In December 2017, Matt Fender ran his 23andMe raw data through Promethease, a third party DNA search engine that provides an inexpensive personalized list of annotated SNP’s.  At the top of Matt’s report was a box banded in red that said “pathogenic” and “PSEN1” and “early onset Alzheimer’s disease.”  At 32, Matt believed that dementia was only a few years off – on bad days, he thought perhaps it has already begun.  He agonized over how to tell his family.  And he discovered that when it came to DTC genetic testing, the instructions “consult your doctor” might be easier said than done.

Matt Fender

Hosted by renowned educator and genetic counselor, Laura Hercher, The Beagle Has Landed is the first independent podcast for the rapidly growing and dynamic community of genetic counselors.  The show features interviews with leaders in the field of clinical genetics, exploring our complicated past and rapidly changing present.  We look at the new roles genetic counselors are playing in industry as well as clinical settings, bringing in the voices of other stakeholders, including basic scientists and families affected by genetic disease.

Natural Sciences

Science & Medicine

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Medicine

Beverly Gage, Yale professor of American History and author, is more likely to be found on podcasts discussing her new (and wildly acclaimed) biography, “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century". But in 2019 her life took an unexpected turn, as a chance encounter with a plant kickstarted what turned out to be a rare disease that had – inexplicably – lain dormant for 40 years.  
She’s not just a zebra, as Beverly explains in her recent New Yorker article, she’s a zebra with polka dots.

Historian Beverly Gage on Her Rare Disease Diagnosis

Deven McGraw, lead for Data Stewardship and Data Sharing at Invitae, joins Laura to discuss how government and industry can best secure your right to access your own health data while keeping it secure from unwanted exposures.  Deven's broad range of experience makes her the person to answer those burning questions about how to keep our data safe - and accessible.

Deven McGraw on Health Data Sharing and Privacy

Today’s podcast features Adam Rutherford, a geneticist trained at University College London who has spent much of his career as a science communicator: as an editor at Nature, as a radio and television commentator for the BBC, and as the author of such books with delightful titles, including "Creation: the Origin of Life/The Future of Life and A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived" and "How to Argue With a Racist".

Adam Rutherford on His Latest Book about Eugenics

In a field full of amazing people, no one --- no one -- is more remarkable than Sharon Terry.  And this is despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that she is not, technically, in the field at all: Sharon Terry is, as her bio describes her, “just a mom with a master’s degree in theology.”  Sharon’s personal story of a journey from the worst form of heartbreak and disempowerment – the discovery that both of her young children had a rare genetic disease with a bad prognosis – to become a role model for parent activists everywhere.

Bringing Genomic Medicine to the Whole World:  Sharon Terry of the Genetic Alliance

Noura Abul-Husn got her MD and PhD from Mt Sinai in NYC, where she later served as the first clinical director of the Institute for Genomic Health and Chief of Genomic Medicine.  Today, she is Vice President for Genomic Health at 23andMe.  She joins us here on the Beagle today to discuss the state of translational efforts in genomic medicine and look at some of the barriers to the integration of genetics into routine clinical care.

Matt Fender

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