People Behind the Science Podcast

By Dr. Marie McNeelyScience

People Behind the Science Podcast episodes

February 06, 2023 694: Dr. Daniel Goldman: Making Great Strides in Understanding Locomotion: From Little Lizards to Robotic Rattlesnakes
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Daniel Goldman is an Associate Professor of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in Physics from the University of Texas, Austin and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley. Dan has received many awards and honors during his career including recently being named a Georgia Power Professor of Excellence and receipt of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a DARPA Young Faculty Award, a Sigma Xi Young Faculty award, an NSF CAREER/PECASE Award, a Georgia Tech Blanchard Milliken Fellowship, the Georgia Tech Fund for Innovation in Research and Education Award, and a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface. In addition, Dan is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. His work has also been featured by the New York Times, NPR, BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and other media sources. Dan is here with us today to tell us all about his journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
When he’s not doing science, Dan spends much of his time with his young daughter. One of their favorite activities lately is rocking out together with guitar duets of great classics like the Wheels on the Bus.
The Scientific Side
Dan’s lab studies how animals like lizards and snakes move around in complex natural environments. They use physics to understand movement and test their hypotheses in robotic systems with the goal of developing robots with greater abilities to navigate complex environments.
A Dose of Motivation
“Always make mistakes quickly.” by John King.
“There’s no substitute for hands-on fooling with the real stuff.” by John King
What Got You Hooked on Science?
When Dan was about 10 years old, he was really into lizards and snakes. He was certain he wanted be a herpetologist and study reptiles for his career. As a kid, Dan hung out in pet stores, had lizards as pets, studied everything he could about reptiles, and even wrote letters to textbook authors with questions about these creatures. Dan’s interests shifted towards math and physics in high school, but his work today is able to incorporate all of his academic interests.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
Dan did well in high school and the first few years of college, but he started to get burnt out and lose motivation. He decided to go to graduate school and was honored to be accepted into a prestigious lab. However, after a few weeks in the program, Dan decided he didn’t really want to be there and dropped out of graduate school. After a year of working odd jobs, Dan realized he wanted to go back. Though MIT allowed him to resume the program, it was a major struggle to get his former PhD advisor to let him back into the lab.
A Shining Success!
One project Dan’s lab has worked on involves the unusual movement pattern of the sidewinder rattlesnake. With a combination of experiments on real snakes moving over different terrain and robotic models of the snake’s movement, they have determined that this seemingly complex movement strategy involves coordination of a horizontal wave motion of the body coupled with a vertical plane wave motion. It was really satisfying to take a lot of complexity and successfully distill it to this relatively simple pattern.
Book Recommendations
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
Most Treasured Travel
Dan was able to travel to Cameroon in Africa to participate in an hands-on school set up by his PhD advisor. He and a few graduate students went for two weeks to do hands-on biomechanics experiments with the students there. All of the experiments were done on a budget that was accessible for developing countries. For example, they built a low cost force plate and taught students about ground reaction forces during running and walking.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
As a graduate student Dan was the singer in a band in Austin, TX. The band included a few graduate students and one of his other friends, and they had a great time rehearsing together and playing in different venues. By inviting the large group of people in the lab, the band was able to draw a big pretty big crowd for their performances and fill some of the local bars with their supporters.
Advice For Us All
Find a good mentor.
Guest Bio
Dr. Daniel Goldman is an Associate Professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prof. Goldman received his B.S. in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. He received his PhD in physics in 2002 from The University of Texas at Austin where he trained under Prof. Harry Swinney in the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics. During his thesis work he studied pattern formation in oscillated granular layers and fluidization of granular beds. After a year of postdoctoral training at Texas, he moved to the University of California at Berkeley where he trained as a postdoc under Prof. Robert Full in the Poly-PEDAL lab in the Department of Integrative Biology. There he studied climbing of cockroaches and the locomotion of spiders on ground with scarce footholds. Prof. Goldman became a faculty member at Georgia Tech in January 2007. He is an adjunct member of the School of Biology and is a member of the Interdisciplinary Bioengineering Graduate Program. Prof. Goldman’s research program investigates the interaction of biological and physical systems with complex materials. For example, he is interested in how small (under 10 cm long) animals like lizards and crabs can run rapidly (over 2 m/sec) over sand, a material that can display solid and fluid-like features during foot impacts. He is interested in the biology which allows organisms to accomplish such feats, the physics which governs the forces generated by the materials during footsteps, and how to make models of the organisms like robots that have similar performance on such materials.
*This episode was originally released on June 22, 2015.
The post 694: Dr. Daniel Goldman: Making Great Strides in Understanding Locomotion: From Little Lizards to Robotic Rattlesnakes appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
48 min
January 30, 2023 693: Dr. Adriana San Miguel: Using Engineering and Systems Approaches to Understand Aging, Neurodegeneration, and Stress
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Adriana San Miguel is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. She received her BSc. in chemical engineering from ITESM, a technological institute in Monterrey, Mexico. As an undergraduate, she received the Frisa Entrepreneurship Award from ITESM as well as the Craig P. Dunn Award for Social Innovations in Entrepreneurship from the San Diego State University Venture challenge. Prior to starting graduate school, Adriana worked in the cement and water-treatment industries. She was awarded her PhD in chemical engineering from Georgia Tech, and during her PhD, she was recognized with the Exemplary Academic Achievement Award and the Ziegler Award for Best PhD Thesis Proposal from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. Afterwards, Adriana worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech and at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. As a postdoc she received an NIH K99 Pathway to Independence Award. In our interview, she shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:55)
In her free time, Adriana enjoys exercising, swimming, and spending quality time with her family.
The Scientific Side (3:44)
Adriana conducts research using a small roundworm called Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). They use this model organism to better understand processes such as aging, neurodegeneration, and stress. In particular, Adriana’s lab uses engineering tools and approaches to try to conduct research that is highly efficient and quantitative. This allows them to more quickly, scalably, and precisely determine what is changing in the processes they study.
