Mendelspod Podcast

Theral Timpson
  • 3.0 (3)
  • NATURAL SCIENCES
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

Offering a front row seat to the Century of Biology, veteran podcast host Theral Timpson interviews the who's who in genomics and genomic medicine. www.mendelspod.com

  1. The Eligible But Under-Tested: Genomic Medicine in 2026 with Damon Hostin, Illumina

    2D AGO

    The Eligible But Under-Tested: Genomic Medicine in 2026 with Damon Hostin, Illumina

    What is the value of someone’s genome over their life? Is a genome today what it was 10 years ago? How does the adoption of genomic testing compare to other areas in medicine, such as imaging or electronic health records? Today we take a pretty comprehensive look at genomic testing in practice with Damon Hostin, Head of Market Access, Clinical Solutions at Illumina. Damon brings a rare perspective to this conversation. He’s been in the field since the Celera era, when sequencing was helping define modern genomics, and he’s also worked on the front lines in a large community health system, CommonSpirit Health. At Illumina, he speaks regularly with payers and other stakeholders. Across oncology, rare disease, reproductive health, and pharmacogenomics, Damon describes a field that has clearly moved into standard of care in key areas—but is still very much in the phase of identifying the “eligible but under-tested.” Adoption is real, but it’s incomplete. Chapters: 0:00 Genomic medicine arrives4:51 Genomics, imaging, and the EMR11:23 Oncology—from diagnostics to decision-making18:16 Rare disease and reproductive genetics28:51 The lifetime value of a genome36:03 Cost, quality, and what a genome is A central idea running through the podcast is that the genome is no longer a one-time diagnostic. Its value compounds over time as databases grow, variants are reinterpreted, and new therapies emerge. At the same time, even the basic notion of what a “genome” is, is beginning to shift. With the rise of multi-omic data—transcriptomics, proteomics, methylation—the question is no longer just cost per genome, but what kind of biological insight we’re actually measuring. “A genome isn’t a genome isn’t a genome,” Damon says. He ends with a line that neatly reframes the entire debate around cost: “When you look at the cost of healthcare . . . the cost of the genomics is almost nothing.” Genomic medicine is here. We’re now wrestling with how to scale it, how to use it earlier, and how to make it part of the everyday infrastructure of care. Note: For more discussion and analysis on this topic, check out this upcoming Virtual Roundtable Discussion at GenomeWeb. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

    40 min

  2. APR 9

    Spatial Transcriptomics Is Changing How We Do Biology: Fei Chen, The Broad Institute

    Fei Chen of the Broad Institute describes the original problem simply: genomics gave us powerful inventories of gene expression, while microscopy gave us structure—yet the two lived in separate worlds. “You could either have your structure or you could have gene expression, but you couldn’t have both.” In this conversation, Fei walks us through how Slide-tags—now commercialized as Takara Bio Trekker technology—set out to close that gap. Instead of mapping gene expression onto a grid, his team flipped the problem: barcoding the cells in place, then reading them out with single-cell sequencing. The result is something closer to a GPS system for cells. What this unlocks is not just better maps, but better biology. Better questions. In cancer, Fei describes the discovery of local immune “circuits” that determine whether tumors respond to immunotherapy. And more broadly, spatial data turns tissue itself into a kind of experiment itself. Is this the biology of the future? “The spatial context is a natural experiment that has happened.” Chapters: 0:00 The problem: structure vs gene expression1:36 A GPS for cells8:59 Immune circuits and cancer response20:04 Tissue as experiment26:24 New questions for biology Across applications, Fei emphasizes that the real shift is conceptual. Spatial biology is not just about adding location to sequencing. It’s about learning how to ask new questions—ones that treat cells not as isolated units, but as participants in research. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

    32 min
  3. Beyond GLP-1: Why Peptides Are Back at the Center of Drug Discovery with Charlie Johannes and Tomi Sawyer

    APR 7

    Beyond GLP-1: Why Peptides Are Back at the Center of Drug Discovery with Charlie Johannes and Tomi Sawyer

    Peptides are having a moment. But beneath the market excitement and the GLP-1 headlines, something more interesting is going on. A field that for years seemed technically promising but perpetually constrained is becoming wide open. To see into that open terrain, we’re joined by Charlie Johannes, founder of EPOC Scientific and president of the Peptide Drug Hunting Consortium, along with Tomi Sawyer, a founder of the Consortium and founder of Maestro Therapeutics. We asked them for a high-level look at a field being reshaped by advances in chemistry, screening, delivery, and by a growing sense that peptides may be uniquely positioned to open up biology that other modalities have only partly been able to reach. And yet both are clear: the field is not mature. AI is accelerating biology, which still depends on existing knowledge. Prediction remains limited, especially with non-natural chemistry. And the core challenge may now be human—how to turn an overwhelming amount of data into real innovation. As Johannes puts it, “Turning knowledge into innovation is the real challenge.” Chapters: 1:31 Why peptides are suddenly hot again6:10 Between small molecules and biologics10:14 Oral delivery, screening15:45 AI, automation, and the limits of prediction32:17 The Consortium and where the field is heading This is not a finished revolution—it’s a launch. The field, Sawyer says, is “in the Artemis II rocket right now heading towards the moon.” The peptide story is now much bigger than obesity drugs. Where does the field stand today? What has changed, and what remains difficult? This episode is the first in a new partnership between Mendelspod and Peptide and Protein News, a media platform covering peptide and protein drug development. You can see what they’re up to at peptideandprotein.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

