BioPOD

Have you ever wondered what neglected regions of the genome do? In this episode we hear about the search for AT rich region binding proteins.

Jack Suitor (@JackTSuitor) talks to Raphael Pantier (@R_Pantier) and Kashyap Chhatbar (@kashyapchhatbar) from the Bird lab at the University of Edinburgh about their work on the DNA binding protein Sall4. They discover that Sall4 binds to AT rich regions which affects large scale gene expressions and enables differentiation.
 Sall4 could help time cellular differentiation as part of embryonic development and is therefore implicated in developmental disease. By getting more insight into proteins that bind AT rich regions we could learn more about the cause of some diseases.

Art by @donohoho, intro and editing by @_applechew

This is the second episode of the BioPOD series: Scotland's Biotech Stories.

In this instalment, BioPodder Liz Gaberdiel interviews Professor Lynne Regan on how to design biologically useful proteins. Proteins with unusual properties can enable super-resolution imaging, spontaneously self-assemble into structures, or coat a surface with a particular protein layer!


Introduction and editing by Apple Chew

Media by Liz Gaberdiel and Chris Donohoe

Welcome to a new BioPOD series: Scotland's Biotech Stories.

In this installment, BioPodder Liz Gaberdiel interviews Dr. Marcus Wilson on Cryogenic electron microscopy (CryoEM), a  technique that has undergone some serious upgrades since its initial development in the 1960s.

Introduction by Neelakshi Varma & Editing by Sam Haynes

Media by Hanna Peach and Chris Donohoe 

Dear listeners,

Welcome back to another episode of BioPod!

Today we walk you through to potential of cyanobacteria: turning tasty sunlight into a high-product value delight!

Apple Chew interviews Anton Puzorjov  from The McCormick Lab at The University of Edinburgh on his project supported by ScotBio

Art by Christian Donohoe , Editing by Apple, Media by  Hanna Peach

In the fourth and final installment of BioPOD's #Vaccine15 miniseries, we have Liz Gaberdiel interviewing Professor Neil Babbott on how vaccines can block viral transmission.

Edited by Ruby White, Media by Hanna Peach. 

Ever wondered how vaccines are made in smaller batch scales, then upscaled to a world market? Hint: it's not the same as cooking a larger lasagne when family comes to visit. Tune into our third installment of #Vaccine15 to learn about the large scale production of vaccines.

In this episode, BioPodder Liz Gaberdiel interviews Dr Prerna Vohra. Editing by Hanna Peach.

Enjoy, and #GetVaccinated! 

In this episode of our four-part vaccine 15-minute miniseries, biopodder Chris Donohoe  interviews Dr. Thomas Williams on how to track and tackle the different COVID variants.

edited by Apple Chew (Yen Peng) media and art by Hanna Peach

Our #Vaccine15 four-part 15-minute miniseries begins today! This week is all about how COVID vaccines were developed and designed with @CTaitBurkard from @EdinburghUni @roslininstitute

Interviewer and Art @donohoho
Editing by @_applechew
Media and Art @hanna_peach_

In this episode, we talk about the Darwin Tree of Life: Sequencing the Biome of the Great Britain with Professor Mark Blaxter & Dr Alex Twyford

The Darwin Tree of Life project aims to sequence the genomes of all 70,000 species of eukaryotic organisms in Britain and Ireland. It is a collaboration between biodiversity, genomics and analysis partners that hopes to transform the way we do biology, conservation and biotechnology.  The Darwin Tree of Life Project is one of several initiatives across the globe working towards the ultimate goal of sequencing all complex life on Earth, in a venture known as the Earth BioGenome Project.

Prof. Mark Blaxter and his group use modern sequencing and bioinformatics technologies to investigate the genomes of many different species of animals. Professor Mark Blaxter is the Founder and Director of Genome Science of Edinburgh Genomics (http://genomics.ed.ac.uk) the University's advanced genomics facility.  Dr Alex Twyford is an evolutionary geneticist interested in the ecology and evolution of plants.

Interviewed by Hazel (Wu) Huang, Introduced by Ruby White, Edited by Sam Haynes. Media by Hanna Peach, Artwork by Chris Donohoe 

This episode is about the use of synthetic organisms to produce pharmaceuticals and other high-value products. 

 Preceding the development of synthetic drugs in the 18th and 19th centuries, medicine relied on the use of products found in nature. It is not surprising even nowadays that a lot of drug discovery undertaken by the pharmaceutical industry incorporates compounds found in nature. Biotechnology offers the opportunity to create these same natural products in large quantities, in a sustainable manner. 

In order to do that, bioscientists can take genes for metabolic pathways that create a specific compound with human health benefits from plant genomes and replicate them in microorganisms such as bacteria and yeast. These modified microbes can now be used as factories to sustainably and efficiently produce the drug of interest in the lab or in a controlled industrial environment. 

To help us understand this topic a bit better and the potential advantages and challenges of this technology, Joan Cortada-Carcia interviewed Dr. Tessa Moses, a former postdoc in the Rosser lab group at the University of Edinburgh and current head of metabolomics at the university’s mass spectrometry facility called Edinomics. Media by Hanna Peach.

#BioPod #BiologyPodcast #SciencePodcast #SyntheticBiology #SynBio #SynthSys