A Dose of Motivation (4:54)
For Adriana, it is really motivating to see the students in her lab learn and grow as scientists, and it is fun to investigate new things and make unexpected discoveries.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:23)
Growing up in Mexico, Adriana decided to study chemical engineering. After finishing college, she began working in industry, but she knew that she ultimately wanted to go to graduate school. Adriana didn’t fully understand what it meant to do research, but she was interested in science and wanted a higher degree. She moved to the U.S. to enroll in a PhD program in chemical and biomolecular engineering, and she was fascinated by all of the different kinds of research being done in this area. During graduate school she took some additional classes to learn more about biology, and she fell in love with it. In her postdoctoral fellowship, Adriana combined her engineering background with her new knowledge of biology and got introduced to the C. elegans model organisms she works with today. Throughout her career path, Adriana never planned to become an academic faculty member, but her interests in science and mentoring led her to this type of position.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (15:33)
As part of her PhD work, Adriana was trying to make capsules that would release their contents when there was a very mild change in the acidity of the solution. She worked on this project for an entire year, trying a lot of different approaches, but nothing worked. At this point, she was ready to give up. Adriana met with her advisor, and he said to try one last thing, and if this didn’t work, she could move on. The final idea worked! This became a major part of her thesis, and she published multiple research papers, including one of her most highly cited papers to date. Persistence is key, and it is also important not to take failures personally. They are just part of science.
A Shining Success! (17:48)
Adriana is very proud of the most recent paper that her lab has published. The project was difficult, but the results were very interesting. They were trying to develop new methods to identify genes that are relevant to aging. After many failures, they identified a new potential marker for aging. The marker was the formation of stress granules. These granules are small liquid condensates in cells that form when there is a stressful environment and when the C. elegans worms age. With this marker, they can identify individual worms who start to form these stress granules unusually early, suggesting that they are aging faster. They can then look at these individuals to see how they are genetically different from worms that develop stress granules later. With this approach, they identified a gene that has not previously been associated with aging, and it has opened the door to new potential pathways involved in the aging process. The students working on the project were among Adriana’s first PhD students, and they had to try a lot of different things before they were able to get their experiments to work.
Book Recommendations (20:51)
Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
Most Treasured Travel (21:55)
One meeting Adriana usually attends is the International C. elegans Conference held every two years. In the past, it has been in Los Angeles, but this year it will be held in Glasgow, Scotland. Adriana visited Scotland when she was an undergraduate student during a study abroad opportunity in England, and she is looking forward to the opportunity to return. She also enjoys the American Institute of Chemical Engineers annual meeting that rotates through different cities in the U.S. each year. These meetings are a great opportunity to see old friends, meet new people, and talk to students.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (24:06)
Having a collegial and friendly environment in the lab is important for Adriana. Her lab plans a variety of outings to help build a sense of community. For example, they had a fantastic time hiking together on nearby trails over the summer, and they always have fun during their annual holiday party.
Advice For Us All (28:07)
There isn’t just one single, direct path to get to where you want to go in life. If you have multiple options, you don’t have to agonize about picking the “right choice”. In most cases, you can still be happy and have a fulfilling career regardless of which option you choose. You don’t need to know from your first day of college what you want to do with your life. You can figure it out as you go, and your career will likely be a combination of what you want, what you are good at, what you enjoy, and what opportunities there are in the world. Also, take some time to look at the big picture. Sometimes we get too focused on the details of one thing that isn’t working, and it can be really helpful to take a step back and get perspective on how you are doing overall.
Guest Bio
Adriana’s research program focuses on using engineering and systems approaches to understand fundamental biological processes in living organisms, particularly the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. Her group applies tools that enable the acquisition of biological data in a high-throughput, quantitative fashion. With these high-content engineering approaches, they aim to understand topics such as neuronal aging, synaptic plasticity, noise and stochasticity, genetic networks and buffering, among others. They incorporate tools that enable large-scale, high-content quantitative characterization of phenotypes at various scales: from the subcellular level all the way to whole-organism behavioral outputs. Adriana and her lab members use custom-built platforms for their experimental studies, which typically incorporate microfluidics, computer vision, statistical data analysis, and integrative automation and control. In addition, they apply genetic and molecular biology tools to perform genome-wide systematic studies. Current active areas of research include aging of neuronal connections, genetic screens for late-onset phenotypes, quantitative behavioral assays, and the spatio-temporal role of age-associated proteins at the whole organism level.

Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by LAMPIRE Biological Laboratories.
The post 693: Dr. Adriana San Miguel: Using Engineering and Systems Approaches to Understand Aging, Neurodegeneration, and Stress appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
32 min
January 23, 2023 692: Dr. Mike Blatt: Keeping a Close Eye On Channels and Vesicle Trafficking in Plant Cell Membranes
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Mike Blatt is the Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow and Adjunct Professor at Pennsylvania State University. He conducted his undergraduate studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he received his BS with honors in Botany and Biochemistry. Next, Mike was awarded a PhD in Plant Biology from Stanford University while working in the Department of Plant Biology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. During his graduate work, Mike received a Fullbright-Hays Graduate Fellowship to study at the University of Nürnberg. Afterwards, Mike traveled to Yale University Medical School to accept an NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship and then to the University of Cambridge to accept a NATO Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has served on the faculty at the University of London and Imperial College London prior to joining the faculty at the University of Glasgow. Mike has received many awards and honors throughout his career, including being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the James Hutton Institute, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the premier international journal Plant Physiology. In this interview, Mike discusses his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:41)
Mike loves winter sports, especially downhill and cross country skiing. In fact, he has skied throughout most of his life is currently looking forward to an upcoming ski trip to the Alps with his father who is still hitting the slopes at the age of 92!
The Scientific Side (3:40)
Responsibilities in Mike’s work include teaching students, supervising people in the lab, serving as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Plant Physiology, and conducting research. In terms of research, Mike is a cell biologist and physiologist who studies cells to understand how the parts fit together to accomplish important functions in plants. Within the lab, Mike is also passionate about electronics, and he has built much of the equipment they use for their work.
A Dose of Motivation (6:11)
“Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.” – Oscar Wilde
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” -Oscar Wilde
“The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” -Oscar Wilde
“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” -Oscar Wilde
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:59)
Much of Mike’s childhood was spent in his father’s physics lab, and he has a lot of fond memories of helping his dad with different projects. Being in the lab sparked Mike’s interest in tinkering, but he was always more fascinated by biology than physics. His interest in plants came from summer hiking excursions in the Rocky Mountains in the summer and skiing in the winter during his childhood. This enthusiasm for plants persists in Mike’s work and life today.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (22:39)
About four months after Mike moved to Glasgow (and just after the renovations to his new laboratory space), the building housing the plant science research group at the University of Glasgow burned down. After the inferno, 8 primary investigators and around 50 students, postdocs, and staff had lost years of research and were now without a lab. Nothing was able to be salvaged, and Mike had to start over re-building his lab.
A Shining Success! (26:36)
An exciting eureka moment happened for Mike and his labmates when they were working on a project related to trafficking of vesicles across cell membranes in plants. Through use of novel sequencing techniques, a postdoc in the lab discovered that voltage was used to control vesicle trafficking for a particular part of one of the membrane channels they were studying. This was a big victory, and the paper describing this discovery was published a little over a year ago. Successes such as published papers are often celebrated in the lab by the first author bringing a cake to share in lab meeting.
Book Recommendations (28:57)
The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker, The Telling by Ursula Le guin, The Earthsea series by Ursula Le Guin
Most Treasured Travel (30:13)
Two summers ago, Mike attended a plant biology conference in the middle of the Atacama Desert in Northern Chile. It was ironic that the driest place in the world was selected for a meeting of plant researchers, but it was an unforgettable experience. Mike enjoyed the amazing scenery during his hour drive through the vast and beautiful desert from the airport to the conference center in San Pedro. During the trip, Mike was also able to take a cycling excursion to explore a nearby town, and he was able to visit some of his colleagues in Santiago.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:46)
Mike is a big fan of wordplay, and it is a fun challenge for him to try to incorporate wordplay into papers when he can. However, he was delighted to find that their paper in Nature Plants initially (and through no effort of his own) referred to trafficking as “traffic king”. He felt obligated to point out this typo to the editorial staff, and it was quickly remedied. One of the staff members in Mike’s lab is also talented in generating hilarious wordplay, and he has developed some wonderfully eclectic naming conventions for their lab equipment.
Advice For Us All (36:43)
Make the best out of what you are given, and be prepared to reinvent yourself at least once every 10-15 years. Also, science is fun, and you get to work with so many amazing people. For this privilege, scientists have a responsibility to give back to society, create knowledge, and push boundaries by traveling and working in different places. This helps build bridges and understanding between different cultures.
Guest Bio
Mike studied in Canada and the USA, obtaining a dual first from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He was a Fullbright-Hays Graduate Fellow in Germany, a Fellow of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and held a NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University Medical School before moving to the UK in 1983. He took up the Regius Chair of Botany at Glasgow University in 2001, a post conferred by Royal Warrant, where he heads the Plant Science Group of nine principal investigators and and some 50 postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers and technicians. He has held a number of advisory roles and serves within the UK and internationally, including as a founding member of the BBSRC panel of experts, external assessor for the Chilean Science Foundation, NASA (USA), and the Swedish Science Directorate. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the most highly-cited international journal in the field, Plant Physiology. Mike’s research interests center around the biophysics and physiology of membranes, especially in relation to the function of stomatal guard cells and their role in regulating gas exchange for photosynthesis of plant leaves. When he is not in the laboratory, Mike will be often be found either in the Alps skiing, swimming in some body of water, or working with local community programs attached to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.
*This episode was originally released on February 20, 2017.
The post 692: Dr. Mike Blatt: Keeping a Close Eye On Channels and Vesicle Trafficking in Plant Cell Membranes appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
43 min
January 16, 2023 691: Dr. David Kaplan: Using Science and Engineering to Create New Nature-Inspired Materials and Structures
Dr. David Kaplan is the Stern Family Endowed Professor of Engineering at Tufts University, a Distinguished University Professor, and Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He also holds faculty appointments in the School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, and the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering. David received his B.S. degree in biology from the State University of New York and his PhD in biochemistry from Syracuse University and SUNY Syracuse. He worked as a research scientist at Natick Research & Development Center for several years before joining the faculty at Tufts University in 1996. He has received multiple awards for his research and teaching, including the Clemson Award for literature contributions from the Society for Biomaterials, the Massachusetts Columbus Quincentennial Award, and the Henry and Madeline Fischer Faculty Award from Tufts University. In addition, David is an elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the National Academy of Engineering, and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. In this interview, he shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:42)
In his free time, David enjoys traveling, meeting new people, observing nature, and studying trees from both a naturalist and scientific perspective.
The Scientific Side (4:26)
For his research, David looks to nature for sources of inspiration, and he uses scientific and engineering disciplines to create new things. For example, they study polymers in silks from spiders and silkworms to understand the molecular biology, biochemistry, and materials science to create new materials with particular properties. Their work also includes projects in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and cellular agriculture.
A Dose of Motivation (8:00)
Don’t do anything boring.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (10:45)
David spent a lot of time as a kid hiking, being out in nature, and observing plants and animals. When he was in high school, one of his teachers showed the class a demonstration where they changed the color of a solution using an enzyme. To David, this was like a magic show. He was fascinated by the fact that this naturally occurring enzyme was able to change the properties and the appearance of the solution. As an undergraduate student, he had a chance to work in a lab, and this sparked his passion for research. The lab environment was comfortable, and he liked being able to shut out distractions and focus on his work. For his PhD, David studied the synthesis of lignin, a key component of trees and plants. These projects brought together his love of trees and his interest in science. While working at the Natick Labs, David began teaching on the side at local universities, and he discovered that teaching was something he really enjoyed. He made the transition from his government position back to academia so he could continue to do exciting research but also spend more time teaching and mentoring students.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (30:14)
One area of David’s research has focused on understanding the mechanisms of how silks are prepared, processed, and formed into fibers by spiders and silkworms. For about thirty years, they have been able to make proteins used in spider silks with reasonable yields and generate recombinant silks to do studies on their structure and function. However, even today, they cannot do this same process with silkworm silks, and David still doesn’t definitively know why. While they haven’t been able to solve these issues in silkworms, they have been able to keep this line of work moving forward by using the spider silks.
A Shining Success! (33:28)
In translational research, projects often get stuck in a so-called “valley of death” between laboratory studies and having real impacts in the world. About two years ago, they began a project to isolate cells from deep sea fish with the goal of growing these cells to make foods of the future through cellular agriculture. The group chartered a deep sea fishing boat and hired a captain to take them out on the water. Despite struggles with seasickness, this was a wonderful and memorable expedition. They caught a mackerel and brought this sample back to the lab where they discovered that the muscle cells were remarkably resilient. It can be really difficult to get cells to undergo a process called spontaneous immortalization where the cells gain the ability to keep dividing and proliferating indefinitely, but the student working on this project succeeded quickly in getting this to occur. In just two years, they went from this fortuitous fishing expedition to having the cells available in a cell database for other scientists to use in research and licensing the cells to a startup company for use in developing sustainable foods.
