People Behind the Science Podcast

By Dr. Marie McNeelyScience

People Behind the Science Podcast episodes

March 24, 2025 805: Dr. Eric Kmiec: Creating Cell-Free Gene Editing On A Chip For Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
Dr. Eric Kmiec is Director of the Gene Editing Institute of the Helen F. Graham Cancer and Research Institute at Christiana Care Health System. He also holds faculty appointments at the University of Delaware and the Wistar Institute. He Received his B.A. in Microbiology from Rutgers University, his M.S. in Cell Biology and Biochemistry from Southern Illinois University, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from the University of Florida School of Medicine. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Rochester before joining the faculty at the University of California, Davis in 1987. Since then, he has served on the faculty of Thomas Jefferson University, the University of Delaware, and Delaware State University. In addition, Eric founded, consulted for, and served as Vice President of Kimeragen, Inc., he was Chief Scientific Advisor for the Genomics Division of Tapestry Pharmaceuticals, was an Eminent Scholar and Director of the Marshall University Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, and also served as Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer, and a Board Member of OrphageniX. Eric has received numerous awards and honors over the course of his career, including receipt of the 2012 Proudford Foundation Unsung Hero Award in Sickle Cell Disease, designation as an Honorary Commander of the 436th Air Wing at Dover Air Force Base in 2013 and 2014, and also induction into the Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Alumni Hall of Fame in 2012. Further, Eric and the team at the Gene Editing Institute were recently awarded the inaugural Life Sciences and Bio Innovation Award from the Philadelphia-Israeli Chamber of Commerce. In our interview, Eric shared his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:22)
Throughout his life, Eric has enjoyed sports. He particularly likes playing baseball and hockey, and he still plays baseball competitively in a league in Philadelphia. Eric also spends much of his time doing landscaping and yardwork.
The Scientific Side (4:37)
Eric and his colleagues are working to develop new ways to treat cancer by destroying the genes that cause cancer cells to be resistant to typical therapies like chemotherapy, radiation, or immunotherapy.
A Dose of Motivation (5:41)
“You are not judged on what you do, but on what you do for others.” – Eric’s mother
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:51)
In high school, Eric liked science, and he did well in his science courses, but he didn’t plan on pursuing a career in science or research. Eric played baseball throughout high school, and he went to college with the goal of becoming a professional baseball player. However, he was disappointed to discover that he wasn’t talented enough to make it in college baseball. Once Eric realized this, he began to focus more on science. Eric’s scientific interests were in microbiology and bacteriology, and he went on to earn his PhD studying genetic recombination in fungus. Over time, studying how chromosomes exchanged information led to his work in gene repair and gene editing.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:31)
In the mid to late nineties, Eric and some of his colleagues began thinking about gene editing. This was around the time when research on gene therapy was booming. Researchers were adding corrective genes to viruses and injecting them into people to augment or replace the function of disabled genes or chromosomes. To Eric, this approach didn’t seem to address the cause of the problem. He proposed that they could tackle the problem at its source through gene repair. Initially, these ideas were dismissed as heretical. Eric and other labs pursuing gene repair spent years being mocked and trivialized by their peers. It was hard to keep going, but Eric really believed in the science. It has been rewarding to see how far the field has come and to see researchers who were previously working on viral gene therapy now working on gene editing.
A Shining Success! (25:59)
In the early days of gene editing, Eric struggled to wrap his head around how RNA participated in gene editing, but he believed it had to play an important role. While mowing the lawn with his son, who was six years old at the time, Eric was talking about this laboratory conundrum. Typically when Eric talked about his work, his son provided the sort of advice you might expect from a young kid, but this case was different. His son made an ingenious suggestion, and Eric’s team immediately got to work. This comment from Eric’s son helped clarify Eric’s understanding of the mechanism of gene editing and pushed his team to pursue lines of research in therapeutic gene editing that they continue to study today. In addition, Eric has been fortunate to work with some extremely talented students over the years. Currently, one of the graduate students in his research group is working on a project to further optimize their gene editing on a chip system. With this system, they can perform gene editing in a controlled laboratory environment outside of cells. This student is among the best experimentalists Eric has ever seen, and it has been wonderful to watch someone of that skill level continue to develop as a scientist.
Book Recommendations (29:41)
Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Most Treasured Travel ( 34:57)
Eric has been fortunate to go to many memorable conferences and scientific meetings. In particular, he remembers attending some of the early Gordon Conferences in DNA Repair and Recombination held at a secluded boarding school in New Hampshire. The attendees were sequestered away, surrounded by nature, and there were no distractions like TVs, laptops, or cell phones. The goal was to communicate and connect with other scientists, and you really got to know each other by living in close quarters, sharing bathrooms, and spending days together talking about research in your field.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (32:17)
As a graduate student, Eric also had great experiences attending meetings at Cold Spring Harbor. These meetings were 6-7 days of very intense science, but it was amazing to be surrounded by some of the best and the brightest scientific minds. For Eric, it was remarkable to turn a corner and run into some of the biggest names and pioneers in his field. He remembers listening to James Watson talk about the creative process, and this discussion really inspired Eric. Working alongside, listening to, and getting feedback from these accomplished scientists really had a big impact on Eric and his career.
Advice For Us All (41:56)
You have to accept failure as part of the learning process. It’s how you respond to failure that will enable you to succeed in the future, and it’s what you learned from your failed attempts that will lead you to success. Just keep going. If you have a good idea, keep fighting for it.
Guest Bio
Eric is well known for his pioneering work in molecular medicine and gene editing. Under Eric’s leadership, the Gene Editing Institute has become a leader in gene editing and biomedical research in cancer and other inherited disease. It is the only institute of its kind embedded in a community cancer center where interactions among oncologists, genetic counselors, and patients regularly take place. Through this unique collaboration, innovative basic science discoveries in cancer research can be translated directly to patient treatment. Throughout his professional career, Eric has led research teams studying the reaction mechanics, biochemistry and molecular genetics of gene editing in human cells. His early work with sickle cell disease led to research and development of the next generation of gene editing tools, including CRISPRs (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) and to even more promising variations such as single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides (ssODNs) for the treatment of inherited disorders. He has been a member of numerous editorial boards, NIH study sections and review boards and is the (primary or corresponding) author of more than 155 scientific publications (mostly in genetic recombination and gene editing). Eric holds 18 issued patents, most of which have been licensed by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and has founded two biotechnology companies. He is also a senior scientific advisor and SAB member of ETAGEN, a gene editing company located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, centered on the development of therapeutic uses of gene editing.

*This episode was originally released September 17, 2018.
The post 805: Dr. Eric Kmiec: Creating Cell-Free Gene Editing On A Chip For Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
45 min
March 17, 2025 804: Dr. Andrew Felton: Studying How Dryland Ecosystems Respond to Changes in Water Availability
Dr. Andrew Felton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences within the College of Agriculture at Montana State University-Bozeman where he is Principal Investigator of the Felton Lab. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota, majoring in Biology, Society, and Environment. Afterwards, he was awarded his PhD in ecology from Colorado State University. Next, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Utah State University. He then received a U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) Postdoctoral Fellowship Award, and he conducted research at Chapman University before joining the faculty at Montana State University. In our interview, Andrew shares insights and stories from his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:14)
Living in Bozeman, Montana, Andrew enjoys spending time in the mountains and the beautiful National Parks nearby, including Yellowstone. In the winter, he is an avid downhill skier, and he likes to go rock climbing in the summer. His other hobbies include playing guitar, listening to music, reading, drinking great coffee, going out to eat, and spending time with family and friends.
The Scientific Side (6:23)
Andrew splits his time between teaching and his research lab. His research focuses on dry land ecosystems, which includes deserts, grasslands, and shrublands. Studies in his lab examine how these ecosystems function, what plants and animals are present, and how the ecosystems respond to changes in the availability of water. Climate change impacts the size of precipitation events and increases evaporation through higher temperatures, and Andrew’s lab is also working to understand the implications of these changes for ecosystems that are already water-limited.
