Learning With Lowell

Straight from a scientist is a great podcast that I listen to routinely. Connor is the best as well. You basically get the synthesis of two podcasts and hosts while listening to just one episode. Check this one out. It's fantastic!

Surviving Sepsis, liver transplant, and multiple hospitalizations led Robert to the moment where he had a choice. Would he rise or would he fall? He chose to rise and to create PatchD to help patients with Sepsis lead a normal life and to, hopefully, save lives. This is what Mayo Clinic says about Sepsis: "Sepsis occurs when chemicals released into the bloodstream to fight the infection trigger inflammatory responses throughout the body. This inflammation can trigger a cascade of changes that can damage multiple organ systems, causing them to fail. If sepsis progresses to septic shock, blood pressure drops dramatically, which may lead to death."  PatchD is about giving patients and doctors a great tool to increase the quality of life for patients and improve the detection of sepsis.

Microbiology, Pathology, immunology, and biomedical engineering Expert Dr. Dantes trusts his gut and that's what we get into in this episode - the gut biome, microbiome ecology, and more. On the fun, personal side, we get into his passion for bow-ties, min/maxing micro-brewing, and have great discussions on history, microbiology and even a few book recommendations at the end. This is one of my favorite interviews. You're going to want to check this out! Please share and tell your friends.

Nonprofit DIY Biotech Space and Bio Design Challenge created in New York by Daniel Grushkin. In this interview, we get into how being a journalist has impacted his life and how he looks at situations, how/why he started Genspace, what Genspace offers, and where he sees things going. This is a fun, quick interview with Dan who is very passionate about ensuring no one gets left behind with the new biotech space he is creating. See the links to check out Genspace, the competition, and how to get involved!  We also get into some of his favorite books and how to chart your path.

Space talk with space experts, enthusiasts, a technical writer, and a person who will probably be in space pretty soon. We get into advice in career transitions, unsung aspects of the space industry, and what their dreams are.  All of this and more in under 1 hour!

Build consistent and persistent to achieve your ambitions, and see how one innovator, founder, scientists, doctor, and future astronaut built herself to where she is today and where she is going in the future (i.e. Space! )

Shawna Pandya, MD

Passionate about the two 'extremes' of humanity - surviving and thriving - namely furthering technological innovation and human knowledge and tackling humanity’s grandest challenges to effect positive social change.

Previously served as co-founder of CiviGuard, Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up based at NASA-Ames and incubated by Singularity University. Our mission is to save lives in crisis situations by improving coordination, collaboration and communication between key agencies, and also between authorities and civilians.

Have been extensively involved with public service and innovation in the past, having served as VP Research for a inner-city free clinic for high-risk youth, Director of Research & Projects for a national organization promoting space exploration and development, and Founder/Director of an anti-bullying initiative for school-aged children.

Graduate of the International Space (MSS '07) and Singularity (GSP '09) Universities, with backgrounds in Neuroscience (BSc Hons '06, University of Alberta) and Medicine (MD Candidate '12, University of Alberta).

Published author on telemedicine for the developing world, space technology spin-offs for medical benefit and neuroArm, the world’s first intra-operative, MR-compatible image-guided robotic arm for neurosurgery (conducted pre-clinical and early clinical testing).

Awards including being named a finalist for the 2009 ASTech “Leader of Tomorrow” award for leadership and innovation in science, technology and entrepreneurship, Rhodes scholarship provincial finalist, two-time Peter Lougheed scholar and Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation National Laureate. Source

Key specialties:

Innovation, technology, medicine, "rocket surgery," leadership, telemedicine, telesurgery, robotics in surgery, neuroscience, space technology spin-offs for medical benefit, telemedicine for the developing world, medical/scientific writing/editing, space exploration, strategic/business plans

Project PoSSUM

Project PoSSUM is a 501(c)(3) research and education organization using citizen-science astronautics to study our mesosphere and communicate the critical role that it plays in the understanding of our global climate while developing compatible space technologies. PoSSUM received support through NASA for tomographic noctilucent cloud missions, Antarctic balloon missions, and microgravity spacesuit evaluations. PoSSUM also maintains a professional astronautics education program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and also engages students through immersive aeronomy and astronautics programs at various locations throughout the US. Source

Key specialties:

upper atmospheric research, astronautics education, spacesuit test and evaluation, and aeronomy education

Key Websites and Links

ted.com/profiles/bio/id/122431  (Profile on TED.com)

https://www.facebook.com/shawnapandyaofficial/(Facebook)

http://shawnapandya.com/

iloa.org/about.html  (ILOA Bio)

CiviGuard

shawnapandya

Article she wrote

http://projectpossum.com

Medical Device Expert, Forbes 30 under 30, CEO of Sonavex & MonoMano, Venture Partner at FundRx, and External advisory board member for the center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design at John Hopkins University. We get into the process of bringing a medical device to market, his startup journey, and what makes him unique, and that's all just to start. We get into a number of great topics in this episode!