Book Recommendations (36:51)
The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston, The Secret Life of Trees: How They Live and Why They Matter by Colin Tudge
Most Treasured Travel (38:13)
David received funding from the National Science Foundation to teach biomedical engineering at the University of Mauritius about 15 years ago. Mauritius is a small island in the Indian ocean off the eastern coast of Madagascar, and he and six of his colleagues participated in the trip. It was an unforgettable experience. They stayed at a resort on the island’s coast and also toured various attractions across the island. While at the local zoo, David saw amazing creatures that he had never seen before, including an impressive assortment of enormous insects. The biodiversity was remarkable, and he really enjoyed observing the giant tortoises. During their trip, David also got to witness another side of science at the new hospital that was built on the island for medical tourism. Unfortunately, people fly in from all over the world and pay exorbitant sums to receive treatments for which there is no rigorous scientific evidence of efficacy. It was eye-opening to see how people could take advantage of patients who were desperate for a cure, and this really highlighted for David the necessity of ethics in science and medicine.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (42:52)
Having a sense of humor is important in both life and science, and you can’t take yourself too seriously. There are a few scientists in David’s group who do stand-up comedy and perform at open mic nights. It’s fun to get the group together to watch these performances, and their holiday parties are always fun and full of laughs.
Advice For Us All (46:28)
Keep reading and exploring the world until you discover something that you are passionate about. Once you do, find a way to get involved. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from people who can mentor you and network with others in that area.
Guest Bio
David’s research focus is on biopolymer engineering, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and cellular agriculture. He has published over 1,000 peer reviewed papers, is editor-in-chief of ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, and he serves on many editorial boards and programs for journals and universities. He directed the NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center (TERC) that involves Tufts University and Columbia University for 15 years. His lab has been responsible for over 150 patents issued or allowed, and numerous start-up companies. He has also received a number of awards for his research and teaching and was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and to the National Academy of Engineering.

Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by LAMPIRE Biological Laboratories.
The post 691: Dr. David Kaplan: Using Science and Engineering to Create New Nature-Inspired Materials and Structures appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
49 min
January 09, 2023 690: Dr. Barry Byrne: Developing Drugs to Defeat Rare Muscle Diseases
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Barry Byrne is the Earl and Christy Powell University Chair in Genetics, Associate Chair of Pediatrics, Director of the Powell Gene Therapy Center, and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida. Barry received his B.S. in Chemistry from Denison University and his M.D. and Ph.D in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Illinois. He completed his Pediatrics residency, cardiology fellowship training, and post-doctoral training in Biological Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. Barry started his career as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins, and he joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 1997. Barry’s excellence in research has been recognized throughout his career through his receipt of various awards including the Faculty Research Prize in Clinical Research and the Research Professor Award from the University of Florida, as well as the Clinician Scientist Award from Johns Hopkins University. In this interview, Barry shares more about his research and his journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:25)
When he isn’t working in the lab or treating patients, Barry enjoys spending time with his family. He also likes to get outdoors to play sports, cycle, or go hiking.
The Scientific Side (3:10)
Educating undergraduate students, graduate students, postdocs, and other trainees is a big part of Barry’s job as a scientist. He conducts research on neuromuscular diseases which may cause problems such as muscle weakness, uncoordinated movements, difficulty speaking, and heart problems. In addition, Barry is a practicing physician who treats patients with these diseases.
A Dose of Motivation (4:23)
Being able to interact with patients is very motivating for Barry, and understanding the problems these patients face helps him prioritize his work based on what matters most to them.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:28)
None of Barry’s family members had scientific or medical professions, but he knew even as a high school student that he was interested in these areas. Barry’s natural curiosity, combined with a particularly inspiring high school biology teacher, drove him to pursue science in college. Barry attended a small university where he majored in chemistry and was able to get hands on experience working in a lab. While there, Barry met many wonderful teachers who continued to support his passion for science and medicine.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (16:44)
One frustration in Barry’s field is the speed at which they can make progress and move their projects forward. He wants to find solutions for patients as quickly as possible, but the processes for developing and testing new therapeutic strategies take years. In addition, since Barry works on relatively rare genetic diseases, it can be challenging to find commercial partners who are interested in working with them to develop new therapeutics.
A Shining Success! (20:19)
One of the challenges faced by people working in drug development is that they have to be able to make enough of a therapeutic to be able to use it in the clinic. Barry’s group has developed a facility where they can make batches of drugs for rare diseases with any size patient population. They either teach a manufacturing group how to make the product or make it internally, allowing them to have access to the amount of materials needed. This has been an important advance for the development of therapeutics for rare diseases.
Book Recommendations (26:00)
The Cure: How a Father Raised $100 Million – And Bucked the Medical Establishment – In a Quest to Save His Children by Geeta Anand
Most Treasured Travel (29:44)
Barry was part of a group that was working hard to find innovative ways to build awareness for and advocate for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. They decided on an epic mountain climbing challenge. The three peaks they tackled (a different peak each year) were Mt. Rainier in Washington, Grand Teton in Wyoming, and Mt. Kilamanjaro in Tanzania. It required immense mental and physical focus to do these climbs, but it was an amazing and memorable experience.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (33:53)
When Barry worked in Baltimore, his group used to have a tradition of holding an annual Halloween party. Some of the therapists he works with now in Florida are avid Halloween fans, so they decided to launch their first annual Halloween party this year. Barry was looking forward to getting dressed up in costume and hanging out with his fantastic colleagues.
Advice For Us All (38:16)
It’s better to be lucky than good. Also, always have hope. Hope encourages us all to think about what is possible, and this can be powerful when paired with your aspirations and dreams.
Guest Bio
Barry is a clinician scientist who is studying a variety of rare diseases with specific attention to developing therapies for inherited muscle disease. As a pediatric cardiologist, his focus is on conditions that lead to skeletal muscle weakness and problems in heart and respiratory function. His group has made significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of Pompe disease, which a type of muscular dystrophy due to abnormal glycogen in the muscle. The research team has been developing new therapies using the missing cellular protein or the corrective gene to restore muscle function in Pompe and other inherited myopathies.
*This episode was originally released on December 12, 2016.
The post 690: Dr. Barry Byrne: Developing Drugs to Defeat Rare Muscle Diseases appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
39 min
January 02, 2023 689: Dr. Alexandra DiFeliceantonio: Examining the Neuroscience Behind Food Selection, Diet, and Addiction
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Alex DiFeliceantonio is an Assistant Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion School as well as Associate Director of the Center for Health Behaviors Research. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Sweet Briar College and her PhD in biospsychology from the University of Michigan. Afterwards, she worked as a Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow in the Translational Neurocircuitry Group at the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, Germany. She also conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and served as an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University before accepting her current position. In our interview, Alex shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:35)
In her free time, Alex enjoys going to parks, shopping at the local farmer’s market, and watching garbage collection trucks with her young son. She is also an avid reader, and she particularly loves science fiction and fantasy novels.
The Scientific Side (5:10)
Alex’s research examines why we eat what we eat in terms of the underlying neuroscience and physiological factors that influence food choice. Diet and food choice have tremendous impacts on health, and these can be targets for interventions to improve health and people’s lives.
