Base Pairs

SPECIAL EPISODE! [We strongly recommend listening to Base Pairs episode 17 to contextualize this extended discussion.] Some of the most sought after gifts this holiday season are at-home DNA tests. These tests let anyone send a sample of his or her DNA to get analyzed for various results: the geographic location of ancestors; predisposition to illness; and other data points a person’s genetic code can reveal about themselves. But there is more to personal genotyping than simply learning about ourselves. Host Brian Stallard sat down with Dr. Yaniv Erlich, a Watson School of Biological Sciences alumnus who is currently the Chief Scientific officer at MyHeritage DNA, to get his unique academic and commercial perspective on the use of personal genetic information. Listen as Erlich discusses privacy concerns, using genetics for justice, and his list of pros and cons for finding out about your genetic code.

Mail-order genetic testing —more accurately known as genotyping— is a growing trend. But what exactly is this data that's send back? And what can people (even law enforcement) DO with that data? We explore the tricky situation posed by private genetic information in an "open data" world.

Biofuels are the wave of the future, and a small plant called duckweed could be a significant part of that. Hear more from Professor Rob Martienssen about how genetic modification and advances in genome mapping technology factor in to the future of fuel. On our pop culture segment, we dive into some cinematic biofuels of the future, both hopeful and dystopian. -- Disclaimer: This product is a not-for-profit learning resource. All film clips included are solely for the purposes of critique and education. They are solely the property of Warner Bros. production, Warner Bros. Pictures, and in association with Village Roadshow Pictures and Groucho Film Partnership. Music and sounds from White Noise Factory.

As concentrations of greenhouse gasses continue to rise, scientists are working hard to develop ways to ween the world off our need for fossil fuels. Biofuels are one promising solution, and they're commonly made from food crops like corn, or even byproducts like husks. Now CSHL Professor Rob Martienssen is trying to pull fuel from something surprisingly unique: pond scum.

Immunotherapy has been receiving much more attention over the past few years, but the history of this promising type of cancer therapy is a long one. Adding to the story of William Coley’s early immunotherapy from Base Pairs 15, “The Immune System, Unleashed!” we hear about how his daughter used a barn full of case notes to start the Cancer Research Institute. Then, Professor Doug Fearon talks about on why the immune system is able to identify certain types of cancer cells more easily than others. Finally, in our pop culture segment, we talk about how invaders in the body are often met with the might of the white blood cell, no matter what (or who) they are! -- Disclaimer: This product is a not-for-profit learning resource. All film clips included are solely for the purposes of critique and education. They are solely the property of South Carolina ETV, Nelvana, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Warner Bros., and Conundrum Entertainment.

You may have heard of it; "immunotherapy" has started to appear in headlines over the last few years. In this episode, however, we reveal that the practice of cancer immunotherapy is actually far older than even our understanding of the immune system! We also talk to a CSHL researcher who is showing that the immune system doesn’t even need to be engineered to kill cancer. It just needs to be unleashed.

It’s important to know that a drug works, but knowing how it works can be just as crucial. CSHL Fellow Jason Sheltzer discovered that the hypothesis explaining the action of a new cancer drug was incorrect, indicating that its beneficial effects had to be due to other factors. Hear more from him following up on his discussion in episode 14, “The cancer answer that wasn’t.” Also, in a new pop culture segment, we talk about movie “mad scientists” and how they contribute to misconceptions about the way real science is done. -- Disclaimer: This product is a not-for-profit learning resource. All film clips included are solely for the purposes of critique and education. They are solely the property of (in order of mention) Universal Pictures (as Universal Pictures Corp.), Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, U-Drive Productions, and Universal Pictures (presents).

Base Pairs was just named among the 2018 Webby Award’s “five best podcasts in the world” for the subjects of science and education. Now, WE NEED YOUR HELP to take home the People's Voice award

We look at the "reproducibility crisis" in science, and dive into a case in which cancer researchers discovered something completely unexpected while experimenting with a supposed drug target.

No, we're not talking about high society or your biology class! In this episode, we share three distinct stories about classification in the life sciences and how genetic information is changing how we define important categories.

Who will use CRISPR to alter their child's DNA? Who gets to decide which traits are desirable? Following up on our last episode, "Good Genes, Bad Science," we hear from David Micklos, executive director at CSHL’s DNA Learning Center, and Miriam Rich, CSHL Archives Sydney Brenner Research Scholar and doctoral student at Harvard, on these big questions.

In the early 1900s, American science took a wrong turn toward eugenics. In this episode, we talk with experts in both science and history about what we can learn from this dark period in today’s age of unprecedented control over the genome.

A few favorite moments from our talk with theoretical physicist and quantitative biologist, Associate Professor Gurinder "Mickey" Atwal, that touch on topics ranging from his stint in medical school to the job market in the age of big data to Schrödinger's cat.

A "behind the screens" look at how biology is addressing its "most wonderful problem" – too much data. Associate Professor Gurinder S. "Mickey" Atwal joins us to explain the essential enigma that is quantitative biology.

Plant scientist Zachary Lippman tells stories from the field of bizarre tomatoes, intensely hot peppers, and giant pumpkins in this latest "chat" episode of Base Pairs. Hear more from Zack in episode 10 – CRISPR vs Climate Change.

Much of the hype around the genome editing tool known as CRISPR focuses on its potential to cure genetic diseases. But our bodies need more than a healthy genome to survive and thrive—they also need food, and that’s where we may see CRISPR’s earliest effects on our lives. In this episode, we talk with plant scientist and Associate Professor Zach Lippman about the threats that climate change poses to agriculture, and how CRISPR could help overcome them.

Set aside your notions of how biologists are born, or what the word “gene” means as you listen to our first chat episode. We talk with Assistant Professor Molly Hammell, a genome biologist who started out as an astrophysicist. She tells us what it’s like to peer deep into space using a high-tech telescope. We also speak with Professor Tom Gingeras about whether it’s time to redefine the gene.

One scientist’s junk is apparently everyone’s treasure! They just haven’t realized it yet. . . In this episode of Base Pairs, we question the mythos that is “junk DNA” and explore how and why scientists are becoming enthralled by the mysterious non-coding portions of the genome.

Could “genome” be a misnomer? The name implies that our genetic information is mainly genes, yet when the Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, it revealed that genes comprise a tiny minority. About 98 percent of the genome is something else — a kind of genomic dark matter. We chat with an astrophysicist-turned-genome-biologist, Assistant Professor Molly Hammell, about how she ended up studying a type of genomic dark matter called transposons.

We are Base Pairs, the podcast about "the power of genetic information." But why did we choose this name? In this bonus episode, we explain the molecules and the metaphor. Pictured: Tin model of Adenine as first constructed by James Watson and Francis Crick whilst working at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge in 1953. (Science Museum London / Science and Society Picture Library)