Lawrence Ganti, president of SiO2 Materials Science, joins me to discuss ramping up production of his innovative vaccine vials to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. We also discuss how the pandemic in general affected scientific innovation and medical product manufacturing, and what it could mean for the future of medicine.

For World AIDS Day, I interviewed two pioneers in HIV/AIDS activism and research: Dr. Kenneth Mayer, Medical Research Director of Fenway Health and a professor of medicine, global health and population at Harvard; and Professor Gregg Gonsalves from the Yale School of Public Health. Ken has been part of AIDS research almost from the beginning, and Gregg is a passionate advocate for underrepresented patients. Both have devoted their careers to furthering HIV/AIDS awareness and public health responsiveness.

This year's Society for Neuroscience meeting was supposed to be in person, but with COVID cases still high, moved to virtual. Charles River scientists Carina Peritore and Toni Ahtoniemi join me to discuss what else is new in the field of neuroscience, and how COVID has affected research over the past two years. 

With global warming affecting the tick population, the time is right to try again with a human Lyme disease vaccine. I talk with Dr. Richard Marconi, professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Microbiology and Immunology, about his research into ticks, Lyme, and the promise of a human vaccine.

In this episode, I speak with Dr. Peter Matos about vaccine boosters past and present. We discuss a brief history of vaccine booster research, how we arrived at the current recommended vaccine schedule, and what the future may hold for COVID vaccine boosters.

At the time of posting, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) only recommends COVID boosters for immunocompromised people, though the US government announced broader rollout through the fall and winter. The World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommends focusing on first dose rollout for populations that have not gotten access yet, and says that "introducing booster doses should be firmly evidence-driven and targeted to the population groups in greatest need."

Stay updated on your region's booster policies. 

Scientist Marcus Gerald experienced first hand what it feels like to be a patient at a young age. Now he helps children by researching the Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology (DART) of new drugs. In this episode he tells us about his experiences as a young Black man in science, and how he turned his early childhood experiences into his passion.

COVID impacted everyone differently, including early career scientists who found their work resources diverted to COVID research. One such scientist is doctoral candidate Daisy Hoagland from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, whose earlier work on viruses made her a valuable contributor to COVID research. But what did it do to her career plans? Listen now to find out.

Elaine Duncan and Alan Mukuvare are early career scientists who understand the importance of scientific mentors. They themselves have benefited from inspiring STEM mentors, and are now giving back to their local communities through the UK's STEM Ambassador Programme. Listen now, especially if you or someone you know are thinking about getting into a STEM field.

For this episode, I am joined by Ziva Abraham, CEO of the pharmaceutical consulting company Microrite. Ziva grew up in India, and fell in love with fungi while studying in college. Her passion has taken her all over the world, dispensing knowledge and mentoring a new generation of young women scientists.

In honor of Earth Day 2021, we speak with Corporate Sustainability experts Gregg Belardo and Erik Mohn about the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the effects of stay-at-home orders could be seen from space, but did they have any impact on climate change? Listen now to learn more.