Scientist the Human Podcast

Dr. Kliment Verba is an Assistant Professor at the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) and Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF. Dr. Verba uses biophysical methods such as cryo-EM (cryogenic electron microscopy) to study structural biology and elucidate how proteins look in 3D, down to atomic details. His work spans topics ranging from cancer biology to virology, including recent work on the COVID-19 virus, which we discuss in this episode. For more information, visit Dr. Verba's profile and the QBI website.

Dr. Derek Lowe is a medicinal chemist, author, and blogger. He is currently Director in Chemical Biology and Therapeutics at the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). Dr. Lowe’s work in drug discovery has spanned multiple decades with tenures at Schering-Plough, Bayer, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. In addition to his industry work, Dr. Lowe authors a popular blog covering topics in drug discovery; check it out here: In the Pipeline. 

Dr. Eric Wang is an Assistant Professor at The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) for Genomic Medicine. Dr. Wang's work has uncovered new therapeutic vulnerabilities in RNA-binding protein networks in leukemia through the use of genomic screening approaches, which we discuss in this episode. His lab investigates therapy resistance in cancer, with a focus on leukemias. For more information, visit his lab page: Wang Lab

Dr. Mario Suva is an Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, is affiliated with the Neuro-Oncology program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and is a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Dr. Suva's lab focuses on the biology of brain tumors, using single-cell technologies to dissect cellular heterogeneity and plasticity. Furthermore, recent work from his lab describes an atlas of glioma-infiltrating T cells, which we discuss in this episode. For more information, visit his lab page: Suva Lab

Dr. Mariella G. Filbin is an Attending Physician of Pediatric Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. The Filbin Lab focuses its efforts on studying pediatric brain tumors, particularly lethal high-grade gliomas, including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and malignant embryonal brain tumors. Dr. Filbin's approach to understanding these tumors involves genomic technologies such as single cell RNA sequencing, which we discuss in this episode. For more information, visit her lab page: Filbin Lab

Laura Valente is a PhD student in the Department of Pathology at Duke University School of Medicine. She conducts research in the lab of Dr. Anthony Filiano, who is a faculty member in the Neurosurgery, Immunology, and Pathology departments at Duke. Laura's work focuses on developing mouse models of thymus transplants done in patients to understand the underlying mechanisms of thymus transplant efficacy. Recently, Laura took part in a science advocacy workshop called Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE), held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In this episode, we discuss Laura's research and her recent crash course in science advocacy. For more information on Laura's research, please visit the Filiano Lab website. For more information on the CASE workshop, please visit the AAAS CASE website.

Dr. Kris Wood is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. The Wood Lab utilizes functional genomics approaches to uncover targetable vulnerabilities in different types of human cancers. Much of this work is driven by investigation of the complex signaling networks that drive tumor formation and progression. Dr. Wood's research also leads to identification of combinatorial treatment strategies for cancers that evolve to develop resistance to monotherapies. For more information visit his lab page: Wood Lab

Dr. Herman Staats is a Professor and the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pathology at Duke University School of Medicine. Broadly, the Staats Lab focuses on vaccines and immunity. The lab's main projects include identifying and characterizing new adjuvants, and optimizing nasal immunization for use in humans. An adjuvant is any substance co-administered with a vaccine to enhance the immune response to the vaccine, and we discuss this topic in detail in this episode. For more information visit his lab page: Staats Lab  

Katie Stember is a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Ronald Falk at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine. Broadly speaking, Katie works on a family of autoimmune diseases called antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA) vasculitis, which affects blood vessels throughout the body. Her research focuses on the interaction between autoreactive T cells and known self-antigens in this disease, which we discuss in detail in this episode. In addition to being a biomedical researcher, Katie is the founder and curator of Scientists of North Carolina, a Facebook page dedicated to bringing the public closer to scientists and their stories.

Eric Wang is a PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Iannis Aifantis at the NYU School of Medicine. Broadly speaking, Eric's research focuses on transcriptional regulation during leukemia initiation. To this end, he recently conducted a pooled CRISPR screen on about 500 target genes, from which a gene involved in RNA splicing emerged as a top candidate as being required for leukemia cells to live. In addition to this screen, we discuss Eric's unique path to his current position and his recent PhD qualifying exam. For more information on Eric's and Dr. Aifantis' research, visit his lab page: Aifantis Lab