The Scientist Speaks

For centuries, people have relied on materials such as concrete, steel, and wood for the construction of buildings, bridges, and other structures. However, researchers have started exploring a far less conventional material for building therapeutics at the molecular level—DNA.

In this episode, Charlene Lancaster from The Scientist spoke with Björn Högberg, a professor of biophysics at the Karolinska Institute, to learn how his team...

Deep within the gut’s epithelial layer are specialized sensory cells that convert mechanical stimuli to electrical signals and convey this information to nerve cells. As researchers home in on the basic mechanisms of gut touch, the concept of gut feeling is taking on new significance and providing hope for the millions of people living with gastrointestinal disorders.

In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist spoke with Ar...

Bioelectrical gradients guide embryonic development by creating an electrical scaffold for tissue and organ growth. Researchers harness the power of bioelectricity to devise strategies for regenerating various tissues, including promoting brain recovery after stroke.

In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist spoke with Paul George, a physician scientist in the Department of Neurology at Stanford University, to learn more a...

Traditional and new cancer therapies often become stymied due to tumor resistance, but why resistance arises and how to avoid it remain important questions in the cancer research field. To uncover the ways tumors form, adapt, and ultimately resist treatment, scientists investigate how genetic mutations arise and drive cancer cell evolution.

In this month’s episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist spoke with Bishoy Faltas, an asso...

Retinal neurons derived from human stem cells are a promising source of replacement cells for regenerating damaged or diseased retinas. As scientists progress toward translation of cell therapies for restoring vision, they encounter challenges, including how to deliver the cells, ensure that they integrate appropriately with host tissue, and enable proper function after transplantation.

In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scie...

Early diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s disease is critical to slowing its progression. Long before neurological symptoms appear, patients exhibit early signs, some of which are associated with specific chemical scent signatures known as volatile organic compounds. Researchers study these as early biomarkers of disease for future diagnostics applications.

In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist spoke with Drupad Tri...

Just like people declutter their homes to prevent the accumulation of broken or unwanted items, cells use autophagy to maintain homeostasis. This essential cleaning process enables them to capture and degrade unnecessary or dysfunctional macromolecules, such as damaged organelles, protein aggregates, and microbial pathogens. As a result, autophagy is a fundamental defense mechanism employed by cells to control and clear viral infec...

Gut microbes affect humans in many ways, including altering the gastrointestinal tract’s function and influencing a person’s body weight, and the nutrients that people ingest can affect the microbiome. Researchers now ask how popular weight loss strategies involving calorie restriction change the bugs in our guts and human health overall.

In this episode, Niki Spahich from The Scientist spoke with Alex Mohr, a postdoctoral fellow...

Rare diseases often remain undiagnosed due to unknown etiologies. In recent years, researchers have made headway in characterizing the molecular causes of rare diseases thanks to progressively powerful sequencing technologies, such as whole genome and exome sequencing.

In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist spoke with medical geneticist and chair of the department of pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital, Wendy Chung...

Building miniature brains may sound like a page out of a science fiction novel, but fact is indeed stranger than fiction. Researchers around the world grow brain organoids—3D miniature brains—to better understand brain development, aging, injury, and other disorders, as well as to test new treatment strategies. Some scientists take brain building to the next level by launching their brain organoids into outer space.

In this episode...

As a maternal-fetal immunologist at the Washington University School of Medicine, Nardhy Gómez-López investigates the immunobiological pathways that underlie pregnancy complications. Having trained and researched across the globe alongside caring and curious physicians, Gómez-López became hooked on perinatal immunology research. Motivated to help solve the prevalent problem of preterm birth, she currently looks at labor and birth, ...

In the 1960s, researchers in England noticed an anomaly when investigating chromosomes from surgically removed human tumors. Distinct from the intact chromosomes visible underneath the microscope were numerous “very small double chromatin bodies,” which are today better known as extrachromosomal DNA. Thanks to modern sequencing and imaging techniques, researchers now know that these tiny bits of circular DNA play a big role in canc...

As the Golub Family Professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University, Paola Arlotta seeks to understand how the human brain is formed and what makes it unique. After being inspired by her high school science teacher, Antonio Vecchia, Arlotta pursued a research path that led to her current work exploring the cerebral cortex by growing human organoids in 3D cell culture and investigating their development with si...

Researchers now employ artificial intelligence (AI) models based on deep learning to make functional predictions about big datasets. While the concepts behind these networks are well established, their inner workings are often invisible to the user. The emerging area of explainable AI (xAI) provides model interpretation techniques that empower life science researchers to uncover the underlying basis on which AI models make such pre...

The field of psychedelics research has exploded in recent years, as scientists dig deeper into the neuroscience and pharmacology of hallucinogens and how their unique properties can be harnessed to understand and treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases. Remarkably, the human body produces its own endogenous psychedelics, the reasons for which have impl...

Every cell within the human body contains the same DNA, but not all cells look and act alike. The key to cellular diversity lies in which genes the cells express or shut down. Cells convey this information to the appropriate machinery through epigenetic modifications. In this episode, Charlene Lancaster from The Scientist spoke with Jonathan Weissman from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Luke Gilbert from the Universit...

Cloud-based systems enable remote science experiments, allowing researchers to accomplish experimental breakthroughs from virtually any location with computer access. Remote labs and cloud-connected instruments are revolutionizing the way researchers approach benchwork, improving scientific discovery and education by enabling accessible and automated workflows.

In this episode, Deanna MacNeil from The Scientist spoke with Mohammed ...

Researchers apply the principles of synthetic biology to address some of the most pressing human health challenges. In what some consider a science and an artform, scientists use bacterial components in creative ways to create synthetic cells for cancer research.

In this episode, Iris Kulbatski from The Scientist’s Creative Services Team spoke with Kate Adamala, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota and a synthetic ...

As bioengineers incorporate smart technology into more aspects of the scientific process, these updates promise to digitize and automate laborious, repetitive research tasks while simultaneously transforming the laboratory into a more accessible and connected environment. This episode highlights cutting-edge smart technologies that allow scientists to take their research to the next level by streamlining common experimental workflo...