Discovery Matters

"Vaccines are a way to educate our immune system to recognize foreign and dangerous stuff," says Daria Donati, Director of Business Development and Innovation at Cytiva.

Dodi and Conor embark on a journey in this episode of Discovery Matters: the journey of a vaccine. They are joined by Adrian Hill, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford and Consultant Physician, and Rebecca Chandler, Senior Contributor at WHO's Uppsala Monitoring Center. 

Transcript

Keywords: vaccine, immunization, vaccine development, immune system.

How do big companies stay at the forefront of the industry? How do small companies "make it big"? In this episode of Discovery Matters, Conor and Dodi chat with 3 guests to find some answers. Please welcome Kath Mackay, managing director at Alderley Park, Steve Bates, CEO of the BioIndustry Asociation (BIA) and Oliver Hardick, board member of the BIA and business leader at Cytiva. 

Transcript

Keywords: bioscience, biotech, biomanufacturing, accelerator, innovation.

In this episode, Conor tells Dodi the story of Roy Muhrbeck. It all started 4 years ago when new parents, Hugo Muhrbeck and Maja Ödmann brought home their first child. They were excited and nervous as so many first time parents are. But after a short while, they started to think that maybe everything wasn’t exactly how it should be. Soon after, their son Roy was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). 

Stay tuned to find out how oligonucleotides (oligos) help Roy and where he is today. 

Transcript

Keywords: spinal muscular atrophy, SMA, antisense oligo therapy, genetic disease, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, genomics, clinical trial, oligonucleotides.

So, what does yogurt have to do with wound healing? In this episode, Evelina Vågesjö from Ilya Pharma helps Conor and Dodi see the connection. It’s all about getting help from our small bacterial friends, lactic acid, and chemokines. Tune in to learn how it all connects.

Transcript

Keywords: wound healing, how to heal wounds faster, heal wounds fast, Ilya pharma, yoghurt.

Education matters for sure. But what is special about biopharmaceutical education? And what does the future hold? Dodi and Conor are about to find out. Their guides in this episode are Killian O’Driscoll at NIBRT, Ireland, and Ron Kander at Thomas Jefferson University, US.

Transcript

Keywords: education, Thomas Jefferson University, NIBRT, biopharmaceutical education.

Can you trust the scientific claims on products you buy?  Conor's curiosity led him down a three-pronged investigation about what you can and should believe, when it comes to statistics and statements about science. 

Transcript

Keywords: sense about science ask for evidence, sense about science.

Blockchain is everywhere. Is it the technology we've all been waiting for? Sometimes, and sometimes not. Dodi and Conor talk with Dr. Catherine Mulligan about what blockchain is, and how it's most useful for us.

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Keywords: blockchain in healthcare, blockchain, blockchain technology, Imperial College London, Dr Cathy Mulligan.

Follow Dodi as she dives into the world of innovation. More specifically, the difference between talking innovation and being innovative. Meet Tobias the cyborg that likes thinking inside the box and learn what Gaud has to say about the concept of jugaad in India.

Transcript

Keywords: innovation, cyborg, jugaad, jugaad innovation.

Conor has, what he calls "microbiomania". Whatever the topic, he is able to bring it back to microbiomes in about 3 sentences. So imagine how excited he was to interview Colleen Cutcliffe, CEO of Pendulum whose mission is to make millions healthier through microbiome-targeted medical solutions. Another guest on this episode is Jacques Ravel, professor extraordinaire of The Human Microbiome and Women's Health at the Institute for Genome Sciences, University of Maryland. 

Enjoy! (We sure did!)

Interested in Conor's microbiomania? He writes regularly on his LinkedIn account.

You can also read more Discovery Matters on our Medium publication. (with the same name).

Transcript

Keywords: microbiome, vagina, microbiota, microbes, bacteria, therapeutics, human microbiome, health, protect, develop.

During a lively lunch chat about the popularity of wearable fitness trackers, the curious question came up: with all this data we are generating, what if we were able to do it 50-70 years ago - where would medicine and healthcare be now?

Hearing the question Dodi immediately remembered The Framingham Heart Study. Its objective was to identify the common factors or characteristics that contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD) by following its development over a long period of time in a large group of participants who had not yet developed overt symptoms of CVD or suffered a heart attack or stroke. The research is still ongoing after 70 years and has now added Alzheimer's and diabetes to their list.

Tune in to listen to Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, Principal Investigator and Director Framingham Heart Study; Professor, Boston University School of Medicine and Tom Gracia, a participant in the study for more than 40 years.

Transcript

Keywords: Framingham heart study, Framingham, Ramachandran, participant, heart attacks, human genome project, healthier, heart, dying, behaviour, heart disease, smoking.