Opinionated Science

In this episode, the team discuss the growing movement for sustainable science. Research has a yeti-sized ecological footprint, and here we follow the tracks from ozone-destroying CFCs and energy-guzzling freezers through to a new future for science that promises to make labs eco-friendly at last.

Read more from this podcast:

In this episode, the team take a deep dive into the world of biohacking. Practitioners of this DIY biology have big goals: making genetic technologies available to all, bypassing government regulation of drugs and (on the fringes of the movement) achieving immortality. Are biohackers visionaries or outsider scientists lost in a fantasy? 

In this episode, the TN team discuss three promising vaccine candidates being developed for COVID-19. We take a deep dive into the data from these vaccine trials to try and work out what successes can be celebrated and what unanswered questions still remain.

Genetic data is moving to the mainstream. Testing, both in the clinic and through direct-to-consumer delivery, is much quicker and cheaper then ever before. But these advances have come with a lot of ethical baggage. In this podcast we discuss how clinical testing can throw up surprise results for doctor and patient, the test data that is helping fight COVID-19 and how one of our own editors responded to receiving her genetic risk scores.

Read more from this podcast: 

Exploring the Ethics of Genetic Testing

Exploring the Ethics of Genetic Testing: What Does Consent Mean?

Exploring the Ethics of Genetic Testing: Where Does Duty Begin and End?

Data from Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests Used To Create a Drug for Inflammatory Diseases

Chronologically, I'm 23, but Biologically – I'm 26

Large Study Suggests Blood Type O May Be a Protective Factor Against COVID-19

One Year on, Scientists Defend Canada’s Anti-Genetic Discrimination Law

In this episode, the TN team discuss the potential of personalized, precision approaches to change healthcare. We hear how cancer care has been one of the first areas to take advantage of patient-specific data, the risks and rewards of increased access to genomic data and how neuroscience is beginning to explore diseases of the brain at a personal level.

Read more from this podcast:

In this episode, we review the evidence surrounding vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a therapy approved for epilepsy and depression that backers now want to use to treat a host of other conditions, include autoimmune disease and heart failure. How can scientists fill in the gaps in the VNS knowledge base?

Read more from this podcast:

Zanos lab research on anodal block

The history of VNS

VNS as a treatment for depression

Sensate Device

In this episode, the Technology Networks team discuss drug treatments to combat COVID-19. These drugs, like the anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine, have often been repurposed for the task, and evidence for their efficacy remains patchy. Why do researchers turn to these medications and how will the field of drug development be changed by the COVID-19 pandemic? 

Hydroxychloroquine Revived by WHO

How modeling can support drug development

Covid-19 brings drug development to a halt

Tackling Covid-19: ongoing drug development efforts

Flooded by the torrent: the COVID-19 drug pipeline

Global impact on clinical trials

What is a preprint? 

Exploring the drug development process

Keep up to date with COVID-19 vaccine development

Updates:

Hydroxychloroquine arm stopped in RECOVERY Trial

In this episode, the Technology Networks team investigate the placebo effect. Why have placebo treatments become more effective at treating patients in the last few decades (but only in the USA) and what do powerful placebos mean for clinical trials? 

Read more from this podcast: 

The Power of the Placebo Effect

Survey Finds 97% of GPs Prescribe Placebos

Placebo Surgery Trial

The Magnitude of Nocebo Effects in Pain

Placebo Effect Grows in U.S., Thwarting Development of Painkillers

In this episode, the Technology Networks team take a bite into the world of food fraud. We take a look at famous cases of fraud, including scandals involving horse meat, baby formula and expensive wine. We also discover the analytical methods that inspectors can try and use to find fraudulent food before it makes it to your plate. 

Shedding Light on Wine Fraud With NMR Fingerprinting

Whiskey, the Target of Fraud

Infographic: What's in Your Food?

In this episode, the Technology Networks team discuss the community of bacteria that have made our bodies their home: the microbiome. We explore how these bugs can influence our behavior and help us fight disease and whether microbiota-modifying poo pills could become a part of precision medicine in the near future. 

Read more from this podcast:

https://www.technologynetworks.com/cancer-research/infographics/the-microbiome-and-cancer-319758

https://www.technologynetworks.com/genomics/infographics/sequencing-the-microbiome-327727

https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/articles/mouse-moms-microbiota-leads-to-altered-behavior-326252

https://www.technologynetworks.com/tn/articles/microbiome-medicine-takes-center-stage-308055