A Dose of Motivation (8:34)
“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.” – Charles Swindoll
What Got You Hooked on Science? (11:58)
One particular book sparked Andrew’s interest in science and the natural world. The Song of the Dodo, by David Quammen, weaves together the theory of natural selection, biographical stories of the influential naturalists Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin, and relevant historical and recent research. Andrew was fascinated by this book, and it got him thinking about studying biodiversity. He did an internship in college at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, which has one of the longest running biodiversity experiments in the world. There, Andrew spent a summer weeding plots for experiments, and while it wasn’t glamorous work, his interests in biology and biodiversity continued to grow. Andrew later received an undergraduate fellowship that allowed him to do his own independent research, and this is when everything started coming together for him. He really enjoyed applying things he learned in class to design and conduct his own experiments. Pursuing graduate school was a logical next step, and Andrew’s PhD research focused on how extreme weather conditions impact grassland ecosystems. He began using satellite datasets during his postdoctoral fellowship, and his lab now integrates field experiments with satellite remote sensing to better understand how water-limited systems are influenced by changes and water availability.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:54)
During Andrew’s second postdoc, his advisor was interested in understanding and quantifying the time it takes for the water that a plant absorbs through its roots to make its way through the plant, exit through tiny pores on a plant’s leaves, and evaporate into the air. Their research to answer this question began in 2021, and they just recently published the study earlier this year. They faced a variety of challenges throughout the project, including learning a new programming language to handle their complex data structures. When they first submitted the paper with the results, a peer reviewer requested that they extend the data to include more than one year. To address this feedback, they brought on a new collaborator to help with the data and modeling, and it took about six months to resolve the issue. Then another peer reviewer identified that they were measuring a new and important quantitative measure in the natural world, and they asked if the team had uncertainty estimates for their measurements. This required more brainstorming, but Andrew and his colleagues were eventually able to solve this challenge. In the process, their analyses became stronger and more robust.
Another memorable challenge happened during Andrew’s PhD project. He aimed to manipulate rainfall levels by excluding rain from his experiments. To accomplish this, Andrew built clear plastic rain shelters so his experimental plots wouldn’t get water through rain, but they could still get sunlight. However, when strong storms came through, the roofs sometimes blew off of his plots, ruining the experiment. When things like this happen in the field, the only thing you can do is take note of what happened, factor it in, and rebuild. Andrew learned that experimentally imposing drought is actually quite complicated, and you have to be resilient.
A Shining Success! (27:59)
For the project examining the time it takes for the water to move through a plant, Andrew spent four years working with an interdisciplinary team, and it was so exciting to see their results finally published in the prestigious journal Nature Water. Their findings also represent a really cool advance in our understanding of the water cycle. In the paper, they provide estimates for the amount of fresh water that is stored in plants globally. They also give estimates of the travel time in terms of how long it takes for water to move through plants. While vegetation represents a small portion of the total fresh water on Earth, this water in plants is a really dynamic and particularly fast component of the water cycle. Their work opens up avenues to better understand how vegetation will factor into climate change and the water cycle itself. It was a difficult road to get to this point, but it’s also been really rewarding.
Book Recommendations (4:14)
On Call: A Doctor’s Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci MD; and Walter Isaacson’s biographies on Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger, Leonardo da Vinci, and Steve Jobs
Most Treasured Travel (31:42)
Andrew’s scientific travel has brought him to the Mongolian Steppe in China; Dublin, Ireland; Leipzig, Germany; and many other places. However, one of the most memorable travel experiences was their recent field campaign conducting research on the seasonal origin of water resources. This project allowed him to travel to very remote parts of the country with remarkably pristine grasslands. Their research included a stop in the Nebraska Sandhills, which are large sand dunes held together by mixed grasses and other vegetation. They also visited Thunder Basin National Grassland in Wyoming, which was also amazing. Not only was Andrew able to see remarkable ecosystems, but he was excited to be collecting data for a project where he was in charge of every step. He came up with the idea, got the funding, recruited an outstanding team, and led the research. The whole experience felt like an important transition in his career from being a trainee to being an independent investigator leading his own research program.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (34:55)
Many scientists that Andrew has interacted with have a fantastic sense of humor and have excellent interpersonal skills. These traits may not be the first thing that people think of when characterizing scientists. In terms of quirky traditions, during his PhD, the lab Andrew worked in went on a Labor Day Weekend data collection trip to eastern Kansas every year. The group piled into a van together and made the trek from Colorado to the Konza Prairie Biological Station to spend the whole long weekend clipping grass. They had multiple ongoing experiments there examining how different factors influenced biomass production over the course of a year. It was a long drive, and the work was tedious, but these trips were a great source of camaraderie through shared experiences.
Advice For Us All (41:43)
Attitude is very important. Try to see the potential good that can result from any situation, or the positive impacts you can have. Focus on what you can control and try to keep moving forward. Andrew draws a lot of optimism thinking about the trainees he mentors who are curious and motivated, as well as the people who continue to support and mentor him. It is a really exciting time to be part of the scientific enterprise because so much is being discovered about the natural world, and the pace of our discoveries seems to be increasing.
Guest Bio
Andrew’s primary research interest is in understanding how water-limited ecosystems, such as deserts and grasslands, respond to climate-driven changes in water availability, such as drought intensification. Andrew’s primary research expertise comes from a variety of fields but are ultimately root in the fields of plant and ecosystem ecology. He enjoys using a diversity of research tools, from conducting small-scale field experiments to analyzing large-scale datasets of ecosystem functioning derived from satellite observations. Outside of work, Andrew has a variety of interest that currently include taking full advantage of the Rocky Mountains via skiing, rock climbing, and visiting state and national parks. Andrew has played guitar since he was a teenager and loves all things music. He also enjoys relaxing just much and thus loves reading and a good TV show to dive into. These interests is made with with friends and family, especially his wife and their beloved orange tabby cat.
The post 804: Dr. Andrew Felton: Studying How Dryland Ecosystems Respond to Changes in Water Availability appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
47 min
March 10, 2025 803: Dr. Ed DeLong: Conducting Research on Complex Marine Microbial Communities
Dr. Edward DeLong is a Professor in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Hawai’i Mānoa as well as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT. Ed received his B.S. in Bacteriology from the University of California, Davis and his Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research at Indiana University. Ed has worked as a research scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, a research scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and a faculty member at MIT before accepting his current position in Hawai’i. His honors and achievements include the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, the DuPont Young Faculty Award, the Apple Bioinformatics Cluster Award, the Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal of the European Geosciences Union, the Proctor and Gamble Award in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, American Society for Microbiology D.C. White Research and Mentorship Award, the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award, A.G. Huntsman Medal for Excellence in Marine Science, and the Moore Foundation Marine Microbiology Investigator Award. Ed is also an Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Microbiology. Ed has also been elected as an Associate of the European Molecular Biology Organization and is the Vice President and President Elect of the International Society of Microbial Ecology. In addition, he currently serves as the co-director of the Simons Collaboration on Ocean Processes and Ecology (SCOPE). Ed joined us for a conversation about his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:17)
When he’s not working, Ed loves to be out in nature. He enjoys spending time outside with his family, hiking, kayaking, and snorkeling in the beautiful coral reefs near his house. Ed has also taken up yoga to help him stay limber and relaxed.
The Scientific Side (4:59)
Research in Ed’s lab brings together a variety of disciplines to study microbial communities in the ocean. He is interested in their ecology, evolution, biochemistry, genomics, and their impacts on marine systems. Particularly of interest for Ed are the microscopic organisms that are the primary producers or “forests of the ocean” responsible for releasing oxygen and serving as food for other organisms in marine food chains.
A Dose of Motivation (9:19)
“Symbiosis gets more done.” – Norman Pace
What Got You Hooked on Science? (15:07)
Ed has always been drawn to the sea. He grew up relatively close to the ocean in California and remembers going to the coast with his family. Though Ed’s love of water as a kid resulted in him having to be saved after crawling into the deep end of the pool twice when he was two years old, this passion has been a big influence at all stages of his life. Watching Jacques Cousteau on TV exposed him to the excitement of ocean exploration and discovery. By seven years old, Ed decided he wanted to become a scuba diver. He realized this dream when he turned seventeen. Ed pursued a degree in microbiology in college, and he was excited to realize he could combine his microbiology interests with studying the ocean through oceanography.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (21:08)
One challenge for Ed is that is that his research is complex and it deals with things that people can’t see. As a result, his work isn’t intuitive, and it can be difficult for Ed to describe his work to people outside the field. In ecological systems on land, there are a lot of great examples you can describe to help people understand ecological systems. For example, people can imagine and connect with the idea of a lion hunting on the Serengeti, but he is studying the ecology and complex communities of microorganisms in the ocean that aren’t visible. In addition, Ed’s work includes elements of microbiology, molecular biology, genomics, chemistry, physics, oceanography, and ecology, so there are many complex factors involved.
