In this episode of Mendelspod , we plunge into the shape-shifting world of RNA with Dr. Gavin Knott, associate professor at Monash University and alum of Jennifer Doudna’s lab. Knott is part of a new generation of researchers setting structural biology ablaze with AI, decoding RNA-guided systems and expanding the CRISPR toolbox far beyond its original scope. Knott introduces the listener to RNA not just as code, but as living language. He discusses how AI now allows scientists to see molecules i...
May 29, 2025•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com For decades, drug discovery has followed two main roads: small molecules that can slip into cells but often lack precision, and biologics that offer specificity but struggle with delivery and manufacturing. In this episode, Christian Schafmeister introduces us to a third path: spiroligomers —synthetic, fused-ring molecules designed to combine the best of…...
May 22, 2025•4 min
What if drug design didn’t depend on pre-existing biological data? In this episode of Mendelspod , Theral sits down with Aridni Shah, co-founder and CEO of Immunito AI, a Bengaluru-based biotech startup reinventing how we develop antibody therapies. Shah and her team are using artificial intelligence to design antibodies from scratch , bypassing traditional animal-based and data-heavy methods. “We no longer need to rely on pre-existing data,” she explains. “We’ve gone to the fundamental atomic l...
May 15, 2025•22 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Yes, the Trump economy has been tough on life science tools—but according to today’s guest, the business model was failing us anyway. It’s time to go back to rethinking the basics. Today we’re joined by Stephane Budel , founding partner at DeciBio , one of the leading market research and consulting firms focused on life science tools and precision medicine…...
May 13, 2025•4 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com On today’s episode of Mendelspod , Theral sits down with Giovanna Prout, CEO of Scale Biosciences , to explore a how the company is achieving new orders of magnitude of scale in the single cell space. "In the past, single cell was one cell per well—maybe 96 cells per experiment," Prout explains. "Now, with our Quantum Scale platform, we can scale from 85,…...
May 08, 2025•5 min
What if you could step inside a molecule ? On today’s episode of Mendelspod , we talk with Steve McCloskey, founder and CEO of Nanome , the company bringing virtual reality into the world of drug discovery and molecular modeling. A former nanoengineering student at UC San Diego and a self-described futurist, Steve founded Nanome to create what he calls the "ultimate scientific interface"—a way for scientists not just to visualize molecules, but to interact with them naturally in 3D space. * 0:00...
May 01, 2025•42 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Wait! What? Sequencing as a service? That was the reaction when Mark Budde first set out to upend a basic ritual in molecular biology—confirmation Sanger sequencing—with his company Plasmidsaurus. You’ve heard it many times: Illumina machines sequence around 80% of the bases in the world. But as Mark points out in today’s interview, it’s not 80% of th…...
Apr 29, 2025•5 min
Just weeks before the FDA’s sweeping rule to regulate laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) was set to take effect, a federal court struck it down. What does this mean for the field of precision medicine and for labs themselves? There are have been those on the side of regulation arguing its importance for reimbursement. Yet many, such as the plaintiffs in this case, the ACLA and AMP, have argued that FDA regulation could stifle innovation in a new field and even force labs to shut down. Today we ta...
Apr 22, 2025•38 min
In today’s show, Theral is joined by Chris Petersen, Chief Technology Officer at Scientist.com, a company sometimes called the "Amazon for science"—though with a great deal more complexity. Chris pulls back the curtain on how AI is transforming the research services marketplace and offers a rare look into how AI is already reshaping the infrastructure of pharma and biotech. Calling this the "tinkering phase" of AI, Chris likens the current moment to the early days of the web—when best practices ...
Apr 17, 2025•27 min
In today’s program, we continue our series on disease subtyping with Dr. Jeffery Klco, a pediatric pathologist and researcher at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dr. Klco joins us to discuss groundbreaking work recently published in Nature Genetics , which redefines the genomic landscape of childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Klco and his team have identified twelve novel molecular subtypes of pediatric AML—some driven by genetic alterations that had long gone undetected by standard co...
Apr 15, 2025•25 min
Dr. Aaron Viny, oncologist and researcher at Columbia University , begins today’s conversation with a personal milestone—he’s now been leukemia-free for 21 years. This experience gives his work on cancer a powerful human dimension that comes through in his interview with Theral today—not only in his dedication to patient care, but in his boundary-pushing research on the epigenetic roots of cancer. Dr. Viny’s research focuses on the epigenetic architecture of hematologic malignancies, exploring h...
