Season 3: Risk Takers and Game Changers

The Symbiotic Podcast is about collaborative discovery: showing how scientists from different fields can come together to solve problems too complex for any one of them. Those teams need people willing to challenge the status quo, question the common knowledge, and sometimes, put their necks on the line. Season three features some of these risk-takers and game-changers.

Season 3: Risk Takers and Game Changers

Season 3 Episodes

Episode 06: Changing the Game in Stem Cell Engineering: Xiaojun (Lance) Lian

September 28, 2022 / Season 03 / Episode 06 / 00:45:02

Stem cell research has progressed dramatically in recent years, with cells now harvested from uncontroversial sources and manipulated into useful forms with ever-increasing specificity. In this conversation, Lance Lian explains his key advancements in stem cell engineering and the potential medical applications they promise.

Featured Guest:

Xiaojun (Lance) Lian

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Episode 05: Changing the Game in Epigenetics: Sally Mackenzie

June 30, 2022 / Season 03 / Episode 05 / 00:49:00

Sally Mackenzie is one of the world’s foremost experts on epigenetics, the study of how environmental changes affect the way genes are expressed. In this conversation we cover an epigenetic techniques she’s patented, the biotech company she founded, and the potential role that epigenetics could play in human health.

Featured Guest:

Sally Mackenzie

Relevant Links:

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Episode 04: Changing the Game in Ancient DNA Research: Laura Weyrich

April 28, 2022 / Season 03 / Episode 04 / 00:43:56

Laura Weyrich leads efforts to better understand the impact of diet on the communities of microorganisms residing in our mouths, and their influence on human health. In this livestreamed conversation, she talks about her work with Neanderthal teeth, the ethics of dealing with human remains, and shifts in human activity that have changed the makeup of our microbiomes.

Featured Guest:

Laura Weyrich

Relevant Links:

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Episode 03: Changing the Game in Global Pediatrics: Dr. Steven Schiff

March 31, 2022 / Season 03 / Episode 03 / 00:46:15

Dr. Steven Schiff has spent much of his career fighting the scourge of infant infection, especially in low and middle-income countries with minimal healthcare infrastructure. In this livestreamed conversation, he explains the difficulties of working in places like Mbale, Uganda and Hanoi, Vietnam; shares hard-won victories in treatment and prevention; and forecasts future possibilities.

Featured Guest:

Dr. Steven Schiff

Relevant Links:

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Episode 02: Changing the Game in Epidemiology: Nita Bharti

February 24, 2022 / Season 03 / Episode 02 / 00:50:30

Nita Bharti is an expert on the interplay of population movement and disease and a pioneer in the use of unorthodox data sources to better inform public health decisions. In this livestreamed conversation, she shares her open-minded, intellectually curious approach to epidemiology on multiple continents, working with people, animals, and spillover events between the two.

Featured Guest:

Nita Bharti

Relevant Links:

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Episode 01: Changing the Game in Food Security: David Hughes

January 27, 2022 / Season 03 / Episode 01 / 00:48:34

David Hughes has won a number of accolades, both from the academic world and in the mainstream media, for his work with PlantVillage. In this livestreamed opening episode of season three, Hughes talks about the factors in his life and career that have made him so effective and iconoclastic.

Featured Guest:

David Hughes

Relevant Links:

SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, TuneIn, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Castro, Castbox, RSS Feed, YouTube


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