A Dose of Motivation (7:09)
In science, the most interesting findings and the ones that have the most potential to drive the field forward are the findings you weren’t expecting. These discoveries are really exciting and motivating, and you can learn so much from them.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:42)
As a kid, Alex excelled in language, reading, and writing in school, while subjects like math and science didn’t come as naturally to her. She wasn’t really encouraged to pursue science and math, so she decided she wanted to become a writer. Alex enrolled in college planning to major in creative writing and English, but as she completed her coursework, she realized that what she was really interested in was understanding people. She was fascinated by the characters in stories, why they behaved the way they did, and the motivations of the authors. It didn’t occur to her that there was a whole field dedicated to studying people and behavior until she took her first psychology course in college. Alex had a great opportunity to work with her professors in a research lab, run her own experiments, and participate in a research-intensive summer program. Through these experiences, she realized she wanted to go to graduate school and have a career doing research.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (8:04)
Like most graduate students, Alex ran into some major roadblocks in graduate school. One experiment in animal models involved training the animals for 20 days before they could run one full day of tests. Each experiment was really time-intensive, and she had to repeat the same experiment six times because they kept getting unexpected results. It just wasn’t working. However, Alex was determined to figure out the problem, and after a lot of trouble-shooting and persistence, she finally figured it out.
A Shining Success! (22:58)
Failures and unexpected results are common in science, so it can be really exciting when an experiment does work, and your results turn out to be exactly what you were anticipating. In one of her postdoctoral studies, Alex was interested in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the motivation to eat foods that combine fat and carbohydrates. Through separate pathways, both fat and carbohydrates increase dopamine in a part of the brain called the striatum, and this signal is important for learning and motivation. In this study, she hypothesized that modern foods that combine fats and carbohydrates (e.g. pizza, donuts), may be over-valued by people because these two separate neural pathways to the dopamine reward signal were combining in a supra-additive way. They designed an experiment based on a well-established behavioral economics task, collected the data, and ran the initial analyses. When she ran the statistics, Alex was shocked. She ran down the hall to check her work with a colleague who was an expert in statistics. He provided a few suggestions for even more rigorous analyses that could be conducted, and when Alex ran those analyses, the results were still statistically significant, and the data supported her hypothesis.
Book Recommendations (3:27)
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Most Treasured Travel (28:07)
Visiting Cologne, Germany as a postdoc was a fantastic experience. Living in a different place and experiencing a new culture helped her grow as a person, and Alex learned a lot being surrounded by people with different academic backgrounds. It was fun to ride a bicycle through the city’s abundant green spaces, and the trains made it really easy to explore during her time off. In addition, Alex has really enjoyed traveling to Porto, Portugal. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior and had a chance to travel to Porto for the society’s annual conference. The researchers in the group are passionate about ingestive behavior, so they love getting together to eat and talk about food. These conferences are really interesting scientifically because there are opportunities to talk to people who study eating from a variety of different perspectives, including the neural, behavioral, and physiological angles. On one of these trips, Alex and a colleague stumbled upon a new restaurant that had just opened that day, and they chose the most unusual-sounding dishes based on the Google translation of the Portuguese menu. The food did not disappoint!
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (35:15)
When people think about scientists, they may envision white coats and drab professional attire, but not all labs have the same boring dress code. Alex wears a lot of colorful, goofy sweaters. The lab’s manager had been corresponding with a new student that they were recruiting to work in the lab, and the student asked about the dress code for work. On that particular day, Alex was wearing a pair of jeans and an oversized cardigan patterned with cats, so they joked about just sending a photo of her to the students to emphasize that the dress code was definitely relaxed. In Alex’s lab, they also have adopted the tradition of celebrating special occasions with Indian food and banana desserts. This tradition came from her graduate school mentor who always served Indian food and banana splits at every lab gathering.
Advice For Us All (41:36)
Doing hard things is more rewarding, more interesting, and more likely to get you to where you want to go than doing easy things. Do things that you are afraid of or that push you out of your comfort zone.
Guest Bio
Alex’s lab tries to answer the question: why do we eat what we eat? The modern diet is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. We know what we should be eating, but lack the ability to promote change. Her lab seeks to understand the basic mechanisms of food choice. The lab approaches this issue in two ways. One, we seek to isolate properties of foods in our modern food environment to evaluate their effect on physiology, brain function, and brain-physiology interaction. Second, we seek to understand how individual differences in response to these food properties can confer risk or benefit for disease outcomes. When she’s not thinking about food in the lab, she’s probably thinking about food in the kitchen. She enjoys baking with her toddler, reading science fiction, and going on hikes.
Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by LAMPIRE Biological Laboratories.
The post 689: Dr. Alexandra DiFeliceantonio: Examining the Neuroscience Behind Food Selection, Diet, and Addiction appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
45 min
December 26, 2022 688: Dr. Tara Smith: Resistance on the Rise: Researching the Arms Race of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Potential Transfers from Livestock to Humans
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Tara C. Smith is an Associate Professor in Epidemiology at Kent State University and Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa. She received her PhD in Microbiology from the Medical College of Ohio in Toledo and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan. Afterward, Tara served on the faculty at the University of Iowa for about nine years before joining the faculty at Kent State. In this interview, Tara shared more about her journey through life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science
Tara humorously describes her second job outside of science as being a bus driver to shuttle her three kids around to their respective sports, music, and other activities.
The Scientific Side
She works with bacteria that can be transferred between animals and people and often studies antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
A Dose of Motivation
“Do or do not, there is no try.” by Yoda
What Got You Hooked on Science?
Tara always liked science when she was growing up, but she didn’t really think of science as a career or profession. She didn’t know any scientists growing up in rural Ohio. Her mom was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was about 6 years old, and this started her interest in human health and disease.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges
There were some major struggles when she first started as a faculty member with a new lab at the University of Iowa. This was the first time where she was the boss, had to write all the grants, make the budgets, and manage people. There were a lot of things that scientists just aren’t trained to do. She also faced challenges with trying to get funding and make progress on her tenure review process.
A Shining Success!
It’s really rewarding for Tara to see that her students are really understanding science. There are those moments where what she is teaching just clicks for someone or when a summer undergraduate student makes a great presentation at the end of their project.
Book Recommendations
Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA by Maryn McKenna,Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic that Remains One of Medicine’s Greatest Mysteries by Molly Caldwell Crosby, The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson, The Silo Series by Hugh Howey,World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Most Treasured Travel
One of Tara’s favorite places has been Mongolia. It is a really unique place with a great mix of cultures, rich history, and an incredible mix of old and new. When you go out into the country, there are small towns and nomadic herders living with their families moving around from place to place.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories
Tara has the honor of serving on the board of advisors for the Zombie Research Society. The group has thousands of members worldwide, and the board of advisors has a lot of neuroscientists since zombie-ism affects the brain, but she is the infectious disease expert. She also has a lot of funny memories of students going out for the first time to collect mucus samples from large, squealing pigs on farms.
