Minor Tweak, Major Impact

This episode is the last one before the podcast will go into a break, but we can’t wait to be back with more stories and exciting guests later this year. In this episode we speak with Dr. Laura Volpicelli-Daley who is part of the Neurodegeneration Challenge Network. Laura is an Associate Professor in the Neurology department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience in the lab of Dr. Allan Levey at Emory University where she studied how neuronal protein trafficking is disrupted in Alzheimer’s Disease. She then trained in the fundamentals of neuron cell biology at Yale University, followed by Neurodegenerative Disease training at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode we speak with Laura about her work, her involvement with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Neurodegeneration Challenge Network, challenges with methods for neurodegeneration and more. Links: Volpicelli-Daley Lab - https://www.volpicellidaleylab.org/ Generation and Sonication of α-synuclein Fibrils Protocol - dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bhhrj356

In this show, we had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Henikoff who studies chromosomes, chromatin dynamics and epigenetics and develops genomics and computational tools to facilitate this research. He received a BS from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Harvard University and did post-doctoral work at the University of Washington. He has been a faculty member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center since 1981. He is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, an affiliate professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and co-Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal Epigenetics & Chromatin. In this episode we’re talking with Steve about his work, his approach to method development and refinement, and more. Links: Steven Henikoff protocols.io publications - https://www.protocols.io/researchers/steven-henikoff/protocols Human Cell Atlas - https://www.humancellatlas.org/ CUT&Tag@home was recently chosen by the The Scientist as one of the top 5 technical advances of 2020 - https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/top-technical-advances-of-2020-68297 CUT&Tag@home - https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bmbfk2jn eLife article ‘Efficient chromatin accessibility mapping in situ by nucleosome-tethered tagmentation‘ - https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63274 Jim Watson’s book “Molecular Biology of the Gene” - https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Fifth-James-Watson/dp/080534635X NIH ENCODE Project - https://www.genome.gov/Funded-Programs-Projects/ENCODE-Project-ENCyclopedia-Of-DNA-Elements

In this first episode of 2021, we had the pleasure of speaking with Chelsea Connor, who is a herpetologist, science communicator and artist from the Commonwealth of Dominica. Her love for animals started a long time ago and she always knew she wanted to work with animals. Never having seen someone who looked like occupying the spaces she is now and hopes to expand to, she hopes to inspire and pave the way for many other Black naturalists and nature lovers. In this episode, we’re talking with Chelsea about her work, herpetology, lizards, anoles, science communications and more. Links: DewPops stickers - https://www.redbubble.com/people/chelseaherps/shop?asc=u Chelsea Connor Twitter - https://twitter.com/ChelseaHerps Chelsea Connor Website - https://chelseaconnor.carrd.co/ #DidYouAnole SciComm Game - https://twitter.com/search?q=%23DidYouAnole&src=hashtag_click&f=live Anole Annals - https://www.anoleannals.org/ iNaturalist - https://www.inaturalist.org/

This is last episode for 2020 of the Minor Tweak, Major Impact podcast but don’t worry, we will be back in 2021 with more episodes and exciting guests. In this episode we are speaking with Andrew Bertera who is the Executive Director of Marketing & Sales at New England Biolabs, Inc. Andy joined New England Biolabs in 2009, having previously worked in a variety of R&D, marketing and senior management positions at Amersham, GE and Promega. As Executive Director of Marketing and Sales at NEB, Andy is responsible for the development and implementation of NEB’s marketing strategies and tactics across its entire product portfolio. Andy also oversees its US Sales and Customer Service activities and organizations. His role at NEB involves the direct management of the customer service, marketing, and sales professionals, covering the disciplines of market research, product management, channel and order management, US sales, digital marketing, and scientific and marketing communications. Andy is also the NEB representative at the Analytical, Life Science & Diagnostics Association (ALDA) Executive Management Meetings and a Board member of the Sales And Marketing Professionals in Science (SAMPS). In this episode, we are talking with Andy about his career path from the bench to the commercial side of science, challenges for NEB during the COVID-19 pandemic, protocols for vendors, and more. Links: New England Biolabs - https://www.neb.com/ NEB protocols workspace - https://www.protocols.io/workspaces/new-england-biolabs-neb myNEB™ - https://www.amazon.com/New-England-BioLabs-Biolabs/dp/B07R65WJF2

