Straight from a Scientist Medical Research Education and Discussion Podcast

This week's episode marks the 1st of a series focused on Alzheimer's disease (AD) research. All episodes were recorded in San Diego, CA, where Connor Wander attended the BrightFocus Alzheimer's Disease Fast Track conference, followed by the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting.

The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) is a well-known conference, drawing 28 thousand people annually. In contrast, AD Fast Track is a much smaller conference put on by BrightFocus, a foundation built to support AD and glaucoma research and awareness. Many of the speakers at the event were directly supported by BrightFocus (Lamb, Brinton, Head, Grinberg).

Alzheimer's disease research is reinventing itself in the wake of past failures. New understandings of disease complexity, paired with recent advances in technology and a renewed surge in funding for research fuels new hope for a cure or treatment. Yet we aren't putting all our eggs in one basket. This series will explore Alzheimer's disease research and the variety of research strategies with the common goal of curing Alzheimer's disease.

In This Episode

Listen in to hear an overview of the BrightFocus AD Fast Track conference and current standing of Alzheimer's disease research. We also focus on animal models of Alzheimer's disease.

@6:07 Dr. Diane Bovenkamp introduces BrightFocus and the AD Fast Track Conference.

@21:00 Dr. Frank LaFerla breaks down amyloid beta and tau in Alzheimer's disease research.

@37:31 Dr. Bruce T. Lamb describes the MODEL-AD project, which seeks to better simulate Alzheimer's disease in animal models.

Special thanks to all podcasts guests and to Martha and Rachel from BrightFocus!

More Information

Listen to a brief summary of Alzheimer's disease signs and symptoms with Dr. Diane Bovenkamp.

Find more quick chats on the BrightFocus Foundation website, including some tips and support for Alzheimer's disease caregivers.

The amyloid cascade hypothesis is commonly discussed in Episode 41: Alzheimer's disease roundtable.

Listen to a discussion of Amyloid beta's putative role as an ancient ant-microbial peptide in the brain in Episode 13: Amyloid Beta: Villain, or Hero in Alzheimer's Disease?

This possible role for Amyloid beta is important in the Amyloid cascade hypothesis; the idea that amyloid beta is the first thing to go wrong in AD, and triggers a chain reaction causing tau to aggregate and kill neurons. This is a commonly discussed hypothesis in Alzheimer's research, and is often referenced in this series.

Learn more with a detailed infographic on the Amyloid cascade hypothesis. It's in a perspective piece discussing the recent developments in AD research by Biogen, and Eisai, two companies working on Alzheimer's disease therapeutics like such as anti-amyloid or anti-tau antibodies, which have shown some promise in AD clinical trials.

For more in-depth analysis of developments in AD and other neurodegenerative diseases, check out Alzforum.org for Alzheimer's disease background reading.

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

For Part Two in our wildlife ecology series, we talked with Alexandra Israel, a Master's student at York University. As a field biologist, Alex works long days in Canada researching species like the Wood Thrush and the worrying decline of songbird populations.

So listen in to hear about her experience with field work, as well as issues such as nest predation and bird parasites that hurt songbird populations. Learn about small things people can do to help songbird populations, including keeping domestic cats indoors and using stickers to deter bird from flying into windows. We also talk about forest fragmentation, the process by which urbanization breaks up forests with fields and human spaces, detrimental to songbirds and other animals.

About Alex

Alexandra Israel is Master's student from York University, Ontario. She studies a threatened species of songbird in Canada called the Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina). Bird nests that are more hidden from predators (like foxes, hawks, raccoons, etc.) are probably more likely to survive, right? Actually, this isn't always true! Previous studies have shown that nest concealment does not play a role in determining nest survival for some species of songbirds. For this reason, Alex is interested in learning more about the nesting strategies of Wood Thrushes and how they choose their nesting sites. Any information that she learns about the nesting strategies of Wood Thrushes could be useful for informing future conservation efforts for this declining species.

