Building Breasts and Brains from the Bottom Up

Scientists usually study biology in animals such as lab rats, but their discoveries do not always translate between species. What if we could study human biology specifically? In this episode, we talk to Dr. Jurgen Knoblich and Dr. Zev Gartner about their efforts to create organoids, which are miniature, simplified versions of organs created from human cells. Using these organoids, Drs. Knoblich and Gartner can study how human organs develop and how they are affected by disease. How do they make these organoids, and what will organoids mean for our future health?

Developing the Germ Cell

Cells are the building blocks of life…and need to be transformed into the various tissues that make up our body. There are two main populations of cells that are programmed by a variety of biochemical forces to acquire the characteristics of different cell types in the body. One population, called the somatic cells, is eventually transformed into skin, muscle, bones and such. The other population, called germ cells, becomes sperm and eggs.

In today’s episode, Karuna Meda interviews Dr. Nam Tran (UCSF) about his research on germ cell development and its importance for understanding fertility.

music:

Artist Name Track

Podington Bear Low Jack

saQi Quest’s End

The Polish Ambassador Earthship

Sandro Kait Blame Me

Exploring the Evolution and Development of the Vertebrate Skeleton: Rich Schneider

If you were asked to imagine how scientists study the way bones develop and grow, the last thing you might picture would be a quail-duck chimera. That is, unless you're Richard Schneider, associate professor in the department of orthopedic surgery at UCSF and our guest this month on Carry the One Radio.

Dr. Schneider and his lab have developed a system where stem cells from quail embryos are transplanted into duck embryos, and vice versa. The precursor cells from different species differ in growth speed and the structure of the bone they eventually create. His lab is interested in how these species-specific, developing cells interact with each other when they first meet. His findings may eventually lead to potential therapies for bone repair and regeneration.

More on the Schneider Lab's research

Host: Alex Mendelssohn

The neighborhood of cells in breast cancer: Zena Werb

University of California - San Francisco


Sept. 30, 2012 (Hosted by Karuna Meda)

Breast cancer affects one in eight women and is the seventh leading cause of death for women. Susceptibility to breast cancer is increased around the time of puberty when the breasts develop. More research into how the breasts normally develop and what causes normal cells to become cancer cells is still needed.

Our guest this month is Zena Werb, a professor of anatomy at the UCSF Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Werb’s lab studies how a normal cell develops and the role of the cell’s “neighborhood”, the surrounding tissue that is necessary for support and proper development. Looking at how these cells interact in their microenvironment is important for understanding cancer metastasis and may potentially lead to treatments for this disease.

More on the Werb Lab's research

Regenerating the heart: Deepak Srivastava

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in men and women, and congenital heart defects affect about 1 out of every 100 babies worldwide. Our guest, Dr. Deepak Srivastava, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at UCSF, is focused on changing that statistic.

By studying how stem cells in the developing embryo transform into heart cells, Dr. Srivastava hopes to find out what causes children to be born with heart abnormalities. Additionally, by understanding how nature develops healthy heart cells, research in the Srivastava lab may soon lead to new therapies for patients with heart disease. His lab has already found a way to guide non-muscle cells in the heart into fully functional, beating muscle cells in mice. He hopes to move these strategies into clinical human studies in the future.

At the end of our talk, Dr. Srivastava gives his most important advice for an aspiring, young scientist.

More on the Srivastava Lab's research
Hosted by Karuna Meda

Stem cells and epigenetics: Barbara Panning

The developing embryo is made up of special cells called stem cells. Unlike most cells, stem cells have the unique ability to transform into specialized adult cells, such as those that make up our heart or the neurons in our brain. In the last five years, scientists have designed a method to go backwards; now the specialized adult cells can be turned into embryonic stem cells. However, a lot of questions remain unanswered. For instance, scientists still do not completely understand what triggers stem cells to transform into different cell types. Or what process keeps stem cells from changing in the first place.
Our guest, Dr. Barbara Panning, a professor in the department of biochemistry at UCSF, is in the process of answering this question. Using a process called RNA interference, her lab turns off specific genes one by one to see how embryonic stem cells are affected. Her research has potentially important implications for diseases like breast cancer.

More on the Panning Lab's research

Hosted by Sama Ahmed

Mef2a and muscle regeneration: Christine Snyder

Even exercise can damage your muscles. Muscle cells then need to regenerate to keep you healthy. This month, we talk with Christine Snyder, a graduate student in the lab of Frank Naya at Boston University who studies how muscle regrowth is regulated.

Her work in the Naya lab focuses on a transcription factor (a protein that interacts with the DNA to affect gene transcription) known as Mef2A. Her lab studies mice that lack this transcription factor and show specific deficits in muscle development. She also explains how a technique called RNA interference can be used to silence certain genes to determine their function in cell cultures or animal models. Christine’s work has important implications for manipulating muscle regeneration after disease or injury.

More on the Naya Lab's research