The Scientist’s LabTalk

Lauren Drouin is the director of analytical development and the Genomic Medicine Unit at Alexion AstraZeneca Rare Disease. As a dynamic scientist with unique expertise in current research and industry trends for gene therapies, Drouin is passionate about driving progress within the rare disease field and advancing products from preclinical development into the clinic and beyond. In this Science Philosophy in a Flash podcast episode brought to you by Bio-Rad, The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Drouin to learn more about her interest in adeno-associated virus (AAV) biology, and what motivated her journey from academia to patient-focused analytical development research. Science Philosophy in a Flash is a series of mini podcasts produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. With a focus on the people behind the science, this podcast highlights researchers’ unique outlook on what motivates their pursuit of science and what it means to be a scientist. This episode is brought to you by Bio-Rad.

Researchers commonly employ lentiviruses to modify cells genetically. However, they must overcome several challenges when using these viruses in the laboratory or clinic. In this episode, Charlene Lancaster from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Filippo Rossignoli, instructor in neurosurgery at the Center for Stem Cell and Translational Immunotherapy at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, about using lentiviruses to engineer cell therapies and the troubleshooting process he undertook to optimize viral production and infection. More on this topic: https://www.the-scientist.com/infographics/viral-vector-platforms-for-gene-therapy-70941 LabTalk is a special edition podcast produced by The Scientist's Creative Services Team, where we explore topics at the leading edge of innovative research. This month’s episode is sponsored by Mirus Bio.

Scientists continuously develop new assays to fill unmet diagnostic needs. While methods such as quantitative PCR have emerged as essential tools in molecular diagnostics, scientists developing and administering these assays still must overcome technical challenges. In this podcast series, The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to experts about their experiences designing and implementing assays and protocols for future molecular diagnostics. In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Gregory Tsongalis, medical director for the Center for Clinical Genomics and Advanced Technology at Dartmouth Health, about the benefits of PCR-based DNA testing for HPV screening. Welcome to Molecular Diagnostics: An Eye Toward the Future, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a world leader in serving science. Their mission is to enable customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Whether their customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, and improving clinical research workflows, Thermo Fisher Scientific is here to support them.

Scientists continuously develop new assays to fill unmet diagnostic needs. While methods such as quantitative PCR have emerged as essential tools in molecular diagnostics, scientists developing and administering these assays still must overcome technical challenges. In this podcast series, The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to experts about their experiences designing and implementing assays and protocols for future molecular diagnostics. In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Ming-Sound Tsao, a senior scientist and clinician at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, about considerations and variables for choosing appropriate assays in precision lung cancer treatment, including biomarkers, internal controls, test sensitivity, and specificity. Welcome to Molecular Diagnostics: An Eye Toward the Future, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a world leader in serving science. Their mission is to enable customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Whether their customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, and improving clinical research workflows, Thermo Fisher Scientific is here to support them.

Scientists commonly use qPCR applications in molecular diagnostics to detect pathogens, assess viral loads, or uncover mutations. While the qPCR assay itself may seem straightforward, other aspects such as data collection and security, and following regulatory guidelines, present challenges. In part two of this episode, Fernando Beils, vice president and general manager of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s qPCR Instruments, Assays, and Digital group, introduces an innovative software that streamlines molecular diagnostic testing by facilitating automation and connectivity in qPCR workflows. Welcome to Molecular Diagnostics: An Eye Toward the Future, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a world leader in serving science. Their mission is to enable customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Whether their customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, and improving clinical research workflows, Thermo Fisher Scientific is here to support them. Scientists continuously develop new assays to fill unmet diagnostic needs. While methods such as quantitative PCR have emerged as essential tools in molecular diagnostics, scientists developing and administering these assays still must overcome technical challenges. In this podcast series, The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to experts about their experiences designing and implementing assays and protocols for future molecular diagnostics.

