Professor Sarah Ennis has been in the field of genetic epidemiology for over 20 years.  In this conversation, she explains  What a dry lab does specifically in terms of understanding disease through data analysis, The types of information they can pass on to clinicians to help them treat patients, and&nbsp; What the future holds as far as the ability to offer molecular diagnoses.&nbsp;  Sarah Ennis runs the  group at the University of South Hampton, which is a dry lab specializing in next generation sequencing (NGS) data and clinical cohorts. She explains that genetics epidemiology in a dry lab setting means she and her colleagues use data analysis to offer information on disease.  Specifically, they look at the  data of patients to understand how and why the DNA mutates and changes and how and why those changes cause sickness in some cases and none in other cases.&nbsp; She offers listeners more detail about the factors they analyze as they untangle what changes are important and how and why. Along the way she is able to explain the logistics of what scientists really mean whey they say they've sequenced a , including the focus on the positive strand of the 5 and 3 prime, and how recessive and dominant disease genes are understood in this context.  She then ties this information to next generation sequencing, how it offers a less expensive and more sweeping technique to produce the data. Finally, she discusses her present work on analyzing data on inflammatory bowel disease for children and adults. Inflammatory bowel disease is very hard on children who depend on nutrition for growth.  Their analysis allows them to tell clinicians if it's caused by one gene in one patient and another gene in a second patient; therefore, the clinician can specialize the medicines accordingly. For more, see the  group page at the University of South Hampton:

The Latest in Genetics Epidemiology and Next Generation Genome Sequencing with Sarah Ennis

Professor Forest Rohwer's lab invented many of the methods to look at the virome, particularly the uncultured methods utilizing metagenomics.  In this podcast, he shares some interesting observations of virus ecology, such as  The diverse types and stages of viruses inside humans and on our body, The differences in behavior of viruses in our cells and out and how that may connect to disease therapies, and His current research focusing on ecosystems of the human lung, specifically cystic fibrosis, and coral reef virus ecosystems.  Dr. Forest Rohwer is a marine microbiologist and microbial ecologist and professor of biology at San Diego State University. He discusses the complex behavior of , observations and findings that may lead to treating how virions affect cells and how scientists can manipulate that behavior in treatments for pathogenic viruses such as Covid19.&nbsp; He explains that we humans have viruses and bacteriophage, retrovirus, herpesvirus, Torque Teno&nbsp;Viruses&nbsp;(TTV), and more: it's a complex ecosystem. Our gut in particular is filled with phages attacking the bacteria and in symbiosis with bacteria.  He provides one example of bacteria in our gut that carry a lot of prophage, which they shed over time. These viruses will bind to the mucus of the gut and forma barrier that will kill bacteria invading our gut, thereby protecting their host. These are the kinds of relationships that reveal this complex relationship.&nbsp; He also talks about his current research into two different ecosystems, namely the human lung in relationship to cystic fibrosis and coral reefs in the context of increased algae due to decreased fish and diversity. He explains how the human and coral system studies both reveal virus behavior, namely how provirus and virions increase or decrease depending on oxygen levels.  He explains that this may provide insights for therapies for disease to manipulate virus presence. This may be useful for pathogenic viruses such as Covd19.&nbsp; For more, see his lab page at , where a copy of his book Life in our Phage World is available as a free download.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Virions and Provirus, Oxygen and Algae: Forest Rohwer Talks Research on Viromes

Gina Bria is an anthropologist and founder of the Hydration Foundation. She joins the show to discuss an incredibly valuable, newly discovered form of concentrated water.  In this episode, you’ll learn the following:  Why the environment we live in is so dehydrating, leaving many of us in a chronic state of dehydration (perhaps without even knowing it) How the molecular structure of ordered water differs from the structure of the water found in your tap or ordinary bottle of water Where to find the best sources of structured water, or even create your own for improved health and cognitive performance  As an anthropologist, Gina Bria was studying desert communities of humans when she became curious about their ability to survive with such limited amounts of water. She soon made the fascinating discovery that these communities of thriving humans were not using liquid for hydration; they were using plants. This finding led her to investigate these plants, which in turn led her to Dr. Gerald Pollack’s identification of a new form of water called structured water (it also goes by many other names, including ordered water, coherent water, EZ water, coherent domain water, and liquid crystalline water). It has a gel-like quality and superior ability to supply hydration, and is found in all living cells on the planet. In essence, this water is formed when water molecules move closer to one another and share electrons. Surprisingly, this is actually the natural state of water, as it is in this phase when it purifies, cleanses, and activates itself in the hydrological cycle in the planet and inside biological systems. Tap and bottled water have been interfered with, and since the body must use resources to organize it, it can actually encourage poor hydration. Bria founded the Hydration Foundation with the goal of sharing this valuable information with the world. She discusses the many methods of , highlights the myriad influences in daily life that leave us dehydrated, and touches on the health benefits of staying truly hydrated. Tune in for all the details and visit  to learn more.

A Structured Path to Newfound Hydration—Gina Bria—The Hydration Foundation

Shervin Takyar, MD, PhD, is an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine who joins the show today to discuss  (miRNA). Tune in to learn the following:  What role  play in cell-to-cell communication How the identification of a particular  has shed light on the allergic response in asthma, and how to decrease that response How  are able to control multiple genes, and why this could potentially have life-saving clinical applications  Dr. Takyar holds a medical degree, as well as a PhD in both microbiology and molecular biology. He discusses the discovery of  over 10 years ago, and the subsequent discoveries about their role in the body and gene expression. His research is focused on the interaction between  and endothelium. His most recent work began years ago when he noticed that a vascular growth factor (VEGF) was high in patients with asthma. Up until that point, most of the research about asthma was focused on lung epithelium or immune cells; Dr. Takyar wanted to investigate whether this vascular growth factor also affects the  in endothelial cells. Over the past 12 years, that’s been his primary focus. He has been able to show a correlation between VEGF and one particular  in endothelial cells—specifically in the expression of the Mpl gene, which controls the adhesion of eosinophils (a type of white blood cell present in the asthmatic response). He has shown that when VEGF increases, the specific  decreases, and the Mpl gene is expressed. The relationship between the microRNA and Mpl gene makes sense, since microRNA is known to play an inhibitory role in gene expression. By changing this one microRNA in the endothelium of an animal model, the asthma response decreased significantly. This explanation leads Dr. Takyar to discuss the potential of  as a tool for inhibiting or modulating groups of genes, rather than just one gene. This would confer a huge advantage to the treatment of certain ailments such as lung cancer, where it is known that targeting a single gene does not often produce the desired result. In addition to explaining just why it is that single-gene targets don’t work well, Dr. Takyar discusses a number of interesting topics, including the role of  in cell-to-cell communication, how genes are matched with certain , how  is able to control many genes as opposed to just one, and the biogenesis of . Learn more at .

Decoding Non-Coding RNA: A Closer Look at the Role of MicroRNA—Shervin Takyar, MD, PhD—Yale School of Medicine

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