Star-shaped cells called astrocytes are the most abundant cells to be found in the human brain. In the past, they’d been thought to play a supporting role to neurons, such as providing metabolic support, but recently they’re also emerging as stars of information processing. They can respond to neurotransmitters and release neuroactive substances that then affect synaptic transmission and plasticity. Michelle Corkrum is a child neurology resident at Columbia University and is one of the authors of a recent review paper on the links between astrocytes and dopamine signalling. The review looks back at the history of research in this field, going back decades. Listen in to learn more!

Astrocyte-neuron signaling in the mesolimbic dopamine system: the hidden stars of dopamine signaling

Kirstie Cummings and Sofia Beas are both new assistant professors in the department of neurobiology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. When they met, they discussed the job application process, their support network, and their own personal processes, and they decided to write an article that could serve as a resource for candidates from different backgrounds, many of whom might not have the same resources that Dr. Cummings and Dr. Beas did. The result was their paper, “A Scientific Approach to Navigating the Academic Job Market,” published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

A scientific approach to navigating the academic job market

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) causes significant long-term morbidity and mortality, particularly in children. There is some evidence that the innate immune system, in particular neutrophil activity, can be compromised in adult-onset lupus. Yet there is a paucity of data on neutrophil activity in pediatric SLE. 

This month on Pediapod, we join Early Career Investigator, Rakesh Kumar Pilania, an assistant professor at the postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India to discuss his study of neutrophil activity in patients with pediatric SLE and what it reveals about the etiology of this condition.

Read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-022-02055-2

Neutrophil function in pediatric lupus.

Antisocial personality disorder, or ASPD, is a difficult disorder to study. There have been studies on psychopathic individuals, and on youth with psychopathic traits, but most studies on ASPD to date have been on incarcerated adults. A team of researchers at Heidelberg University wanted to study individuals who are not incarcerated and see what these findings could elucidate about the brains, in particular the amygdalas, of individuals with ASPD.

Haang Jeung-Maarse is a medical doctor at Bielfeld University in Germany and is one of the authors of the paper in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, on the effects of oxytocin on amygdala reactivity to angry faces in males and females with antisocial personality disorder.

Read the full study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-023-01549-9

Oxytocin effects on amygdala reactivity to angry faces in males and females with ASPD

Malnutrition and cystic fibrosis in India: Case studies in the US show that children with cystic fibrosis often suffer from vitamin deficiencies. In India, this problem is exacerbated by malnutrition, as Dr Angurana discovered when he studied patients in the northern city of Candigarh. http://www.nature.com/pr/index.html

Pediapod: 24 July 2014 - malnutrition and cystic fibrosis

Pediatric researchers Cynthia Bearer and Eleanor Molloy join podcast host Geoff Marsh to give an update on plans for the podcast and to offer some sage advice for Early Career Investigators.

Find more Pediapod episodes here: https://www.nature.com/collections/fcbjjbchaa

Conversation With Pediatric Researchers Cynthia Bearer and Eleanor Molloy

Scientists have been amassing an increasing amount of evidence about the impact of racial discrimination and racial trauma, including how it can have an impact on brain regions involved with threat vigilance and emotional regulation. At the same time, there’s evidence that increased engagement in those areas has been linked to increased risk of mental health problems like depression, and they also suspect it could be a vulnerability for brain health issues such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. 

Negar Fani is an associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine, and she worked with Aziz Elbasheir, a PhD candidate at Emory University in the neuroscience program, on the study. They knew that C-reactive proteins, or CRPs, are a marker of immune activation in the blood.

Read their full study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-023-01737-7

Racial discrimination, inflammation and brain activation during attention to threat in Black women

This episode features a conversation with Senior Investigator Michael DeBaun, Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who has had a long career investigating the causes of and treatments for sickle cell anemia, and advocating for children and adults with this condition across the globe. 

You can access his Vanderbilt page here: https://pediatrics.vumc.org/person/michael-r-debaun-md-mph#:~:text=Dr.,Syndrome%2C%20a%20cancer%20predisposition%20syndrome.

