Lady Scientist Podcast

Meet Dr. Kiana Aran – recent winner of Nature's Award for Inspiring Women in Science and the brain behind The CRISPR-ChipTM, also known as the DNA Search Engine as it can search through whole genomes in minutes, with no cost of expensive lab reagents and no amplification errors. Kiana is also an Associate Professor at KGI where she runs her academic research lab www.aranlab.org. On this episode of Lady Scientist Podcast, Kiana uncovers her path to biomedical engineering, how the idea for The CRISPR-ChipTM came to her and what her personal invention process typically looks like, and the behind-the-scenes aspect of running a lab in the biomedical engineering space. You can find Kiana on https://cardeabio.com/crispr-chip/.

Learn about her new program Aran Nebula Foundation here: https://www.arannebula.org/

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Episode highlights: 1:20 Kiana discusses what it was like when she was awarded the 2021 Nature Research Award for Inspiring Women In Science.

9:23 Kiana dives into her mission to promote leadership roles for women and her thoughts around the focus on drawing women into STEM fields

11:30 Kiana recently announced that she is launching Aran Nebula. She’s discussing the meaning behind that name and how it ties into her mission to promote leadership roles for women.

14:24 Kiana uncovers the story of CRISPR-Chip and how the idea for it came to her.

23:30 Kiana discusses the long-term vision she has for the CRISPR-Chip

35:50 Kiana discusses her participation in the World CRISPR day event that brought together a panel of women leaders. Kiana chats about what it was like to collaborate with fellow panelists.

Meet Dr. Alina Chan, a molecular biologist and author of Viral, a book she co-wrote with renowned science writer Matt Ridley, where they go on the hunt for the origin of COVID-19. The book is educational and at times shocking, covering everything from pangolins and horseshoe bats to internet sleuths and misleading scientific papers.

Alina is also a postdoc fellow at the Broad Institute, a biomedical and genomic research center that evolved from research collaborations among MIT and Harvard scientists.

In this episode of the Lady Scientist Podcast, Alina shares her tumultuous journey as she wrote her debut book, her discoveries in the process, and the fascinating research that led to it. You can find Alina at https://twitter.com/Ayjchan. Support the podcast by subscribing to our channels, signing up for our newsletter, and leaving a review or comment. Thank you for listening!

To purchase a copy of Viral:

Harper Collins

https://t.co/IsBR0oGJud?amp=1

Amazon

https://t.co/0MVf2PeN6V?amp=1

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Meet Celine Halioua, founder and CEO of Loyal, a biotech startup developing drugs to extend dog lifespan. In this episode of Lady Scientist Podcast, Celine reveals how a single cold email landed her an internship and then later a full-time job with the Longevity Fund, a venture capital firm based in San Francisco. This was the career shift that launched her into the biotech space where she later founded Loyal, which has raised $27 million and has already completed its first clinical study! You can find Celine at https://www.loyalfordogs.com/. Support the podcast by subscribing to our channels, signing up for our newsletter, and leaving a review or comment. Thank you for listening!

Support our podcast through Patreon and get #LSP swag: https://www.patreon.com/ladyscientist...

Episode Highlights:

• 3:18 Celine made the difficult decision to leave Oxford, where she was previously a graduate student studying neuroscience and went all-in with Longevity.
• 8:05 Celine speaks to the significance of Loyal’s first clinical study and summarizes the learnings.
• 10:08 Celine breaks down the term ‘consumer-facing study’ and Loyal’s effort to both socialize the aging thesis and cultivate a consumer-focused pharma company
• 18:06 Celine breaks down the basic thesis of Loyal - “The basic thesis of Loyal is that there is a pharmaceutical product out there that inevitably extends dog lifespan and healthspan safely and also has the variables to be a viable consumer product and the job of Loyal is to find that drug and bring it to market successfully.”
• 18:10 Celine discusses the pros and cons of relying heavily on CROs for the experiments her company carries out.
• 27:00 Celine opens up about what it was like fundraising for series A and shares tips for biotech founders going through that process.
• 35:27 Celine talks about the negative impact she believes Theranos and Holmes trial has had on the current state of founder- led biotech. She chats about the role she feels sexism plays in media coverage on the biotech industry specifically.
• 45:10 Celine discusses the work that goes into being transparent as a startup company
• 49:00 Celine opens up about the challenging aspect of starting a company and what inspired her to get started and continues to inspire her to push forward with Loyal.

Today, we’re sitting down with Ryan Brown, a psychology Ph.D. student from Rice University. She studies how relationships help people navigate stress during and after pregnancy and has published a study entitled “Anything He Can Do, She Can Do Better: Children's Attitudes About Gender And Occupations” on gendered media messages and their implications. She also shares her love and passion for science communication on her Youtube channel, Ryan’s Science, where she posts educational videos, her Sci-Tea series with fellow women in science, and other great primers explaining research in psychology!

In this episode of Lady Scientist Podcast, Ryan reveals her inspiration behind her passion for content creation on Youtube, all about her Ph.D. program, and her own fascinating research! You can find Ryan at ryanlinnbrown.com. Support the podcast by subscribing to our channels, signing up for our newsletter, and leaving a review or comment. Thank you for listening!

Episode Highlights:

[6:00] Ryan talks about how she got started uploading content on Youtube, her original goals with the channel, and how it helped her reignite her excitement about her work.

[16:12] Ryan breaks down the components of her Ph.D. program, such as exams, teaching requirements, duration, and processes.

[20:06] Ryan reveals her reason for pursuing a Ph.D. and how she chose her desired area of research, including the woman who inspired her.

[23:48] Ryan talks about her learnings over the years, and how her thoughts about the field of research have evolved since.

[25:47] Ryan shares her goals regarding her Youtube channel, its purpose, and her career plans moving forward.

[31:06] Ryan discusses her research paper and findings on longitudinal changes in HRV, across pregnancy and postpartum, and how relationships affect navigating stress and seeking support.

[35:50] Ryan explains how past stress affects future stress reactivity during pregnancy and how current and past relationships shape our response to stress.

[50:15] Ryan talks about her published research study called “Anything He Can Do, She Can Do Better: Children's Attitudes About Gender And Occupations,” and her collaboration with Dr. Nancy Weinberger.

[57:45] Ryan shares her experience designing and conducting her own study, including the use of statistical power and her recruitment methodologies.

[1:03:29] Ryan reveals her next move and career plans.

Lexi Walls set out to investigate coronaviruses back in 2015 when little was known about these large viruses and the spike protein that they use to gain entry into host cells. She was among the first to solve the structure of the spike protein using a technique called cryo electron microscopy. She defended her thesis (in which she predicted that coronaviruses had the potential to cause a pandemic) on the eve of the outbreak in December of 2019. Then the world changed. She dove in to looking at the sequences of SARS-CoV2 and analyzing them. Then she pivoted to working on therapeutics and vaccines to treat COVID-19. We talk about her experience living and working through a pandemic on a topic that she's one of the world's experts in. It hasn't been easy but we think you'll find Lexi's upbeat attitude quite refreshing.

Links for Lexi: Twitter: @coronalexington

https://www.grad.uw.edu/lexi-walls/

This episode is sponsored by Kendall Investor Relations: www.kendallinvestorrelations.com

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