Scientists commonly use qPCR applications in molecular diagnostics to detect pathogens, assess viral loads, or uncover mutations. While the qPCR assay itself may seem straightforward, other aspects such as data collection and security, and following regulatory guidelines, present challenges. In this episode, Gloria Lam, the associate director of qPCR software for Thermo Fisher Scientific, discusses concerns surrounding molecular diagnostic data collection, analysis, cybersecurity, and more. Welcome to Molecular Diagnostics: An Eye Toward the Future, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a world leader in serving science. Their mission is to enable customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Whether their customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, and improving clinical research workflows, Thermo Fisher Scientific is here to support them. Scientists continuously develop new assays to fill unmet diagnostic needs. While methods such as quantitative PCR have emerged as essential tools in molecular diagnostics, scientists developing and administering these assays still must overcome technical challenges. In this podcast series, The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to experts about their experiences designing and implementing assays and protocols for future molecular diagnostics.

Welcome to Molecular Diagnostics: An Eye Toward the Future, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Thermo Fisher Scientific, a world leader in serving science. Their mission is to enable customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. Whether their customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies, or increasing productivity in their laboratories, Thermo Fisher Scientific is here to support them. Scientists continuously develop new assays to fill unmet diagnostic needs. While methods such as quantitative PCR have emerged as essential tools in molecular diagnostics, scientists developing and administering these assays still must overcome technical challenges. In this podcast series, The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to experts in assay development about their experiences designing and implementing assays and protocols for future molecular diagnostics. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Anne Wyllie, a research scientist in epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, about the development of SalivaDirect—a quantitative PCR protocol, authorized by the FDA under an emergency use authorization, that detects SARS-CoV-2 in saliva.

Translational research cannot be conducted in a vacuum. For a translational researcher to be successful, they need to build strong relationships with individuals, companies, and institutions that will provide useful support and expertise. In this episode, Linda Mathiasson, Strategic Customer Leader for Nucleic Acid Therapeutics at Cytiva, discusses the flourishing translational field of mRNA therapies and opportunities for researchers to form worthwhile partnerships that support their therapeutic endeavors. Welcome to Building Bridges for Translational Research, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Cytiva, a global provider of technologies and services that advance and accelerate therapeutic development, manufacturing, and delivery. To take preclinical concepts to the market, translational researchers must build strong relationships and forge fruitful partnerships that support their work. In this podcast series, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to groundbreaking translational researchers and industry experts about their experiences developing technologies and therapies for improving human health and our world at large.

In this episode, Guangping Gao, professor and director of the Horae Gene Therapy Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, speaks about developing human gene therapies using recombinant adeno-associated viral vectors, scaling up these therapies, and the future of translational research. Welcome to Building Bridges for Translational Research, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Cytiva, a global provider of technologies and services that advance and accelerate therapeutic development, manufacturing, and delivery. To take preclinical concepts to the market, translational researchers must build strong relationships and forge fruitful partnerships that support their work. In this podcast series, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to groundbreaking translational researchers and industry experts about their experiences developing technologies and therapies for improving human health and our world at large.

Welcome to Building Bridges for Translational Research, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Cytiva, a global provider of technologies and services that advance and accelerate therapeutic development, manufacturing, and delivery. To take preclinical concepts to the market, translational researchers must build strong relationships and forge fruitful partnerships that support their work. In this podcast series, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to groundbreaking translational researchers and industry experts about their experiences developing technologies and therapies for improving human health and our world at large. In this episode, serial entrepreneur George Church, professor of genetics and leader of synthetic biology at Harvard’s Wyss Institute, talks about his gene editing research and his strategy for spinning translational projects into start-up companies.

Immunotherapies are promising as a holy grail for cancer treatment, but patient responses to these interventions are often variable in both solid tumors and blood cancers. In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Olli Dufva, a physician and doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki’s Hematology Research Unit, about his work analyzing the genomic landscape of hematological cancers. Coupling next-generation techniques with traditional methods such as flow cytometry, he aims to better understand the complex range of immune characteristics in different cancer subtypes and use that data to predict patient outcomes. LabTalk is a special edition podcast produced by The Scientist's Creative Services Team, where we explore topics at the leading edge of innovative research. This month’s episode is sponsored by Sartorius.

