People Behind the Science Podcast

By Dr. Marie McNeelyScience

People Behind the Science Podcast episodes

December 30, 2019 534: Dr. Yolanda Chen: Investigating How the Development of Agriculture Has Shaped the Ecology and Evolution of Insect Pests
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Dr. Yolanda Chen is a Gund Fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment as well as an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Vermont. Yolanda was awarded her B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Rutgers University and her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley. Afterwards, she conducted postdoctoral research at UC, Berkeley as a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Fellow. She then worked as an entomologist studying host plant resistance at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines before joining the faculty at the University of Vermont. In our interview Yolanda shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:13)
Much of Yolanda’s free time is spent with her family, including driving her 10 year old and 14 year old children to their rock climbing competitions, biathlons, and soccer games. Yolanda also enjoys running and cooking. In particular, she has been having fun trying new recipes and exploring the world through food with a local cookbook discussion group.
The Scientific Side (4:34)
Through her research, Yolanda is working to understand the origins of insects as pests in agriculture. To do this, she investigates the origins of agriculture and crop domestication, and how these processes have changed biodiversity and the interactions between crops and insects. She is interested in understanding how insect pests have become so successful, including invasive insect pests like the swede midge that impacts local growers in Vermont.
A Dose of Motivation (6:31)
It’s really important to ask the questions that no one else is asking.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:20)
From early on in her childhood, Yolanda was driven to explore the world. She remembers watching Indiana Jones movies and spy movies filled with imagery of exploration and far away places. She wanted to understand our collective history as humans and how our world came to be the way it is now. Yolanda’s mother and father were a biochemist and an electrical engineer, respectively, so she was exposed to chemistry and computers as a kid, but these fields didn’t capture her curiosity. Yolanda was more interested in seeing new places and understanding the natural world. Her fascination with understanding the history and the people in different places led her to consider a variety of fields like ethnobotany, anthropology, and human ecology, but she ultimately decided she wanted to focus on how humans impact the environment.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:28)
During her postdoctoral fellowship, Yolanda switched her area of study from insect ecology to population genetics. She was trying to develop new genetic markers called microsatellites, and it was incredibly difficult. Yolanda felt immense pressure because her funding was going to run out at the end of two years. Her resourcefulness, friends, and scientific community helped her successfully make it through this challenging project. After her postdoctoral fellowship, Yolanda accepted a position at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Her husband came with her, but he struggled to find meaningful work opportunities that were a good fit for his career. It was also difficult for them to have their first child so far away from the rest of their family in the U.S. Yolanda ultimately quit her job and moved back to the U.S. with her husband and daughter. Though she had been applying for jobs, there was still a lot of uncertainty. As a result, it was really exciting when Yolanda was offered a faculty position at the University of Vermont.
A Shining Success! (24:43)
Now that she has been awarded tenure, Yolanda is thrilled to return to investigating some of the research questions that first piqued her interest in her field. These are bigger questions that she realized would require time, resources, and collaborators to address. Yolanda has put together a team of talented scientists at the University of Vermont and across different institutions in Mexico to study the evolution of agricultural biodiversity in Mexico. Relatively little work has been done to understand how crops are adapted to local places and how diverse these crops might be. For example, one of her students is studying the biodiversity of insects that are associated with crop plants and their wild relatives in Mexico. Not much is known about insects that are associated with the wild relatives of crop plants, so this is a particularly exciting project. Yolanda is also looking forward to examining the sociological, ecological, and economic factors involved in why farmers grow certain varieties of crops. It will be interesting to reveal the dynamics involved in how people in contemporary times are controlling the evolution of crops and their associated insects. Yolanda also hopes that their work will spark interest for local people in Mexico to continue to explore their own history.
Book Recommendations (32:47)
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann
Most Treasured Travel (28:03)
Yolanda traveled to Vietnam to study wild rice and the insects associated with wild rice there. This trip was particularly memorable because she was traveling with her daughter who was a toddler at the time. After a long flight, it was a six hour drive to get to the research station, and then a four hour commute to get to the National Park where the wild rice they were studying grew. Within the National Park, they had the rare opportunity of traveling around by boat within the park to see different patches of wild rice. When they stepped out of the boat, the layers of dead grasses from previous years bobbed beneath their feet like a giant sponge. Though the scenery and science were phenomenal, Yolanda definitely faced challenges in traveling with a toddler. One night, the whole group went out to dinner after a long day of work. The restaurant was right on the water on top of a lagoon. It was incredibly dark, and there were many fish ponds nearby. Their server brought out a delicious looking platter full of fresh fish, garlic, scallions, and peanuts. Before Yolanda could protest, her daughter reached out, grabbed some food off the platter, and put it in her mouth. At that point, Yolanda had no idea if her daughter was allergic to peanuts, shellfish, or other allergens. She spent an anxious evening monitoring her daughter for any adverse symptoms, but fortunately everything turned out okay.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (34:18)
It was fun for Yolanda to have her own lab at the International Rice Institute in the Philippines. Lab activities and parties provided her with great opportunities to further engage and understand Filipino culture and tradition. Karaoke was a popular pastime, and Yolanda was impressed that many members of her lab had amazing musical talent. Yolanda has also taken her lab at the University of Vermont out for karaoke, and she hopes this becomes a new lab tradition.
Advice For Us All (38:28)
If you have questions that you are really driven to answer, make sure you are strategic and understand the risks involved with these projects. Think about when and where you might be best able to answer these questions. The most important thing is to stay in the game until then. Yolanda believes that science is something worth fighting for. Regardless of whether an individual ultimately pursues a career in science, scientific training provides valuable experience in how to ask and answer questions and think critically. These skills can help in any line of work.
Guest Bio
Yolanda studies how the origins of agriculture and its spread have shaped the ecology and evolution of insects as pests in agroecosystems. Her group uses ecological, evolutionary, genomic, and entomological approaches to both understand why insects are so successful in agriculture and to develop novel approaches for improving sustainable pest management. Her fascination with the origin of crops has spurred her to explore the importance of geography for pest control internationally, including the Philippines, Vietnam, China, India, and Mexico. Although an admitted travel junkie, she also enjoys exploring Vermont with her husband and two active kids through hiking and skiing. In her free time, she runs, reads widely, pets her two cats, and experiments with cooking dishes from cuisines that are rare in Vermont.
The post 534: Dr. Yolanda Chen: Investigating How the Development of Agriculture Has Shaped the Ecology and Evolution of Insect Pests appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
43 min
December 23, 2019 533: Dr. Andrew Friedman: Using Astrophysics to Unravel the Enigma of Quantum Entanglement
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Dr. Andrew Friedman is an Assistant Research Scientist at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is also a Research Affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Andy received his bachelor’s degree in physics and astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley and his master’s and PhD degrees in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Harvard University. Afterwards, Andy worked as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, a National Science Foundation funded Research Associate at MIT, and a Visiting Research Scientist at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. He joined the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at UCSD in 2017. In our interview, Andy tells us more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:19)
When he’s not at work, you can find Andy hanging out with his wife and dog, or enjoying good food and good conversation with friends and family.
The Scientific Side (4:17)
As an astrophysicist and cosmologist, Andy is studying the history of the universe from the Big Bang through present day. Andy and his colleagues use the universe as a laboratory to learn more about how things work. Specifically, Andy uses observations of astronomical objects in other galaxies to learn about fundamental physics and quantum mechanics.
