Sanchez, and she comes fresh with tales from the OR, and insights on the future of heart surgery!

    School: McGill University

    Program: Experimental Surgery, MSc.
    Concentration: Surgical Innovation

    Topics & Concepts
    Emerging Heart Pump: Disruptive, Innovative Design & Geometry
    Medical Devices: From Toothbrushes to Transplants
    Heart Pump Configurations: Centrifugal or Axial (LVAD)
    Traditional Heart Pump Side-Effects: Hemolysis, Thrombosis, and more
    In-silico vs. In-vitro Experimentation
    Blood Flow Simulation
    Materials & Biocompatibility
    Heart Volume Output & Exercise
    Cardiac Conundrums
    The Future of Heart Surgery

    HEART PUMP PATENT: No. US9726195B2
    https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160279311A1/en

    35 min

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Abstract brings unprecedented accessibility to graduate research, shedding light on the wonderful work of Masters, PhDs and Postdocs.