A Shining Success! (24:46)
In one of their projects about 18 years ago, Ed and a former postdoc began sequencing genomes of ocean microbes to try to better understand them. At that time, genomic technologies were more primitive. However, they figured out a way to get large genomic fragments from marine microbes that couldn’t be grown in the lab, and they looked at the genes associated with these large genome fragments. This was more of a random genomic approach, and they didn’t know whether they might discover something or not. What they ended up discovering was remarkable, and it changed the way people think about how microbes survive and contribute to the food chain in the surface layers of the ocean. They discovered a gene for a protein in these bacteria that can capture and make energy from light. This process was previously unknown in marine microbes, and it is important ecologically in for understanding how the whole food web works. Later, it became evident that the gene they discovered is present in more than half of bacteria near the surface of the ocean.
Book Recommendations (30:54)
Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Most Treasured Travel (33:22)
Traveling to Antarctica was a remarkable experience. When his first grant as an Assistant Professor was funded in the 1990s, Ed and his two graduate students went to Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. Ed was awed by the raw and unspoiled natural beauty of the continent. He and his students had to collect ocean water samples to study the microbes they contained, but there were two meters of sea ice covering the ocean near the coasts. As a result, they had to cross country ski across the sea ice pulling sleds with large bottles for their samples. Once they found a suitable location, they drilled a hole through meters of sea ice, used bilge pumps to draw water samples, pack the large bottles onto their sleds, and hauled the sleds back across the sea ice. Once back to Palmer Station, they could begin doing their research studies. The whole process of exploration and discovery reminded Ed of the old Jacques Cousteau shows he used to watch.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (36:32)
On the trip described above, they didn’t actually make it to Antarctica on their first try. They made the journey on an icebreaker ship that allowed them to break through the thick sea ice. When they were near the Antarctic Peninsula, the winds changed and the ship became wedged between huge amounts of sea ice. They were stuck. This was Ed’s first major research project, and he had to fight back the urge to panic. For fourteen days, Ed, his students, the crew, and the other passengers had to figure out how to occupy themselves on this ship. Ed spent a fair amount of time pedaling off his anxiety on the ship’s exercise bike, but he also contributed an advice column to the daily newspaper that one of the passengers put together everyday. The newspaper was a fun way to keep people busy and keep everyone informed of what was happening on the ship. People really started getting into it. One night, the winds randomly changed again, and the ship was free. They ended up having to return to South America to refuel before attempting the voyage to Antarctica a second time.
Advice For Us All (45:10)
Follow your passion. If you can identify what you are most passionate about and excited to do every day, stick with it. If you can combine your passion with your career, you’ll be happy and will likely do well because you will will create an environment in which you can be successful.
Guest Bio
Ed’s central scientific efforts have been devoted to the study of microbes and microbial processes in the ocean, combining new techniques in genomics, functional genomics, metagenomics, and computational biology with field‐based approaches in microbial oceanography. Most recently, Ed has been integrating ‘omics and bioinformatic approaches with autonomous, in situ sensing and sampling technologies, to map and quantify microbial plankton gene expression and dynamics, and assess the impacts of microbial communities on biogeochemical and oceanographic processes. Outside of work, Ed enjoys being in nature, hiking, kayaking, free diving, and being a dad. Ed maintains a deep interest in various Eastern philosophies, and how it relates to the paradoxes and problems of modern society.

*This episode was originally released February 12, 2018.
The post 803: Dr. Ed DeLong: Conducting Research on Complex Marine Microbial Communities appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
50 min
March 03, 2025 802: Dr. Emma Spanswick: Using Remote Sensing to Study Space Weather and the Earth’s Natural Space Environment
Dr. Emma Louise Spanswick is an Associate Professor and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Tier II Canada Research Chair in Geospace Dynamics and Space Plasma Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary. She completed her undergraduate studies in physics and was awarded her PhD in physics from the University of Calgary. Next, she worked at Los Alamos National Lab as a Visiting Scientist. Afterwards, she returned to the University of Calgary as a Research Scientist, and subsequently the Associate Director of the Auroral Imaging Group, before joining the faculty there in 2019. Emma was among researchers who received the 2018 Robert H. Goddard Award for Exceptional Achievement in Science, and she has been named among Avenue Magazine Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40. In this interview, she shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:21)
Outside of science, Emma spends much of her time with her family, including her two sons. They enjoy hiking, mountain biking, and being outdoors together. Emma’s hobbies also include boxing and going to the gym for a good workout.
The Scientific Side (3:45)
Emma studies the Earth’s natural space environment, which is connected to our upper atmosphere and extends into the region around the Earth. Emma’s research examines this environment using remote sensing to examine the physics of the dynamics of the space environment, and they also investigate space weather, which encompasses all phenomena in space that can impact systems and technologies that are in orbit and on Earth. As part of her work, Emma also develops and designs remote sensing instruments and deploys them in the field to collect data.
A Dose of Motivation (5:46)
“Now is the time to go big or go home.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:00)
When she was in high school, Emma had an awe-inspiring physics teacher, and her interest in physics quickly grew. With a family full of medical doctors, Emma faced some hurdles in convincing her family that she wanted to pursue a career in physics. However, Emma’s family was ultimately supportive of her career aspirations. As an undergraduate student in physics at the University of Calgary, Emma happened to strike up a conversation with a faculty member in the hall one day. She mentioned that she was looking for a summer job, and the professor hired Emma on the spot. This summer job was Emma’s introduction to space physics, and she was hooked. She loved the computer programming aspects of the research, the analysis of large volumes of data, remote sensing, and the idea of connecting with the space environment. The work was inspiring, and Emma has found the field as a whole to be really supportive and collegial.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (22:21)
Troubleshooting the code for data analyses can be challenging and frustrating. During her graduate training, Emma sometimes left the lab at the end of the day feeling like her code was in worse shape than when the day started. Fixing one problem often created others, and this was demoralizing. More recently, Emma and her team designed a new camera that allowed them to capture the first images of gray/white emissions which appeared to be connected to the aurora borealis. The camera development process was not easy. After a full year of trying, they still had not come up with a design that could get them the results they needed. Emma had to take a step back from the project, reset, and approach from a different angle. She happened to see an article online for a commercially available camera that could record remarkable video footage, even at night. The detector for this camera was the breakthrough they needed. Over the course of the next year, she and her team worked through some technical challenges, and then they were ready to start collecting the data that was ultimately published this year in an article in the journal Nature.
A Shining Success! (25:09)
One huge win recently was the receipt of a large grant from the Innovation Fund of the Canada Foundation for Innovation. The total project cost for this grant is $15 million, and it will support infrastructure advances across Canada to take ground-based remote sensing of the space environment to the next level. The goal is for the Geospace Dynamics Constellation-Ground sensor network to collect the best possible ground-based data to be combined with the highest quality satellite data from upcoming NASA space missions. This will open the door for major scientific breakthroughs in our understanding of the interconnected processes in the space environment that we are not able to detect right now with the current instruments. Winning this grant award has been a huge vote of confidence in Emma’s team’s ability to develop the necessary instruments and deliver the scientific results.
Resource Recommendations (29:54)
The Alberta Aurora Chasers Community Group often posts interesting articles about space weather and space science. The NASA Heliophysics Division, the ESA Space Weather Service Network, and the Canadian Space Agency are also great resources.
Most Treasured Travel (32:33)
Emma’s research involves a lot of travel, including trips to visit the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, attend scientific meetings in places like San Francisco, and deploy instruments in remote areas in northern Canada for field research. A few months ago, Emma had the opportunity to travel to Madrid for a conference on data and software in heliophysics (the study of the sun and how it influences Earth, space, and planets in our solar system). She was invited to give a keynote address on the challenges and triumphs of building one of their networks, focusing on the software. It was a fantastic visit. Space physics is an interdisciplinary field with physicists, geophysicists, electrical engineers, and others, and the meeting brought together a great group of researchers at the European Space Agency to talk in-depth about data and software relevant to the field. While in Madrid, Emma went to two soccer games and spent an afternoon touring the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Spanish national art museum. She’s also looking forward to visiting Switzerland later this year!