Advice For Us All
Ask! Ask anyone for whatever you need whether it is equipment, advice, mentoring, or anything else.
Also, there is no one correct path for everyone. This is particularly a problem in academia because the mentality is often to train students for a traditional academic career, but the jobs just aren’t out there and not everyone wants that career path.
Guest Bio
Tara C. Smith recently joined the faculty of Kent State University College of Public Health after spending 9 years at the University of Iowa, College of Public Health, where she directed the College’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. Dr. Smith’s research focuses on zoonotic infections (infections which are transferred between animals and humans). She was the first to identify livestock-associated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the United States, and has pioneered the investigation of this organism in the U.S. Dr. Smith has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, receiving over $3 million in funding to carry out these studies. She has presented her research at numerous national and international platforms, including talks on Capitol Hill on the topic of agriculture and antibiotic resistance. Her work has been profiled in many major publications, including Science, Nature, and The New York Times. Dr. Smith is also very active in science communication and outreach. She has maintained a science blog since 2005 and has written books on Group A Streptococcus, Group B Streptococcus, and Ebola. She also writes about infectious disease for Slate.com and mic.com and is a member of the advisory board of the Zombie Research Society. She lives in rural Ohio with her partner and her three children.

*This episode was originally released on November 28, 2014.
The post 688: Dr. Tara Smith: Resistance on the Rise: Researching the Arms Race of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria and Potential Transfers from Livestock to Humans appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
52 min
December 19, 2022 687: Dr. Michele Battle: Studying the Formation and Function of the Gut to Understand Mechanisms of Disease
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Michele Battle is an Associate Professor of Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology and philosophy from the University of Scranton and her PhD in cell and molecular biology from Michigan State University. Before joining the faculty, she conducted postdoctoral research at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and she was the recipient of the inaugural Edward J. Lennon, MD Award for an Outstanding Woman Postdoctoral Researcher. Michele has also been awarded the Research Scholar Award from the American Gastroenterological Association Research Foundation, the Presidential Scholar Award from the Medical College of Wisconsin, the Women in Science Rising Pioneer Award from the Medical College of Wisconsin, and numerous awards from the Medical College of Wisconsin in recognition of her excellence in teaching. In addition, she was named a Fellow of the Kavli Foundation in 2015. In our interview, Michele shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:31)
Outside the lab, Michele likes spending time with family and friends. Whether she is going for walks, enjoying Lake Michigan, hiking, doing ropes adventure courses with her kids, or taking their puppy to the dog park, Michel loves getting outside and connecting with people.
The Scientific Side (4:37)
Michele’s research is focused on studying how organs in the gut form and function in normal health in order to understand how to fix the gut when things go wrong in different disease states.
A Dose of Motivation (5:53)
One of Michele’s college professors once told her to “be the woman.” This mantra stayed with Michele and is a reminder to be yourself and don’t be afraid to go for what you want and to tackle difficult challenges in life and science.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:51)
When Michele was in high school, she learned about DNA in her sophomore biology class, and she became fascinated by this simple, yet complex molecule. In college, Michele had an unforgettable experience in a biology lab class. They performed a DNA extraction from the salivary glands of a fruit fly, and that moment cemented Michele’s interest in DNA. She was really interested in how the same DNA was present in all cells, and yet different cells had very widely varying features and functions. This curiosity led Michele to pursue a PhD in cell and molecular biology, where she studied cancer using cell cultures in the lab. As a postdoc, she expanded her experience beyond cell cultures examining developmental biology. She realized that developmental biology is a great way to better understand disease because a lot of disease processes can be traced back to dysfunctions in developmental pathways. As she began her faculty career, Michele merged these interests and experiences to create her own unique research program.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (19:35)
Michele hit a slump after being promoted to Associate Professor. It was critical for her to renew the large research grant that was supporting her lab because the startup funds she received to establish her lab were nearly all spent. Getting this grant renewal was extremely difficult. Her first submission wasn’t even discussed by the reviewers, and this was a terrible feeling. It made her doubt herself and her science. When she resubmitted the application, it was at least discussed by the committee, but it didn’t score well. At this point, Michele realized she needed help. She reached out to an expert in the area of her proposed research project and was surprised when this person immediately agreed to help mentor her in re-writing the grant application. Together, Michele and her colleague re-shaped the goals and aims of the grant, and on the fourth submission, the grant wasn’t only selected for funding, but it scored in the top two percentile! This was an amazing success, and it taught Michele that she had to trust herself, ask for help, and be willing to be flexible to move forward.
A Shining Success! (24:32)
During graduate school, Michele struggled with her project, things kept failing, and she was starting to think she was never going to get her PhD. In the experiment she was working on, she was trying to demonstrate that two particular proteins interacted with each other. She performed the immunoprecipitation step, put the film on her western blot, and then left for the day. Michele was convinced that it wasn’t going to work. When she returned the next day, she developed the film, and she was shocked to see a clear band indicating that the proteins did interact. This exciting success brought Michele to tears, and she realized that she was going to be able to graduate, and she could be successful in science. Michele made a photocopy of the film and hung it on the fridge as a reminder that with perseverance and hard work, good things happen. This seemingly small success transformed Michele’s inner dialogue, her attitude, and her drive to continue her research.
Book Recommendations (28:13)
A Burnt Out-Case by Graham Greene
Most Treasured Travel (29:55)
Towards the end of her postdoctoral training, Michele had a chance to attend a conference in Capri, Italy. This conference was all about GATA transcription factors, so it was a really narrow topic with all of the world’s experts in this area. Capri is breathtakingly beautiful with clear blue water, outstanding hiking, and remarkable caverns that can be explored by boat. The conference location was amazing, but it was also Michele’s first invited presentation at a major international meeting. There were fantastic opportunities to network and socialize to get to know more about the people as well as their research.
Another particularly memorable trip brought Michele to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. She was invited to organize a conference on gastrointestinal biology for the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). This is a major conference for the gastrointestinal research community, and Michele was honored to be invited to help organize the event. Steamboat Springs is a beautiful and serene location where the attendees could relax, appreciate nature, enjoy outstanding scientific programming, and connect as people.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (33:39)
There is a group of faculty who are gastrointestinal researchers and have a musical group called GI Distress. They often play at conferences, and it was really fun to see them perform at the recent FASEB meeting that Michele helped organize. They also had a night of open mic where any of the conference attendees could step up and sing a song. Michele had a great time performing Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”, and it was wonderful to see other senior researchers participating as well. Even accomplished scientists know how to have fun and don’t take themselves too seriously.