In this episode we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Véronique Kiermer, who is the Chief Scientific Officer at PLOS, the Public Library of Science, where she oversees the Editorial Department and initiatives to promote open science. She trained as a molecular biologist at the University of Brussels and the University of California, San Francisco, and she also worked in the biotech industry in the Bay Area. Veronique started her career in publishing as the founding Chief Editor of Nature Methods, and held several roles at Nature Publishing Group, including the Publisher for Nature Protocols, and executive editor for the Nature journals before moving to PLOS in 2015. We’re talking with Veronique about her experience with initiatives that encourage researchers to report method details, code, data, etc. as part of their research output. And you will also get a sneak preview of a new exciting initiative of PLOS in partnership with protocols.io that will be launched in early 2021. Links: Materials Design Analysis Reporting (MDAR) checklist - https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/9sm4x PLOS ONE - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ Show your work. Peer-Reviewed Protocols - https://theplosblog.plos.org/2020/12/show-your-work-peer-reviewed-protocols/

This is the fourth episode of our Plant Science Series and in this episode we are talking to Dr. Gioia Massa. On November 2nd, 2020 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS) and we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Gioia Massa who is a NASA scientist at Kennedy Space Center in Florida working on food production for the International Space Station and future exploration endeavors. Gioia is researching ways to grow fresh food for astronauts and there is a lot to learn about in this episode about plant science, challenges with crop production for space and more. Links: Growing Plants in Space - https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-space NASA’s International Space Station 20th Anniversary page - https://www.nasa.gov/station20

This is the third episode of our Plant Science Series and in this episode we are talking to Dr. Elena Hilario. Elena Hilario was born in Mexico City where she studied Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and later a masters in Biochemistry at the same university. Five years later, The University of Connecticut awarded her a PhD in Molecular and Cell biology under the guidance of Dr. Peter Gogarten where she studied how the vacuolar ATPase of the protist Giardia lamblia is a good model for the study of the evolution of early eukaryotes. A postdoc on the effect of horizontal gene transfer on the evolution of Pseudomonas species brought her to New Zealand in 1998 working at Landcare Research, followed by a permanent position as scientist at Plant and Food Research working on physical mapping and genome sequencing of several plants and lately fish and insects. In this episode we’re talking with Elena about her research, challenges, her experience of training others and more. Links: Genomics Aotearoa - https://www.genomics-aotearoa.org.nz/projects/high-quality-genomes Plant and Food Research - https://www.plantandfood.co.nz/ Dr. Elena Hilario’s protocols - https://www.protocols.io/researchers/elena-hilario/protocols

This is the second episode of our Plant Science Series and we had the pleasure of speaking with Melissa Molho who is a Ph.D. candidate in the Plant Pathology Department at the University of Kentucky where she studies virus-host interactions in plants. She likes doing outreach activities to promote plant health and advocating for diversity and inclusion in science. Melissa is originally from Mexico City and she loves learning about different cultures. She also enjoys reading suspense books and historical novels. In this episode we talked with Melissa about her work, minor tweaks in plant pathology methods, challenges for international students, her work as an International Student Advocate and more. Links: International Student Concerns Committee - https://www.uky.edu/gsc/international-student-concerns-committee

This is the first episode of our Plant Science series and we are excited to have Dr. Robb Shirazi as a guest for this episode. Dr. Shirazi received his Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State University and he then worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Oregon State University first in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, then in the Department of Horticulture on a project for Quality assessment for nursery crop production. Since 2007, he has been working as a Research Horticulturist at his own Horticulture Research Group based in Hollister, California. In this episode, we are talking with Robb about his Ph.D. and postdoc projects, challenges in method development for horticulture, how minor tweaks in methods can have a major impact on the outcome, and more. Links: Horticulture Research Group - http://hortrg.com

This is a special episode, as this is our first episode with two guests. We had the pleasure of speaking with Kali Mahrer and Dr. Kaelyn Sumigray from Yale University. Kali is currently a MS student post-graduate associate in the Sumigray Lab at Yale School of Medicine. The lab, and her own project, focuses on the small intestine, with crypt morphogenesis being a major area of interest-particularly when it comes to the role of cell shape changes in developing crypts. In her spare time, she likes to talk to others about accessibility in STEM fields.Kaelyn is Kali’s PI and she is originally from upstate New York but spent the majority of her adult life in North Carolina, where she earned a PhD in Cell Biology from Duke University, followed by two postdoctoral positions at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then Duke University. At Duke, she worked in the lab of Dr. Terry Lechler studying intestinal crypt morphogenesis. She started her own lab in the Department of Genetics at Yale University a year ago, which is the lab that Kali is working in. This conversation with Kali and Kaelyn was very eye opening and inspiring as they both do an incredible job of working together towards and communicating the importance of accessibility in STEM which is too often ignored and overlooked. Links: Kali Mahrer Twitter - https://twitter.com/DeathCab4Callie