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (36:18)
No matter what scientific field or career path you choose, you are going to run into grumpy people. When Emma was a master’s student, she gave a presentation at a scientific meeting in Northern Finland. After her presentation, one of these grumpy scientists started asking a lot of really hard questions and trying to trivialize her research. The session was chaired by a prominent scientist in the field, and the chairperson stopped Emma’s interrogator and started asking her more basic questions that she was able to answer. Afterwards, while Emma was sitting in a chair with her head in her hands, trying to come to terms with what had just happened, another prominent scientist in the field sat down with her. He complimented her research, and shared his own story of having a similar experience when he was an early-career scientist. This was a really important moment that showed Emma how supportive her field truly was. Two of the biggest names in the field stepped up to assist her during a difficult situation and helped re-build her confidence afterwards.
Advice For Us All (41:13)
Find what you enjoy, and keep doing it. If you’re having fun, you’re in the right field. Identify the problems you really want to solve and find it fun to engage with. If you do this, then doing your job won’t feel like work. Also, be tenacious. If things aren’t going your way, just keep going, because there will be a turning point.
Guest Bio
Emma is an award-winning physicist and a leader in space science and space physics instrumentation at the University of Calgary. She and her team design, build and operate a collection of ground-based instruments that sense the near-Earth space environment and space weather. By doing so, they can monitor, advise on, and predict events like solar storms which impact important technologies and systems. Emma’s international research has advanced the field by enabling a better understanding of space weather phenomena, leading to the improvement of space-dependent technologies like communication and security infrastructure and GPS. When she’s not at work, Emma is often out hiking and biking in the mountains with her family. When she has some time to herself, she likes to hit the gym to hone her boxing skills, get a good workout, and relieve stress.
The post 802: Dr. Emma Spanswick: Using Remote Sensing to Study Space Weather and the Earth’s Natural Space Environment appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
44 min
February 24, 2025 801: Dr. Kyle Cromer: Using Gene Editing to Create Enhanced Cell Therapies
Dr. Kyle Cromer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He completed his BS in Animal & Poultry Sciences at Virginia Tech and his PhD in Genetics at Yale University. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research in Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Next he worked as a postdoctoral fellow and subsequently an instructor in Pediatrics at Stanford University before joining the faculty at UCSF. He has received various awards and honors over the past several years, including the Stanford Bio-X Star Mentor Award, the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Career Development Award, the UCSF Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research New Frontier Research Award, the American Society of Hematology Junior Faculty Scholar Award, the Mary Anne Koda-Kimble Seed Award for Innovation from the UCSF School of Pharmacy, and the Catalyst Award from UCSF Innovation Ventures. In this episode, Kyle shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:04)
Kyle has always been interested in visual art, and he enjoys visiting art museums and has dabbled in creating his own art as well. He and his wife have been stretching their own canvases and creating abstract paintings, each meticulously planned and sketched out in advance. Most recently, the two of them have been immersed in preparations for the birth of their first child.
The Scientific Side (5:09)
In his lab, Kyle takes gene editing a step further beyond just modifying “the typos” in DNA to correct them back to what the code should be. He uses genome-editing approaches to introduce new functions into cells for different therapeutic purposes.
A Dose of Motivation (6:19)
Fail fast.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:38)
Growing up on a cattle farm in rural Virginia, Kyle was inspired by the work that his father and grandfather did as veterinarians. He really liked animals, particularly cows, and he got involved with cattle shows, livestock judging, and other activities through his local 4-H and Future Farmers of America in high school. Kyle envisioned he might become a veterinarian, specializing in cattle and potentially cattle breeding, genetics, and cutting-edge reproduction technology. At the same time, he knew that being a cattle veterinarian was physically demanding, difficult, and sometimes dangerous work. In college at Virginia Tech, Kyle enrolled in a small class that was held in a biochemistry research lab. There, he began to realize that there were other paths that would allow him to do intellectually-stimulating work that was similar in some ways to what his father and grandfather did in their careers. On the practical side, Kyle also wanted a lifestyle with a routine that was sustainable and enjoyable. He liked the people he worked with in the lab, and it seemed like they really liked what they were doing. Kyle also wanted to do work that was important and meaningful to him, so he decided to pursue more clinically relevant research. In graduate school, he worked in a lab doing next generation sequencing to find mutations driving endocrine tumors. After graduating, Kyle took some time to reflect on what he wanted to do next, and this led him to the field of gene editing where he could not only identify the “typos” that caused diseases, but also fix the typos and introduce new properties into cells to treat or prevent diseases.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (25:35)
In Kyle’s lab, there was a case where they invested six months of time planning and performing experiments, just to have the experiments fail. It felt like a big waste of time, effort, and cost, but it was a valuable learning experience. Kyle learned that certain types of experiments may not be good candidates for his “fail fast” approach. This in turn informed his decisions on the kinds of projects he would pursue next.
Thinking about his career more broadly, one of the biggest challenges that he personally faced happened around the time he finished his PhD. Getting a PhD takes a long time, and he felt burnt out after grad school. Though there were a lot of contributing factors, a big part of Kyle’s feeling of burnout came from not knowing what he wanted to do. Kyle liked what he had been doing in his PhD, but he could see that the field would soon be changing, and it wasn’t clear what he should do next. So, once he completed his PhD, Kyle spent three months working on his family’s farm and then another three months backpacking through Southeast Asia. This time away was a good opportunity to reflect on his career, and he returned ready to get back to science.
A Shining Success! (31:27)
Starting a lab can be an uphill battle, but Kyle is excited to celebrate two recent papers that his lab published earlier this year. He is the last author on each of these papers, and his trainees are first authors. This represents a major transition from being the person doing the hands-on experiments that are being published to being the person who is leading and overseeing the experiments. It has been rewarding to train people in his lab to become good experimentalists and take that lead author spot. A lot of work went into these papers, and one of the projects began back in 2020, so there was a long road leading to publishing the results. Recently, Kyle and his lab members have been focused on another project where, after a lot of effort, things finally started working. Through small, incremental improvements, they’ve made it to the point where it’s now clear that they have solved the problem. This is one of the best feelings, and it is a meaningful accomplishment.
Book Recommendations (35:22)
A Brief History of the Female Body: An Evolutionary Look at How and Why the Female Form Came to Be by Dr. Deena Emera and My Life as an Indian: The Story of a Red Woman and a White Man in the Lodges of the Blackfeet by J. W. Schultz
Most Treasured Travel (39:44)
Science has given Kyle many opportunities to travel to new places, including international trips to Korea and Italy. However, one of Kyle’s most impactful travel experiences for science was a 2012 trip to San Francisco to attend a conference of the American Society for Human Genetics. The conference was held in the fall, right around the time winter was about to start in the Northeast where he was living at the time. He’d never explored San Francisco before, and Kyle was enchanted by the beautiful weather, the plentiful sunshine, and the charm of the city. Kyle and fellow lab members rented a house and took cable cars to the conference each morning, and he’ll never forget sleeping on the patio couch under the stars with the Golden Gate Bridge alight in the distance. While in town, Kyle went to the Museum of Modern Art, ran across the Golden Gate Bridge, and was immersed in the buzz of the city. He didn’t realize at the time that his career would bring him back to San Francisco to start his own research lab, but this trip may have planted the seed that ultimately drew him back.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (42:22)
In Dr. George Church’s lab where Kyle was a postdoctoral fellow, there is a person named Joe Davis who works as a resident Artist-Scientist in the lab. This is a cool position, and Joe works on some remarkable projects. For example, Joe recruited lab members to visit the nuclear reactor with him at MIT to search for bacteria that could survive ultra-high doses of radiation. The thought was that if they could find microbes that could survive in high-radiation conditions, they could potentially understand how the organisms had evolved to survive those conditions. Then they may be able to use gene editing to engineer human cells that could better survive radiation. This information could be relevant in the future when humans may colonize other planets that may not have an ozone layer to shield the surface from high doses of radiation. Though they didn’t find anything on that visit, it was really fun. Thinking about this futuristic sci-fi scenario was exciting, and going into the nuclear reactor felt like traveling back in time to the 1950s with the walls of old monitors and dated technology.
Advice For Us All (50:34)
Stick with it. You have to invest a lot of time doing biology (or another profession) to really become an expert. It can take time to find your passion, but if you enjoy the routine and your day-to-day activities, you may find that your interest in an area grows over time. Every year Kyle spends working in this space, he enjoys it more and further improves his skills. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Go at your own pace to avoid burnout, and keep it fun for yourself. Some of Kyle’s favorite ideas happen when he’s not grinding away in the lab, but when he’s outside of work and his mind drifts back to his research. Also, be practical. When you’re choosing a career path, think about where that path leads and if you’ll be happy with the career prospects and the everyday activities involved in the kinds of jobs that are available in the field. With things like artificial intelligence changing the landscape of science and other areas, it can be almost impossible to predict what the future will hold. Recognize that there is uncertainty, but try your best to forecast how things may evolve.