    44 min

  4. APR 2

    From the Archives: Inventor Mark Kokoris Debuts Roche’s New SBX Sequencer

    It was the biggest story in sequencing last year: Mark Kokoris, head of SBX sequencing at Roche and inventor of the technology, joins Mendelspod to talk about how Sequencing by Expansion (SBX) works and why it may redefine the limits of genomics. * 0:00 A long journey inspired by PCR * 7:20 What is sequencing by expansion? * 14:00 On scale and accuracy * 19:40 Multi-omics vision? * 24:40 What will be the killer app? * 30:00 Biggest challenge for launch Kokoris recounts the long path from co-founding Stratos Genomics in 2007 to Roche’s acquisition in 2020, when his team’s “wildly ambitious chemistry” finally found its match in Genia’s high-density nanopore platform. “Our approach to efficiently sequencing DNA,” he explains, “is to not sequence DNA. We rescale the problem—expand the molecule about 50-fold—so we can read it with much higher signal-to-noise.” The result is astonishing speed. Working with the Broad Institute and Boston Children’s Hospital, SBX delivered whole-genome results in under four hours, with the sequencing step itself taking only about 15 minutes. Kokoris attributes the achievement to a confluence of chemistry and compute. SBX’s duplex mode achieves Illumina-level accuracy (F1 > 99.8 %) while maintaining single-molecule simplicity. Its tunable flexibility lets small labs run a handful of samples in hours or large centers run thousands per day. Kokoris describes it as a technology built on impatience and rule-breaking, designed to give scientists options they’ve never had. Looking ahead to the 2026 research-use launch, he’s characteristically bold: “For me, success means SBX becoming the new standard in sequencing. Innovation can’t stop—it has to keep evolving, because biology is complex and we’ve got a lot more to do.” This show was originally published Nov 11, 2025. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

    36 min
  5. Why Do Some Animals Live Ten Times Longer? Pursuing the Science of Aging with Steve Austad

    MAR 17

    Why Do Some Animals Live Ten Times Longer? Pursuing the Science of Aging with Steve Austad

    Why do some animals live ten times longer than others? That question opens today’s interview with Steve Austad, Distinguished Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and one of the leading thinkers in the biology of aging. It quickly becomes clear why he’s been such an important voice in bringing aging research from the margins into the center of science. As he puts it, the field was once “where scientists went to die,” but with modern genetic and molecular tools, it has become one of the most active areas in biomedicine. Steve’s approach, laid out in his book for the empiricist (I’m an amateur), Methuselah’s Zoo, is deceptively simple: look at the animals. From birds and bats to clams that live for centuries, he shows that lifespan follows a clear evolutionary logic. Safer, more stable environments favor slower aging. “If it’s unstable and unsafe… it makes sense… to reproduce fast,” he explains, while protected environments allow organisms to invest in long-term maintenance. It’s a framework that turns curiosity into theory—and theory into something testable. Chapters: 1:31 Where scientists went to die4:11 The opossum problem8:00 Air, land, sea14:23 The longevity quotient33:30 Not forever, just longer What makes Steve such a compelling guide is his tone. He’s low-key, almost amused at times, but unwavering on the science. Aging, he reminds us, isn’t programmed for our benefit—“evolution does not care how long you live.” That doesn’t mean we can’t intervene. The field is now moving into human trials, even if key tools like aging clocks are still imperfect. He has little patience for talk of immortality—calling it “completely delusional.” Still, he’s optimistic. Adding a decade or two of healthy life—not forever—is the goal today. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

    38 min
  6. MRD Testing: From Residual Disease to Real Decisions with Chris Hourigan and Gary Pestano

    MAR 10

    MRD Testing: From Residual Disease to Real Decisions with Chris Hourigan and Gary Pestano