Senior Investigator: Conversation with Michael DeBaun

The menstrual cycle is known to affect things like mood and changes in pain. But there can also be symptoms that have a serious impact on a person’s function, ability to work, ability to maintain friendships and romantic relationships. This is a rare condition known as premenstrual dysphoric disorder. But it’s not the only psychiatric condition that can worsen with changes in the menstrual cycle. For instance, nearly 60 percent of menstruating patients with depression can experience cyclical worsening similar to PMDD. Conditions such as these are generally referred to as menstrual cycle affective change. Menstrual cycle affective change is more common in those with chronic psychiatric disorders.



The authors are interested in reframing the conversation around menstrual cycle affective change to be something that is a more fundamental process that we can study across disorders, across categories, and identify biomarkers that might help us predict who's going to have those symptoms in more complex ways than we might be able to do with categories. This paper represents how can we take this dimensional way of thinking about menstrual cycle affective change and talk about the specific ways that we can be precise in looking at the time the time characteristics of that, the specific mechanisms, et cetera.



Tory Eisenlohr-Moul is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the department of psychiatry, and she’s one of the authors. Jordan Barone is an MD/PhD candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and she’s another author. 



Biomarker development for menstrual Cycle affective change

In this first episode, Niklas introduces his research and the inspiration behind his co-edited title Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, one of the first references works available on AIM. In addition, he provides an overview on how artificial intelligence is currently being used in medicine, and how AI can impact librarianship, such as in administrative support and citation use.

Episode #1 - Introductions and AI Scene-Setting

Human activity has undoubtedly impacted our planet’s systems. With deforestation, air pollution, and plastic waste, can we still call the natural sciences “natural”? Or have humans changed the planet so much that the “natural” and “human” worlds are now indistinguishable? Could seeing ourselves as part of the earth’s systems help bring more urgency to the climate crisis?

In the final episode of this four-part series, Bob Brinkmann, author of Practical Sustainability: A Guide to a More Sustainable Life, discusses the dynamic field of earth sciences. As humans continue to impact the “natural” world, the earth science disciplines must come together to study major issues like climate change and sustainability—not get bogged down by the silos or traditions of higher education. In addition, Bob digs into how librarians can assist in sustainability research through the available data in special collections and frequent communication with scholars. Last, he emphasizes the importance of measurable outcomes in the sustainability movement, along with becoming an advocate and evangelist for this kind of lifelong work.

Episode #4 Unpacking Earth Sciences And The “Natural” World

Meet Heredity editor Bastiaan Star (University of Oslo), we talk about his work with ancient fish DNA and why he enjoys working with Heredity.

Meet the editors: Bastiaan Star

The scientific literature has shown that females demonstrate more aversion to risk-taking than males. Studies have also demonstrated that the basal lateral amygdala, or BLA, is a critical hub for processing risk and reward information. And yet further research has shown that activity in the amygdala differs between males and females, and that the expression of particular dopamine receptors called D2 receptors are greater in females than in males. The authors hypothesized that one mediating mechanism that leads to greater risk aversion in females is differential activity of dopamine in the basal lateral amygdala. 

Caitlin Orsini is an assistant professor in the departments of psychology and neurology at UT Austin. 

Sex differences in sensitivity to dopamine receptor manipulations of risk-based decision making

Katja Guschanski discusses working with mammal evolution, museomics and her plenary talk at Popgroup 2025

Popgroup 2025, with Katja Guschanski

Chérine Baumgartner and Andy Foote discuss working with orcas and their recent paper on diet and population dynamics in North Atlantic killer whales

Population dynamics of Atlantic orcas

Listen to January's Pediapod episode: Conversation With Senior Investigator Karin Nelson

Conversation With Senior Investigator Karin Nelson

Listen to November's Pediapod episode: What's hot in Pediatric Oncology? with Jeffrey Dome

What's Hot in Pediatric Oncology?

Listen to January's Pediapod episode: What's hot in pediatric microbiome research, with Namasivayam Ambalavanan.

What's hot in pediatric microbiome research?

New drugs that target the endocannabinoid system are being proposed for disorders that are usually characterized by the dysregulation of social processing, like social anxiety disorder and autism spectrum disorder. Researchers have been trying to understand the mechanisms for how these drugs work. 