A Dose of Motivation (7:11)
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke
What Got You Hooked on Science? (13:46)
Andy grew up in a house full of books and movies, and his parents encouraged him to explore his interests and think critically. He enjoyed many visits to the science museum with his parents and was also inspired by Carl Sagan’s books and the original Cosmos TV series. Because Andy had broad-ranging interests, it was difficult to narrow down what path to pursue in college. He decided to focus on physics and astronomy because he had dreamed of going into space as a kid. The work of an astronaut sounded too difficult and dangerous, so he reasoned that studying astrophysics would be the next best way to connect with the universe. During college, Andy had a fantastic opportunity to work in a research group that was searching for exploding stars in images of space. This experience paved the way for his subsequent graduate and postdoctoral research. Andy knew he ultimately wanted to return to the San Diego area to be close to family, but there weren’t many job opportunities available when he was ready to take the next step in his career. Not ready to give up, Andy and his phenomenal collaborators found a way to create and fund a research position that has allowed him to continue doing exciting research in astrophysics.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (30:11)
Andy and his colleagues worked on a really exciting project called the Cosmic Bell Experiment. In this experiment, they used light from distant objects in space to help us better understand the underlying mechanisms of an unusual phenomenon called quantum entanglement. When particles exhibit quantum entanglement, measuring the state of one of the particles allows you to also know the state of the other entangled particle. Their unique approach of using light from distant objects to determine the measurement settings used to measure entangled particles help close some of the loopholes through which quantum entanglement might be able to be explained by classical physics theories (versus quantum mechanics). This experiment turned out to be really exciting, but it was incredibly difficult to get the funding to support it. Andy and his colleagues submitted application after application for funding, and they received a steady stream of rejections. Ultimately, their many failures led to a resounding success!
A Shining Success! (33:33)
After completing the Cosmic Bell Experiment, their group published a great paper, and there was a lot of media coverage of the project. Being involved in writing the paper and engaging with the public through a variety of media opportunities was really fun. Andy was particularly delighted to work with PBS’s TV program NOVA to create a documentary on the experiment because this was a TV show that he loved watching as a kid. He also got to participate in a panel discussion about the documentary and share his insights at San Diego Comic-Con. These were excellent opportunities to talk about the science Andy is so passionate about and to extend the reach of his work.
Book Recommendations (36:19)
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan, Uplift: The Complete Original Trilogy by David Brin
Most Treasured Travel (37:53)
One of the most memorable trips Andy has taken for science brought him to Vienna, Austria. The goal of this trip was for U.S. scientists who were working on the Cosmic Bell Experiment to meet with collaborators in Austria who would also be working on the project. This was a multi-day collaboration meeting in which Andy was scheduled to give a detailed presentation and answer questions about plans for the experiment. Beforehand, Andy and a group of his colleagues went to lunch at a restaurant in what looked like an old bank building. The bathrooms were located in the basement vault with heavy metal doors. Upon trying to leave the bathroom, Andy had the horrifying realization that the lock wouldn’t budge. Andy tried to text his friends upstairs, but he had no cellular reception through the thick metal of the vault. He was trapped. After about 20-30 minutes someone finally came to his rescue. They had to find a restaurant worker who spoke English, and they were able to open the door from the outside. Andy made it in time to give his presentation, and it went really well. The rest of his time in Austria was amazing. Andy enjoyed exploring the beautiful, historic city of Vienna and having remarkable scientific conversations with colleagues.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (41:20)
In graduate school, Andy ran the school’s comedy magazine called the Harvard Satyrical Press, which featured funny and sarcastic news stories. Contrary to what people might have expected, many of the writers for the magazine were scientists. There were so many creative and funny people studying science at Harvard.
Advice For Us All (45:53)
Be kind to your future self. Do what you can right now to help make your life easier and better in the future. Working hard and being proactive are critical for success, but it is also important to acknowledge the role of luck in our lives and to approach everything with humility. Doing so helps us be less judgmental of others who might be less fortunate.
Guest Bio
Andrew is an astronomer, cosmologist, and data scientist. His main research interests include several different theoretical and observational projects to devise and implement fun experiments that use the entire universe as a laboratory to test fundamental physics. These include novel tests of quantum theory and entanglement using with astronomical observations, searches for exotic new physics with optical polarization studies of distant galaxies, as well as infrared and optical studies of supernovae with ground and space based telescopes to measure the expansion history of the universe, cosmic acceleration, and dark energy. Overall, Andrew enjoys exploring fascinating scientific questions at the intersection between observational astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, and the philosophy of science through research, science writing, art, animation, public outreach, and science media engagement. For more about Andrew’s work, see his UC San Diego research website, and follow him on Twitter.
When not doing science, Andrew also enjoys good food and good conversation, spending time with friends and family, and he and his wife love playing with their dog (who they are convinced is a small, fuzzy, alien in disguise). He also enjoys composing electronic music purely through software, having long forgotten how to play the piano or any other instrument. In another life (grad school), he was the editor in chief of the Harvard Satyrical Press, Harvard’s only official grad school comedy magazine, now retired, but archived here for posterity, to highlight the news format satire contributions of various nerds.
The post 533: Dr. Andrew Friedman: Using Astrophysics to Unravel the Enigma of Quantum Entanglement appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
50 min
December 16, 2019 532: Dr. Sonia Contera: Applying Physics and Nanotechnology to Understand Mechanics and Shape in Biological Systems
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Dr. Sonia Contera is an Associate Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Oxford Physics Department, and a Research Fellow of Green Templeton College. She is also the author of the recently released book Nano comes to Life. Sonia received her bachelor’s degree in physics from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She attended graduate school at Beijing Languages and Culture University and subsequently worked as a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences. Sonia was then awarded a Japanese Government Monbushō scholarship to attend Osaka University where she received her PhD in Applied Physics. Next, Sonia was awarded an E.U. Fellowship to Japan at the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research SANKEN at Osaka University. Prior to coming to Oxford in 2003, she served as a Research Assistant Professor at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Centre at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. In 2008, Sonia founded the Oxford Martin Institute of Nanoscience for Medicine at the Oxford Martin School. In our interview, Sonia shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:44)
When she’s not doing science, Sonia likes to relax and do nothing. She also enjoys spending time with people she loves, talking to people, cycling, walking, exploring art, and learning new languages.
The Scientific Side (4:31)
Sonia is a physicist who is interested in biology and the mechanics of biology across different space and time scales. She develops experiments and techniques to understand the physics that allow biological systems to build nano-scale molecules into cells, organs, tissues, and organisms. Projects in Sonia’s lab include studying and treating pancreatic tumors, understanding heart arrhythmias, and investigating the physics of plant growth.
A Dose of Motivation (7:05)
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” by Lao Tzu
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:36)
She spent the early part of her life living on a remote island in the Canary Islands. Despite the school system there not being very rigorous, Sonia developed a passion for science and the natural world through exploring the beaches and volcanoes on the island. By secondary school, Sonia had moved to Madrid where she had access to better schools. During this time, she had a great physics teacher who inspired her by talking about the forces that drive the movement of planets in the universe. However, Sonia struggled when she went to college. The way physics was taught there wasn’t engaging or interesting for her. In addition, coming from a working class family, Sonia didn’t feel like she fit in with her peers. She studied languages in college as well, and upon graduating, Sonia received a scholarship to study mathematical modeling of linguistics in China. This experience of being transplanted to a completely different culture was amazing, and it helped her realize that she really did want to be a scientist.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (20:01)
When Sonia returned to her lab after her first maternity leave, she was faced with major issues in her lab and the larger research group to which her lab belonged. The culture of her lab had shifted for the worse, and some senior scientists in her research group had become combative and domineering. There was even a point where she could not access her own lab equipment to do her work. This situation forced Sonia to reflect on the meaning of her work and what she wanted to do with her career. Sonia decided to shift research fields to focus on studying mechanics in biology, shape in biology, and how biology creates shape. Doing so allowed her to move away from the toxic environment that had manifested in her absence. Engaging with the public, talking about the exciting research she wanted to do, and finding new collaborators in other departments to develop new research lines helped Sonia get through this difficult situation.