Apr 10, 2025•41 min
We’re happy to welcome back Ben Busby, Principal Scientist at DNAnexus, to dive deeper into the evolving world of disease subtyping and multi-omic data sets. Building on our previous conversation with Busby about the genomic data ecosystem, we explore the shift from single-cause disease models to multifaceted approaches that incorporate genomics, proteomics, imaging, and more. "We’re no longer in a world where we’re doing genomics or imaging or proteomics," he explains. "These things are all com...
Apr 03, 2025•30 min
John Cumbers , founder of SynBioBeta, joins Theral for our annual look ahead at the field of synthetic biology and the upcoming SynBioBeta 2025 conference , happening May 6–9 in San Jose . It's obviously a big year for AI, and synthetic biology is no exception. As John puts it, “Biology and AI coming together represents a huge opportunity for us to be able to understand biology and then ultimately engineer biology.” This year’s conference features a strong emphasis on AI's role in scaling and ac...
Apr 01, 2025•38 min
Today Theral is joined by returning guests Chris Mason of Weill Cornell Medicine and Simon Fredriksson , CEO of Pixelgen Technologies, for a deep dive into the emerging field of cell surface proteomics and its power to illuminate both space biology and cancer research. Chris Mason shares new insights from his work on the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), the largest collection of astronaut health data to date. His latest findings confirm that space is more than a hostile environment—it’s a r...
Mar 27, 2025•24 min
In our last episode, we explored the growing shift from genomics to multi-omics. But for Pacific Biosciences CEO Christian Henry, the foundation of discovery remains clear: “ DNA is still where it’s at. ” PacBio is doubling down on long-read sequencing, committed to delivering on its promise of accuracy and completeness. 2024 marks a “watershed year ” for PacBio, with the launch of the Vega system—a benchtop long-read sequencer at an unprecedented $169,000 price point—alongside major advancement...
Mar 20, 2025•39 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com It’s time for our annual deep dive into sequencing—no, wait— multi-omics ! Back on the show is our resident sequencing guru, Keith Robison, scientist at Ginkgo Bioworks and author of the OmicsOmics blog . Keith is our all time return champion, and as always, he brings technical experience alongside the storytelling instincts of a seasoned journalist. Keith …...
Mar 13, 2025•8 min
This week on Mendelspod , as we celebrate International Women’s Day, we’re spotlighting groundbreaking contributions from women in science. Our guest, Dr. Mirna Ghemrawi , is at the forefront of forensic genetics, where DNA analysis meets the pursuit of justice. As Associate Director at the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education, Ghemrawi applies next-gen sequencing and AI to some of the most challenging questions in forensic biology. Originally from Lebanon, Ghemrawi’s path to foren...
Mar 06, 2025•21 min
In this urgent and unflinching conversation, Stanford law professor Hank Greely returns to Mendelspod to address the mounting threats of the Trump administration to public science funding and the institutions that regulate medicine. As the NIH faces existential challenges and the FDA comes under fire, Greely lays out a compelling case for why government-supported research remains essential—not just for innovation, but for maintaining a functional society. “Research is like fishing,” Greely expla...
Mar 04, 2025•34 min
For decades, drug developers have struggled with so-called "undruggable" proteins—those regions of the proteome that evade traditional small molecules and antibodies. But Aikium , led by Eswar Iyer , could be changing the game. In today’s show, Iyer, a prolific scientist with over 100 patents and a background in George Church’s lab, shares how his company is tackling one of the toughest challenges in therapeutics. At the heart of Aikium’s approach is Yotta-ML 2 , an AI-powered wet lab platform t...
Feb 27, 2025•32 min
Today Theral talks with Laura Hercher , Director of Research for Human Genetics at Sarah Lawrence College , about the growing political assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in scientific research. With the NIH facing sweeping budget cuts and DEI programs cancelled, Hercher makes a compelling case for why diversity isn’t just a social or moral issue—but a scientific imperative. "What you're cutting is cancer funding. What you're cutting is Alzheimer's research. What you'r...