    Molecular residual disease, or MRD, has been part of oncology’s vocabulary for decades. But knowing something is there and being able to measure it precisely are two very different things. In today’s show, we explore how MRD testing moved from a long-standing clinical suspicion to one of the most consequential tools in modern oncology. Joining us on the program are Chris Hourigan, Director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Cancer Research Center (DC) at Virginia Tech, bringing the academic and clinical AML lens, and Gary Pestano, Chief Scientific Officer at Biodesix, offering the industry and diagnostic development perspective. Hourigan reminds us that MRD itself isn’t new. What was missing were the tools. From counting cells under a microscope to flow cytometry and now highly sensitive molecular techniques including droplet digital PCR, MRD has evolved into a quantitative, actionable signal. Coming from the side of commercializing and scaling assays, Pestano underscores the central challenge of distinguishing meaningful signal from background noise. “There is a lot circulating in our blood. The key is what is meaningful, what is not meaningful,” he explains. Sensitivity alone isn’t enough. Target selection, bioinformatic filtering, validation at scale, and real-world reproducibility all determine whether MRD can truly guide care. The field is very much still work in progress, say both. Looking ahead, they point toward quantification as the next frontier. MRD is no longer just about detecting what remains. It’s about deciding what happens next. “We’ve been talking about MRD as if it’s a binary concept” says Hourigan. “I can imagine in the future, there’s going to be windows, and we will tune therapy to what comes next.” Thank you to Bio-Rad for sponsoring today’s show. Bio-Rad is your trusted partner for absolute quantification and reproducible results in oncology research. Bio-Rad helps you move from data to confident decisions. Learn more at bio-rad.com/oncology. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

    34 min
  7. Early vs Late Recurrence: How Multimodal AI Is Changing Breast Cancer Prognosis with George Sledge, Caris Life Sciences

    MAR 5

    Early vs Late Recurrence: How Multimodal AI Is Changing Breast Cancer Prognosis with George Sledge, Caris Life Sciences

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.mendelspod.com For two decades, tests like Oncotype DX have helped oncologists decide which early-stage breast cancer patients should receive chemotherapy. But those tools were designed mainly to predict early recurrence, leaving physicians with far less clarity about the risk that cancer might return years later. For today’s program, George Sledge, Chief Medical Officer at Caris Life Sciences, discusses new findings from the TAILORx trial showing how multimodal AI—combining molecular sequencing, digital pathology, and clinical data—can improve long-term prediction of breast cancer recurrence. Sledge explains that breast cancer recurrence may actually reflect two different biological processes unfolding over time. Molecular signals captured through RNA analysis appear most informative for predicting recurrence in the first five years, while computational analysis of digital pathology images becomes especially powerful for predicting recurrence later in the disease course. “The best results come from looking at multiple omic levels,” Sledge says, describing a shift away from single biomarker tests toward integrated biological analysis.

    4 min
  8. The Dark Genome with Author Sudhakaran Prabakaran

    MAR 3

    The Dark Genome with Author Sudhakaran Prabakaran

    We began this podcast back around the time the ENCODE project announced that much of the genome was biochemically active. The big science project was undoing the tidy idea of “junk DNA,” and not without controversy. But activity is not the same as purpose. On today’s show, we move past the question of whether the non-coding genome does something and ask a more ambitious one: why has evolution retained so much genomic material unless it carries adaptive potential? Theral speaks with Sudhakaran Prabakaran, computational biologist at Northeastern University and founder of NonExomics, about his provocative new book, “Eclipsed Horizons: Unveiling the Dark Genome.” Drawing on his lab’s work cataloging more than 250,000 non-canonical proteins, Prabakaran argues that regions outside traditional gene definitions are constantly generating novel open reading frames—previously unrecognized proteins that may shape adaptation, speciation, and disease. Chapters: (00:00) Identical Genomes, Wildly Different Fish (04:00) The Dark Proteome Wakes Up (10:00) Protein Pop-Up Shops (20:00) Homo Minimus and the Space Thought Experiment (30:00) Precision Medicine Beyond the Exome From rapidly diversifying cichlid fishes to human accelerated regions (HARs) of the human genome linked to schizophrenia, he makes the case that protein birth and death is continuous, cheap, and exploratory. In his framing, the “dark genome” functions less like debris and more like a flexible evolutionary sandbox—capable of producing latent biological parts that can be deployed under stress or even extreme environments like spaceflight. The book goes beyond ENCODE’s demonstration of activity and asks what that activity is for, crossing into that taboo in biology, teleonomic analysis. Weaving together proteomics, evolutionary biology, information theory, and even speculative extensions into space biology, Prabakaran suggests that genomes may be structured not just to preserve past adaptations, but to enable future ones. For those of you staying put on the ground, the implications are very tangible for precision medicine. His company NonExomics is using non-canonical protein signatures to stratify cancer patients and refine difficult diagnoses, arguing that the next wave of biomarkers may lie outside the exome. Provocative? Certainly. Grounded in emerging proteomics tools and real clinical cases? Also yes. This conversation probes directly into that mysterious future of biology. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mendelspod.com/subscribe

    37 min
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About

Offering a front row seat to the Century of Biology, veteran podcast host Theral Timpson interviews the who's who in genomics and genomic medicine. www.mendelspod.com

Information

  • Creator
    Theral Timpson
  • Years Active
    2015 - 2026
  • Episodes
    544
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Theral Timpson
  • Show Website
    Mendelspod Podcast

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