Discovery Matters

We’ve talked about slime, seaweed, mushrooms, and now creepy crawlies. Insects are important biotech engines for medicines and meals. Algenex are using insect pupa to produce recombinant proteins that can be used for vaccines, which also has the potential to replace less sustainable raw materials. Insects are also excellent food sources, not just for bush tucker trials, but Dr. Daylan Tzompa-Sosa explains that insect lipids can make doughnuts, croissants, oils, and hummus!

Join Dodi, Conor and their guests Dr. José Escribano, founder and CSO of Algenex, and Dr. Daylan Tzompa-Sosa, a researcher at Ghent University specializing in milk fat, in the latest episode of Discovery Matters.

Transcript

Keywords: insects, fats, protein, vaccines, cells, biomass, milk fat, recombinant protein, bioreactors, molecules, lipids, moth larvae, downstream.

We talk a lot about beginnings on Discovery Matters, but what about actually getting biologic drugs to people? Once the biologic is produced, aseptic filling and hybrid glass and plastic vials help to protect the biologic drug and the patient.

Join Dodi, Conor and their guests, Chris Weikart the Chief Scientist at SiO2 Material Science, and Ross Gold one of the founders of Cytiva's aseptic filling business, in the latest episode of Discovery Matters, talking about the end of the workflow.

Transcript

Keywords: vials, packaging, biologic drugs, glass, injectable, aseptic filling, pandemic, plastic, innovation, dosage, patient, coating, molding.

Who (in the scientific community) would have guessed that mRNA would be such a popular word in everyone's vocabulary one day? Well, as Conor puts it, "all the research by the people on the edges of the scientific community for the past 20 years are really paying dividends."

Join Dodi, Conor, and their guests, Clive Glover the General Manager of Gene Therapy at Pall and James Taylor General Manager in Vancouver for Precision NanoSystems, in the latest episode of Discovery Matters, talking about mRNA revolutionizing the genomics field.

Transcript

Keywords: mRNA, medicines, technology, disease, genetic, therapeutics, vaccines, RNA, innovation, viral vector, genomics.

In this episode of Discovery Matters, enter into the world of slime: seaweed, agar and algae. Algae gave us the atmosphere that we have today and is still coming to our aid against climate change. Executive Director of the Climate Change Cluster at the University of Technology in Sydney, Photobiologist Peter Ralph, who once called himself Dr. Death, explains how algae has given him newfound hope to fight climate change.

Join Conor and Dodi for this fascinating episode!

Transcript

Keywords: algae, microalgae, seaweed, agar, sugars, protein, agarose, resins, cyanobacteria, climate change, photobiology, witchetty grub.

The BSCP is working towards greater diversity and opportunities for people of colour and disadvantaged individuals within the biomedical and life sciences.

Join Dodi and Conor and their guest, Dr Joan Reede, for this important episode where we learn what more can be done by ourselves and the industry as a whole to further diversity and inclusion.

Transcript

Keywords: students, color, people, organisations, doctors, opportunities, privilege, pandemic, biomedical science, diversity, representation, life sciences, women, BSCP.

How do you solve linked murders without witnesses? The answer, DNA. 

In this episode of Discovery Matters, we have been inspired by the true crime genre. We discuss a 32-year-old cold case which was the first to be solved with DNA profiling, and a murder in Las Vegas that was solved with the smallest amount of DNA ever! 

Join Dodi and Conor, and guest Kathryn Lamerton a former forensic scientist currently a Senior R&D Scientist at Cytiva, with a re-enactment helped by some of our colleagues at Cytiva for this exciting episode of Discovery Matters.

Transcript

Keywords: DNA, crime, DNA profiling, crime scene, Colin Pitchfork, R&D.

We adore happy accidents.  But is that the only way to innovate? We talk to an innovation guru who's all about structure. Then we meet a scientist whose goal with innovation is to scale up.  Enter the Testa Center in Sweden.  Hear how it all comes together in this episode with Dodi and Conor. 

Transcript

Keywords: innovation, discoveries, Testa Center, Innovation hub, scale up.

Short and sweet. Conor brings an interesting story about the role of horseshoe crabs in the pharmaceutical industry. Our guest and subject matter expert is Ding Jeak Ling - or Lynne, as she prefers to be called. She is a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences National University of Singapore, and her main research interest is in innate immunity and cancer immunomodulation.

Enjoy - and rate us!

Transcript

Keyword: cancer immunomodulation, immunity, crabs, endotoxin, horseshoe crab, RFC, blood, LAL, bacteria, medicines, rabbits.

Sure, healthcare and pharma does a whole lot of good in the world - but this doesn't make us exempt from taking our plastic waste seriously. 

So join Conor and Dodi as they talk about the 5 R's with their guests: 

Transcript

Keywords: instruments, recycle, refurbished, garbage, sustainability, recycling, filters, syringe, waste, chromatography, refuse, reuse, repurpose.

What better way to celebrate 100 years of insulin than with the CEO of the company who is on the verge of giving us a vaccine for type 1 diabetes? 

We spoke to Ulf Hannelius in April and 3 days ago we saw the published results of DIAGNODE-2, a Phase IIb trial that evaluated intralymphatic administration of Diamyd Medical’s lead drug candidate Diamyd® (GAD-alum) in individuals recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Congratulations!

Guests who also joined us in this episode are Mark A. Atkinson, American Diabetes Association Eminent Scholar and Anders Ekholm, diabetes patient and parent, and Chairman of the Diabetes Association for Greater Stockholm.

Transcript

Keyword: insulin, diabetes, manufacturing, blood glucose level, pandemic, diabetic, recombinant insulin, biosynthetic insulin, type 1 diabetes.