Guest Bio
Kyle’s research lies at the intersection of CRISPR-based genome editing and cell engineering, with a special focus on hematopoietic stem cells and red blood cells. In his work, Kyle and his team think about the genome as computer code. In the instance of disease, the code is somehow broken. While it is possible to correct disease-causing typos, Kyle believes there is untapped potential to cure disease by engineering novel properties into cells. Therefore, all of his work in some way attempts to answer the question – if you could introduce new code to any cell in the body, what would you write and where? Outside the lab, Kyle enjoys making art—collages from old magazines and abstract paintings—as well as hiking, snowboarding, and distance running. At home, he loves unwinding with his wife and their chihuahua-terrier.

Support for this episode of People Behind the Science was provided by Innovative Research, Inc.
The post 801: Dr. Kyle Cromer: Using Gene Editing to Create Enhanced Cell Therapies appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
56 min
February 17, 2025 800: Dr. Philip Landrigan: Protecting Children’s Health from Toxic Hazards and Environmental Exposures
Dr. Philip J. Landrigan is a pediatrician and a public health doctor. He is Professor of Biology, Director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, and Director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health at the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society at Boston College. He is also Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He completed his undergraduate studies in biology at Boston College and earned his MD from Harvard Medical School. After an internship at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital, he completed his residency at Boston Children’s Hospital. Phil also earned a MS degree with distinction in Occupational Medicine from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of London. Phil worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai before joining the faculty at Boston College. He also spent a sabbatical working at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Phil has earned numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to Humanity from the National Institute of Social Sciences, Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council for Science and the Environment, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Healthy Child Healthy World, the Child Health Champion Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Meritorious Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service, multiple Commendation Medals from the Navy and Marine Corps, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the National Defense Service Medal, and many others. He is also an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Epidemiological Society. In addition, he is an elected Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine, New York Academy of Medicine, New York Academy of Sciences, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, American College of Epidemiology, Royal Society of Medicine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (3:56)
When he’s not working, Phil loves to spend his free time outdoors, particularly hiking and kayaking. He is also an avid reader and enjoys sitting down with a good book in the evenings.
The Scientific Side (5:09)
In his work, Phil’s goal is to better understand how toxic exposures in the environment harm human health. As a pediatrician, he focuses primarily on the impacts on children’s health. On the public health side, he aims to harness science to prevent toxic exposures to keep kids healthy and prevent disease. His research has spanned many areas, including the health impacts of lead poisoning, air pollution, pesticides, plastic pollution, and chemical pollution.
A Dose of Motivation (6:38)
Some of Phil’s wins over the years have been sources of great joy and motivation. For example, he was part of the global campaign to eradicate smallpox, and he also played an instrumental role in demonstrating the toxic effects of lead on children and the ultimate removal of lead from gasoline and new paint. Savoring these victories and seeing how many millions of children’s lives were improved with these interventions keeps him going.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (10:10)
As a member of the Boy Scouts, Phil spent a lot of time outside as a kid, and he became fascinated by nature. When he was about ten years old, his parents bought him a microscope, and he loved getting glimpses of the microscopic world through its lens. When he was a teenager, Phil decided he wanted to be a doctor. At every stage of his path, Phil met amazing mentors who helped guide and shape his career. When he entered medical school, Phil thought he wanted to be a surgeon, but after a few months on the surgical service of a nearby hospital, he realized surgery was not a good fit. A few months later, he began a rotation in pediatrics, and it was a great experience. Phil’s interests in public health began after he was drafted into service surrounding the Vietnam War. He applied and was accepted into the U.S. Public Health Service, a branch of the U.S. Uniformed Services. Phil moved to Atlanta and began working at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He planned to spend two years there learning about public health and then to return to his pediatrician career in New England. However, during those first two years, Phil became passionate about his work in public health and remained at the CDC for more than a decade.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (17:38)
Phil will never forget working on a program to create a statewide network of centers of excellence on children’s environmental health in New York. While he was on the faculty at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, he and several colleagues realized it would be valuable to have a statewide network of centers of excellence to assist children and families who were dealing with conditions as a result of exposure to environmental hazards like lead poisoning, pesticides, or living near toxic waste dumps. This was an issue in New York and across the country, but families didn’t really have any resources to help them with these kinds of environmental problems. Phil envisioned small, multidisciplinary teams within academic health centers could fill this gap. He and his colleagues worked with the state legislature for years to no avail. After making countless trips to meet with legislators, writing a 100-page book cataloging the burden of disease and death in children due to environmental hazards in New York, and presenting data on the cost savings that could be achieved by providing these resources, they still weren’t making any progress. After ten years of effort, they finally secured a meeting with the governor and had an opportunity to present the problem and their proposed solution. Within a few weeks after that meeting, the network was established, and it has been running ever since. Persistence was key to their success.
A Shining Success! (21:58)
In the late 1990s, Phil chaired a committee at the National Academy of Sciences that examined children’s exposure to pesticides in the U.S. They found children were more heavily exposed to pesticides than adults, they are much more vulnerable to negative health impacts during growth and development, and that the laws in place were not doing enough to protect children from pesticides. Their report was published in 1993, and absolutely nothing happened for three years. In 1996, Congress passed a piece of legislation called the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 with a unanimous vote. This legislation embodied all of the recommendations from their report, recognizing that pesticide regulation needed to consider children’s unique susceptibilities and build in more safety measures, such as testing pesticides used. This was a remarkable achievement and a source of great pride for Phil.
Book Recommendations (4:29)
Any of Robert B. Parker’s detective stories, and any book by Bill Bryson.
Most Treasured Travel (29:25)
During his career, Phil has been to Nigeria, El Salvador, Monaco, Australia, Italy, Thailand, and other wonderful places to conduct his work and meet with researchers and stakeholders. Most recently, he traveled to the Scientific Center of Monaco where a group of about 25 scientists gathered to start planning for The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics collaboration that will be starting this year. The United Nations is in the final stages of negotiating a global plastics treaty that will likely come into force in 2025 or 2026. The meetings in Monaco were productive and exciting, and it is a wonderful place to visit. One of the sights that Phil particularly enjoys is the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, which is a spectacular collection of history and artifacts. There are also many great day-trips you can take from Monaco, including to the city of Nice, the town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, and the Village of Eze.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (33:21)
Within the past year, Phil has had the opportunity to be part of a unique partnership at Boston College with some of the world-class theologians and ethicists there. It occurred to him one day that it would be interesting to partner with these individuals on campus to examine global problems like plastic pollution and climate change through the lens of ethics and morality. They held a two-day conference last October where they discussed these issues. The group concluded that current patterns of chemical and plastic production and disposal are not moral. The scientists, theologians, and ethicists all agreed that the reckless pollution of the planet without heed to consequence was not a moral thing to do. They issued a powerful statement on the topic that was signed by prominent individuals spanning many faiths and backgrounds. All of these voices came together and determined that these are not just scientific issues, they are human issues and moral issues that we need to work together across boundaries to solve. This was a poignant example of how science and faith can co-exist together and how scientists can work with people from other backgrounds to help drive change.
Advice For Us All (39:02)
Seek out multiple mentors. Pay attention to who is doing really good work in the area that you are interested in, and don’t be afraid to connect with them. The worst that could happen is that someone says no. In terms of general life advice, try to reduce your carbon footprint, your chemical footprint, and your plastic footprint. You won’t be able to eliminate any of these completely, but if many of us reduce our usage, collectively, it can make a difference. Also, work with other people in your community to reduce pesticide use, ban plastic bags in your town’s supermarkets, and make other local changes. Being an engaged citizen is critical. Democracy is not a spectator sport. We have to vote to bring about changes that will protect our children and preserve this planet for future generations.
Guest Bio
Phil‘s research is mainly focused on understanding how harmful exposures in the environment harm human health, especially children’s health. This work draws on Phil‘s training and long experience in pediatrics, public health, and environmental & occupational medicine. He is deeply committed to translating findings from his research into public policies that protect children against toxic hazards and other environmental threats. Outside of work, Phil loves the outdoors. He is a former marathoner and now a dedicated walker. He fishes, and he kayaks. He divides his time between Boston, Quincy, Massachusetts, and Cape Cod.