Connect with Alex on Instagram.

Listen to last week's episode, part one in our wildlife ecology series, Conservation and Rainforest Ecology with Stephanie Martin

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

This week we kick off part one of a two part series on conservation and ecology. We talked to Stephanie Martin, a Tropical Rainforest Ecologist. So listen in to hear about Stephanie's field research in rainforests around the world, as well as what individuals can do to aid in conservation efforts. Stephanie works to help preserve endemic species, plants and animals that exist only in one geographic region. Also, we talk about the ethics of ethnobotany and a recent World Wildlife Fund study on extinction levels.

About Stephanie

Stephanie Martin is a Tropical Forest Ecologist, a scientific manuscript editor, and science communicator. She is currently working towards a Masters and will be researching rainforest ecology in Borneo and Australia in the coming year. She also maintains a YouTube channel and will shortly be launching an associated website. Stephanie also works as an events ambassador at the Science Museum in London, and is the blog editor for the British Ecological Society Tropical Ecology Group.

Watch Stephanie's most recent YouTube video on a weird method of insect survival.

Follow Stephanie on Instagram.

More Information

Flying foxes, an endangered bat species in Mauritius, face another government cull, the third in four years. Visit the Facebook page for more information and also to take action to save the bats. Original photo by Simon J. Tonge.

Read about the WWF study showing humans have wiped out 60% of animal life since 1970.

The World Land Trust is an international conservation charity that buys land to protect it from big companies who seek to make profit off oil and metal deposits with little environmental concern. Donate here to help the organization.

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

For this episode, we talked to Dr. Rachel Paul, also known as The College Nutritionist, about her work in behavioral nutrition. Listen in to hear about practical strategies Rachel uses with her clients to manage weight effectively. Rachel dispels some myths and misconceptions about healthy eating and weight management. We also talk about different types of diets and whether or not current scientific research recommends them. For example, we cover ketogenic diets, fasting, and the potential downfalls of cutting out whole food groups. This topic remains especially important in regard to the obesity epidemic in the United States. Listen to learn how to keep up with healthy eating and weight management.

About Rachel

Dr. Rachel Paul, Phd, RD is a nationally recognized nutritionist and teacher at Columbia University. She helps college students and young professionals look and feel amazing by eating healthfully, cooking on their own, and making good food choices in social situations. Dr. Paul is known for her practical advice and easy-to-follow guidance, particularly on Instagram with over 250 thousand followers. She's been featured in Business Insider, Buzzfeed, Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, and Martha Stewart Weddings.

Learn more on The College Nutritionist website.

Follow Rachel on Instagram.

Get started with a free meal plan.

Read about Starches vs. Non-Starchy Vegetables.

For more information on nutrition and health, listen to our Ep. 29: Fasting, Keto, and Injuries with Exercise Physiologist Alyssa Olenick

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein and plant a tree!

Another special episode for the SFS podcast this week: a collaborative show between Lowell Thompson, the host of the Learning with Lowell Podcast, and Connor from Straight from a Scientist. Listen in to hear a relaxed discussion about the motivations behind and the ups and downs of podcasting. We also talk about our backgrounds, personal histories and interests, and cool things planned for both the Learning with Lowell and Straight from a Scientist Podcasts! About Lowell After being in the ICU and the ER for a few years, struggling to survive, Lowell slowly got better. And after paying off the near-crippling medical and college debt, he decided to create something to inspire, educate, and highlight great science going on every day. So he made a podcast with those goals in mind. He quickly achieved those goals, inspiring listeners to learn coding, A.I., synthetic biology, and more. In addition he has helped guests with opportunities to find jobs, get promoted, obtain funding for their projects or startups, inspire others, and have a chance to talk about their work. Find Lowell on Twitter and keep an eye out for his soon-to-be-launched YouTube channel. Listen to the Learning With Lowell podcast! Mentioned in the Podcast: Listen to our episode 30: Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Pain and Addiction with Waylin Yu. Listen to our interviews from ComSciCon with Suzanne Hartley, Stephanie Teeter, Ashish Kapoor, and Aaron Devanathan. Learn about the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis with our infographic, review breakdown, and episode with Miguel Mateas. Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback. You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters! Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

