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Ep. 24: Search and Destroy in HIV Therapy with Aaron Devanathan

The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

Release Date: 05/19/2018

Risk and Reward in Alzheimer's disease show art Risk and Reward in Alzheimer's disease

The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

Alzheimer's Disease Risk and Reward   When they hear about my work as a neurodegeneration researcher, people always ask me about Alzheimer's disease risk factors. What really causes Alzheimer's disease?  Plaque and tangle buildup   The truth is there's no one secret to staving off dementia, other than living your best life.  This doesn't mean following every impulse, but rather thinking clearly about your habits and consciously making those good habits easier to access.   Better lucky than good, but in this case it helps to be both. The kicker is that stress is...

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The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

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The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

This episode is about neural networks on noradrenaline- the key neuromodulator known to flip almost every switch in the brain!  Drs. Esteban Oryarzabal and Connor Wander break down how noradrenaline, or norepinephrine help regulate brain states useful for attention and task-switching.  The studies here cover a whole new way to interpret brain imaging studies, which could have huge implications for neuroscience everywhere! Youtube link: https://youtu.be/NyMQhw5NpG4 Please note that this episode is special- it's a preview from research that hasn't fully undergone peer review. ...

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The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

  How did you get so put together?  DNA is the blueprint, but it doesn't determine everything.  DNA gets turned into RNA, and then finally into proteins that help build your body and brain.  But there are SO many steps in that process that affect the final product- you.   The sum of these steps is a process called genetic regulation.  Genetic regulation makes sure that not all of our genes are expressed and turned into protein at the same time and same place- that would be a mess! This episode is all about genetic regulation by long, non-coding RNAs...

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Ep55- Fetal Vulnerability to Cannabis and Alcohol show art Ep55- Fetal Vulnerability to Cannabis and Alcohol

The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

Marijuana and other cannabis products are becoming increasingly available across the country, and while compounds like CBD have been shown to be safe and even helpful in adults, the side effects of cannabis products are relatively unknown when it comes to the developing fetus. We've known that alcohol causes birth defects for over 40 years, causing a condition called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) and the greater spectrum of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders .   But alcohol isn't the only commonly used substance to cause birth defects.   Dr. Parnell's lab and others shows that...

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The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

This week's episode is about the big things in life- specifically, supermassive black holes in dwarf galaxies!  Connor Wander sits down with Mugdha Polimera from UNC to talk about her work studying supermassive black holes and how their frequency in dwarf (smaller) galaxies can teach us about the formation of the universe.  She quite literally looks back in time! Mugdha explains how she studies such huge elements so far away, what her studies could mean for our understanding of the universe,  reviews her journey to be an astrophysicist, comments on some popular science myths,...

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Ep 53 - How Bacteria Survive the Immune System show art Ep 53 - How Bacteria Survive the Immune System

The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

This episode is all about bad bugs.  Specifically, a flesh-eating bacteria strain called Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus).  S. aureus is a very common bacteria that's best known for becoming resistant to antibiotics, and becoming MRSA.  Bacteria and the immune system are always at war with each other.  Antibiotics can give the body the edge in this battle, but common resistance is making this much harder in hospitals and homes across the world.  Bacteria survive these antibiotics and the immune system is left to clean up the mess.  Currently, S. aureus is a major...

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The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

  This weeks episode combines several topics you may have heard of, but never thought about in the same context!  Diabetes and epigenetics are two well-researched topics, but not in the context of fetal development.  During pregnancy, the placenta is the highway that connects a mother and fetus, so when epigenetics act on the placenta, they could have huge effects on development of the fetus and/or the mother.   We break it down straight from a scientist in this episode with Laetitia Myeyruix from in the .  I learned a LOT from this episode, and I'm sure you...

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The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

Join Lebaron (Lee) Agostini and Connor Wander in our FIRST VIDEO episode! This episode is all about Cancer Biology. Lee studies experimental cancer therapies for pancreatic cancer. New cancer therapies called combination or synergystic cancer therapies use multiple drug types to shut down, corner, and eliminate cancer cells in the body. The of this episode is available on Nov 5th at 7PM EST ! Head on over to our check it out there! Also streaming (audio only) on all the usual platforms. Further information Here's a recent paper from Lee and his lab at Jefferson University: Any...

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The Straight from a Scientist Podcast

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More Episodes

Our final ComSciCon interview is with Aaron Devanathan.  Aaron studies HIV infection and elimination in the Department of Pharmacy at UNC Chapel Hill in the Angela Kashuba Lab.  HIV, or Human Immuno-deficiency Virus, is the virus that causes AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.  While modern medicine has done wonders in treating the symptoms of an HIV infection, current drugs fail to eliminate the virus entirely.  This is because HIV is dispersed widely throughout the body.  Aaron studies how to hunt down HIV and destroy it, ultimately working towards an HIV cure.

More Information

Learn more on the Angela Kashuba lab's website

Follow the Kashuba lab on Twitter

Read about Angela Kashuba and her research on her UNC profile 

 

This episode was recorded at ComSciCon Triangle, the convention for science communicators in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina.  ComSciCon-Triangle is a conference organized by graduate students, for graduate students, focused on developing science communication skills.  Special thanks to RTI international for hosting us!  Follow ComSciCon on Twitter and check out this recently-published journal article on science communication training penned by two (former and current) committee members.

 

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