The post 800: Dr. Philip Landrigan: Protecting Children’s Health from Toxic Hazards and Environmental Exposures appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
42 min
February 10, 2025 799: Dr. Karen Strier: Protecting the World’s Most Peaceful Primates
Dr. Karen Strier is the Vilas Research Professor and Irven Devore Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Karen received her B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology and Biology from Swarthmore College, and she was awarded her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University. After completing her Ph.D., Karen served as a lecturer at Harvard University and subsequently became a faculty member at Beloit College. She joined the faculty at UW-Madison in 1989. Karen has received numerous honors and awards throughout her career, including being elected as a Fellow of the American Anthropological Association, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In addition, she is an Honorary Member of the Latin American Society of Primatologists and the Brazilian Society of Primatologists, and she has received an Honorary Doctoral Degree from the University of Chicago. Karen has been the recipient of the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, the H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship, Kellett Mid-Career Faculty Researcher Award, and WARF Professorship from UW-Madison, the Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research & Public Service from UW-Madison, and the Distinguished Primatologist Awards from the American Society of Primatologists and the Midwest Primate Interest Group. She is currently the President of the International Primatological Society. In our interview, Karen shares more about her life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:58)
When she’s not in the lab or observing primates in the wild, Karen enjoys being outside, going for walks in nature, cooking delicious multi-course meals for her friends and family, reading, and spending time with her cats.
The Scientific Side (4:35)
Karen is a Primate behavioral ecologist. She is working to understand the biological basis of human behavior, evolution, and adaptation by studying our closest living relatives. Research in Karen’s group involves observing a critically endangered primate, the northern muriqui, in its natural habitat to understand how their behaviors are similar to or different from human behaviors.
A Dose of Motivation (6:29)
“The most important thing in life is to love what you do and do what you love.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (8:41)
Karen’s passion for science began early in her childhood. She was fascinated by lessons about the solar system in third grade, and she became captivated by anatomy during high school biology. Karen also became more and more interested in nature as she grew up, and she realized that she was happiest when she was outdoors. During her freshman year of college, Karen was hired to work in a research lab studying animal behavior. She enjoyed asking questions and creatively designing experiments to answer them. However, Karen wanted to study animals in the real world. She sent out about 40 hand-typed letters to researchers who were conducting field research on different types of animals. This led to her being invited to participate in a six month field project observing wild baboons in Kenya. After some convincing, Karen’s parents allowed her to travel to Africa to work as a field assistant with a graduate student she had just met. While sitting out on the savannah taking notes on baboons, Karen realized that this is where all of the things she loved in life intersected. She could work outside, watch animals, and do science.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (25:20)
About one third of the muriqui in the world live within a small patch of forest within a protected nature reserve. From 2014-2015, there were severe droughts in this area of Brazil, and two major forest fires broke out within this forest. Many of the muriqui survived, and the researchers were heartened when there was substantial rainfall the following year. However, the abundant rain resulted in a proliferation of mosquitoes, and there was a devastating outbreak of yellow fever. In addition to the tragic loss of hundreds of human lives, many primates died as well. After the outbreak, it was heartbreaking for Karen and her team to return to this once vibrant forest where the calls of howler monkeys used to be heard from all directions. The forest that was now silent and still. At first they couldn’t find any of the groups of muriqui they had been observing. Former students and research team members flooded in from all over to help. They were finally able to locate the primates, but about 10% of the population had perished. Fortunately, the population had increased enough beforehand that the species did not go extinct, but it was very frustrating to feel like there was nothing they could do to prevent this situation.
A Shining Success! (36:39)
One exciting moment in Karen’s research occurred in the late 1990s when she began assembling the demographic data on the muriquis and realized the population was growing. It was thrilling to see how big the population had become, how many babies were being born, and how the muriquis were beginning to split into more groups. This made her feel very hopeful about the future of these animals. As the populations grew, it was also remarkable to watch as the muriqui developed entirely new behaviors. For example, these primates are highly specialized for life in the trees, but they began to come down to the ground where they walked around and discovered new sources of food. It was reassuring to see the muriqui adapting and finding new ways to survive in their changing environment. Another success was their research team’s use of completely non-invasive methods to uncover the reproductive biology of the muriqui. They extracted steroid hormones from muriqui dung to go beyond the behavioral data from observations to get more precise information on reproductive cycles, behaviors, and gestation lengths. Karen and her colleagues have also had great successes in their genetic studies of the muriqui. These studies involved extracting DNA from muriqui dung to determine reproductive skew, paternity, and multi-generational effects on reproductive success in these critically endangered primates. In addition to scientific value, their research has been uncovering information that will be key for developing a conservation management plan to help preserve this species.
Book Recommendations (3:58)
Karen likes reading books by authors from all over the world, and she has particularly enjoyed the work of a variety of Brazilian authors.
Most Treasured Travel (46:05)
Over the past 36 years, Karen has had a wonderful time traveling in Brazil for field research. One area of Brazil called the Ibitipoca Reserve is particularly remarkable. This reserve is owned by a Brazilian businessman who is committed to conservation. He has made concentrated reforestation efforts, developed ecotourism to support the reserve, and provided opportunities to benefit the local communities. Karen and her team are currently working with the reserve owner on a conservation project to help protect and preserve the small population of muriquis that live in the forest there. This is just one example of how one person with a vision can make a big difference in conservation.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (50:47)
The forest is Karen’s laboratory, and she spends a lot of time doing exciting research projects outside in collaboration with many wonderful, dedicated people. When they were in Brazil working on the fecal steroid hormone study, Karen remembers sitting down to enjoy a meal with her colleagues at a local restaurant. The conversation included an in-depth discussion of the dung composition and defecation behaviors of the primates they were studying. The muriqui are vegetarians that often eat leaves from the cinnamon family, and as a result, the dung is not terribly unpleasant to collect. Everyone wanted to make sure they were getting the best data possible in this really cool non-invasive study. However, Karen was sure the people sitting at other tables must have thought they were a strange group.
Advice For Us All (55:24)
Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you are. This way, you will continue to be challenged and to learn from other people. Also, work hard, but have fun. Find something bigger than yourself that you love to do and that resonates with your values and your passions.
Guest Bio
Karen’s research is mainly aimed on understanding the behavior of wild primates and the potential of primates to adapt in our rapidly changing world. She coordinates one of the world’s longest running primate field studies, focusing on the critically endangered northern muriqui monkey, in one of the species’ last remaining strongholds in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil near the city of Caratinga, Minas Gerais. The Muriqui Project of Caratinga that Karen leads is internationally recognized for its pioneering discoveries about the behavioral ecology, reproductive biology and life histories of muriquis, whose peaceful, egalitarian societies offer glimpses into an alternative way of life very different from our own. Karen’s ongoing studies are simultaneously contributing to conservation and management programs for muriquis and other endangered primates. She loves being outdoors, in nature, near animals, and walking with friends. When indoors and not working, her interests are reading and cooking (especially tapas), and spending time with her cats.

*This episode was originally released April 15, 2019.
The post 799: Dr. Karen Strier: Protecting the World’s Most Peaceful Primates appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
58 min
February 03, 2025 798: Dr. Joseph Takahashi: Researching the Regulation of Circadian Rhythms
Dr. Joseph S. Takahashi is Professor and Chair of Neuroscience and the Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is also an Investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Joe received his B.A. in biology from Swarthmore College and he was awarded his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Oregon in Eugene. Afterwards, he conducted postdoctoral research as a pharmacology research associate at the National Institute of Mental Health. Before moving to UT Southwestern, Joe served on the faculty of Northwestern University for 26 years. Over the course of his career, Joe has received numerous awards and honors including the Honma Prize in Biological Rhythms Research, the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Searle Scholars Award, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in Neuroscience, the C. U. Ariens Kappers Medal, the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Sleep Research Society, the W. Alden Spencer Award in Neuroscience from Columbia University, and the Peter C. Farrell Prize in Sleep Medicine from the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine. He has also been elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Member of the National Academy of Medicine, and an Honorary Member of The Japanese Biochemical Society. In our interview, Joe shared his experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:54)
When Joe isn’t at work, he enjoys playing tennis, skiing, hiking, eating delicious food, and drinking great wine.