By understanding disease risk through the information found in a person’s genome, scientists can develop more effective therapeutics and clinicians can treat their patients more effectively. In this episode, we talk to Kári Stefánsson, founder and CEO of deCODE Genetics, a Reykjavik-based biopharmaceutical company that collects and analyzes genealogical, medical, and genomic data at a national scale in order to identify variants that cause disease. We discuss his pioneering work in population-scale genetics, its applications in precision medicine and the healthcare system, and the difficult questions that access to these data raise. To dive further into this topic, please join Amgen scientists at the Human Data Era Q&A webinar discussion on November 16, 2022. Register for the event here. Welcome to The Human Data Era, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Amgen, a pioneer in the science of using living cells to make biologic medicines. They helped invent the processes and tools that built the global biotech industry, and have since reached millions of patients suffering from serious illnesses around the world with their medicines. By studying human genetics, scientists discovered mechanisms that, when defective, cause disease. While this type of data is powerful, additional information can provide more insight on the human condition. Researchers and clinicians can now go beyond genetics, combining proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and environmental factors into a broad category of human data. In this series, Ray Deshaies, senior vice president of Global Research at Amgen, explores the potential of human data and the important transition scientists and clinicians are making to incorporate this wealth of information into drug research and development.

Heterogeneous disorders such as cardiovascular disease have multiple risk factors, causes, and manifestations. Having a holistic view of a patient’s unique biology potentially leads to earlier and better treatment options. In this episode, we talk to Narimon Honarpour, vice president of Global Development at Amgen, about how human data is helping drug developers and clinicians unpack the complexities of cardiovascular disease to improve patient outcomes. To dive further into this topic, please join Amgen scientists at the Human Data Era Q&A webinar discussion on November 16, 2022. Register for the event here. Welcome to The Human Data Era, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Amgen, a pioneer in the science of using living cells to make biologic medicines. They helped invent the processes and tools that built the global biotech industry, and have since reached millions of patients suffering from serious illnesses around the world with their medicines. By studying human genetics, scientists discovered mechanisms that, when defective, cause disease. While this type of data is powerful, additional information can provide more insight on the human condition. Researchers and clinicians can now go beyond genetics, combining proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and environmental factors into a broad category of human data. In this series, Ray Deshaies, senior vice president of Global Research at Amgen, explores the potential of human data and the important transition scientists and clinicians are making to incorporate this wealth of information into drug research and development.

Biobanks that house data from electronic health records or collect samples directly from participants are precious resources for researchers looking to understand health and disease and translate these discoveries into recommendations and treatments for patients. In this episode, we talk to Nancy Cox, professor and director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, about Vanderbilt’s DNA biobank, BioVU. Nancy and her fellow researchers use computational genetics to study the de-identified patient DNA stored in the bank along with corresponding electronic health records in order to discover links between genes and disease. To dive further into this topic, please join Amgen scientists at the Human Data Era Q&A webinar discussion on November 16, 2022. Register for the event here. Welcome to The Human Data Era, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Amgen, a pioneer in the science of using living cells to make biologic medicines. They helped invent the processes and tools that built the global biotech industry, and have since reached millions of patients suffering from serious illnesses around the world with their medicines. By studying human genetics, scientists discovered mechanisms that, when defective, cause disease. While this type of data is powerful, additional information can provide more insight on the human condition. Researchers and clinicians can now go beyond genetics, combining proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and environmental factors into a broad category of human data. In this series, Ray Deshaies, senior vice president of Global Research at Amgen, explores the potential of human data and the important transition scientists and clinicians are making to incorporate this wealth of information into drug research and development.

Welcome to The Human Data Era, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Amgen, a pioneer in the science of using living cells to make biologic medicines. They helped invent the processes and tools that built the global biotech industry, and have since reached millions of patients suffering from serious illnesses around the world with their medicines. By studying human genetics, scientists discovered mechanisms that, when defective, cause disease. While this type of data is powerful, additional information can provide more insight on the human condition. Researchers and clinicians can now go beyond genetics, combining proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and environmental factors into a broad category of human data. In this series, Ray Deshaies, senior vice president of Global Research at Amgen, explores the potential of human data and the important transition scientists and clinicians are making to incorporate this wealth of information into drug research and development. With a whole host of patient data at our fingertips, drug developers are becoming more thoughtful and strategic in developing medicines and designing clinical trials to test them. In this episode we talk to Rob Lenz, Senior Vice President of Global Development at Amgen. We review the full scope of human data, going beyond the genome to explore the challenges of using human data as well as the opportunities of applying human data to drug research and clinical trials. To dive further into this topic, please join Amgen scientists at the Human Data Era Q&A webinar discussion on November 16, 2022. Register for the event here.

