The Biotech Podcast

As exciting technologies emerge, we need to ensure that policies and regulations are in place to ensure practices remain safe, sustainable and help the transition towards a circular economy. Dr Ian Hodge, professor of rural economy at Cambridge, describes how we can manage agriculture in the future; from offering subsidies to introducing carbon credits.

Many crops currently grown in the developing world are limited by their nitrogen potential rather than their water or light potential. Difficult supply chains and high costs make using nitrogen fertilisers difficult in these regions and the use of these fertilisers brings about its own issues. Professor Giles Oldroyd aims to engineer nitrogen fixation into many crops, allowing them to utilise the abundant source of nitrogen straight from the air and therefore improve yields whilst reducing nitrogen leaching.

As agriculture scales up it brings a host of problems. Larger tractors lead to soil compaction and lack of precision, more workers are required to ensure harvests come in on time and food waste is reduced, and corners are cut more often with increased use of herbicides and pesticides. Using autonomous vehicles can help solve many of these problems. Kit Franklin, co-creator of Hands Free Hectare and Hands Free Farm, takes us through the automation of agriculture and how we will soon get used to seeing it in our everyday lives.

A third of global food is produced by smallholder farms. High tech innovations will always make the big headlines, but if want to truly provide for the future then we must also empower those most at risk with more frugal strategies. Professor Jaideep Prabhu takes us through his views on how we can do more with less in this latest episode of the The Biotech Podcast.

In the first episode of this new season on food security we first look at what lessons we can draw from the history of agriculture and how we might expect it to change as we look into the future. Dr Helen Anne Curry is an Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge.

Having founded OpenML, Dr Joaquin Vanschoren wants scientists to make their data public. OpenML aims to use this data to train many machine learning models and therefore create huge advances in this field.

Dr Andrei Lupas takes us through the fundamental building blocks of life: proteins. We analyse what they are, how they've evolved and how they might change in the future. Andrei was also one of the first to see Alphafold in action as he judged them at the CASP protein folding competition, so we explore the possibilities that Alphafold brings. Dr Andrei Lupas: http://eb.mpg.de/protein-evolution/

Computer scientist, Dr Risto Miikkulainen, shows us how we can come up with novel solutions in science by simulating evolution using computers. From bioinformatics to webpage design, the applications of this field are huge. Image with thanks to Helsingin Sanomat https://www.hs.fi/ If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Paper on surprising anecdotes of evolution: https://direct.mit.edu/artl/article/26/2/274/93255/The-Surprising-Creativity-of-Digital-Evolution-A Microsite on ESP (Evolutionary Surrogate-Assisted Prescription): https://evolution.ml/esp/ Evolutionary Computation software: https://cs.gmu.edu/~eclab/projects/ecj/https://github.com/DEAP/deap

Professor Jim Collins talks to us this week about his endeavours in biodetection using Synthetic riboregulators, which have played a significant role in Sars-Cov2 detection. He also brings us through CellNet, which applies network biology to stem cell engineering. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Photo: Lillie Paquette / MIT School of Engineering Jim Collins Lab: https://be.mit.edu/directory/james-j-collins

This week Dr Wolfgang Busch, from the Salk Institute, talks to us about the importance of root systems. Can roots make decisions? And if so could they be optimised for distinct functions? If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Busch Lab https://busch.salk.edu/ Salk Institute: https://www.salk.edu/scientist/wolfgang-busch/

AI is often described as a hugely exciting and media-friendly field in computer science, however, parts of it often forget the goals we are trying to achieve. Intelligence Amplification, or IA, is a more realistic goal, where computers are used for augmenting intelligence rather than replacing it. Dr Yoav Freund takes us through this fascinating field and outlines its possible applications in medicine specifically. Simons Institute for the Theory of Computinghttps://simons.berkeley.edu/workshops/agenda/3751/panelopen-problemspotlight-talks https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~yfreund/

One of the biggest challenges to medicine is non-adherence. From micro-needle injectors to once-a-month oral pills; Dr Giovanni Traverso tells us about some exiting prospects coming out of MIT which challenge this issue. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG

This week Dr Jason Moore tells us about the exciting strides forward that AI is taking; might everyone one day have their own machine learning 'toolbox' at home? Jason is the creator of PennAI, an accessible, user-friendly artificial intelligence system and he explains how machine learning will change the future of medicine and many other fields of science. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Jason Links BMI Podcast http://bmipodcast.orgEpistasis Lab http://epistasis.org/ PennAI http://pennai.org/ Episode synopsis: 00:00 - Intro 01:28 - Machine learning in biology 08:04 - The history of computation in medicine 13:33 - AI's role in diagnostics 20:13 - Issues of bringing AI into medicine 27:04 - Understanding AI algorithms 28:45 - The PennAI system 44:38 - Exciting areas of AI in biology 48:40 - Advice 51:54 - Extro

