Marc Pelletier and Leo Laporte

Guest: Dr. Susan Lindquist

Our pilot episode talks about protein folding, evolution, and using prions for nanotech structures with one of the premiere scientists in the field... Dr. Susan Lindquist is a Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Sciences at MIT. Her discoveries in protein folding have lead to paradigm shifts in modern genetics and medicine, including how a protein called HSP90 acts as a capacitor modulate evolution, a process that can even be addressed pharmacologically and possibly used as a strategy in some forms of cancer. Her work also contributes to both our understanding of several protein folding diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's and seeks to tackle them head on. Lastly, we discussed her discovery on how to transform yeast prions (similar to the misfolded proteins linked to mad cow disease) into nanowires as used in nanotechnology. For more information, links, and discussions visit the Futures in Biotech blog. Thanks to Cachefly for providing the bandwidth for this podcast, and to Gunther and their label, Cyclone Records for our theme, Wrecking Ball. This is a pilot so we welcome your feedback. Are we too technical? Not technical enough? Do you want to hear more? Let us know! <!--break-->