Feb 10, 2025•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com Lung cancer is the most deadly of all the cancers worldwide. Very few of those who should be— are getting screened. There is enormous medical need here, and early cancer detection through advanced liquid biopsy could be a tremendous part of the answer. Today, as part of our series on the future of genetic testing, we welcome Susan Tousi, CEO of Delfi Diagnostics, a company pioneering next-generation liquid biopsy te...
Feb 06, 2025•6 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com In our first conversation with Deep Genomics, Theral sits down with Brendan Frey, the company's founder and Chief Innovation Officer, to explore the power of AI in RNA biology and drug discovery. Frey, a pioneer in deep learning who trained in the lab of AI luminary Geoffrey Hinton, shares how his personal experience in genetics back in 2002 led him to merge machine learning with genomic medicine. The company has a ...
Jan 30, 2025•6 min
In this Mendelspod episode, Theral explores the state of genome informatics with Ben Busby, principal scientist at DNAnexus. Busby reflects on his journey into the field, which was influenced by key projects and experiences during his time at the NCBI and his genomics hackathons. He outlines the current genome informatics landscape, emphasizing DNAnexus' role in fostering collaboration. Busby highlights transformative movements to refine disease subtyping based on haplotype data, underscoring th...
Jan 23, 2025•31 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com As 2025 begins, we are launching a new series The New Genetic Testing. To do that we’re welcoming today Dr. Ezra Cohen, Chief Medical Officer at Tempus to offer a behind-the-scenes look at how the company is transforming healthcare through cutting-edge AI. With its recent successful IPO, Tempus has firmly established itself as a leader in genomic testing and multimodal data integration and empowering providers and l...
Jan 16, 2025•6 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com This week we welcome the innovative minds behind PredixBio, a new and groundbreaking company at the forefront of spatial biology. CEO Dusty Majumdar and co-founder Chakra Chennubhotla join us to discuss their mission to revolutionize cancer therapeutics through spatially intelligent biology. Founded in 2018 and supported by NIH grants, PredixBio focuses on unraveling the tumor microenvironment's heterogeneity using ...
Jan 10, 2025•5 min
This year in a series co-produced with GenomeWeb we had an exclusive look into Illumina’s work in genomic AI with Kyle Farh, the VP and Distinguished Scientist leading the Illumina Artificial Intelligence Lab. "We lack a way of training genomic AI as readily as you would for natural language processing,” says Farh. "There are vast amounts of data, but there are no labels, no supervision. One of the most powerful tools that we’ve found is using clues from natural selection.” Farh says the company...
Dec 19, 2024•29 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com In this episode of Mendelspod, Theral sits down with Dr. Mohamad Takwa, co-founder and CEO of Epigenica, a Swedish startup revolutionizing epigenetic research. Epigenica is positioning itself at the forefront of this new and rapidly growing field with a mission to empower researchers through large-scale epigenetic profiling....
Dec 05, 2024•5 min
Coming from the field of digital pathology, Joachim Schmid has a unique perspective on the evolution of multi-omics. Schmid was recently appointed as Vice President of Multiomics Data Solutions at Illumina.In this episode, Theral dives into the burgeoning field of multi-omics—integrating data from various omic layers such as genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics—and the massive data challenges that come with it. Schmid discusses how sequencing costs are plummeting, leading to an explosion in...
Nov 21, 2024•24 min
Dr. Mark Lewis is a well known GI oncologist at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City, Utah. Gifted with a passionate communication style, he has over 93,000 Twitter followers. Next month, he will live-tweet his upcoming colonoscopy. In this episode, Dr. Lewis joins Theral in our ongoing series on minimal residual disease (MRD) testing, a revolutionary blood test that is helping detect residual cancer causing a paradigm shift in patient management. Dr. Lewis belongs to a pioneering group that a...
Nov 14, 2024•35 min
When Bill Clinton announced the sequencing of the human genome in 2000, the New York Times ran the following headline on the front page: "Genetic Code of Human Life is Cracked By Scientists.”We’re still living up to that headline. Ed Abrahams has led the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) for twenty years. Before his retirement in December, we asked him to join us to reflect on his tenure and take stock of the field. PMC was established as a “catalyst” and organizer to bring the various stake...
Nov 12, 2024•28 min