The Scientific Side (3:44)
Joe and his lab members are trying to better understand the biological clocks in our bodies that control our 24-hour schedules. Within each of us are internal clocks that are genetically controlled. A special set of genes within nearly all of our cells turns on and off each day to regulate a wide variety of biological functions, and Joe is studying these genes and how they contribute to our biological rhythms. Functions influenced by our biological clocks include our sleep schedules, blood sugar, body temperature, liver metabolism, and many other aspects of our physiology.
A Dose of Motivation (5:47)
The excitement of discovery is motivating for Joe. For him, the process of doing science is never-ending and always interesting. Working in the lab is like hunting for treasure because you have an opportunity to find new things that you didn’t know before.
What Got You Hooked on Science? (9:40)
During his childhood, Joe’s family lived in several interesting places. He spent his early childhood living in Myanmar (formerly Burma) where he was surrounded by lush tropical forests and remarkable wildlife. Later, when he was about 10 years old, Joe lived with his family in Karachi, Pakistan. There he marveled at the camels and diverse marine life. He loved biology, animals, and wildlife, but he didn’t really know what he wanted to do for a career. In college, Joe became a biology major like many of his friends. Since his friends all chose the pre-med path, Joe thought that this was what he had to do to major in biology. In his junior year, Joe had courses with three amazing professors who got him interested in research. His first research project involved studying electrical discharge in electric fish. They discovered that some electric fish demonstrate a pattern where they only discharge their electrical organ at night when they are active, while others discharged electricity around the clock. This was his first foray in circadian research.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (22:27)
Though Joe has faced challenges in many of his projects, one of the biggest challenges he has overcome was discovering the clock gene and successfully screening mice to find the gene. When Joe started working on this, everyone thought he was crazy. He heard over and over again that there was no way to do a mutagenesis screen on behavior in a mouse. Once Joe found the mouse, people told him that he’d never be able to find the gene. A project like that was too difficult, too much work, and too far outside his area of expertise. Despite all this, Joe never gave up. He learned genetics, and over the next three years, 10 people in his lab worked diligently to find the gene. They were ultimately successful, and their findings have led to further exciting discoveries in this field.
A Shining Success! (23:58)
The most important discovery in Joseph’s career was discovering the clock gene. Their long journey in this discovery was important because it connected the clock gene to the original period gene. This jump-started research to determine how the clock works. Over the next four years after this discovery, they were able to put together the general details of how the circadian clock works. This success was particularly exciting because when Joe started this treasure hunt, he had no idea what they would find. With some luck and a lot of hard work, they have made substantial contributions to our understanding of biological rhythms.
Book Recommendations (28:32)
Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior by Jonathan Weiner
Most Treasured Travel (29:15)
As a graduate student, Joe had an opportunity to stay at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Andechs, Germany. It was at this Institute that Jürgen Aschoff did groundbreaking work studying circadian rhythms in people. To isolate people from any time cues, Jürgen developed underground apartments called bunkers where people would stay for months at a time while their sleep schedules and body temperatures were constantly monitored. These were the first controlled experiments done with human participants that demonstrated that we have our own internal clocks and that we may have at least two internal clocks. While visiting, Joe had an opportunity to tour these underground, austere, windowless bunkers. It was remarkable to see such an important site in the history of his scientific field.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (31:55)
The field of circadian rhythms research is a relatively small, supportive, and close-knit community. Until fairly recently, people didn’t appreciate the importance of circadian rhythms. Disruptions of circadian rhythms weren’t associated with causing any severe diseases, so the field didn’t receive a lot of attention. However, we are gradually beginning to understand that almost all aspects of physiology have circadian components. The clock genes are also directly linked to many pathways that regulate important processes such as immune function and metabolism. Joe has enjoyed developing close friendships with researchers from all over the world, catching up with colleagues at scientific meetings, and sharing fantastic meals and drinks with fellow researchers.
Advice For Us All (35:46)
You have to begin with learning first principles. It is important to have a fundamental understanding of everything you are studying and the procedures you are using. Some of the measurements you make may be abstract, but without really understanding the first principles of what you are measuring, you could misinterpret the meaning of your results. Try to understand what you are doing to the best extent possible. Also, don’t become a dinosaur. A lot of what we do in science is enabled by technology. Technology is changing quickly, and it’s easy to feel like you can’t keep up. However, to take advantage of all of the tools available, you have to embrace technology, grow, learn, and keep evolving.
Guest Bio
Joe’s research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of the circadian clock in mammals. His expertise comes from a variety of fields such as neuroscience, genetics, molecular biology, and genomics. Joe is also interested in the genetic basis of behavior and uses the laboratory mouse as a model organism. Recently his lab has begun to study circadian clocks in parasites that cause sleeping sickness and malaria. In addition, his lab studies the importance of the timing of food intake in contrast to the nutritional and caloric content of food. This work has implications for aging and longevity. Joe has been a co-founder of two biotech companies, Hypnion (a sleep drug company) and Reset Therapeutics (a circadian metabolism company). Outside of work, Joe enjoys playing tennis, hiking, and skiing. He also loves to travel, dine, and taste wine. If he could be anywhere right now, he would be on vacation in the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado.

*This episode was originally released December 24, 2018.
The post 798: Dr. Joseph Takahashi: Researching the Regulation of Circadian Rhythms appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
40 min
January 27, 2025 797: Dr. Michael Treadway: Examining How Our Brains Make Decisions About Investing Effort and the Impacts of Mental Illness
Dr. Michael Treadway is the Winship Distinguished Research Professor in Psychology and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at Emory University. He is also affiliated with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory. Michael received his PhD in clinical psychology from Vanderbilt University and completed his clinical internship and post-doctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He joined the faculty at Emory in 2015. Michael has received numerous awards and honors in his career, including the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution in the area of Psychopathology from the American Psychological Association (APA), the Randolph Blake Early Career Award from Vanderbilt University, the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the Early Career Impact Award from the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS), and the Rising Star Award from the APS. In this interview, he shares more about his life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:40)
Michael and his wife love spending time with their two young children and playing games together, particularly card games. He also enjoys playing the piano, listening to music, and going to live music performances.
The Scientific Side (4:08)
One of the aims of Michael’s lab is to investigate how the brain makes decisions about where to invest your effort and whether something you want is worth the work it will take to get it. The second aim of Michael’s research is to examine this process in people with conditions like major depression. His goal is to understand how the relevant circuitry in the brain typically works, and how the circuitry changes in depression, leading to a different set of decisions. This work has the potential to help identify new targets for interventions.
A Dose of Motivation (7:24)
“Pain is a great teacher. Agony is not.”
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” – Philo
What Got You Hooked on Science? (13:17)
Michael’s career path didn’t lead him straight to academic research. Though initially drawn to science and invention in childhood, he shifted his focus to humanities in high school and through college. He was interested in writing, history, politics, and critical theory, and he was also a music major in college. Towards the end of college, Michael started to feel disenchanted with his areas of study, and he needed to find a job quickly. When he graduated in the late 90s – early 2000s, it was the peak of the dot-com boom, and Michael joined an internet startup company. He enjoyed the work, but after several years, he started to really miss academia and thinking deeply about ideas. Michael felt lost and struggled with depression. Introduced to Buddhist psychology by his father, Michael became fascinated with psychology, the mind, and the science behind it all. Along the way, he realized that he also wanted to incorporate clinical practice in his career. Both of Michael’s parents are clinicians, and he wanted to pursue a path where he could help people. This led him to choose clinical psychology. After going back to take the necessary undergraduate courses in psychology, Michael enrolled in graduate school, determined to find success and fulfillment in academic research.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (28:22)
About five years ago, Michael was coming to the end of the first series of major projects and funded grants in his lab. His efforts to get new grants funded were becoming increasingly frantic with each rejection he received, and the lab was rapidly running out of money. As lab members graduated or moved on to other positions, Michael wasn’t able to hire replacements, and it was really discouraging to see his lab shrinking.
Taking a step back, Michael recognized that his research field had really changed. The ideas he had and the methods that he developed and was trained in were no longer the most advanced, most cutting-edge ideas and approaches. He dedicated a sabbatical to reading new literature and learning a lot of new computational methods like machine learning. Michael made major changes to how he approached the core questions he was answering, and he partnered with junior colleagues in the department who had complementary expertise. Within a few years, Michael had multiple grants funded, and he was able to grow his research program again.
