Discovery Matters

With the arrival of October we notice the (re)arrival of pink ribbons - it is Breast Cancer Awareness month. 

In this episode of Discovery Matters, Dodi and Conor talk to Dr. Margaret Flowers who is the director of research at The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, BCRF. They discuss cellular nutrition, hormone-positive breast cancer, chemoprevention, and the state of breast cancer research during COVID times.

Enjoy the episode, and if you want to find out more about the amazing work that BCRF is doing, simply go to www.bcrf.org.

Transcript

Keywords: breast cancer, nutrition, breast cancer research, immunotherapy, treatment, breast cancer research foundation, COVID, pandemic, awareness, screening, cellular nutrition, hormone-positive breast cancer, chemoprevention.

Popular science and cell biology collide in this episode as Dodi and Conor discuss the science of cryogenics and its diverse applications.  They are joined by Cytiva Senior Scientists and cryobiologists, Peter Kilbride and Julie Meneghel, as well as Fernanda Fonseca, Research Director at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE).  Executive Producer and PopSci enthusiast, Andrea Kilin, kicks off the discussion by sharing her experience with cryotherapy!

Transcript

Keywords: Cryotherapy, cryogenics, endangered species, cryopreservation, cryobiology, cell therapies, CAR T cell, cancer patient.

Life sciences has a new podcast! A collection of stories and insights on matters of discovery that advance life sciences. Hosts are Dodi Axelson and Conor McKechnie, friends for gloriously long years and colleagues at Cytiva. Enjoy!

While it may not be here tomorrow, scientists around the world are racing to develop viable COVID-19 vaccine candidates. In this episode, Dodi and Conor share the perspectives of two researchers on the vaccine development team for the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology - Professors Trent Munro and Keith Chappell. Learn how Trent and Keith's team identified their lead vaccine candidate from an initial field of 200 in just over 5 weeks!

Transcript

Keywords: vaccine, pandemic, virus, protein, scientists, molecular, immune response, antigen, problem, development, molecular clamp, clamp.

Dodi and Conor welcome colleague Kaycee Palumbo for the Discovery Matters special of "Did you know?"

Sources: 

Transcript

Without baking and brewing, there'd be no biotech. 

Join Dodi and Conor through the discovery of fermentation, bags of wheat at the Stockholm Brewing company, and too much pizza dough on Sundays at The Bakery. 

Guest on this episode are: Anna Roswall, Head Baker at The Bakery; Michel Ahlin-Wigardt, Head Brewer at The Stockholm Brewery; Nigel Darby, Senior Advisor at Cytiva and Paul Goodwin, Science Director at Cytiva.

Transcript

Keywords: biotech, fermentation, gene editing, gut microbiome, 3D printing, biochemistry, microorganism, CRISPR, food industry.

Excited about the combination of biology, engineering and computing being the 21st century's big leap forward? Do you see biological computing actually becoming a thing?

Join Dodi and Conor to discuss how all the lines are blurring: where there used to be separate industries we can all learn from each other. 

Guests on this episode are Prachi Bogetto of Cytiva, and Cristian Norlin from Ericsson. 

Transcript

Keywords: biology, computation, telecom, computational biology, future, engineering.

The Scandinavians have done it again.  In this episode Conor and Dodi are (not really) surprised to find out that, just like chromatography, protein A has also been discovered in the North of Europe.  What makes protein A special, though? What about protein G or protein L? Surely protein A is not the most popular because of alphabetical order? This episode's hosts are joined by Josefin Bolik, protein A subject matter expert at Cytiva, Glen Bolton, Director of Bioprocess Development at Amgen, and Jonathan Royce, former colleague of Conor's and Josefin's. 

Transcript

Keywords: protein, protein A, antibodies, monoclonal antibodies, biologic, drug, purification, resin, industrial scale, cancer, chromatography.

How do birds know where to go in the winter? And why are plants so efficient at making food? Conor and Dodi chat with researchers studying whether quantum biology might offer answers.

Transcript

Keywords: quantum mechanics, quantum biology, photosynthesis, magnetoreception.

In this episode, Dodi and Conor take 2 minutes to celebrate the birth of Cytiva, company formerly part of GE Healthcare Life Sciences. Yes, only 2 minutes because they're immediately more interested in the science behind choices our brains make. They are joined by Uma Karmarkar, Assistant Professor in Marketing at UCSD focusing on Decision Neuroscience, and Tim Arthur, currently a radio presenter for the BBC and an expert in helping organisations through change.

Transcript 

Keywords: brain, brand, neuroscience, science.