By striving to produce burgers which taste, look and smell the same as farmed beef from cultured stem cells in a lab, Mosa meat aims to change the way we look at agriculture. This week we talk to Dr Laura Jackisch from Mosa meat about the techniques used and the impacts that this technology can have on our future. Full synopsis: 00.00 - Intro 01:40 - Cellular agriculture 7:10 - The components of a lab-grown burger 14:00 - Combining muscle and fat effectively 22:15 - Reinventing what we can eat 23:08 - The barriers holding back cellular agriculture 26:17 - Scaling up 30:25 - Social challenges 42:51 - Doubts and career advice 48:11 - Extro

The founder of CCm technologies, Peter Hammond, talks to us this week on carbon capture machines, along with their use in producing organic fertilisers to improve soil health. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Episode synopsis: 00:00 - Intro 01:14 - Developing ideas 14:37 - The components of a healthy soil 21:51 - Traditional fertilisers 24:44 - Measuring soil health 25:47 - Organic fertilisers 30:47 - Carbon sources 35:12 - Targeting climate change 50:30 - Extro

Soil is one of the most powerful carbon sequestering tools known to man, and protecting it will lead to greater food security with higher nutritional content, better water quality and of course can also play a huge part in reducing global warming. This week Dr Ratan Lal, winner of the 2020 world food prize, talks passionately about his life's work with soil and how we need to harness this incredible ecosystem for good. Episode synopsis: 00:00 - Soil and its qualities 6:32 - Soil is alive 11:01 - Giving back to our soils 14:59 - Measuring soil health 16:20 - Soil degradation in impoverished areas 19:35 - What drew you to soil science 24:20 - Regulating soil erosion 25:01 - Soil and its role in carbon sequestration 36:17 - Biogeochemical cycling 41:35 - Advice 44:40 - Extro

From the delivery of the mRNA vaccines into cells to the delivery of chemotherapy directly to tumours, it is fair to say Professor Bob Langer has revolutionised modern medicine. Bob is the 4th most cited individual of all time and having founded over 40 biotechnology companies including Moderna, Bob is, without doubt, one of the most influential scientists alive today. Full Synopsis: 00:00 - Introductions 2:12 - Angiogenesis inhibitors and drug-delivery systems 5:50 - Conventional wisdom and challenging sceptics 13:52 - How to go about solving a problem 20:20 - Changing the world 22:14 - Pursuing your passions and academia 28:54 - Setting up a company and using impact as a metric 35:28 - The Moderna vaccine and nanoparticles 42:08 - Advice for young scientists and the exciting areas of research today

A professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Greg has theorised interesting genetic ideas such as the 'Kerplunk Model' and more recently has been influential in coordinating effective Covid testing strategies. Today we talk about the heredity of traits, the importance of robustness in evolution and the current state of scientific publication. Greg also writes a monthly blog called The Genome's Take, which I highly recommend reading. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Full Synopsis: 00:00 - Intro 01:53 - Heritability, and twin studies 11:28 - The 'Kerplunk model' 19:31 - Environmental effects on genetics 22:88 - Model organisms and working with Walter Gehring 29:25 - Canalisation and robustness 38:38 - Career choices and the future of genetics 43:17 - Covid testing regimes 51:34 - The problems with scientific publication and publishing preprints 1:02:06 - The Genome's take blog and book recommendations 1:05:11 - Extro

Josh Starmer is the founder and CEO of StatQuest, a channel which breaks down complex mathematics into easy, visual, bitesize content. Today we talk about his success with StatQuest, his career in music and tips on how to effectively explain complex topics. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Full Synopsis: 00:00 - Intro 01:40 - Beautiful statistics 05:51 - Bootstrapping 08:39 - Struggles of learning statistics 17:43 - Knowing your data 20:03 - Bioinformatics 21:41 - Machine learning as a microscope 24:25 - The exciting futures of statistics 29:38 - StatQuest and what makes a good explanation 39:22 - Music and Maths 48:06 - Education changing in the future 52:12 - Lies, damned lies and statistics 55:14 - What lies ahead 1:00:07 - Extro Episode Links: Neural Networks or Big Fancy Squiggle Fitting Machines (BFSFM) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqOfi41LfDw StatQuest Website - https://statquest.org/about/ StatQuest Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtYLUTtgS3k1Fg4y5tAhLbw

Having worked with the likes of Freeman Dyson, we hear about the incredible achievements of Dr Bruce Alberts, winner of both the National medal of science in 2014 and the Lasker award in 2016. If you are interested in helping The Biotech Podcast please take 30 seconds to take the following survey: https://harry852843.typeform.com/to/caV6cMzG Full synopsis: 00:00 - Intro 01:30 - The scientific process 09:51 - Scientific thinking and education 24:25 - Writing 'Molecular biology of the cell', its intentions and its impacts 41:32 - DNA replication - mechanisms, evolution and discovering the biochemistry 1:03:54 - Book recommendations and advice 1:08.09 - Freeman Dyson, Leroy Hood and the Human Genome project