Advice For Us All (38:20)
Be kind to yourself. Treat yourself how you treat your family and friends: with compassion, grace, and love. You can be a better person to others when you are kind to yourself. Also, be flexible and open-minded to taking different paths in your life and science. Don’t worry about living up to the expectations of others. Don’t be afraid to take risks, and put yourself out there.
Guest Bio
Michele’s research mainly focuses on understanding basic principles of developmental biology and applying what is learned to diseases of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, including GI cancers. What she finds most rewarding about her role in academic science is training and mentoring the next generation of scientists. Michele’s motivation to mentor is fueled by her personal experiences. Effective and invested mentors were instrumental in her development–an inspiring high school biology teacher, a dedicated undergraduate research mentor, a gifted graduate school mentor who grew her confidence, and a generous postdoctoral mentor who empowered her to develop and launch her lab’s research program. Paying it forward to the next generation of scientific and medical leaders is an imperative for Michele. Outside of the lab, Michele spends her time with her family and friends in Milwaukee, WI, enjoying the beauty of Lake Michigan and rooting for the Milwaukee Bucks!
The post 687: Dr. Michele Battle: Studying the Formation and Function of the Gut to Understand Mechanisms of Disease appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
42 min
December 12, 2022 686: Dr. Erin Carlson: Battling Antibiotic Resistance Through Development and Discovery of Novel Antibacterial Agents
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Erin E. Carlson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota. Erin received her B.A. in chemistry from St. Olaf College and her PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Subsequently, Erin was awarded an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research at The Scripps Research Institute. She served on the faculty at Indiana University before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota where she is today. Among her many awards and honors, Erin is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a Pew Biomedical Scholarship, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Indiana University Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, an NSF CAREER Award, and the Cottrell Scholar Award. In addition, she was named a Sloan Research Fellow, an Indiana University Dean’s Fellow, and an American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee Rising Star. Erin is with us today to tell us about her experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:32)
Travel is a passion for Erin, and as a scientist, she has had many wonderful travel opportunities. She particularly enjoyed going on a safari in Tanzania, as well as traveling to Indonesia and South America to present her research. In addition, Erin is an avid photographer who documents all the places she has been in the world through her photos.
The Scientific Side (5:19)
Research in Erin’s lab focuses on microbes. They are interested in how these organisms interact with one another, humans, and the environment. Over the course of modern medicine, we’ve come to appreciate that microbes make a lot of potentially important therapeutic agents. In particular, Erin’s group is studying how microbes may be able to continue to provide us with antibacterial agents despite issues with increasing antibiotic resistance.
A Dose of Motivation (6:26)
“Make it work.” – Tim Gunn
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:32)
Since her father is also a chemist, Erin spent a lot of time in his laboratory during her childhood. She was able to see firsthand how chemists could work to solve really important problems, and her father has continued to be an important mentor throughout her career. Though her interest in pursuing science dates back to early childhood, her interest in infectious diseases was sparked during a trip to Peru in high school. In college, Erin was able to work in the lab with a few different faculty members, and she loved it.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (20:10)
During her PhD thesis work, Erin developed some promising molecules to inhibit bacteria, and testing them in a few different assays seemed to work well. However, about three months before she was scheduled to defend her thesis, Erin realized that some of the actions of these molecules were due to the fact that they were degrading in the assays. She was already preparing to move to California to begin her postdoctoral position, but it seemed like everything was beginning to unravel. Erin suddenly faced the challenge of how to show that these molecules were useful and that her hard work hadn’t been wasted. She was able to write a paper outlining the nature of the degradation and the useful components of the structure that could be used for design of future molecules.
A Shining Success! (23:98)
Erin was recently awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and she was so proud of all the people in her research group who contributed to the work that led to this award. As one of the award recipients, Erin was able to visit the White House with the other awardees, listen to an address from President Obama, and shake the President’s hand. This was one of the biggest moments in her career so far.
Book Recommendations (29:03)
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues by Martin J. Blaser, Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
Most Treasured Travel (3:30)
One of the most memorable places Erin has visited is Panama. She traveled there as part of the Pew Biomedical Scholars Program and was amazed by the country. Erin spent a week before the meeting exploring the country, learning about the Panama Canal, and touring coffee farms there. The meeting was a phenomenal scientific experience as well, and Erin was exposed to new ideas from this brilliant and diverse group of researchers.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (31:01)
In graduate school, Erin discovered that baking is an activity that really helps her relax. She started baking different things at home and bringing them to the lab to share with the group. When she started her own lab, this habit continued, and now it has become a tradition for her to bake a cake whenever they have a success to celebrate. Even though she likes to bake, Erin doesn’t consider herself a particularly exceptional baker. She finds it fun to try out new recipes, experimenting with alternative ingredients when she’s missing something, and seeing how things turn out.
Advice For Us All (36:18)
Engage as many people as possible. You don’t have to know all the answers, and it is really helpful to talk to as many people as possible about things you don’t know well. Also, ask the big questions and figure out the details of how to get there later. It’s easier to be motivated and excited when you know you are pursuing an important question.
Guest Bio
Erin started her independent career at Indiana University in 2008, and she moved her research group to the University of Minnesota in the summer of 2014. To meet the challenges of antibiotic resistance and specter of a post-antibiotic era, a goal of Erin’s lab is to discover the master regulators of bacterial growth and communication and ultimately, the identification of new antibiotics through the application of diverse tools at the interface of chemistry and biology. They are currently pursuing multiple intersecting objectives: 1) Development and application of powerful strategies to explore and interpret the molecular language used by bacteria to respond to environmental cues using a combination of mass spectrometry, informatics and novel separation reagents, 2) Pursuit of the generation of chemical probes and inhibitors for the global profiling and inhibition of histidine kinases, a ubiquitous class of proteins essential for signal transduction in bacteria, 3) To deepen our understanding of the multi-protein systems that dictate bacterial growth and division, they are designing selective probes for imaging and proteomics with specific focus on the penicillin-binding proteins, and 4) Explore the molecular-level interactions between organisms and nanoparticles to guide the development of environmentally benign nanotechnology. Each of the lab’s research objectives is independently important for potential therapeutic development, but Erin’s research is unique in its focus on the synergy between multiple areas that will allow them to detect, interrupt, and exploit the master regulators of bacterial behavior.
*This episode was originally released on February 13, 2017.
