Synthetic biology was surging like perhaps no other bio-based industry when the pandemic struck, and it has had some unique weapons in its arsenal for aiding in the fight against COVID. There are the leading vaccine makers such as Moderna using synthetic biology, as well as antibody technology and CRISPR based testing. But many of the surging trends from the last year have only been made more urgent this year: small molecules, food tech, synthetic materials.
Living with a pandemic is making humans more aware of our scientific dependence. 

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SynBioBeta 2020 with John Cumbers

Offering a front row seat to the Century of Biology, veteran podcast host Theral Timpson interviews the who's who in genomics and genomic medicine. 

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A new precision medicine startup has launched that uses transcriptomic and epigenetic information to help with therapy for a wide range of chronic disorders. Hayward, California-based Aqtual emerged from stealth at the end of last year with data on its first assay, a blood-based test for rheumatoid arthritis.Today, we’re joined by Diana Abdueva, Aqtual’s Founder and CEO, and Maggie Louie, VP of Translational Research and Strategic Partnerships."We are complex organisms that work beautifully for many years,” says Diana in today’s interview.  "But when something goes wrong, it is very hard to detect where the pathology originates.  There are many applications other than oncology, such as dermatology or immunology.”We explore Aqtual’s technology and history and consider the exciting possibilities for liquid biopsy beyond oncology. 

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Liquid Biopsy Goes Beyond Cancer: Diana Abdueva and Maggie Louie, Aqtual

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Today, we pursue an exciting area of medicine for the first time:  cell therapy for solid tumors.Most, if not all, of our audience will be familiar with the success of CAR-T therapies for blood cancers.  But only 10% of cancer is in the blood.  The other 90% develop solid tumors. Jason Bock is the CEO and founder of CTMC, a new company aiming to speed the advancement of the entire field of cell therapies. First, we cover this new treatment for solid tumors and discuss the near-science-fiction action of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (til). 

Cell Therapy Will Transform Medicine as We Know It, Says Jason Bock, CTMC

The Clinical Knowledge Base (CKB) powered by The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) is a dynamic digital resource for interpreting complex cancer genomic profiles in the context of gene variant knowledge and protein impact, therapies, and clinical trials. Illumina has teamed up with JAX in the newly released Connected Insights software, which integrates CKB as a knowledge source.We’re joined by Cara Statz from JAX and Erica Schnettler from Illumina to discuss how their combined technologies are helping researchers and oncologists deal with the increasing complexity of cancer genomic data. They discuss oncologists' experience with an overwhelming amount of new scientific data, and both guests give their advice for new labs setting up cancer testing. 

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Two Industry Leaders on Dealing with the Growing Complexity of Genomic Cancer Data

A paper out this week in Nature Methods demonstrates a new technology which shows novel patterns of protein spatial polarization and co-localization in immune cells. The technology launched by Swedish startup Pixelgen has been dubbed “molecular pixelation” because it uses DNA pixels to tag and reveal relative locations. Unlike most other spatial technologies, molecular pixelation does not involve microscopy.Lead author of the paper, Filip Karlsson, joins us today to explain the technology and how it might enable new proteomics research.  He says that immunology is a great application area.How does this technology fit in the spatial landscape, and how might it enable new medicine that could impact patients? 

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Single Cell Spatial Proteomics with Filip Karlsson, Pixelgen

Damon Hostin has had an active and exciting journey in genomic medicine.  He’s now at Illumina, where his title is illuminative:  Lead, Health System Market Access.A regular on the precision medicine stage, Damon has some insights into what he calls the “blindingly fast progression” of genomic medicine that should convince the most jaded of its critics.  Compared to other areas of medicine, we are witnessing a rapid uptake of new science.   Damon’s biography includes work at Celera in the age of the Drosophila and Human Genome papers and at a large community health system, Catholic Health Initiatives, where he was in charge of precision medicine.   At Illumina, he’s part of the large vision of seeing that genomic medicine has every chance at adoption.Today, we ask Damon what has changed about access to genomic testing in the past five years and where we are seeing success. Damon brings a refreshingly optimistic viewpoint to the show. We talk about everything from PGx testing to whole genome sequencing, which he calls an “amazing win” for reimbursement. 

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SynBioBeta 2020 with John Cumbers

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