A Shining Success! (22:51)
The successes that bring Sonia the most joy are the ones that have to do with her students and postdocs. Completing a PhD degree is very challenging. She is delighted when she is able to help a student overcome hurdles, and they manage to solve a difficult problem together. One of the students in Sonia’s lab now struggled for a long time to create a difficult technique, based on atomic force microscopy, that would allow them to study pancreatic tumors and heart arrythmias. Helping the student find a solution, build skills, develop resilience, and find collaborations was very rewarding. Further, the technique that was ultimately developed will have a lot of important applications outside their own current work.
Book Recommendations (24:50)
Nano Comes to Life: How Nanotechnology Is Transforming Medicine and the Future of Biology by Sonia Contera, Einstein’s War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I by Matthew Stanley, and Superior: The Return of Race Science by Angela Saini.
Most Treasured Travel (32:32)
A few years ago, Sonia was invited to teach a course on nanotechnology at a university in China. She had a wonderful time visiting China and meeting with the students. Seeing such talented and motivated students also gave her hope for the future of science and humanity. In addition, Sonia used to travel often to Kanazawa University in Japan where a colleague was developing methods that allowed them to see proteins rotate, move, and open/close in real time. She would visit for weeks or months at a time to do experiments for her research, and they had a great time. During these trips, they worked around the clock and were fully immersed in the science. The university is also located on a mountain, and it was funny to see all the signs posted near campus alerting people to beware of bears.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (34:39)
Being part of a lab in Japan during graduate school was a lot of fun. It is customary for people in Japan to work long hours, and it felt like they were always in the lab. They would cook dinner together, go out to see a movie or go bowling, and then return to the lab. It seemed like a family. Work, life, and fun were completely intertwined. It felt cozy because Sonia’s supervisor was really kind and supportive, and they had a great kitchen that was always stocked with tea and cakes.
Advice For Us All (38:57)
For people who work with students, be kind and supportive of your students. Everyone has different talents, so try to help your students find their talents and how they can contribute to science. For students, try to find yourself and your talents through the work you do. Also, find a way for your work to be meaningful outside your own career.
Guest Bio
Sonia is a physicist and the proud mother of two young children. Her research lies at the interface of physics, biology, and nanotechnology. In particular, Sonia is an expert in atomic force microscopy of biological systems, and much of her work investigates the role of mechanics in biology. Projects in Sonia’s lab examine the mechanics of cells, tissues, proteins, and membranes. She and her lab members design nano materials that mimic biological functions for biomedical applications such as drug delivery or cell cultures. They focus mainly on the quantitative aspects of these applications involved in the transport and mechanics. Sonia has trained and conducted science in numerous countries, and she continues to collaborate with researchers around the world. She also frequently speaks to the public about the role that physics and nanotechnology should (and will!) play in the future of biology and medicine.
Photo credit: David Fisher
The post 532: Dr. Sonia Contera: Applying Physics and Nanotechnology to Understand Mechanics and Shape in Biological Systems appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
42 min
December 09, 2019 531: Dr. Donovan German: Breaking Down the Mysteries of Digestion in Animals With Unusual Diets
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Dr. Donovan German is Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Donovan received his B.A. in Marine Science from the University of San Diego, his M.S. In Biology from California State University in Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Florida. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research at UC, Irvine before joining the faculty there in 2011. Donovan’s awards and honors include receipt of the UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship, the UCI School of Biological Sciences Dean’s Award for Postdoctoral Excellence, and the UCI School of Biological Sciences Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Fostering Undergraduate Research. In our interview Donovan shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:23)
Beyond his interests in science, Donovan loves sports and music. He played football through college, and he now enjoys coaching his kids’ baseball and soccer teams. Donovan played bass in a band during college, and he also plays the guitar and drums.
The Scientific Side (3:43)
As a nutritional physiologist, Donovan studies how guts work. He aims to better understand how materials move through the gut, which enzymes are secreted during digestion, what microbes are present, and what role these microbes play. In particular, Donovan focuses his research on animals with unusual diets, such as fish that eat wood or algae, to understand how these foods are digested and how animals can survive on these lower quality foods.
A Dose of Motivation (4:54)
“I won’t back down.” – Song lyrics by Tom Petty
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:21)
Donovan has always been fascinated by fish, and fishing was one of his childhood hobbies. However, as he grew up, Donovan became more interested in sports. He shifted his focus to his studies when he went to college, and an oceanography class with a fantastic professor changed everything for him. During this class, Donovan went on a field trip to the Upper Newport Bay in Southern California. Seeing this coastal ecosystem firsthand was amazing. It was there that Donovan realized that he wanted to better understand how organisms deal with the fluctuating tides, temperatures, and ion concentrations in an estuary. He became hooked on physiology and marine ecosystems.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (16:29)
Donovan’s graduate research investigated wood-eating catfishes from the Amazon in order to better understand how these animals were able to use wood as a source of food. He went into his dissertation convinced that the fish must have developed a solution like beavers or termites that leveraged gut microbes to help digest their food. Donovan spent years doing eight different tests to ascertain whether microbes might be playing an important role, and his experiments unanimously suggested that this was not the case. At that point, he had to accept that his hypothesis might be completely wrong. This experience led Donovan to think about digestion differently and to contemplate the different ways animals could approach digestion. Ultimately, he discovered that the fish were actually optimized for moving material quickly through their guts and getting energy and nutrients from the microbial biomass that lived in the decomposing wood, instead of from the wood itself. Over the years, Donovan has also faced unexpected challenges in the form of experimental mishaps, such as forgetting to turn off the hose when filling a large fish tank or having to create entirely new assays to measure enzymes when his protocols didn’t work.
A Shining Success! (20:37)
In the process of trying to understand the digestive physiology of wood-eating catfish in graduate school, Donovan identified that a key piece of information was how long it took for material to pass through the digestive system of the fish. He planned to give the fish wood that had been dyed red with food coloring, and then switch back to regular wood. He planned to come back after four hours to start monitoring for when the red dye started to appear as waste in the tank. Since the fish are nocturnal, the experiment started at midnight. About four hours later, Donovan went back to observe the fish, and he was stunned to see that there were already red feces in the tank. The gut of these fish was known to be several meters long, so the material had to be moving through the gut at an amazingly fast rate of about one meter per hour. This was the piece of information that tied everything from his previous experiments together. Rather than relying on microbes to slowly digest wood in their gut, the fish were moving a lot of material very quickly through their gut and focusing on the easier to digest biomass that lived in the decomposing wood. Donovan will never forget sending the email with his findings to his thesis committee at 4:00 am.
Book Recommendations (23:37)
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan, and Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease by Robert Lustig.
Most Treasured Travel (25:49)
As an undergraduate, Donovan had the opportunity to travel to Antarctica to do research with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. They went to Deception Island to study the ice cover, as well as the movement of fish and krill. The island is the caldera of a volcano that was flooded by the sea after erupting. There is a ring of beautiful mountains around the perimeter with a bay in the interior. For that month, Donovan lived with the research team on the boat, did exciting research, and marveled at the penguins and other wildlife around him.