Leah Mayo is assistant professor at the University of Calgary, and she’s one of the authors of a new study in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology in which they examined two aspects of the system. One is the endocannabinoid system itself. And then there’s another aspect of social processing called the C tactile system.   

Read the full study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-025-02053-y

Endocannabinoid contributions to the perception of socially relevant, affective touch in humans

Best student paper of 2024 winner Kate Rick, along with Brenton Von Takach and Kym Ottewell, discuss the use of genomics in Australian conservation efforts, and their study on the golden bandicoot.

Golden bandicoot and Australian conservation genomics

Listen to March's Pediapod episode: What's hot in pediatric sepsis research, with Sarah Kandil and Eleanor Molloy.

March 2025: What's hot in pediatric sepsis?

This episode features a conversation with Senior Investigator Avroy Fanaroff, Emeritus Professor at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, who has had a long and impactful career in neonatology.

April 2025: Senior Investigator: Conversation with Avroy Fanaroff

Continuing the recent theme of conservation genetics, we return to the sea with Marc Gose and Rob Ogden. They discuss their work on the white-beaked dolphin, and the importance of international collaboration to manage populations that span borders.


White-beaked dolphin conservation genetics

Draulio Araujo, professor at the Brain Institute in the University of Rio Grande Norte in Natal, Brazil, has been studying ayahuasca for more than 20 years. It’s a psychedelic plant used in rituals in South America that has also been researched for its potential to treat depression. The effects of ayahuasca can last for hours and also lead to side effects including vomiting and diarrhea. The active psychedelic drug in ayahuasca is DMT, and so Dr. Araujo and his colleagues decided to conduct the first test of DMT itself, which is also an endogenous chemical and has been demonstrated to be safe.

Read the full article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-025-02091-6

Rapid and sustained antidepressant effects of vaporized N,N-dimethyltryptamine: a phase 2a clinical trial in treatment-resistant depression

Frank Burbrink and Ed Myers talk about their recent work on American Racers. Spatial patterns, hybridisation and why the shapes of evolutionary trees might be more complex than we thought.

Where, what and how? Phylogeography of American snakes

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a common condition that, for a lot of people, is difficult to treat. The drugs that exist have a number of adverse side effects, and about 25 percent of patients don’t respond to existing drugs. And so a team of researchers in Iceland, led by Karl Karlsson, professor of biomolecular engineering at Reykjavik University, undertook a number of different steps to narrow in on and then test what the team has determined to be a novel treatment for ADHD, using an existing drug, amlodipine. 

Validation of L-type calcium channel blocker amlodipine as a novel ADHD treatment through cross-species analysis, drug-target Mendelian randomization, and clinical evidence from medical records

In this episode, Geoff Marsh speaks to Dr. Misty Good about our Collection on Necrotizing Enterocolitis. 

May 2025: Collection on Necrotizing Enterocolitis

Adoptees and others often have little or no access to family medical history, which puts them at a clear disadvantage with regard to aspects of their medical care. Could genomic analysis help to close this health disparity? Listen to GenePod, the Genetics in Medicine Podcast for an exploration of how genomic testing might be used in this context.
http://www.nature.com/gim/index.html

GenePod: July 2015 - The Potential Utility of Genomics for Adoptees

There has been a recent and notable increase in the non-medical use of new psychoactive substances (NPS), or "designer drugs." Unlike classic drugs of abuse, many NPS were initially developed for research purposes. In this podcast, Drs. Michael Baumann and Nora Volkow discuss the complexities of working with these substances and how, given their genesis, research with NPS could be considered "dual use;" or, potentially utilized for both beneficial and malicious purposes.
www.nature.com/npp/index.html

Brainpod: Abuse of New Psychoactive Substances: Threats and Solutions

The sound produced by the vocal tract of a 3,000 year-old Egyptian mummy has been synthesized using CT scans, 3D printing and an electronic larynx. The findings are presented in a study published in Scientific Reports. Read the paper here: https://go.nature.com/2TUueZ4

3D-printed vocal tract reproduces sound of ancient mummy

Welcome to the Springer Nature Soundcloud page! Here you will find several podcasts from our journals across a range of scientific subjects, including Gene Pod, ModPath Chat, Pediapod, Hereditypod and Brainpod.

Springer Nature

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