Minor Tweak, Major Impact

This episode is the last one before the podcast will go into a break, but we can’t wait to be back with more stories and exciting guests later this year. In this episode we speak with Dr. Laura Volpicelli-Daley who is part of the Neurodegeneration Challenge Network. Laura is an Associate Professor in the Neurology department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience in the lab of Dr. Allan Levey at Emory University where she studied how neuronal protein trafficking is disrupted in Alzheimer’s Disease. She then trained in the fundamentals of neuron cell biology at Yale University, followed by Neurodegenerative Disease training at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode we speak with Laura about her work, her involvement with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Neurodegeneration Challenge Network, challenges with methods for neurodegeneration and more. Links:Volpicelli-Daley Lab - https://www.volpicellidaleylab.org/Generation and Sonication of α-synuclein Fibrils Protocol

In this show, we had the pleasure of speaking with Steve Henikoff who studies chromosomes, chromatin dynamics and epigenetics and develops genomics and computational tools to facilitate this research. He received a BS from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Harvard University and did post-doctoral work at the University of Washington. He has been a faculty member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center since 1981. He is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, an affiliate professor of Genome Sciences at the University of Washington, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and co-Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal Epigenetics & Chromatin. In this episode we’re talking with Steve about his work, his approach to method development and refinement, and more.Links:Steven Henikoff protocols.io publications - https://www.protocols.io/researchers/steven-henikoff/protocolsHuman Cell Atlas - https://www.humancellatlas.org/CUT&Tag@home was recently chosen by the The Scientist

In this first episode of 2021, we had the pleasure of speaking with Chelsea Connor, who is a herpetologist, science communicator and artist from the Commonwealth of Dominica. Her love for animals started a long time ago and she always knew she wanted to work with animals. Never having seen someone who looked like occupying the spaces she is now and hopes to expand to, she hopes to inspire and pave the way for many other Black naturalists and nature lovers. In this episode, we’re talking with Chelsea about her work, herpetology, lizards, anoles, science communications and more.Links:DewPops stickers - https://www.redbubble.com/people/chelseaherps/shop?asc=uChelsea Connor Twitter - https://twitter.com/ChelseaHerpsChelsea Connor Website - https://chelseaconnor.carrd.co/#DidYouAnole SciComm Game - https://twitter.com/search?q=%23DidYouAnole&src=hashtag_click&f=liveAnole Annals - https://www.anoleannals.org/iNaturalist - https://www.inaturalist.org/

This is last episode for 2020 of the Minor Tweak, Major Impact podcast but don’t worry, we will be back in 2021 with more episodes and exciting guests. In this episode we are speaking with Andrew Bertera who is the Executive Director of Marketing & Sales at New England Biolabs, Inc. Andy joined New England Biolabs in 2009, having previously worked in a variety of R&D, marketing and senior management positions at Amersham, GE and Promega. As Executive Director of Marketing and Sales at NEB, Andy is responsible for the development and implementation of NEB’s marketing strategies and tactics across its entire product portfolio. Andy also oversees its US Sales and Customer Service activities and organizations. His role at NEB involves the direct management of the customer service, marketing, and sales professionals, covering the disciplines of market research, product management, channel and order management, US sales, digital marketing, and scientific and marketing communications. Andy is also the NEB representa

In this episode we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Véronique Kiermer, who is the Chief Scientific Officer at PLOS, the Public Library of Science, where she oversees the Editorial Department and initiatives to promote open science. She trained as a molecular biologist at the University of Brussels and the University of California, San Francisco, and she also worked in the biotech industry in the Bay Area. Veronique started her career in publishing as the founding Chief Editor of Nature Methods, and held several roles at Nature Publishing Group, including the Publisher for Nature Protocols, and executive editor for the Nature journals before moving to PLOS in 2015. We’re talking with Veronique about her experience with initiatives that encourage researchers to report method details, code, data, etc. as part of their research output. And you will also get a sneak preview of a new exciting initiative of PLOS in partnership with protocols.io that will be launched in early 2021.Links:Materials Design Analysis

This is the fourth episode of our Plant Science Series and in this episode we are talking to Dr. Gioia Massa. On November 2nd, 2020 we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the International Space Station (ISS) and we had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Gioia Massa who is a NASA scientist at Kennedy Space Center in Florida working on food production for the International Space Station and future exploration endeavors. Gioia is researching ways to grow fresh food for astronauts and there is a lot to learn about in this episode about plant science, challenges with crop production for space and more. Links:Growing Plants in Space - https://www.nasa.gov/content/growing-plants-in-spaceNASA’s International Space Station 20th Anniversary page - https://www.nasa.gov/station20

This is the third episode of our Plant Science Series and in this episode we are talking to Dr. Elena Hilario. Elena Hilario was born in Mexico City where she studied Biology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and later a masters in Biochemistry at the same university. Five years later, The University of Connecticut awarded her a PhD in Molecular and Cell biology under the guidance of Dr. Peter Gogarten where she studied how the vacuolar ATPase of the protist Giardia lamblia is a good model for the study of the evolution of early eukaryotes. A postdoc on the effect of horizontal gene transfer on the evolution of Pseudomonas species brought her to New Zealand in 1998 working at Landcare Research, followed by a permanent position as scientist at Plant and Food Research working on physical mapping and genome sequencing of several plants and lately fish and insects. In this episode we’re talking with Elena about her research, challenges, her experience of training others and more.Links:Genom

This is the second episode of our Plant Science Series and we had the pleasure of speaking with Melissa Molho who is a Ph.D. candidate in the Plant Pathology Department at the University of Kentucky where she studies virus-host interactions in plants. She likes doing outreach activities to promote plant health and advocating for diversity and inclusion in science. Melissa is originally from Mexico City and she loves learning about different cultures. She also enjoys reading suspense books and historical novels. In this episode we talked with Melissa about her work, minor tweaks in plant pathology methods, challenges for international students, her work as an International Student Advocate and more. Links:International Student Concerns Committee - https://www.uky.edu/gsc/international-student-concerns-committee

This is the first episode of our Plant Science series and we are excited to have Dr. Robb Shirazi as a guest for this episode. Dr. Shirazi received his Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State University and he then worked as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Oregon State University first in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, then in the Department of Horticulture on a project for Quality assessment for nursery crop production. Since 2007, he has been working as a Research Horticulturist at his own Horticulture Research Group based in Hollister, California. In this episode, we are talking with Robb about his Ph.D. and postdoc projects, challenges in method development for horticulture, how minor tweaks in methods can have a major impact on the outcome, and more. Links:Horticulture Research Group - http://hortrg.com

This is a special episode, as this is our first episode with two guests. We had the pleasure of speaking with Kali Mahrer and Dr. Kaelyn Sumigray from Yale University. Kali is currently a MS student post-graduate associate in the Sumigray Lab at Yale School of Medicine. The lab, and her own project, focuses on the small intestine, with crypt morphogenesis being a major area of interest-particularly when it comes to the role of cell shape changes in developing crypts. In her spare time, she likes to talk to others about accessibility in STEM fields.Kaelyn is Kali’s PI and she is originally from upstate New York but spent the majority of her adult life in North Carolina, where she earned a PhD in Cell Biology from Duke University, followed by two postdoctoral positions at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then Duke University. At Duke, she worked in the lab of Dr. Terry Lechler studying intestinal crypt morphogenesis. She started her own lab in the Department of Genetics at Yale University a year ag

Cori Bargmann is a neuroscientist and geneticist. She received a BS in biochemistry from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cori has studied the relationships between genes, circuits, and behaviors in the genetically tractable nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans as a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco (1991-2004) and at the Rockefeller University as the Torsten N. Wiesel Professor and Head of the Lulu and Anthony Wang Laboratory of Neural Circuits and Behavior (2004-present). Cori’s work has been recognized by scientific honors including a 2012 Kavli Prize in Neuroscience, the 2013 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and she also co-chaired the NIH working group to the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director for President Obama’s Brain Initiative. In 2016, Cori joined the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as its first Head of Science. CZI Science has the mission of supporting the science and technology that will make it possible to cure,

Ross has recently completed his PhD at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. Ross has worked on modern tools for fine-tuned regulation of gene expression in bacteria, with a focus on applying statistical modelling techniques and QbD and Design of Experiments to rapidly engineer and optimise genetic toolkits. Ross is currently working at the University of Manchester as a postdoctoral research associate in the lab of Dr. Neil Dixon, but will shortly be starting a new position at Syngenta as an Automation Scientist. In this episode we’re talking with Ross about his work, Design of Experiments, Computer-Aided Biology, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and more.Referenced LinksSurvey and CAB website:https://www.computeraidedbiology.com/cab-surveyhttps://www.computeraidedbiology.comPaper explaining why we need DoE:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26505134Synthace articles on DoE:https://synthace.com/blog/2020/6/4/heres-why-you-should-stop-doing-science-like-you-were-taught-in-high-school-part-1https://synt