More recently, Donovan had an opportunity to travel to Norway to participate in the thesis examination of a student there. In Europe, it is common for a thesis advisor to invite people who are experts in the field to attend a student’s defense and ask the student questions to assess their knowledge. Donovan’s wife (also a scientist) accompanied him on this trip, and they had great scientific discussions with researchers there. In addition, they went on a fjord cruise and got to see some of the nearby sights.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (30:19)
Drinking tea has been an important part of lab culture for Donovan over the years. In the lab where he completed his master’s degree, they often drank tea together. This made lab discussions and reading papers seem more fun and social. His advisor used to take the group to the Spring Tea Garden in Fullerton to enjoy High Tea, and everyone would wear different fancy tea hats during the event. Tea has become a tradition in Donovan’s own lab as well, though no hats are required. In his present lab, Donovan has also made it a tradition to watch a great lecture series by musician Herbie Hancock that emphasizes how we are so much more than our jobs.
Advice For Us All (35:08)
Follow your passion. Make sure you don’t lose sight of what you want to do and what first got you excited about your work. Also, listen to people, be open and accepting, and try to help when you can.
Guest Bio
Donovan’s primary research goal is to understand how organisms are specialized to use specific resources and the consequences of specialization to ecosystem fluxes. His lab’s research integrates isotopic, molecular, biochemical, and physiological approaches to gain insight into the nutritional physiology of a range of animals, from microbes to vertebrates. By understanding the resource acquisition strategies of a range of organisms within a given ecosystem, he and his team can better understand fluxes within that system. Donovan’s longterm goal is to use this information to make more informed management decisions.
The post 531: Dr. Donovan German: Breaking Down the Mysteries of Digestion in Animals With Unusual Diets appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
39 min
December 02, 2019 530: Dr. Mary Power: Researching River Food Webs in Temperate and Tropical Rivers
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Dr. Mary E. Power is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley as well as Faculty Manager at the Angelo Coast Range Reserve and Director of the California Biodiversity Center. Mary is also a contributing scientist in a new documentary film called The Serengeti Rules. She received her B.A. in biology from Brown University, her M.S. in biology from the Boston University Marine Program at Woods Hole, and her PhD in zoology from the University of Washington. Mary is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. She has been awarded the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Medal from the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, the Kempe Award for Distinguished Ecologists, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an honorary doctorate degree from Umeå University in Sweden. In addition, Mary is past president of the Ecological Society of America and the American Society of Naturalists. In our interview Mary shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:51)
Mary loves to listen to and play folk and rock and roll music. She has been learning to play Celtic music on the mandolin as well as rock and roll music from the ‘60s and ‘70s on the guitar.
The Scientific Side (4:39)
Over the course of her career, Mary has studied the ecosystems of four different rivers. Her work to understand the food webs in those rivers has involved observation and taking field notes, mapping and quantitative observations to identify patterns, developing questions and hypotheses, and then testing her hypotheses with experiments.
A Dose of Motivation (6:27)
“Mary, you’ve got to think like an alga.” – by a colleague and friend
What Got You Hooked on Science? (12:11)
Though her parents didn’t realize it until she was about eight years old, Mary was very nearsighted as a child. As a result, she enjoyed exploring things that she could get close enough to see clearly. She was always attracted to the natural world, and she would peek under logs outside to observe the millipedes and mushrooms. One of the early turning points that sparked her interest in aquatic life was when her parents gave her a diving mask when they were snorkeling in Cape Cod. At that moment, Mary finally saw the world in focus for the first time. She marveled at the big snails rippling along, the small fish nervously picking at coral, the skittering hermit crabs, and other marine life. Mary developed a passion for snorkeling, and she became determined to find a way to get paid to look at life under water.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (13:30)
When Mary was in college at Brown University in the early 1970s, there was a stigma against ecology and other biological sciences that focused on whole organisms and the environment. She wanted to be a scientist, but she knew she didn’t want to spend her days in a lab doing microbiology or molecular biology bench work. After college, she taught adult education classes in Boston to make a living. Through these classes, her passion for biology was rekindled, and she had an amazing opportunity to take a field course in Bimini in the Bahamas. While there, she was able to see tropical coral reefs for the first time, and she was dazzled by the beauty of the reefs and the breathtaking wildlife. Mary was successful in getting into graduate school and completing her dissertation on the ecology of a particular river in Panama. However, she struggled to launch her career after graduate school. Mary’s husband got a job at the University of California, Berkeley, but she didn’t know if she wanted a career in academia. For years, Mary visited different labs, stayed involved in research, and kept publishing, but she didn’t yet have a permanent position. When a faculty job at the University of California, Berkeley was posted to hire a faculty member in her field of study, Mary wasn’t sure if she should apply. The department knew she was there, and she believed that if they had wanted to hire her, they would have invited her to apply. At the last minute, Mary decided to submit her application. She got an interview, but she found out about a month later that the job was offered to another fantastic scientist. However, that scientist turned down the job offer, and Mary accepted it.
A Shining Success! (35:40)
The interactions that Mary has had with wonderful people who care about science and the environment have been among the most rewarding and meaningful parts of her career. These have included exchanging ideas with students, learning about local plants and animals from Native Californian Tribe Members, and meeting scientists at laboratories and research sites across the country and around the world.
Book Recommendations (42:23)
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg, Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable by Paul G. Falkowski, The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters by Sean B. Carroll
Most Treasured Travel (38:15)
One of the most beautiful places Mary has traveled for science is the Ozark Mountains. She spent time there in the mid and late 1970s, and the area was relatively understudied at that time. The scenery was majestic, and the rivers were filled with a diverse array of fish, turtles, and other wildlife. She also had a great time studying armored catfish in Panama in graduate school. Her father came down to visit her while she was there, and the two of them worked twelve hour days together on her first stream enclosure experiments. Though they worked day and night, Mary treasures this experience because she learned a lot about her father and his humble early life as a homesteader in Idaho and Eastern Washington.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (42:23, 46:24)
Mary has been enjoying reading books written by scientists that allow us to see scientists as multifaceted people. Not only do they highlight the amazing work that scientists are doing, but they provide an opportunity to introduce the context and the person doing the work. Within her own lab, Mary and her team have a tradition of taking field trips to watch hawks migrate over the Golden Gate Bridge. They also enjoy lab picnics, celebrating birthdays with treats from a fabulous local bakery, and spending time together at field research stations. These field stations bring together people from a variety of research fields who are at all stages of their careers. They have fun cooking together, sharing meals, playing string band music, and sharing their passion for science.
Advice For Us All (51:03)
When you have unexpected bumps in your career path, make sure to maintain the relationships that are important to you. Keep your spirits up, and keep looking for ways you can do what you love. These bumps can take years to get over, but if you are passionate and flexible, you can make it through.
Guest Bio
Mary’s research interests center on river food webs. She has studied interactions among fish, birds, invertebrates, and algae in temperate and tropical rivers. In particular, Mary is interested in how attributes of species affect food web structure and dynamics, and how strengths of these interactions change under different environmental regimes. She and her team have studied, the interplay of trophic dynamics with hydrologic and productivity regimes in northern California rivers, as well as impacts of invading alien species, and linkages between rivers and their watersheds. Much of Mary’s current field work takes place in the South Fork Eel River, within the Angelo Coast Range Reserve in Mendocino, CA, one of the University of California Natural Reserve System’s 35 research and teaching reserves. She has also recently started working with collaborators on studies of the microbial interactions that generate acid mine drainage as well as studies of the evolution of linked eco-geomorphic systems in watersheds.
The post 530: Dr. Mary Power: Researching River Food Webs in Temperate and Tropical Rivers appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
56 min
November 25, 2019 529: Dr. Gayle Schueller: Creating Sustainability Solutions Through Science
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Dr. Gayle Schueller is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Vice President of Sustainability and Product Stewardship at 3M. She received her BS in physics from the State University of New York at Geneseo and her PhD in materials science and engineering from the University of Virginia. Afterwards, Gayle began her career at 3M as a Product Development Specialist in 3M’s Corporate Research Materials Laboratory. Over the years, Gayle has worked in a variety of technical, project management, and leadership roles at 3M. In our interview, Gayle shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:09)
In her free time, Gayle enjoys biking, eating great food, going to festivals, and spending time with her family. She is also an avid gardener, and she particularly likes growing flowering plants to attract bees.
The Scientific Side (3:04)
As Chief Sustainability Officer at a large, multinational company, Gayle has the opportunity to use science to have an impact on the world through the development of innovative products. These products span electronics, healthcare, consumer products, and other areas. She brings together teams of talented people to find innovative solutions and address sustainability problems.
A Dose of Motivation (5:16)
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mathatma Ghandi
“You shouldn’t complain about anything unless you are doing something about it.” – Gayle’s father
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:35)
Gayle’s father was a chemistry teacher, and her mom was a special education teacher. Her parents had a big impact on her, and Gayle was drawn to the possibility of being able to both do science and help improve people’s lives. When she was in high school, her dad encouraged her to pursue chemistry and run track. However, a desire to forge her own path and rebel against her parents drove Gayle to study physics and start cheerleading. From those very early classes, Gayle loved physics. She was delighted to discover that physics involved a way of approaching problems that could range from explaining the mechanics of a hockey puck to determining how to launch a rocket into space. Later in graduate school, Gayle’s research interests turned to materials science, but even today she still continues to use the problem-solving approaches she learned through studying physics.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (17:40)
There have been a variety of challenges throughout Gayle’s career. These have included making it through the physics program in college, her PhD qualifying exam, oral exams, and preparing for her PhD dissertation. During these difficult times, there were days when Gayle wondered if she would make it. When she started at 3M, Gayle met a scientist who was working on a really cool aluminum composite with the hope of using it on parts to reduce the vibration transmitted through motorcycles. Unfortunately, that project never worked out. However, the lessons they learned from that early project using the aluminum composite were useful later on in developing highly conductive lightweight electrical cables, like those that are used to deliver electricity to homes and buildings. The lighter weight allowed the cables to cross longer spans, including over waterways and harbors. The cables using this material were also more conductive than previous materials which meant that more electricity could be carried to where it was needed. This was particularly important for densely populated cities.
A Shining Success! (22:35)
The first part of Gayle’s career at 3M was spent working in the electronics industry. After being a technical director in electronics for a few years, Gayle was presented an opportunity to transition to the healthcare area at 3M. This was an exciting opportunity, but Gayle didn’t feel prepared to accept it. One of her mentors suggested that she should work on developing an adhesive in the healthcare space that was more gentle and didn’t hurt so much to remove from skin. Gayle was welcomed to her new team, and she was surprised to discover that identifying a gentler adhesive tape for patients was a topic of great interest in the healthcare space. Ultimately, they connected with a team in the automotive branch of 3M that was developing a tape with materials that ended up being a good fit to try in their healthcare application. They had to adjust the chemistry from the industrial automotive version of the tape to one that would be appropriate for healthcare, and it was a success. It was really rewarding to introduce this new kind of tape since they had not done much innovation in medical tapes in a long time. Also, during testing, patients began asking for the new tape because they preferred it over the other kinds of tape. This really made Gayle feel like she was making a difference for people.
Book Recommendations (30:04)
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by Michael Braungart and William McDonough, The Big Pivot: Radically Practical Strategies for a Hotter, Scarcer, and More Open World by Andrew Winston.
Most Treasured Travel (32:17)
Gayle has had numerous opportunities to visit Shenzhen and nearby areas in Southern China. When she first went there, the roads in Shenzhen were not yet paved, and they were just starting to plant the palm trees that would later line the main boulevard through the city. While there, she enjoyed visiting customers and factory sites, but the air quality was a big challenge. She was able to return to the city after a while, and it was exciting to see that the roads were paved, buildings were being built, and the air quality was substantially better after some of the industrial manufacturing had been relocated to a different area. It was amazing to Gayle how much the Earth can recover when given the opportunity.
Another particularly memorable trip was when she visited Iceland with her family. During this trip, they visited the hydrothermal power plant that serves the capital city of Reykjavík. Gayle was impressed by Iceland’s use of thermal resources to provide sustainable energy to meet much of the nation’s energy needs. The ways that Iceland has applied scientific and technical knowledge to devise creative, low-waste energy solutions has really stuck with her.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (36:20)
Over the years, Gayle has experienced a variety of traditions working with different teams within 3M. These have included nominations for prestigious 3M awards for technical excellence and innovation, trivia games, costume contests, and more. Another thing she has really enjoyed about working at 3M is the variety. On the same day, she might attend one presentation about renewable energy and another presentation on a completely different topic. It is wonderful to work with scientists across many different research fields.
Advice For Us All (42:27)
Set your goals high, work hard, and do the best you can in the job you have. Know what you want, but also be open to other possibilities. Some of Gayle’s favorite career experiences are things that she never would have expected. Also, know that science and engineering are the best and biggest ways that we can change the world for the better for ourselves and for future generations.
Guest Bio
Gayle’s role at 3M focuses on the use of science and innovation to create sustainability solutions. This work taps into her diverse expertise, which stems from working across a variety of 3M business, from electronics to healthcare to consumer industries. Most recently, Gayle and her team developed a new Strategic Sustainability Framework, focusing their efforts on Science for Circular, Science for Climate and Science for Community. They also introduced a Sustainability Value Commitment, which requires all new 3M products to demonstrate how they contribute to the greater good. Outside of work, Gayle enjoys staying active outdoors with her husband and three children – whether it’s a family bike ride, sampling the food options at local festivals or working in the garden. She notes that although she wasn’t born with a green thumb, she enjoys working at it and growing flowers to support the vital population of bees.
The post 529: Dr. Gayle Schueller: Creating Sustainability Solutions Through Science appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
46 min
November 18, 2019 528: Dr. Jennifer Ross: Studying the Physics of How Cells Self-Organize
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Dr. Jennifer Ross is a Professor in the Department of Physics at Syracuse University. Jenny received her BA in physics and mathematics from Wellesley College, and her PhD in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Afterwards, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania. Jenny joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2007, and she just recently moved to Syracuse to accept her current position there. Jenny has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including a National Science Foundation INSPIRE Award, a Cottrell Scholars Award, a Scialog Fellowship, the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society, and the Basil O’Connor Starter Award from the March of Dimes Foundation. In addition, Jenny is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. In our interview she shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:29)
In her free time, Jenny enjoys doing activities with her two kids. They’ve been having fun engaging in science-related activities like visiting volcanoes and watching the solar eclipse a few years ago. Jenny also loves watching TV, listening to podcasts, and reading, particularly when the subject is science fiction.
The Scientific Side (6:25)
Through her research, Jenny is working to better understand how living things can organize themselves. Early in development, an animal only has one cell. From this one cell, the animal develops into a full organism through self-organization and self-assembly. These processes may be driven by physics, but there is still a lot that we don’t know about these processes. Jenny and her lab are working to identify simple rules and develop models to explain how biological processes work.
A Dose of Motivation (8:41, 29:12)
She is motivated by the possibility of helping society by developing useful materials that can do things that biological systems can do, such as self-healing.
“Being honest is more important than being right.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (13:58)
As a kid, Jenny reveled in doing experiments with her chemistry set and various items she found around the house. She excelled in math in her school years, and she was intrigued by the possibility of studying physics. There weren’t many women in physics, and physics had a reputation of being one of the most challenging areas in science. As a result, Jenny became determined to pursue a career in physics. It was exciting to do physics in an all-female environment at Wellesley College, and Jenny had an opportunity to be involved in two independent research projects there. She enjoyed collaborating with other students and being able to do hands-on research during these projects.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (26:12)
Projects in the lab often don’t work, and they don’t work for a wide variety of different reasons. Trying to figure out why something isn’t working can be really tough, particularly for students who are new to research. The first project that Jenny assigned her first graduate student to work on turned out to be a terrible idea that didn’t work at all. Fortunately, when the student was collecting data, she noticed something else interesting that she could pursue. This other project led to the student’s first research paper and additional follow-up papers for her PhD dissertation.
