The immune system is skilled at determining friend from foe. But, our immune systems can sometimes turn against us, leading to autoimmune disease. Dr. Carola Vinuesa is Professor of Immunology at the Australian National University, and she joins me to discuss how NGS can unravel the complex interaction of cells and molecules that regulate antibody response and autoimmunity.

NGS-based single cell genomics techniques can characterize the genetic material of millions of individual cells isolated from bulk tissues. These techniques have revolutionized our understanding of the type and nature of cells that exist in our bodies. Dr. Shalin Naik of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research joined me to discuss his use of single cell omics to understand the immune system.

Neglected tropical diseases primarily impact the world’s poor, and more than 1 billion people currently suffer from one of these neglected diseases. Professor Warwick Grant of La Trobe University joined me to discuss how genomics is being used to maximize the impact of treatment for river blindness, a neglected disease that affects as many as 35 million people in Africa.

Rare diseases affect millions of people around the world. Dr. Matt Might is Professor and Director of the Hugh Kaul Precision Medicine Institute at the University of Alabama Birmingham. His son, Bertrand, was the first person to be diagnosed with NGLY1 deficiency, an ultra-rare disorder. Matt joined me to discuss Bertrand’s diagnostic odyssey and the impact of genomics on rare disease research.

At the recent European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) conference, I talked with microbiology experts employing next-generation sequencing (NGS) in clinical microbiology. Dr. Agathe Jouet of Genoscreen and Dr. Christophe Rodriguez of University Hospital Henri-Mondor joined me to discuss amplicon and shotgun sequencing to help diagnose infectious diseases.

An average risk woman in the US has about a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer. Breast tumors are genetically heterogeneous and can be classified into subtypes based on patterns of gene expression, DNA methylation, nucleotide substitutions and genomic rearrangements. Dr. Åke Borg is Professor of Oncology and Pathology at Lund University, and he joined me to discuss the genetics of breast cancer.

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries need creative and innovative employees now and into the future. Randy Schregardus is Student Programs Manager at the Van Andel Education Institute (vaei.vai.org), and he joined me to discuss advances in K-12 science education, the next generation science standards, and innovative science education programs at VAEI.

Who am I, and where do I come from? We’re all interested in these fundamental human questions. Recently, genomic analysis of ancient human DNA has refined our understanding of human history and biology. Dr. Eske Willerslev of the Universities of Cambridge and Copenhagen joins me for a fascinating discussion about ancient DNA, human biology, and human history.

We all start life as a single egg cell, but after fertilization we grow into a large organism containing about 40 trillion diverse and specialized cells. Embryogenesis is the developmental process by which an embryo forms and develops, and it’s enabled by stem cells. Dr. Amy Ralston of Michigan State University joins me to talk about genomics, stem cells, and embryogenesis.

Metabolic changes in immune cells can alter immune system biology. So, understanding how immune cells get energy is important for understanding immune. Drs. Connie Krawczyk and Rusty Jones of the Van Andel Research Institute (vari.vai.org) talk about omics technologies for studying immunometabolism. To learn more about the Metabolic and Nutritional Programming team visit russelljoneslab.vai.org.