This episode is part of a new series put on by UNC Pharmacology. Lab to Life exposes students, staff, and faculty to the journey of alumni as they navigate their career post-PhD. It's inspirational, informative, and a great guide for anyone looking for alternate careers in science. Special thanks to Nicole Arnold at UNC Pharmacology for letting us record, and of course to Lisa for coming to talk to us!

About Lisa

Lisa is a Scientific and Regulatory Specialist at Camargo Pharmaceutical Services, a full-service drug development consulting company that specializes in the 505(b)(2) pathway. As a Scientific and Regulatory Specialist, Lisa's responsibilities include development of feasibility and regulatory strategy, evaluation of safety and efficacy data, preparation of regulatory documents, and attendance at meetings on behalf of clients at the US Food and Drug Administration.

More Information

Companies like Camargo help drug manufacturers bring their product to pharmacy cabinets and hospitals more smoothly. The evaluation process is a key step in determining if new drugs or new drug formulations are safe, realistic, and worth it. Find out more about Camargo on their website. They also have a terrific blog for those interested in learning more about the drug approval process.

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

This week we talked with Anton Rogachov, a 5th year PhD student in Dr. Karen Davis's Lab at the University of Toronto. The Davis Lab focuses on using brain imaging like resting-state fMRI to understand functional abnormalities in the brains of chronic pain patients. The majority of Dr. Davis's work looks at the functional communication between different brain regions and networks in order to understand how these communications break down in chronic pain. In comparison, Anton's research looks at regional brain oscillation and fluctuations an alternative approach to studying mechanistic brain function.

Listen in to hear us discuss Anton's recent paper, Abnormal Low-Frequency Oscillations Reflect Trait-Like Pain Ratings in Chronic Pain Patients Revealed through a Machine Learning Approach. This research discovered that chronic pain patients do indeed have functional abnormalities in pain-related brain networks, but more importantly it showed that these abnormalities can be used to make inferences about the degree of pain the patients experience on a weekly basis. We cover what it's like to work directly with patients and to both administer and be tested via fMRI. We also talk about important caveats and considerations with work such as ours.

More information

Read Anton's recent paper on abnormal low-frequency oscillations

Learn more in another publication by Anton on regional brain signal variability

Check out a related episode on the molecular side of pain research, Ep. 30: Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Pain and Addiction with Waylin Yu.

Listen to the Raw Talk Podcast run by scientists and medical students at the University of Toronto.

Watch the TED Ed. video from Anton's supervisor Dr. Karen Davis on how your brain responds to pain.

Thanks to Leigh at BrainPost for connecting us with Anton!

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

In our second interview with Aaron Devanathan, a PhD student in the Kashuba Lab at UNC Pharmacy, we dive deeper into the strategies researchers use on the cutting edge of HIV research, including the technical challenges, tools, and model systems that make the science possible. We cover past, present, and future HIV therapies and also explore the innate immune system in aging and within the context of AIDS. Next, Aaron discusses his recent experience in his clinical rotation at UNC hospitals, and his thoughts on being both a PharmD vs a Pharmacy PhD student.

About Aaron

Aaron studies HIV infection and elimination in the Department of Pharmacy at UNC Chapel Hill in the Angela Kashuba Lab. HIV, or Human Immuno-deficiency Virus, is the virus that causes AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. While modern medicine has done wonders in treating the symptoms of an HIV infection, current drugs fail to eliminate the virus entirely. This is because HIV is dispersed widely throughout the body. Aaron studies how to hunt down HIV and destroy it, ultimately working towards an HIV cure.

