Clinical Trials and Tribulations: Steve Hauser's quest to cure MS

Photo Credit: NIAID

In this episode, a team of researchers disprove a decades-old dogma. The result? The first ever FDA-approved drug for primary-progressive multiple sclerosis. In this inspiring story spanning decades of research, you’ll hear all the science, and all the dramatic twists, behind this radical new treatment.

If you want to learn more about the science, visit this link to find a list of Dr. Steve Hauser's publications.

Music Used:

El Fuego and The Itis by Polyrhythmics; Juliette, Submerging Blue-Black, Three Colors, Whiplash String Swell, Theme in G, and Sincerely Yours by Podington Bear; Palestrina - Sicut lilium inter spinas by the Tudor Consort; The Temperature of the Air on the Bow of the Kaleetan and Cylinder Nine by Chris Zabriskie; I Knew a Guy by Kevin MacLeod; Morning Four, Take Care and Snow by David Szesztay; Tarantella Lucana by Italian Village Music and Dance; Sunday Lovers by Monday Night Fever; As Colorful As Ever by Broke For Free; Puddle of Infinity by Young And Old Know Love; A String (Instrumental) by Loch Lomond; Samba Whistle by Reinsamba ; PSA audio was from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society

Hope for Traumatic Brain Injury: Susanna Rosi

The brain is an astonishingly complex organ. Injury to the brain in the form of traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause learning and memory problems in the short-term and dementia in the long-term. Over 1.7 million individuals experience TBI in the United States every year. Unfortunately, there are currently only symptomatic treatments for TBIs. We talked to Dr. Susanna Rosi, Associate Professor at UCSF, about her research into new treatments for TBIs.

More on the Rosi Lab's research

Producer: Amanda Mason
Music credits:
From Free Music Archive, freemusicarchive.org, 
“Drifts” by The OO-Ray – under CC by license

Evading the Immune System

Although our immune system is amazing at what it does, there are complex cases where the it fails us. Everyday, our bodies fight off hordes of bacteria and viruses that cause disease. When fighting cancer, our bodies even face their own cells that have gone rogue. However, certain pathogens and cancers manage to circumvent our immune system.

We talked to Dr. John Wherry, associate professor of microbiology and director of the Institute for Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania, about how the immune system is circumvented and what is being done about it.

More on the Wherry Lab's research

Producer: Lynn Wang
Editing: Bryan Seybold and Austin Chou

The big role of microRNAs in the immune system: Mark Ansel

The key to understanding our immune system might lie in understanding microRNAs. These are tiny strings of nucleotides (the same molecules that makes DNA) that influence how and which genes are expressed. This month we talk with Dr. Mark Ansel, an Assistant Professor in the UCSF Department of Microbiology & Immunology, about his work on these recently discovered molecules and their role in helping the body protect itself.

Within the cell, most RNA is produced from our DNA (genes) and translated to make proteins that help the cell function. microRNAs are produced from DNA but don’t make proteins. Instead, microRNAs ensure that the right genes are translated under the right conditions. microRNAs work in the immune system by helping a type of white blood cell, known as a T-cell, which regulate the production of antibodies that bind and destroy cellular invaders. The set of microRNAs that Dr. Ansel and his lab studies regulate genes that let T-cells recognize their environment and start the production of the correct antibodies. He has found that without these microRNAs, T-cells cannot properly mediate immunity. Dr. Ansel's work has important implications in understanding the immune system and what possibly goes wrong in diseases like HIV and AIDS. At the end of our interview, he talks about what motivates him most in science—the thrill of discovery.

Music: Kevin MacLeod: J. S. Bach: Prelude in C - BWV 846
More on the Ansel Lab's research
Hosted by Samantha Ancona Esselmann