Through epigenetic mechanisms, some environmental toxicants, such as heavy metals, reversibly alter gene expression patterns that then drive cancer progression. In this episode, Yvonne Fondufe-Mittendorf discusses her work studying environmental toxicants and their effects on DNA methylation and chromatin structure. Welcome to Exposed: Environmental Echoes in Health, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Van Andel Institute, an independent biomedical research institute devoted to improving human health for generations to come. While the human body’s cells all use the same set of instructions, they can end up with wildly different features and functions. Beyond the information stored in DNA, factors within a person’s environment, including chemicals, microbes, and their diet, change how cells work. In this series, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to researchers from Van Andel Institute who investigate how the environment and behavior change cellular functions through epigenetic processes.

Substances that enter the body, such as food or chemicals, can make epigenetic changes in the germline that become inherited, affecting the health of future generations. In this episode, Heidi Lempradl discusses her work studying the effects of parental diet on their offspring. Welcome to Exposed: Environmental Echoes in Health, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Van Andel Institute, an independent biomedical research institute devoted to improving human health for generations to come. While the human body’s cells all use the same set of instructions, they can end up with wildly different features and functions. Beyond the information stored in DNA, factors within a person’s environment, including chemicals, microbes, and their diet, change how cells work. In this series, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to researchers from Van Andel Institute who investigate how the environment and behavior change cellular functions through epigenetic processes.

Welcome to Exposed: Environmental Echoes in Health, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Van Andel Institute, an independent biomedical research institute devoted to improving human health for generations to come. While the human body’s cells all use the same set of instructions, they can end up with wildly different features and functions. Beyond the information stored in DNA, factors within a person’s environment, including chemicals, microbes, and their diet, change how cells work. In this series, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team talks to researchers from Van Andel Institute who investigate how the environment and behavior change cellular functions through epigenetic processes. Microbes surround us, and they can have surprising effects beyond infection. In this episode, Nick Burton discusses his work discovering new environmental bacteria in backyards and how exposure to both bad or good bugs can affect an organism’s offspring.

The brain’s intractable nature makes neurodegenerative disorders challenging to study, but modern assays and technologies give scientists a fresh look at this complex organ. In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Erdem Gültekin Tamgüney, a professor in the Institute of Physical Biology at Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf, about technologies driving modern neuroscience research and his own work exploring the link between ischemic stroke and Parkinson’s disease. LabTalk is a special edition podcast produced by The Scientist's Creative Services Team, where we explore topics at the leading edge of innovative research. This month’s episode is sponsored by PerkinElmer.

Cancer is one therapeutic area where patients cannot wait the conventional 10 or 12 years for a new therapy. For these patients, time is of the essence, and improved access to faster clinical trials can be the difference between receiving a new life-saving medicine and it being too late. In this episode, we talk to David Raben, vice president of Global Development Oncology at Amgen, about the next generation of oncology trial design and execution. To dive further into this topic, please join Amgen scientists at the Innovating Clinical Trials Q&A webinar discussion on September 28, 2022. Register for the event here. Welcome to Innovating Clinical Trials, a special edition podcast series produced by The Scientist’s Creative Services Team. This series is brought to you by Amgen, a pioneer in the science of using living cells to make biologic medicines. They helped invent the processes and tools that built the global biotech industry, and have since reached millions of patients suffering from serious illnesses around the world with their medicines. Clinical trials are desperate for innovation. Speed and efficiency need to improve as many patients cannot wait over a decade for new, potentially lifesaving medicines, and trial participants often do not reflect the patient population. Because clinical trials are complex and multidisciplinary, there is not a single, simple solution for accelerating progress. In this series, Rob Lenz, senior vice president of Global Development at Amgen, explores the latest approaches in clinical trial design and execution and highlights real-world examples of how scientists can run trials better and faster to develop optimal medicines that benefit patients.