The post 686: Dr. Erin Carlson: Battling Antibiotic Resistance Through Development and Discovery of Novel Antibacterial Agents appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
39 min
December 05, 2022 685: Dr. Joel Berger: Conserving Species in Extreme Environments
Listen Free in iTunes
Listen Free on Stitcher Radio
Dr. Joel Berger is the Barbara Cox Anthony University Chair of Wildlife Conservation at Colorado State University. He is also a longtime Senior Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the author of multiple books, including most recently Extreme Conservation: Life at the Edges of the World. Joel earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from California State University, Northridge, and his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Colorado Boulder. He was awarded a Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research at the National Zoo’s Conservation & Research Center, and he was subsequently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship which supported his research for four years. Before joining CSU, he held the position of John J. Craighead Chair of Wildlife Conservation at the University of Montana. Joel has received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career, including the Aldo Leopold Conservation Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Society of Mammalogists, the Life-time Achievement Award from the Institute for Parks at Clemson University, the Society of Conservation Biology’s LaRue III Life-time Achievement Award, and the Conservation Biology Award from the Denver Zoological Society. He is also an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and he is a three-time finalist for the prestigious Indianapolis Prize in Conservation, one of the field’s greatest honors. In this Interview, Joel shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:13)
When he’s not working, Joel enjoys hiking, watching animals, traveling to remote places, and drinking good coffee. He is also a fan of bodysurfing, but he doesn’t get to do this often living in Colorado.
The Scientific Side (4:21)
Joel is dedicated to saving animals that are off the radar of most people, such as the Takin in Bhutan or the Huemul in Patagonia. These animals live in faraway places, and there are relatively few people advocating for their preservation.
A Dose of Motivation (5:32)
In his research and conservation efforts, Joel is motivated by answering the question, “Why should we care?”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:33)
Growing up in Los Angeles, Joel frequented the beach when it was warm and rode his motorcycle out to the desert when it got colder in the winter. His experiences riding and hiking through the desert left a lasting impression. It was amazing to see animals in their natural habitat, but it was also disheartening to see firsthand the impacts that humans were having on these animals. Knowing about Joel’s love of watching animals, his grandfather suggested that he should try to find a job where he could get paid to do this. It seemed like an outlandish idea at the time, but it lit a spark for Joel, and he decided to pursue ecology and conservation in college, graduate school, and his postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian afterwards. His first international conservation research project examined rhinoceros in Africa and the impacts of a recent dehorning program to try to reduce poaching. It was a difficult field project, but an amazing start to Joel’s career studying and conserving wildlife all over the world.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (16:00)
A few years ago, Joel was working on a project that involved collecting data in the field in the Russian Arctic. International relations between the U.S. and Russia were tense even at that time. Their study site was an Arctic island about 60 miles north of Siberia on the northeast edge of Russia. However, they had to fly through Moscow and then to a small town called Pevek. Joel was the only American on the plan, and as soon as they landed, he was escorted off the plane by Russian security forces. Joel was arrested and held until a judge could fly in from another town to hear his case. While he was eventually released, this was a big setback in terms of the timeline of the project. Joel had sponsorship from a scientist in Russia, and they were eventually able to get him to the island to gather data. The project focused on how muskox interact with polar bears now that climate change is bringing more polar bears to land. They were able to get some data during this trip, and Joel was supposed to return two years later to collect follow-up data. However, his request to return to Russia was denied because he had been arrested upon arrival on his initial trip. This meant Joel wasn’t ultimately able to collect the follow-up data for the project.
A Shining Success! (19:07)
Joel considers his work mentoring every student in his lab a success, and these students go on to work in a variety of different kinds of positions for non-government organizations, the state and federal government, and academic institutions. In addition, Joel has had exciting successes in his work promoting science and conservation. A particularly meaningful success was his contribution to the establishment of the only federally designated migration corridor in the U.S. By working with the federal government, state government, and other agencies and stakeholders, they were able to successfully establish a 40-mile long, one-mile wide corridor that allows free passage of migrating animals without fencing, fracking, gas, or other development. This corridor is critical for pronghorn that migrate south from Grand Teton National Park each year. After the corridor was created, the state of Wyoming invested more than $10 million to create an overpass to further facilitate animal migration. This was a big and meaningful win for Joel and his colleagues.
Book Recommendations (24:11)
In the Kingdom of Gorillas: The Quest to Save Rwanda’s Mountain Gorillas by Bill Weber and Amy Vedder, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen, Extreme Conservation: Life at the Edges of the World by Joel Berger
Most Treasured Travel (29:01)
One of the most remarkable places Joel has ever visited is the Namib Desert. It has extremely low amounts of rainfall, but yet there are species like ostriches, elephants, lions, and zebras. These animals have lived in low densities in the desert there for thousands of years. Joel spent time in the Namib Desert as part of his research on rhinos, and working in the field in this hot and dry environment was challenging. He was accompanied on the trip by his wife and their young daughter, and Joel and his wife took turns collecting data in the field and taking care of Sonia. The rhinos were tough to find, and they had to hike across large areas in the heat with little water, but there were some amazing opportunities to see wildlife on their excursions.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:13)
When most people think of scientists, they envision crisp white lab coats and shiny lab benches. Joel’s experiences in science have definitely been different! The closest thing he has had to a white lab coat was a white sniper suit given to him by his Russian colleagues to wear when they were working on Wrangel Island in the Russian Arctic. The suit was supposed to help Joel blend in with the snow to make it easier to observe animals without them seeing him. Joel has also dressed up as a polar bear and as a caribou for his research.
Advice For Us All (37:26)
Be curious, read, explore, and follow your heart. Don’t be afraid to make your own path.
Guest Bio
Joel’s fascination with biodiversity began in Los Angeles where he grew up. He traded body surfing for desert and mountain explorations and melded that pursuit into serious science. However, he soon realized that if we did not do more than just science we would lose species and important biological interactions. Joel’s research and conservation efforts have been concentrated on animals larger than a bread box – both iconic endangered species and lesser-known species around the world. Among these have been black rhinos and wild yaks, Patagonia’s huemul, and saiga in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. Although he has targeted extreme environments, Joel seeks to answer broad questions about climate and environmental change, migration, and connectivity, and, most recently, how our burgeoning passion for play and our travel footprints affect species at a local scale. He knows the important issue is how to engage science at levels that not only inform, but also improve visibility and result in change.
The post 685: Dr. Joel Berger: Conserving Species in Extreme Environments appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
40 min

About People Behind the Science Podcast

From the publisher's feed

Science Podcast - Journey through the minds of today's brilliant scientists

Share People Behind the Science Podcast

Sign up to save your podcasts

People Behind the Science Podcast

People Behind the Science Podcast episodes

About People Behind the Science Podcast