The history of fermented foods like beer, bread, and other foods can be traced back thousands of years to ancient civilizations in China and Egypt. This ancient technology was originally used to preserve foods when refrigeration was not an option. While less common in modern industrialized civilizations, we’re now realizing that fermented foods play a major role in gut microbiome diversity, which is a biomarker for overall health.

Join our conversation with Dr. John Leech, Technologist at Teagasc in County Cork, Ireland to learn all about the history and how cutting-edge technologies are being applied to research in food fermentation. John shares his story of how he found this field of research and how he’s now headlong into striving to understand and harness the power of fermented foods. We learn about the complex microbial communities that define and deliver the health benefits of these foods, but we also hear about how this biological complexity makes them inherently irreproducible.

Foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, kombucha, tepache, milk kefir, and water kefir are produced from fermentation, facilitated by complex communities of microbes. Consumption of fermented foods can alter our gut microbiome, which has been shown to affect obesity, inflammation, longevity, and efficacy of drug treatments. John and his team are using qPCR, NGS, and other methods to characterize the microbial consortia used to produce these foods. They’re now working to figure out how to simplify the consortium while still delivering health benefits, all while making the process reproducible and scalable

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Speaking of Mol Bio Podcast | Thermo Fisher Scientific - US

Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology.

While some of us knew a good bit about mRNA prior to 2020, we all got a crash course on mRNA technology and its prophylactic and therapeutic potential as a result of the COVID pandemic and subsequent SARS CoV-2 vaccine development. In fact, most of us have now received at least one mRNA vaccine at this point.

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Christian Cobaugh, Co-founder and CEO of Vernal Biosciences, was a passionate believer in mRNA medicines well before the pandemic. Join us to hear his story and his passion for this technology. He walks us through the molecular methods by which high-purity mRNAs are now made and purified, as well as going into the lipid nanoparticle technology by which they’re commonly delivered. As a contract development and manufacturing provider, we get to learn about the state of the market and what clients of their care about today. As a seasoned expert in this space, Christian talks about the future potential of mRNA technology for applications such as personalized cancer vaccines.

If you enjoy hearing smart people talk about interesting topics with a passion, you won’t want to miss this episode!

Subscribe to get future episodes as they drop and if you like what you’re hearing we hope you’ll share a review or recommend the series to a colleague. 

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Speaking of Mol Bio Podcast | Thermo Fisher Scientific - US

Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology.

There are all sorts of molecular tests to tell if you’re infected with something specific, but what do you use when you’re not sure what you might have? You might use a thermometer as a first step, but wouldn’t it be nice if that thermometer was a bit more high tech?

In this episode we meet Dr. Nick Meyerson, CEO and co-founder of Darwin Biosciences, who’s team is working to develop the “molecular thermometer of the future.” We hear about how this physicist transitioned into molecular biology and then latched onto saliva as a sample of choice to detect early molecular indicator of infection. Nick does a great job of explaining his path leading up to the founding of Darwin Bio, the challenges of founding a company in early 2020, why saliva is their sample of choice, the beautiful simplicity of isothermal amplification methods, and the lesser-known funding routes of working with government agencies like the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA).

Join us as we dive into the molecular nature of non-specific detection of infections, how it’s done using no electricity, it’s potential applications, and what the future holds for this field. Nick also shares lessons learned and some insights on the value of mentors and a lifelong curiosity.

Subscribe to get future episodes as they drop and if you like what you’re hearing we hope you’ll share a review or recommend the series to a colleague. 

Download Transcripts:

Speaking of Mol Bio Podcast | Thermo Fisher Scientific - US

Visit the Invitrogen School of Molecular Biology to access helpful molecular biology resources and educational content, and please share this resource with anyone you know working in molecular biology.