Beyond the Abstract

After a short break, Derek and Ellen are BACK with a quick update episode! They discuss New Years resolutions, COVID, grad school progress, TV shows watched, and more.

Stay tuned for more episodes discussing the latest, cutting-edge research in a way that just about anyone can understand.

CRISPR is a genome-editing technology that has revolutionized medical research and created new therapies for previously incurable diseases. But what is CRISPR exactly, where does it come from, and how does it work? In this episode of Beyond the Abstract, Ellen and Derek explore how scientists have created a method of using CRISPR to treat Sickle Cell Disease, a genetic disease of the blood that can be extremely painful. They also discuss how this therapy has impacted real patients beyond just the disease and talk about the importance of creating healthcare and treatments that are accessible to patients of all races and socioeconomic statuses.

Denver et al. CRISPR/Cas9 beta-globin gene targeting in human hematopoietic stem cells. Nature, November 2016. DOI: 10.1038/nature20134. PMID: 27820943.

The information presented here is not medical advice. Please follow all guidelines from the CDC in regards to social distancing. Consult your physician on any questions regarding your personal health.

COVID-19 is a devastating disease, and the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions are especially at risk. But why is it that some seemingly healthy people also get so sick that they have to be put on a ventilator? The answer may lie in our immune system. This week on Beyond the Abstract, Ellen and Derek explore a new paper that begins to investigate how differences in our immune response to the coronavirus explain why some people get so sick while others do not. Amazingly, they found a key player that causes immune dysregulation and a drug to stop it. Listen as they talk about the implications of this work as well as perhaps the first signs of quarantine insanity...

Giamarellos-Bourboulis et al. Complex immune dysregulation in COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory failure. Cell Host and Microbe, April 2020. DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2020.04.009. PMID: 32320677.

The information presented here is not medical advice. Please follow all guidelines from the CDC in regards to social distancing. Consult your physician on any questions regarding your personal health.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot remains unknown about SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. While we race to understand the true nature of the virus and create a vaccine, our best defense against the pandemic is social distancing. Understanding how our immune systems will respond to the virus is key in answering the questions of how dangerous the virus really is, how we can create an effective vaccine, and when we can reemerge from social distancing. Does being infected once make us immune and protect us from future infections? Will this immunity be long lasting? How about immunity from a vaccine? Will we need seasonal vaccines against coronaviruses, like the flu? In this episode of Beyond the Abstract, Derek and Ellen discuss emerging research on COVID-19 immunity (from the comforts of their own homes). This study sheds some light and hope on what we can expect in terms of immunity after infection.

Bao et al. Reinfection could not occur in SARS-CoV-2 infected rhesus macaques. bioRxiv, March 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.13.990226.

This article is a preprint and has NOT undergone peer review. The information presented here is not medical advice. Please follow all guidelines from the CDC in regards to social distancing. Consult your physician on any questions regarding your personal health.

Extremely premature infants are those that are born at less than 28 weeks, and often weigh less than two pounds at birth. Medical advancements have pushed the limits of viability to permit survival of infants at 22-23 weeks, but these infants suffer from high rates of mortality. Those that survive are all but guaranteed chronic complications related to organ prematurity. In a bioengineering feat that can only be described as science fiction-like, scientists from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have created an artificial placenta to support extremely premature lambs with the hope of one day improving morbidity and mortality in humans that are born premature. On this episode of Beyond the Abstract, Derek and Ellen discuss what it takes to create an artificial placenta and how this creation has the potential to offer new hope for premature infants .

Partridge et al. An extra-uterine system to physiologically support the extreme premature lamb. Nature Communications, 2017. 8:15112. PMID: 28440792.

The novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) is a respiratory virus originating from Wuhan, China that has spread to many countries, causing an outbreak. Headlines on its rapid spread have dominated media and news sites globally, and a lot remains unknown about how the virus infects humans, how it spreads, and how deadly it really is. In this episode of Beyond the Abstract, Ellen and Derek tackle a paper deposited in bioRxiv on how 2019-nCoV infects human cells with similarities to the SARS coronavirus. They may answer questions you have related to the outbreak and put many commonly cited statistics into perspective. Finally, they comment on a new age of science sharing through bioRxiv, a preprint server that has allowed for quicker and cheaper dissemination of science.

This episode was recorded on February 11th, 2020. Shortly after recording this episode, the WHO announced that the virus will be renamed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Hoffman et al. The novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) uses the SARS-coronavirus receptor ACE2 and the cellular protease TMPRSS2 for entry into target cells. bioRxiv, 2020. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.31.929042v1

Alcoholic hepatitis is a severe, life-threatening type of liver disease, but not for all patients. Some patients seem to have worse outcomes than others, but what differentiates these patients and how do we treat them? In this episode, Derek and Ellen invite Sam McCright, an MD/PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania studying the microbiome, to talk about a new paper that discovers the potential bacterial culprit behind the most severe cases of alcoholic hepatitis. Even more, these scientists have found new ways to combat these bacteria. Instead of using antibiotics, they use phages, which are like little homing missiles that can target and destroy specific bacteria and are found in sewage. The secret to treating this disease just might literally be a load of crap.

Duan et al. Bacteriophage targeting of gut bacterium attenuates alcoholic liver disease. Nature, 2019. 575(7783):505-511. PMID: 31723265.

One in eight women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, but how exactly breast cancer metastasizes and spreads to other organs still isn't clear. E-cadherin is a protein that acts as 'molecular glue' that helps cancer cells stick together, but controversy exists within the cancer field about its exact role in cancer spread. This week on Beyond the Abstract, Derek and Ellen take on a paper that lays to rest the role of E-cadherin in breast cancer metastasis. Listen in as they talk about this important paper that definitively addresses this issue once and for all.

Padmanaban et al. E-cadherin is required for metastasis in multiple models of breast cancer. Nature, 2019. 573(7774):439-444. PMID: 31485072.

Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day and over 2 billion times a lifetime. The heart keeps up with wear and tear because it has a strong yet flexible cytoskeleton, the 'framework' of the cell. But what happens when the cytoskeleton malfunctions, and more importantly, how do we fix it? On this episode of Beyond the Abstract, Derek and Ellen chat with cell biologist and PhD candidate Brittany MacTaggart about alterations that happen to the cytoskeleton during heart failure and how these changes affect how the heart functions.

Chen et al. Suppression of detyrosinated microtubules improves cardiomyocyte function in human heart failure. Nature Medicine, 2018. 24(8); 1225-1233. PMID: 29892068.

Deep vein thromboses (DVTs) are clots in the blood system that can travel from the legs to the lungs, causing severe damage and even death. This week on Beyond the Abstract, Ellen and Derek are joined by John Welsh, PhD as they dive into John's recent paper on how DVTs are formed. To our surprise, Dr. Welsh discusses how current measures in the hospital to prevent DVTs may not work as well as we think they do. Finally, we talk about Dr. Welsh's company, which is currently building a device that would better solve this problem.

Welsh et al. Hemodynamic regulation of perivalvular endothelial gene expression prevents deep vein thrombosis. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2019. 129(12). PMID: 31710307.