Ep. 38: Wood Thrushes and Canadian Wildlife Ecology with Alex Israel
The Straight from a Scientist Podcast
Release Date: 11/14/2018
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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Deep Brain Degeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease with Dr. Lea Grinberg & Research Team
The Straight from a Scientist Podcast
Deep Brain Degeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease with Dr. Lea Grinberg & Research Team Losing Control from the Locus Coeruleus, starring Jonathan Chen, Felipe Pereira, and Ian Oh This episode kicks off a series all about my recent work in neurodegenerative disease, with a an emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease, a devastating and complex dementia and a major focus of my (Dr. Connor Wander’s) dissertation at UNC Chapel Hill. And where better to start than where the first major pathological changes of tau, a disordered protein that goes dysfunctional in the brain, begins to accumulate and kill...
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Season 2 Episode 1: Neural Networks on Noradrenaline
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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Ep56- Unlocking Genetic Regulation
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
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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E54- Supermassive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies
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
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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Ep 52 - Diabetes and Placental Epigenetics
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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Ep. 51 – New Cancer Therapies & Targeting Cancer Biology
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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Ep.50 - Alzheimer's disease FAQ
The Straight from a Scientist Podcast
What is Alzheimer's disease? Who can get Alzheimer's, and how does the disease progress? Maya Gostyla and Connor Wander break down the state of Alzheimer's disease treatments, risk factors, and potential breakthroughs in the field. Related Episodes If you like this episode, we have tons of You can hear more about Further Reading about Alzheimer's disease from the experts on where Alzheimer's research and therapies are today. For more in-depth analysis of developments in AD and other neurodegenerative diseases, check out for Alzheimer’s disease background reading....
info_outlineFor Part Two in our wildlife ecology series, we talked with Alexandra Israel, a Master's student at York University. As a field biologist, Alex works long days in Canada researching species like the Wood Thrush and the worrying decline of songbird populations.
So listen in to hear about her experience with field work, as well as issues such as nest predation and bird parasites that hurt songbird populations. Learn about small things people can do to help songbird populations, including keeping domestic cats indoors and using stickers to deter bird from flying into windows. We also talk about forest fragmentation, the process by which urbanization breaks up forests with fields and human spaces, detrimental to songbirds and other animals.
About Alex
Alexandra Israel is Master’s student from York University, Ontario. She studies a threatened species of songbird in Canada called the Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelina). Bird nests that are more hidden from predators (like foxes, hawks, raccoons, etc.) are probably more likely to survive, right? Actually, this isn’t always true! Previous studies have shown that nest concealment does not play a role in determining nest survival for some species of songbirds. For this reason, Alex is interested in learning more about the nesting strategies of Wood Thrushes and how they choose their nesting sites. Any information that she learns about the nesting strategies of Wood Thrushes could be useful for informing future conservation efforts for this declining species.
Connect with Alex on Instagram.
Listen to last week's episode, part one in our wildlife ecology series, Conservation and Rainforest Ecology with Stephanie Martin
Any other questions? Let us know! We appreciate your feedback.
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