S6.09: Raiders of Noah’s Ark: Stealing genetic tricks from the animal kingdom
Sally: Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Sally Le Page. In this episode we’re becoming chromosomal criminals and learning about how researchers are stealing genes from the animal kingdom and using them to improve human health.
I may be a bit biased, but evolution’s pretty great. I mean, when you’ve had 3.8 billion years of trial and error to come up with solutions, you end up with a lot of very good solutions to some very tricky problems. Need to drop your body temperature by 30 degrees for months at a time without permanent damage? There’s an adaptation for that. Need to survive losing 95% of the water in your body? There’s an adaptation for that. Need to replicate the DNA in every cell in your body for two hundred years without getting cancer? There’s an adaptation for that.
I’m a firm believer that most of the current challenges we face in human health and medicine can be solved if we looked to the natural world, so this week we’re bringing you two examples of just that.
Linda Goodman: Stealing secrets from sleepy squirrels
To start us off, I sat down with Dr Linda Goodman, co-founder and chief technology officer of FaunaBio, a startup developing new therapies for humans inspired by disease resistance in animals. They’re looking at the genomes from a whole host of animal species to see which genes are associated with some of the amazing adaptations that could possible be harnessed in medicine. But of course, these are genes from completely different species to us; how applicable are they to humans?
Click here to read the full transcript…
João Pedro de Magalhães: Old whale, new tricks
We’ve just heard about how breakthroughs in understanding human heart attacks can come from some of the smallest mammals like the 13 lined ground squirrel. Well now let’s take it up a notch and see what we can learn from some of the biggest mammals on the planet, like the bowhead whale.
Click here to read the full transcript…
Coming up at the Genetics Society!
We’re coming up to the deadline for the second of this year’s Society Training Grants, which can cover up to £1200 towards travel, accommodation and registration fees if there’s a genetics-related training course that would help with your research. The deadline for this quarter’s Training Grant is midnight on 15th May so be sure to get your applications in.
For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to leave us a rating in the Spotify app or review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.
This episode of Genetics Unzipped was written, presented and produced by me, Sally Le Page. It’s a First Create the Media production for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies dedicated to promoting research, training, teaching and public engagement in all areas of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk. The executive producer is Kat Arney, our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, the logo was designed by James Mayall, and audio production was by Emma Werner. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.
