Petri Dish

On this second episode about drug discovery, we discuss small molecule drug libraries and the challenges behind rational design! Don't know what that means? Tune in to find out!

References:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2019.00107/full

https://next.cancer.gov/discoveryresources/resources_ndl.htm

https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.E22-08-0377

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-gene-therapy-treatment-certain-patients-duchenne-muscular-dystrophy

https://www.goodrx.com/health-topic/gene-therapy/crispr-therapeutics-vertex-exa-cel

https://www.broadinstitute.org/what-broad/areas-focus/project-spotlight/crispr-timeline

Hey everyone! Today's episode is about getting into the nitty gritty of drug discovery. We often benefit from the research and development that goes into the creation of drugs we use to treat illnesses without really understanding what goes into that process. In this first part, we will discuss how you conceptually begin the process.

References:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd2399

https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/zolgensma

https://cancerci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12935-019-0806-1

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519062/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128191828000338

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0006291X89926788?via%3Dihub

https://www.nature.com/articles/362841a0

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305737220300554

References:

You've had the flu. You've had a cold. Maybe you've even had allergies! But how can you tell them apart? And if you even figure out that you do have influenza, are there any treatments you can take that can help?

References:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/gastroenteritis-in-adults-a-to-z

https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/182/4/294/113092

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/irv.12515

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2014/10/cold-flu-or-allergy

https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0000221

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7150a4.htm

https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/lucira-health-files-bankruptcy-it-receives-eua-home-covid-19-flu-test

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-first-over-counter-home-test-detect-both-influenza-and-covid-19-viruses

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39683-4

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3108042/

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/treatment/antiviralresistance.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5404498/

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/11/1/183

https://www.jbc.org/article/S0021-9258(21)00260-X/fulltext

Last episode we discussed the current H5N1 flu that is hitting birds pretty hard. But is bird flu different from swine flu? Is there just a 'human flu', or do we only catch influenza from other animals? Let's get into the evolutionary history of the flu and primary hosts!

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7328453/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK8611/

https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/JVI.01080-14

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268205/

https://www.woah.org/en/disease/avian-influenza/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3784916/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2018.00131/full

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1176225

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32967956/

Today's episode is the first in a four-part series on influenza! This time we are covering just enough background information to discuss the recent H5N1 pandemic in birds, which was responsible for the egg shortage and has been killing a lot of wild birds.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074182/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198887/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6520700/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2021.727847/full

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2801499

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/wpro---documents/emergency/surveillance/avian-influenza/ai_20230331.pdf

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/reported-human-infections.htmhttps://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/h5n1-animals.htm

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/2022-hpai

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.9.2300134?crawler=true

https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/spectrum.02867-22

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/efsa-ecdc-eurl-ongoing-avian-influenza-outbreaks-birds-low-risk-public

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.3.2300001

https://perspectivesinmedicine.cshlp.org/content/11/2/a038679.short

https://journals.plos.org/Plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1011135

Sure, plants can sometimes smell good and they do cool stuff like make carbs for us to eat and oxygen for us to breathe. But they sort of look like they're just passively sitting there, right? Just chilling. If only we could hear just a slightly broader range of frequencies, we would hear a whole new world of plants -- one where they are complaining about being thirsty! Find out about the screaming clicks of dying plants, this week on Petri Dish!

References:

References:

Here in our first episode on our 2-parter on Black Holes, we explain what a black hole is in theory and what it probably actually is in practice. We dive into why it is still hard for us to really know what the true nature of black holes are and we discuss the different kinds of black holes.References: