We’re joined in this episode by Dr. Sarah Barry, Reader in Chemical Biology at King’s College London. Sarah started with an interest in biochemistry, went into organic chemistry because it was more concrete, and now applies her chemist’s approach to understanding and manipulating biosynthesis of natural products for important areas of research, including antibiotics.

This insightful conversation gives a peek into the mind of a chemical biologist’s way of thinking about and approaching challenges that span biology and chemistry. We learn about the historical challenges of discovering and synthesizing natural products, but we then hear about how innovations in molecular biology are allowing researchers to revisit this field with a new approach. Sarah and her team identify and manipulate genes, express and purify proteins in the lab, and then characterize those enzymes for their abilities to drive biocatalytic transformations that are beyond challenging using traditional organic or inorganic chemistry approaches. Our conversation spans from the details of the molecular biology methods used, to the high-level applications being explored in this research, all with an ease that only someone this interdisciplinary could do.

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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.

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

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.

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. 

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.