A Shining Success! (30:26)
Recently, Jenny’s lab published an interesting research story that has launched a whole new research direction for the lab. Our cells are often undergoing cell division to form new cells. During this process, filaments called microtubules form a football-shaped structure called a mitotic spindle. The mitotic spindle helps separate our chromosomes to ensure each new cell has the same genetic information. These microtubules are critical for cell division, but there is still a lot we don’t know about how they form. Jenny and her students were studying microtubules to see if they could identify a repeatable way to control the length of the filaments that were assembled. If the microtubules fell apart, they would see just a few very long filaments. If you add cross-linking proteins to keep the microtubules from falling apart, all the filaments grow to about the same length. In fact, by adding cross-linking proteins, they were able to generate microtubule structures that looked like the football-shaped mitotic spindles. This was really surprising because they only had two ingredients (microtubules and cross-linking proteins) in their experiments and were running them in a static system. Inside cells, there are many different proteins and enzymes that are involved in cell division, and there is a dynamic equilibrium where things are constantly moving back and forth. If particular proteins are removed, the spindle falls apart or changes shape, so these proteins were believed to be essential for spindle formation. It turns out that the spindle’s shape can be explained by the same physics that you use to describe liquid crystals.
Book Recommendations (4:58)
Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, The Expanse Series by James S. A. Corey, The Broken Earth Series by N. K. Jemisin, Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu and Ken Liu
Most Treasured Travel (37:29)
Though Aspen, Colorado is not a place Jenny would have likely planned a vacation to visit, she has really enjoyed going to the Aspen Center for Physics. Conferences are hosted there in the winter, but they also have an extended program in the summers where you can stay for a few weeks. It is a really beautiful place, and it is fun to be immersed in physics there. Jenny has also really enjoyed the opportunities she’s had to visit Baltimore, MD. She has attended numerous scientific meetings there, and many of the scientific societies she belongs to are based in that area. Having gone to Baltimore many times, Jenny has gotten to know the city well, and it feels like a second home. The National Aquarium in Baltimore is excellent, there are a lot of great restaurants and shopping areas, and there is a cool museum with unconventional art called the American Visionary Art Museum.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (40:57)
One tradition in Jenny’s lab is making funny videos where they change the lyrics to popular songs to make them related to the lab. They may spend a whole day lip syncing to a video around the lab. Though it is quite a bit of work to edit the videos together, they are a lot of fun to make. One of the more recent videos was based on the song “Old Town Road”. They really struggled to find a cowboy hat in Massachusetts to use as a prop, so they had to make one by modifying a sun hat.
Advice For Us All (46:35)
Be authentic. It is okay to show emotions, have a personality, and be yourself. As a scientist, your students are your legacy. You should treat them well and create an environment where everyone can thrive. This will ultimately result in a more productive lab. Also, pursue what you are interested in, but try to always have a back-up plan of a project that will likely work. Don’t forget that it is more important to be honest than to be right.
Guest Bio
Jenny’s research tries to understand what physics we can learn from biological systems. She is specifically interested in how the cell can organize itself without a manager. Her training is in math and physics, and her work uses biophysical and biochemical approaches and requires an understanding of cellular biology, although she has not had a biology class since 10th grade. Outside of work Jenny enjoys vacationing with her family to exciting geological formations and reading and watching hard science fiction.
The post 528: Dr. Jennifer Ross: Studying the Physics of How Cells Self-Organize appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
52 min
November 11, 2019 527: Dr. John Talley: Creating Compounds to Treat Pain and Slow Tumor Growth
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Dr. John J. Talley is Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Euclises Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In addition, John is Co-Founder, Partner, and Vice President of Chemistry at Emmyon, Inc. He received his BA in chemistry and science from Northern Iowa University and his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining the team at Euclises, John worked in various roles at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacia, Searle, Monsanto, and General Electric. John has received numerous honors and awards over the course of his career. He is co-inventor of seven marketed drugs, a named inventor on more than 215 U.S. drug patents, and a recipient of the prestigious PhRMA Foundation Discoverers Award. In our interview, John shares more about his life and research.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:25)
In his free time, John enjoys cultivating vegetables and flowers in his garden, as well as growing indoor plants. Some of his other favorite activities include travel, camping with his family, and playing with his three cats.
The Scientific Side (4:32)
John is an organic chemist who works to identify targets that can be modulated by chemicals. Once these targets are identified, he makes novel compounds that can interact with these targets. Currently, the two areas that John is focusing on are developing non-opioid treatments for acute and chronic pain and developing a new medicine that can be used with immune checkpoint inhibitors to slow or reverse tumor growth in cancer.
A Dose of Motivation (5:41)
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
“Nobody ever got better at something by not doing it.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (10:26)
John’s original plan for his life was to take over the flower shop and greenhouse that his father co-owned. To prepare himself for leading the family business, he went off to college with the goal of getting a degree in business. Everything changed for John after he took his first introductory business course and discovered that he found business to be painfully boring. After meeting with the college’s career counselor, he decided to try taking a few science classes. John had always enjoyed science in high school, but he never took the advanced track science courses, so he wasn’t sure he would do well in science in college. He signed up for courses in chemistry and biology, and he really enjoyed them. During college, John also had the opportunity to get involved in chemistry research with one of his professors. This professor had done his PhD work with Professor Paul Gassman at the University of Minnesota, and the two professors conspired to encourage John to pursue a PhD in organic chemistry with Dr. Gassman as well. About halfway through his first year of graduate school, John had a Eureka moment where organic chemistry really started to make sense, and he was excited to immerse himself in research in the lab.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (34:12)
It takes an enormous amount of effort to identify a molecule that has the kinds of properties that you want in a drug candidate. Over the course of his career, John has made many lousy compounds that didn’t work out. In some cases, compounds weren’t absorbed well during digestion, or they broke down too quickly once they entered the bloodstream. Though developing useful compounds has been a struggle, it has also been really exciting for John. Only about two out of ten drugs that go into clinical trials actually make it to the point of being sold in pharmacies. Many people working in this field retire without ever having worked on a compound that makes it to the market, so John considers himself very fortunate.
A Shining Success! (36:28)
Being involved in the discovery of the drug Celebrex was an amazing experience. Celebrex is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that selectively inhibits the enzyme COX-2. COX-2 is upregulated in inflammation and certain types of cancer. John and his colleagues spent about two years working on this project before they were finally able to come up with a molecule that seemed like it might work. Despite working through failure after failure, John felt like they could have a really big impact in treating people with chronic pain and arthritis if they could find the right molecule. They finally discovered a promising compound in the summer of 1993. By October, they discovered a similar molecule that entered clinical trials and was approved at the end of 1998.
Book Recommendations (40:02)
A Brief History of Timeby Stephen Hawking,Â Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warmingby Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway.
Most Treasured Travel (42:07)
John was invited to give a presentation at a conference on inflammation held in Stevenage, Great Britain. This conference was his first time in Great Britain, and it was where he first described the early Cox-2 inhibitor compound they discovered. John’s fiance accompanied him on the trip, and they planned to drive up to Edinburgh, Scotland after the conference to get married. The wedding took place in the Royal Courts of Justice in Edinburgh, and their officiant ended up inviting two elderly Australian tourists off the street to serve as witnesses for the ceremony.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (45:35)
When he was a graduate student, they had a tradition that if someone made a dumb mistake in the lab, they had to wear a black lab coat until there was another person to pass it on to. John made a particular compound for his research, but it wasn’t completely pure, so he needed to purify it. When he tried to recrystalize it, the compound caught on fire! It wasn’t a major fire, so he put a glass over it and the fire went out. However, he couldn’t figure out why the compound ignited. John needed that compound though, so he re-made it and tried the purification process again. Much to his chagrin, John caused a second lab fire and earned himself a turn in the black lab coat.