A Shining Success! (32:18)
Work in the lab focused on advancing our understanding of the neural circuitry involved in motivation and effort-based decision making is relevant for helping people with conditions like depression. One of their goals is to identify potential subtypes of depression that have unique pathophysiology that makes individuals responsive to different types of treatments beyond those traditionally used today. A month ago, Michael and his team published results from a clinical trial that was eight years in the making and built upon interesting findings from prior studies.
Results from their trial showed that a potent anti-inflammatory drug improved motivation-related symptoms in patients who were both depressed and had evidence of high levels of inflammation in their blood. The participants were more willing to expend effort for rewards in the behavioral tasks, and there were changes in brain circuits associated with decision-making. In addition, the extent of behavioral and brain circuitry changes after taking the drug corresponded with the changes in blood markers of inflammation. This was a very exciting success and the findings pave the way for new and more personalized approaches to treating disorders like depression.
Book Recommendations (39:44)
The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science by Michael Strevens and God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning by Meghan O’Gieblyn
Most Treasured Travel (44:50)
Generally, Michael prefers smaller conferences, and some of his favorites over the years are the ones where he was so engaged in the meeting that he ended up doing very little sightseeing. One year, Michael attended the Dopamine Conference in Sardinia, an Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. The island was absolutely beautiful, and they enjoyed a gorgeous conference-wide dinner in spectacular gardens just outside the city. There were a few hundred attendees at the meeting, and he really got to know everyone there, which was wonderful.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (46:48)
Michael loves to hear about new results in the lab, and he didn’t realize how excited he got until his lab members pointed it out to him. They mentioned that he gets a particular look on his face when someone is going to share new results, and a lab member managed to capture his expression on camera. One of the postdocs in the lab then created a new emoticon called the “excited Treadway” where Michael is making the famed face, and now they use this emoticon all the time in the lab’s Slack channels to convey excitement about data or results.
Advice For Us All (49:44)
When you’re trying to make a big decision about what to do in life or what career path to take, don’t think about what the accolades, achievements, or milestones could look like. Instead, think about what a typical day would be like and how you would spend most of your time. Reflect on how you really want to spend your time.
Also, it is possible to strike a balance. You don’t have to work all the time in order to be successful. However, in science, there is so much difficulty, rejection, tough days, and things that don’t work out that if you don’t really love and find meaning in your research, the other rewards of the job may not really be worth it. We shouldn’t talk about careers as “a calling” to justify grueling hours or extreme hardship, but if you’re finding that long hours in the lab aren’t really a source of joy (rather than frustration), then science may not be the right fit.
Guest Bio
Michael is a clinical psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist who seeks to understand the neural circuitry that guides our willingness to invest effort, and how that circuitry is impacted by mental illness. To this end, his laboratory develops novel laboratory paradigms to explore cost/benefit preferences that are used in conjunction with neuroimaging, experimental pharmacology, and neuromodulation techniques. Outside of the lab he is a dedicated amateur pianist, runner, aspirational home chef, husband and father to Jacob, age 7, and Lily, age 1.
The post 797: Dr. Michael Treadway: Examining How Our Brains Make Decisions About Investing Effort and the Impacts of Mental Illness appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
58 min
January 20, 2025 796: Dr. Marcia Bjornerud: Using Structural Geology to Understand Earth’s History
Dr. Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geology and the Walter Schober Professor of Environmental Studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. In addition, she is a writer for “Elements”, the New Yorker’s science and technology blog, and she is the author of the textbook The Blue Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science, the popular science book Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth, and the recently released book Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World. Marcia received her B.S. degree in geophysics from the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis and was awarded her M.S. and Ph.D. in structural geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Marcia then conducted postdoctoral research at the Byrd Polar Research Center at The Ohio State University. Afterwards, Marcia worked as a contract geologist for the Geological Survey of Canada and the Norwegian Polar Institute. Before joining the faculty at Lawrence University, Marcia served on the faculty at Miami University in Ohio. She has received many awards and honors during her career, including being named a fellow of the Geological Society of America, receipt of two Fulbright Senior Scholarships, as well as being awarded the Outstanding Educator Award from the Association of Women Geoscientists. In our interview, Marcia speaks more about her experiences in life and science.
People Behind the Science Podcast Show Notes
Life Outside of Science (2:59)
Cross country skiing is a passion for Marcia, and she loves getting out in the winter to ski, including participating in ski marathons. Marcia is also an urban forager who enjoys making jams and preserves from wild berries and grapes that she picks.
The Scientific Side (3:57)
Marcia is a structural geologist who studies the deeply eroded roots of mountain belts and ancient plate boundaries to better understand the long-term effects of tectonic processes and rock deformation in Earth’s deep crust.
A Dose of Motivation (5:01)
“Things take time.”
What Got You Hooked on Science? (7:34)
In first grade, Marcia saw a film of a volcanic island called Surtsey being born off the coast of Iceland. This was the first time she realized that the Earth was dynamic and ever-changing. However, this revelation was followed by a decade of uninspired science education through high school. When Marcia went off to college, she had no intention to pursue science. She happened to take an introductory geology class, and this changed everything. Marcia was struck by how geology could explain how things came to be the way they are on Earth. She also really enjoyed the early field trips where she learned to see landscapes in time as well as space. This first geology class was a major turning point in her career.
The Low Points: Failures and Challenges (16:52)
One major challenge that Marcia has faced in her career is casual, habitual sexism. There were few female students in geology as Marcia went through school and also few women faculty. Science is already very difficult, and this made things harder. When she was starting out, Marcia didn’t have a lot of confidence, so she had to work hard to find inner strength and persevere. Having the support of her peers, some key faculty members, and her family helped her keep going in her field.
A Shining Success! (18:35)
Being the first to describe rocks is an amazing experience. When Marcia was in graduate school, she worked on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago island. Today, most of the globe has been mapped and described in detail, but Marcia had the rare opportunity to map rock formations on the island and propose names for these rock strata. Another wonderful aspect of her job now is mentoring students. Seeing students succeed is a joy, and it is rewarding to see them go on to have great careers.
Book Recommendations (20:32)
The Overstory by Richard Powers, The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh, Views of Nature by Alexander von Humboldt, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth by Marcia Bjornerud, Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World by Marcia Bjornerud.
Most Treasured Travel (15:29)
Marcia has had the pleasure of traveling to many amazing places around the world for science. For example, she visited Ellesmere Island in the far arctic of Canada when she worked with the Canadian Geological Survey. The empty, glaciated landscape there is truly remarkable. This is the furthest north you can travel on land, and it is absolutely stunning. While there, Marcia was able to explore the natural beauty around her through skiing and walking on glaciers with ice axes and crampons. It was also wonderful to meet people and develop connections with others from a wide variety of cultures and backgrounds.
Quirky Traditions and Funny Memories (26:30)
Through travel for her research, Marcia has met so many people she never would have encountered working in most other fields. On Ellesmere Island, her project team included individuals from Japan, Russia, French Canada, and Switzerland. In the evenings, they had fun talking via radio with other field groups scattered around the Canadian arctic. Since the radio reception was often bad, they had fun developing different radio alphabets to spell words out. Living and working together in the harsh arctic conditions is a truly unifying experience.
Advice For Us All (32:48)
Lead by example, and learn by watching the people around you who are rolling up their sleeves and getting things done. It’s important to get children interested in nature early and to nurture their innate curiosity and interest in science. If we can inspire the next generation of scientists, we can change the world.

Guest bio
Marcia is particularly interested in the mechanical nature of the Earth’s middle crust during mountain building – 10 to 12 miles into the subsurface, where rocks undergo the transition from brittle fracturing and faulting (generating earthquakes) to ductile deformation. The complex interplay among fault slip, fluid flow, metamorphic recrystallization and crystal plasticity at these inaccessible depths can be investigated by studying the roots of ancient eroded mountain belts, even in places like Wisconsin which no longer have topographic mountains. Such observations can help contribute to understanding the physics of great earthquakes. Marcia enjoys travel to rocky places and feels lucky to have shared many geologic adventures with her three sons, now all in their 20s. She is an avid bicyclist and once circumnavigated Lake Superior with two friends. She and her partner Paul are avid cross-county skiers as well as berry pickers, gardeners and canners who take joy in stocking the pantry with the bounty of summer. She feels lucky to have been raised by free-thinking parents who instilled in her a love of books, and the book of Nature.

*This episode was originally released October 1, 2018.
The post 796: Dr. Marcia Bjornerud: Using Structural Geology to Understand Earth’s History appeared first on People Behind the Science Podcast.
36 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