More information

Learn more on the Angela Kashuba lab's website

Follow the Kashuba lab on Twitter

Read about Angela Kashuba and her research on her UNC profile

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

Today, back by popular demand is Miguel Mateas, a Clinical Nutritional Neuroscientist who studies how the microbiota affects the brain. Diversity and abundance in gut microbiota leads to a healthy and balanced system, called eubiosis. But when that balance is lost, the gut's ability to absorb nutrients suffers, which is called dysbiosis.

We discuss his new review article, which covers markers of gut health which can be used to develop personalized treatment for microbiome and neurological issues, as dysbiosis in the gut can increase the risk of mental disorders. Listen in to learn about practical strategies to fix dysbiosis, sex and the microbiome, and how clinicians study something as complicated as the microbiota.

About Miguel

Miguel is a doctoral researcher in clinical nutrition practice with wide-angle, first-hand experience of the research process. Having completed a lab-based Masters in Clinical Neuroscience focusing on brain ageing, he now works on the design and implementation of human clinical trials on the effect of fermented foods on mood and cognition as leading investigator at the "Bowels and Brains™️" project at the London Agri-Food Innovation Clinic (LAFIC). Miguel has been delivering quality individualized nutrition care to his patients since 2009, translating complex science findings into meaningful recommendations that can be used by people like you to improve health and well-being, particularly those with health issues affecting gut, brain, or the communication between both systems. Miguel's background includes 15+ years in senior consulting and training roles in life sciences and medical publishing, having trained clinicians and scientists around the world. He is a super approachable and creative guy who likes to have fun and thinks that science should be exciting and not boring.

Follow Miguel on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

Learn more

Read Miguel's review paper on microbiome assessment tools to learn more about the microbiota gut brain axis and dietary choices that promote and sustain healthy growth of bacterial populations.

Read a breakdown and summary of the article here.

Learn more about his new project on the London Agri-Food Innovation Clinic website.

Listen to our first episode with Miguel on how food affects the brain.

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.

Connor Wander talked to Waylin Yu about his research in the overlap of pain, negative emotion, and addiction. Waylin studies the fundamental roles of neurons in different areas of the brain, such as the amygdala, that may be responsible for these reactions, both independently and in relation to each other. This includes chronic pain, anxiety, and alcohol and drug dependence, looking at activity in dopamine pathways, which play a role in reward-motivated behavior, and GABA, an important inhibitory neurotransmitter.

Hyperalgesia is an increased sensitivity to pain that can be caused by damage to neurons. Nociception is the response of the nervous system to pain and harmful stimuli.

About Waylin

Originally hailing from Northern California, Waylin ventured eastward into salmon shorts and Sperry country for his undergraduate studies, where he graduated from Colby College with a BA in Psychology and Neuroscience. There, he investigated the neuroprotective properties of choline in rodent models of depression and schizophrenia with Dr. Melissa J. Glenn. Currently pursuing a PhD in Pharmacology at UNC Chapel Hill, Waylin is researching the neural circuitry of pain, aversion, and addiction by applying cutting-edge techniques like optogenetics, in vivo calcium imaging, and electrophysiology towards circuit-specific manipulations.

Connect with Waylin on Twitter

Learn more

Find more information, publications, and Waylin's email address on the UNC Kash Lab website.

Read accessible psychology and neuroscience articles on the PsychNeuro Blog.

New project Neurator Blog to be announced!

Reference papers

Mu opioid receptor modulation of dopamine neurons in the periaqueductal gray/dorsal raphe: a role in regulation of pain.

Alcohol dependence as a chronic pain disorder.

Dorsal raphe dopamine neurons modulate arousal and promote wakefulness by salient stimuli.

Contribution of dopamine receptors to periaqueductal gray-mediated antinociception.

Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.

You can now support the podcast at https://www.patreon.com/sfspodcast. Many thanks to our past and present supporters!

Thanks to Plant Warrior for their support. Use discount code SFS10 at checkout for 10% off your purchase of plant-based protein.