What Forbes says about David:

"Narrow’s company, Sonavex, has raised $1.1 million to develop an ultrasound implant for patients who have had operations. The device, called EchoSure, will help nurses find blood clots before they can cause problems. In his spare time, Narrow runs MonoMano Cycling, a company that makes bikes for people who can only use one side of their body." Source

About Sonavex

"Sonavex, Inc. is a Baltimore-based medical device company spun out of Johns Hopkins. The company is dedicated to providing novel ultrasound solutions to visualize and quantify critical data for improved outcomes and reduces costs in new surgical applications. Sonavex developed EchoSure to detect blood clots after surgery to prevent catastrophic surgical failures. For more information, please visit www.sonavex.com." Source

About MonoMano

"Co-founded MonoMano Cycling, a company that designs and sells adaptive equipment and is devoted to bringing mobility back to stroke survivors, veterans, people with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury. The MonoMano Trike enables these individuals to return to the sport of cycling and gain full steering, braking and gear-shifting control with only one hand.

Responsibilities include: translating user needs to design specifications, product design, financial management, marketing, and sales.

Website: www.monomanocycling.com" Source

About FundRx

"FundRx is a venture capital platform that builds and invests in the next-generation of healthcare and life sciences startups. Our community of hundreds of venture partners – themselves physicians, scientists, and industry executives – contribute their capital, time, and expertise to the FundRx portfolio, providing exceptional hands-on support and guidance to nurture great companies. We take a scientific approach to investing, working with a distributed network of experts to peer-review prospective startups, and are a pioneer in venture capital technology – with a dedicated engineering organization enabling advanced analytics and screening of investments. We are headquartered in New York City, with offices in Chicago and San Francisco." Source 

About Center for Bioengineering innovation and Design at John Hopkins University

"CBID is a joint effort of the Whiting School of Engineering and the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Our focus is translational engineering focusing on health care technology. No other program combines clinical immersion, travel to developing countries for global health immersion, state-of-the-art facilities, and world-renowned lecturers to inspire students to deliver real innovation" Source

Links:

David's linkedin

Contact email for Sonavex or [email protected]

Sonavex website

MonoMano website

Harvard & MIT Professor, author of Regenesis, methods for 1st genome sequence (1994) & 10M-fold improvements (NGS, nanopore), genome editing, writing and recording. In this episode, we get to talk about Genghis Khan ,Woolly Mammoth, storing data in DNA, advice for people getting started, and more all in under one hour!

George is one of the most interesting and down to earth people you'll read about (might be from the future or an alien, but cannot confirm). He is always working to make all of our lives better. Anytime you are looking for inspiration, do what I do, and learn about what he and his team are working on. I always feel like I can do anything  after reading or listening to the current things he is working on. I hope to one day contribute like he does! As a side note: I am working on something that was inspired from our discussion, so we shall see how that goes.  If anyone is inspired after listening to him talk, please email me and let me know. We can start a fan group around George and scientists in general. Scientists are the unsung superheros of our society! Also, scroll down to the bottom to see the breadth of his work. I felt like it should be put here in it's entirety. Hyperlinked show notes will go up tonight for this episode and the previous ones that are lacking them! 

Quick bio

"George Church, professor at Harvard & MIT, co-author of 480 papers, 130 patent publications & the book "Regenesis", developed methods used for the first genome sequence (1994) & million-fold cost reductions since (via NGS and nanopores), plus barcoding, DNA assembly from chips, genome editing, writing & recoding. He co-initiated the BRAIN Initiative (2011) & Genome Projects (1984, 2005) to provide & interpret the world's only open-access personal precision medicine datasets.

George Church is Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of  PersonalGenomes.org, which provides the world's only open-access information on human Genomic, Environmental & Trait data (GET). His 1984 Harvard PhD included the first methods for direct genome sequencing, molecular multiplexing & barcoding. These led to the first genome sequence (pathogen, Helicobacter pylori) in  1994 . His innovations have contributed to nearly all "next generation" DNA sequencing methods and companies (CGI-BGI, Life, Illumina, Nanopore). This plus his lab's work on chip-DNA-synthesis, gene editing and stem cell engineering resulted in founding additional application-based companies spanning fields of medical diagnostics ( Knome/PierianDx, Alacris, AbVitro/Juno, Genos, Veritas Genetics ) & synthetic biology / therapeutics ( Joule, Gen9, Editas, Egenesis, enEvolv, WarpDrive ). He has also pioneered new privacy,biosafety, ELSI, environmental & biosecurity policies. He is director of an IARPA BRAIN Project and NIH Center for Excellence in Genomic Science. His honors include election to NAS & NAE & Franklin Bower Laureate for Achievement in Science. He has coauthored 480 papers, 130 patent publications & one book (Regenesis)." Source

Articles, videos, and other content with or on George

How we Benefit from Getting our Genomes Sequenced

George Church: 'Genome sequencing is like the internet back in the late 1980s.'

