In this episode, we focus on the tiny critters that reside in our gut: the microbiome. We continue our double-header by talking to Dr. Carlotta Ronda from Columbia University on microbial engineering and Dr. Martina Sgritta from Baylor College of Medicine on bacteria that can influence our sociability. 

In this special episode, we have a recording from a prior Zoomside Chat around why we self-medicate. 

In this episode, we talk to two rising stars in their fields. Dr. Natale Sciolino from the NIEHS tells us about her research on the locus coeruleus and how some cells in here may play a role in feeding behaviors. Dr. Sofia Axelrod from Rockefeller University tells us about circadian rhythms and the importance of timing with regards to both eating and sleeping. 

Dr. Schwartz is a Profesor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He shares a career on studying how we make sense of what we eat starting from taste and moving to the gut. Along the way we get some advice on how to seek out collaborative opportunities and improve both our writing as well as our evaluation of science. 

Dr. Clevers is the director of research at the Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology and a professor of molecular genetics at Utrecht University. He shares his journey, how he thinks about science, and why he uses animations to help explain his work.

Dr. Bayrer is an Assistant Professor in Gastroenterology at the University of California, San Francisco. He shares his experiences as both a physician and scientist and how we have developed models to study intestinal disease and how we can optimize our time to make the most of our work.

Dr. Wu is the Ferdinand G. Weisbrod Professor in Gastroenterology at the University of Pennsylvania. He shares his experiences as both a physician and scientist and how we can develop the skills to think creatively and communicate effectively.

In our final episode of season one, we chat with Dr. Nancy Allbritton, the new dean of University of Washington's College of Engineering (at the time of the interview, she was the chair of biomedical engineering at both UNC Chapel Hill and NC State). Dr. Allbritton shares with us her enormous wealth of knowledge from what makes a trainee successful to how she uses gizmos and gadgets to create a model of the human intestine to how one becomes a successful company founder. 

In this episode we talk with Dr. Michel Neunlist from the University of Nantes about the nerves that reside in our gut, how they function, and how they have been linked with Parkinson's Disease. We also discuss about the importance of integrity in scientific research.