After a yearlong hiatus, Behind the Bench is back, listeners! In this episode, we welcome back our B2B co-hosts Dr. Charlotte Usselman and Dr. Tommy Martin, who get the story behind the story from the one and only Dr. DeWayne Townsend, corresponding author of the recently published study by Stevens et al. Trust me, you are going to love listening to DeWayne talk about science! As DeWayne rightly points out, if we want to understand a disease before it's a disease, we have to model it in order to figure it out. From the “dastardly Krebs cycle” to grinding up hearts and shouting “fire in the hole!” before using the mouse heart pulverizer (it’s a thing), Dewayne brings to this conversation his best science sound effects, wise insights, and a friendly PSA to contact your Congressional representatives and advocate for science funding. We discuss the resiliency of physiology and the redundancies in the heart that enable scientists to knockout things thought to be important, and as DeWayne points out, the body can still handle it. We cover DeWayne’s interesting path from vet school to cardiovascular physiology, and his best advice to trainees. How do you deal with being wrong most of the time? According to DeWayne, when another beautiful hypothesis is slain by data, push on! It is a slog. Keep going and try to find a way to move the needle. While you’re at it, DeWayne suggests that you learn how to fix your own equipment, try not to drink too much caffeine, and be inspired by other scientists, especially when that scientist is your Dad.

Jackie A. Stevens, Tyler C. Dobratz, Kaleb D. Fischer, Alexandria Palmer, Kira Bourdage, Anne J. Wong, Hector Chapoy-Villanueva, Daniel J. Garry, Julia C. Liu, Matthew W. Kay, Sarah Kuzmiak-Glancy, and DeWayne Townsend Mechanisms of reduced myocardial energetics of the dystrophic heart Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published January 22, 2024. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00636.2023