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 episod...

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 ...

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 molec...

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 molec...

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 di...

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, improv...

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 research...

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 Ser...

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 par...

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 cancer...

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 th...

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 im...

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...

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 ...

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 Cr...

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 br...

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 ...

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 h...

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 desig...