After graduate school, John worked as a staff scientist and GE Labs. Each year, they had to give a presentation to the whole department and company leaders. John was excited to give his presentation, and he painstakingly prepared his transparencies to use with the overhead projector. Unfortunately, during John’s presentation, a fly kept landing on the projector. This was really distracting, and the audience couldn’t stop laughing. John was getting incredibly frustrated, so when the fly landed one last time on the projector, he slammed down his wooden pointer on it. This turned into a legendary moment that people in the audience would always remember. Even at his going away party when he was leaving the company, someone presented him with a picture of that slide with the fly on it, and John still has the picture to this day.
Advice For Us All (49:53)
Work hard. The times when things are looking the most grim are the times when you have to buckle down and work the hardest. Good results will follow if you are determined and don’t give up. Science is an incredibly rewarding and fun career. You get to meet so many interesting people in science, and there is a deep sense of camaraderie when you are working together with others on projects that may lead to important discoveries for society.
Guest Bio
Prior to his current roles at Euclises Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Emmyon, Inc., John was VP of Drug Discovery, SVP of Drug Discovery, and Distinguished Scientist at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. During his time there as head of drug discovery, linaclotide was discovered and later commercialized as Linzess® for the treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders. Before joining Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, John spent 15 years at G. D. Searle (Monsanto/Pharmacia), leading drug discovery efforts in a number of therapeutic areas. He is the lead inventor of several commercial medicines including Celebrex® and a second COX-2 specific inhibitor, Bextra®, which was approved and later withdrawn by Pfizer. He is also the co-inventor of Dynastat®, an injectable COX-2 inhibitor that is sold in Europe and Asia for treatment of acute postoperative pain and Deramaxx®, the first COX-2 drug approved for the control of pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis and orthopedic surgery in veterinary medicine. Additionally, John is the co-inventor of Trocoxil®, the once a month treatment for arthritis pain in dogs, currently marketed in selected European countries. He is a co-inventor of the hydroxyethyl sulfonamide class of HIV-protease inhibitors that are marketed under the brand names of Agenerase®, Lexiva®, and Prezista®. Outside of his work, John enjoys gardening, (pulling weeds), travel, and camping. He is the father of three daughters and an easy-going pushover to his three furniture destroying cats.
Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by BioGenerator.
The post 527: Dr. John Talley: Creating Compounds to Treat Pain and Slow Tumor Growth appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
53 min
November 04, 2019 526: Dr. Jim Estes: Studying the Role of Sea Otters in Kelp Forest Ecosystems
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Dr. Jim Estes is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In addition, Jim is author of the book Serendipity: An Ecologist’s Quest to Understand Nature, and he is a contributing scientist in a new documentary film called The Serengeti Rules. He received his bachelor’s degree in zoology from the University of Minnesota, his MS in biology from Washington State University, and his PhD in biology and statistics from the University of Arizona. For over 30 years, Jim worked as a research scientist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. He retired from his position there in 2007 to join the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Jim has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors over the course of his career, including the U.S. Geological Survey’s Schumaker Award for excellence in science communication, the Western Society of Naturalists’ Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American Society of Mammalogists’ C. Hart Merriam Award. Jim is also a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation, a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, and a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In our interview, Jim shares more about his life and research.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:49)
One of Jim’s major passions outside of science is fly fishing. He also enjoys hiking, reading, writing, and spending time with friends.
The Scientific Side (3:58)
Most of Jim’s career has been spent as a research scientist studying topics in ecology. He is interested in how nature works, and how species interact with one another and their physical environment. Specifically, Jim is working to better understand coastal marine ecosystems, kelp forests, and the kelp forest ecosystems in the North Pacific Ocean.
A Dose of Motivation (4:52)
“The species aren’t extinct, but the interactions are.” – Dan Janzen
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:54)
When Jim was 4 years old, his father and grandfather took him on a daytrip to a lake in Wisconsin to go fishing. It was so exciting for him to be out on the water and see live animals around him. Jim enjoyed being outside as a kid, and he found nature fascinating. During high school, one of his cousins was a wildlife biologist on the faculty at Washington State University. When his cousin visited and told him stories of what he was working on in Africa, Jim was spellbound. After Jim finished college, he went to work with his cousin on his master’s degree. In the midst of his master’s degree work, Jim received notice that he was being drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. However, his physical exam uncovered an orthopedic abnormality in his knee which led to Jim being deemed unsuitable to serve. Suddenly, Jim had a new path before him, and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. One of Jim’s friends informed him that the Atomic Energy Commission was looking for someone to go to Amchitka Island off the coast of Alaska to study sea otters. Jim didn’t know anything about sea otters, but this project was the start of an exciting research career.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:25)
By the late 1980s and early 90s, Jim had been working in the Aleutian Islands for nearly 20 years, and he was considering moving on to a different research area. He went to Amchitka Island to complete one last project where he was going to characterize the demography and behavior of a population of sea otters living at carrying capacity. Carrying capacity is the state of a population being as big as the ecosystem can support. For carnivorous mammals, there are very few places in the world where populations are at carrying capacity. Jim wanted to know how birth rate, survival rate, and feeding behavior might differ in a population living at carrying capacity versus a population that was not. He had a good idea of what to expect in terms of results, but nothing worked out. There was even a hint that the sea otter population had declined. After two years of not getting good results, Jim gathered up his things and left. On his way back home, he stopped at another island and met up with a colleague who informed him that the Navy and Air Force were interested in having research done on sea otters on some of the other Aleutian Islands. Jim thought that spending another year or two working on this research might help him figure out what was going on. While working on these other islands, he discovered that what he had seen was part of a catastrophic collapse of sea otters across all of Southwest Alaska. Killer whales had begun feeding on sea otters, likely because industrial whaling had decimated the prey they previously consumed. This led to a deeper understanding of transitions in the ecosystem, interactions between species, and the scale and nature of the interactions that linked industrial whaling to coastal ecological changes.
A Shining Success! (27:21)
In one project, Jim was examining the evolution of interactions between land herbivores and the kelp forest ecosystems. Kelp species that lived in deep water where sea urchins were abundant seemed resistant to being eaten by those urchins. In contrast, kelp in shallow water were highly susceptible to being eaten by urchins. Jim met a graduate student who was studying chemical defenses in kelp, and the graduate student offered to look at whether there were chemical differences in the deep water versus shallow water kelps. There were. Putting this in an ecological context, sea otters were very effective predators in shallow water, so they were able to keep the urchin numbers so low that the kelp didn’t need to evolve chemical defenses. In deep water, otters were less efficient predators, so urchins were more abundant, and the kelp needed chemical defenses. They also discovered that in areas like Australia and New Zealand where there were no predators, the kelp also had strong chemical defenses. It was exciting to uncover the important role that having a predator at the top of the kelp food chain had on the evolution (or lack of evolution) of chemical defenses in kelp.
Book Recommendations (32:02)
Serendipity: An Ecologist’s Quest to Understand Nature by Jim Estes, Naturalist by E. O. Wilson, The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen, The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters by Sean Carroll, Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life by Geerat Vermeij.