Richard Harris has been a science correspondent at National Public Radio since 1986. He took a break from that to write Rigor Mortis – a book about rigor and reproducibility in biomedical research, which was published in 2017. Rigor Mortis was a finalist for the 2018 National Academies Communication Award. In this episode we’re talking to Richard about his experience as a science writer, the Rigor Mortis book and Minor Tweak Major Impact stories that it covers, as well as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.Referenced Links:Book “Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions”https://www.amazon.com/Rigor-Mortis-Science-Worthless-Billions/dp/0465097901

Juita Martinez is a wildlife conservationist and a 3rd year BOR-SREB doctoral fellow at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. For her dissertation research she is studying the effects of barrier & bay island restoration on Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) demography and reproductive ecology in coastal Louisiana. She focuses on utilizing non-invasive techniques to gain a better understanding of how organisms utilize their natural habitats. Juita’s work aims to aid in the conservation of her study organisms and communicate ways to inspire generations after her to do the same.Referenced Links:Juita's Twitter - https://twitter.com/JuitaMartinezJuita’s Website - https://juitamartinez.weebly.com/

Dr. Shai Silberberg is the Director of Research Quality at the NIH National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) leading the Institute efforts to increase the excellence of science and the completeness of research reporting. Prior to joining NINDS, Dr. Silberberg was an Associate Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, investigating the biophysical functions and physiological roles of ion channels.

Naomi is a senior staff scientist in the DNA pipelines research and development team at the Sanger Institute. Thirteen years ago, her PhD included researching improvements to multiplex PCR – an integral method to many of the processes she has since been involved with at Sanger. Discovering this experience would be extremely useful in the midst of a pandemic is something she didn’t see coming..Referenced Links:Josh Quick 2020. nCoV-2019 sequencing protocol. dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bbmuik6wCOVID-19 ARTIC v3 Illumina library construction and sequencing protocol. dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bgxjjxknNaomi’s Tweethttps://twitter.com/SequencingPark/status/1263802155816947715?s=20

Dr. Matthew DeGennaro’s laboratory at Florida International University studies the molecular genetics of mosquito host detection and the vector ecology of Aedes aegypti. During his postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University with Leslie Vosshall, he used the first mosquito mutant to study behavior in yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti. His work has explored how mosquitoes sense human sweat, choose a host, and avoid repellents like DEET. Matt’s current goal is to identify the critical olfactory receptors that mosquitoes need to find humans and use these genes to identify new attractants and repellents.Referenced Links:DeGennaro Labhttp://www.degennarolab.org/

Rebecca Nance is a research assistant and PhD student in Dr. Bruce Smith's lab in the Scott-Ritchey Research Center at the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine in Auburn, Alabama. Rebecca is involved in modifying Canine Adenovirus Type 2 to explore targeted oncolytic virotherapy in dogs. Using a transcriptomic sequencing approach, the team aims to identify potential targets that are unique to cancerous tissue when compared to the corresponding tissue of origin. In this show, she discusses simple protocol modifications that allowed the isolation of moderately intact RNA from the dense, brittle, and hypocellular bone matrix of canine phalanges, with minimal contamination from connective tissue and marrow, in a quantity and quality suitable for transcriptomic sequencing.Referenced Links:A method for isolating RNA from canine bone, BioTechniques.https://doi.org/10.2144/btn-2019-0153A method for isolating RNA from canine bone, protocols.io.dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bf9vjr66

Dr. Lenny Teytelman has over a decade of computational and experimental biology experience. He did his graduate studies at UC Berkeley, and it was his struggle with correcting a published research method as a postdoc at MIT that led him to cofound protocols.io. Lenny brings to protocols.io a strong passion for open access, sharing knowledge, and improving research efficiency through technology.Referenced Links:Fixation of yeast cells for RNA-FISH V.1https://www.protocols.io/view/Fixation-of-yeast-cells-for-RNA-FISH-fbjbikn/abstractModified protocol for URA3 counter-selection at highly expressed regions of Saccharomyces cerevisiaehttps://www.protocols.io/view/modified-protocol-for-ura3-counter-selection-at-hi-bf7njrme/abstract

Dr. Kenneth Yamada has been an NIH Distinguished Investigator since 2011. He has been a Section Chief at the National Cancer Institute and currently at the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research at NIH. His research focuses on discovering novel mechanisms of cell interactions with the extracellular matrix and their roles in cell migration and tissue reorganization in embryonic development and cancer. He has published more than 400 papers that are highly cited. His Additional interests include research reproducibility, enhancing diversity, and mentoring the next generation of researchers.Referenced Links:NIH Rigor and Reproducibility Best Practiceshttps://www.nih.gov/research-training/rigor-reproducibility2016 NIH Case Study on Research Reproducibilityhttps://oir.nih.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/sourcebook/documents/ethical_conduct/case_studies-2016.pdf