Reversing Human Aging | George Church | TEDxBeaconStreetSalon

Check out all of his publications here (no pay walls!!!)

Easier to navigate list of his work and writing. 

Social Media

Twitter

Hyperlinked Time Stamped Show notes

(click on the time and go right to that section)

[ 01:50 ] Genghis Khan comparison.

[ 02:30 ] How often he gets strange questions like Elon Musk does at his Q/As.

[ 03:26 ] An example of a fun/strange question q/a with Elon (tried finding a good link, but unfortunately couldn't).

[ 04:21 ] How factually accurate vs dramatized is the Woolly Book (currently being made into a movie).

[ 05:37 ] A quick discussion on a good/positive version of Jurassic Park (i.e. Woolly movie).

Dialogue type episode where we talked and meandered around the science topics we have been covering on our different podcasts. He specializes in Neural Implant/ Brain interfacing type things where on my podcast we are a bit broad, so it was fun talking about the different people we have covered. I enjoy his podcast, and if you liked him here you should check him out at his website here.

Ladan Jiracek linked in

Website

Threading the needle between being in Academia and founding startups, fostering the next generation of innovators, building an engineer for innovation at King's College, and amazing advice and perspective with an amazing, world class scientists, innovator, and leader.

Dr. Davide Danovi

"Dr. Davide Danovi is leading the Cell Phenotyping Unit at King's College London in the framework of the HipSci project, funded by the Wellcome Trust and MRC.

Prior to this, he was principal scientist at Progenitor Labs, a novel biotechnology company founded to isolate drugs for regenerative medicine using innovative stem cell technologies.

Before, he worked with Prof. Austin Smith and Dr. Steve Pollard at the University of Cambridge and at University College London where he developed a live image based chemical screening platform to isolate compounds active on human neural stem cells from normal or brain tumour samples.

He holds an MD from University of Milan and a PhD in Molecular Oncology from the European Institute of Oncology where he demonstrated the causative role of the HdmX protein in human cancer."

Director of Cell Phenotyping Platform at King's College London

"We work in the framework of the Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Initiative (HipSci) project, funded by the Wellcome Trust and MRC. We provide a dedicated laboratory space for collaborative cell phenotyping to study how intrinsic and extrinsic signals impact on human cells to develop assays for disease modeling and drug discovery and to identify new disease mechanisms."

Director of HipSci Cell Phenotyping

"HipSci stands for Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Initiative. The project brings together diverse constituents in genomics, proteomics, cell biology and clinical genetics to establish a UK national iPS cell resource (over 500 lines from patients and 500 from healthy individuals) to discover how genomic variation impacts on cellular phenotype and identify new disease mechanisms.

Strong links with NHS investigators will ensure that studies on the disease-associated cell lines will be linked to extensive clinical information. Further key features of the project are an open access model of data sharing; engagement of the wider clinical genetics community in selecting patient samples and provision of dedicated laboratory space for collaborative cell phenotyping and differentiation."

Show notes and key links from episode with a rough estimate of when you hear them. 

 Dr. Davide's, bio and background

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davide-danovi-a6246a13/

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/research/divisions/gmm/departments/stemcells/people/dr-davide-danovi.aspx

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Davide_Danovi

~6 min mark Tim Minchin graduation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoEezZD71sc

~8 min mark Stem Cell Hotel

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/research/divisions/gmm/departments/stemcells/the-stem-cell-hotel-and-hipsci.aspx

~11 min mark Perkin Elmer Operetta CLS, one of our devices

http://www.perkinelmer.co.uk/product/operetta-cls-system-hh16000000

http://www.phasefocus.com/livecyte/

http://www.julistage.com

https://www.essenbioscience.com/en/resources/incucyte-zoom-resources-support/

Devices will be accessible also through

https://www.clustermarket.com

~12 min mark The Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Initiative

www.hipsci.org

~14 min mark ’ The butterfly image on the HipSci twitter handle

https://twitter.com/hipsci?lang=en

~14 min mark Alice Vickers pattern

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1800011713354862&id=120627651293285&set=a.1800011600021540.1073741865.120627651293285&source=49&ref=page_internal

~15 min mark Ben Paul

http://www.learningwithlowell.com/neural-engineering-brain-computer-interfaces-and-3d-printing-combined-to-sculpt-neurons-to-interface-the-optic-nerve/

~16  min mark DeepScienceVentures

http://www.learningwithlowell.com/dominic-falcao-founder-of-deep-science-ventures-an-early-stage-venture-bui...