Most Treasured Travel (35:41)
The Aleutian Islands are by far Jim’s favorite place that he has visited for science. It is an amazing and remote place where you can feel completely disassociated from humanity. Jim also loved the time he spent working in New Zealand. The people, the environment, and the places he saw were wonderful. He also had a phenomenal time at a scientific meeting in India a few years ago. It felt like a very different place than he was used to, and the remarkable people, culture, history, wildlife, and natural environments were memorable.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (37:15)
Jim has had the pleasure of meeting and working with many wonderful scientists over the course of his career, and many of these individuals don’t fit the traditional stereotypes that people have of scientists. For example, his colleague Marten Scheffer is a theoretical ecologist in Holland who works on stability theory. Not only is Marten an exceptional scientist, but he is also an outstanding professional musician. Another example is Geerat Vermeij, an accomplished evolutionary biologist who is also blind. Jim met Geerat in 1975, and he was amazed that Geerat had learned so much about the world through using his hands. He was able to recognize every species of aquatic snail they gave him through touch alone.
Advice For Us All (43:18)
Don’t try to identify a goal too far in the future. Recognize that the world is always changing around you. The key to success is recognizing opportunities that arise as these changes occur, and making wise decisions in selecting where you go based on those opportunities.
Guest Bio
Jim’s research group is interested in the ecology of coastal marine communities, particularly the influences of vertebrate consumers on benthic community structure. Most of his field research has focused on the sea otter in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. He has ongoing research projects in the Aleutian Islands, central California, the Channel Islands, and New Zealand. The central theme of all these studies is to identify the important high-trophic-level consumers and their influences on the organization of the communities within which they live. In addition, Jim is interested in marine plant- herbivore interactions, the behavioral ecology of marine vertebrates, and the evolution of marine living in mammals.
The post 526: Dr. Jim Estes: Studying the Role of Sea Otters in Kelp Forest Ecosystems appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
46 min
October 28, 2019 525: Dr. Daniel Chung: Developing Gene Therapies for Rare Inherited Retinal Diseases
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Dr. Daniel Chung is the global medical strategy lead for ophthalmology at Spark Therapeutics. Dan earned both his bachelor’s degree in biology and master’s degree in family counseling from Eastern Nazarene College in Massachusetts. He also holds a doctorate degree in Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine. Afterward, Dan became a research training award fellow at the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health, studying retinal gene therapy, and he went on to complete his residency in ophthalmology within the Summa Health System in Ohio. Dan joined the Cleveland Clinic as a pediatric ophthalmology clinical/ocular genetics research fellow and subsequently worked as a senior investigator at the Scheie Eye Institute in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania for eleven years before joining the team at Spark Therapeutics in 2014. In this interview, Dan shares more about his personal and professional passions, as well as his research.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:21)
When he isn’t working or traveling, Dan enjoys spending time with his family. He is also an avid photographer who loves capturing photos of nature, landscapes, and wildlife. In particular, Dan has really enjoyed photographing the panoramic landscapes of Monument Valley in Arizona, brown bears in Alaska, and polar bears in Northern Canada.
The Scientific Side (4:46)
Spark Therapeutics is a company that concentrates on discovering, developing, and delivering gene therapy for rare diseases. Dan works in the area of ophthalmology, and he and his colleagues brought the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease to market. This therapy was created to treat an inherited retinal disease that results in blindness and is caused by having variants or mutations in both alleles of the RPE65 gene.
A Dose of Motivation (5:42)
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:31)
When he was two years old, Dan immigrated with his parents from South Korea to the United States. Home and family were important as he grew up, and his parents were very supportive of his early interests in science. Dan was particularly fascinated with insects. He had a bug collection, and he could often be found plucking insects off of trees and trying to catch them in his butterfly net. Over the years, his interests shifted to animals, biology, and disease. Dan enjoyed research because it allowed him to answer questions about how things worked. He was also drawn to the sense of discovery, collaboration, learning, and relationship-building that were part of doing science. Though the area of inherited retinal diseases wasn’t the most popular topic in medicine, it resonated with him to try to solve problems in an area where there weren’t currently any solutions.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (17:24)
There were many challenges along the way as they developed the first FDA-approved gene therapy for inherited retinal disease. Going through the regulatory pathway, completing the clinical trials, and creating their own novel endpoints for their clinical trials were all difficult endeavors. Dan and his colleagues also faced challenges in working on a rare disease. An important aspect of determining whether a new therapy is effective is whether it can change the natural history of a disease. Unfortunately, relatively little data were available on the natural history of this inherited retinal disease. As a result, they had to conduct their own natural history study, and they developed a novel mobility test to measure functional vision.
A Shining Success! (20:09)
After all of the hard work that went into the project, it was so exciting when the gene therapy was approved to treat the inherited retinal disease related to the RPE65 gene variants/mutations. Dan was grateful to be part of the excellent team at Spark Therapeutics and to have been involved in bringing not only the first gene therapy for a retinal disease to the clinic, but also the first gene therapy for a genetic disease. Years ago during his medical fellowship working in an inherited retinal disease clinic, it was difficult for Dan to tell patients that he didn’t have any therapies to offer them. He would assure the patients that there was great research going on in this area and that one day there might be a gene therapy. Being able to develop this therapy has been incredibly rewarding.
Book Recommendations (22:43)
The Bible, photography by Art Wolfe and Thomas Mangelsen
Most Treasured Travel (24:13)
Through his science, Dan has had the opportunity to travel all over the world. London is among his favorite cities in Europe. When there, he likes to find restaurants off the beaten path to enjoy some delicious fish and chips. Dan has traveled throughout Italy for his work, and he recommends visiting the Colosseum in Rome, Vatican City, and the beautiful Italian countryside. Tokyo is one of Dan’s favorite cities in Asia because the people are nice, the city is clean, and the food is amazing. There are also phenomenal camera shops there that have everything you could possibly want to buy.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (27:33)
In one of the labs Dan worked in previously, he and his colleagues were studying gene therapy relatively early in the history of the field. It was easy to get frustrated with the lack of positive results in their research. To help vent their frustrations, they would set up a series of conical tubes and try to knock them over by stretching out and launching rubber gloves at the tubes. Scientists are often very serious about the work they do, but they are also creative and find innovative ways to have fun.
Advice For Us All (32:57)
Persistence and hard work are key in science. If you are stumped by a problem, take a step back to look at the bigger picture. Trying new and potentially unorthodox methods may be the key to the solution. Keep an open mind and be flexible. Persistence usually pays off, but it doesn’t always pay off. In Dan’s case with the gene therapy they developed for the RPE65 gene mutations, it took nearly 16 years from when they first published their preclinical work to when the therapy was approved. It may seem like a long time, but it was worth it in the end.
Guest Bio
As the global medical strategy lead of ophthalmology at Spark Therapeutics, Dan was heavily involved in the design and development of the Multi-Luminance Mobility Test (MLMT) – the novel endpoint used in the clinical trial to show efficacy of LUXTURNA, the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease and the only pharmacologic treatment for inherited retinal disease (IRD). Dan’s journey into gene therapy and inherited retinal disease began in the early 2000’s, during his fellowship years, when he saw that there were no existing treatments. Inspired to be a part of the solution, Dan joined the molecular ophthalmology group at the University of Pennsylvania and joined the RPE65 gene therapy clinical trials group at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and eventually became instrumental in the development for the MLMT under Spark. When Dan is not serving as an ophthalmology/IRD resource at Spark, he enjoys spending time with family and photographing nature and wildlife scenes. To date, his work has been displayed at a number of local cafes, art galleries and art shows in the greater Philadelphia area. To view his photography work, please visit Dan’s photography website. More information about his work with Spark can be seen here.
The post 525: Dr. Daniel Chung: Developing Gene Therapies for Rare Inherited Retinal Diseases appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
36 min

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