CTOR Bites- Episode 4 - Taste and Taste-ability

For our fourth and most delicious Bite yet, we take a journey through the five basic tastes guided by Dr. Gary Beauchamp. Together we investigate why the things that we eat and drink have different tastes, and what it means to taste something in the first place.

Dr. Gary Beauchamp is the emeritus director and president of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia,and a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. This episode was produced by Meryl Horn, Austin Chou, Sam Ancona Esselmann, Ryan Jones and Sama Ahmed.

More on the Monell Chemical Senses Center and Dr. Beauchamp's research.

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

Finding new ways to diagnose and treat pain: Beth Winkelstein

Dr. Beth Winkelstein is a bioengineering professor at the University of Pennsylvania. I was lucky enough to work with her on a computational pain model during my last year in college.

As evident from talking to her, she is committed to understanding and treating chronic pain. In the show’s very first episode, she discusses her search for a better way to diagnose and treat pain.

More on the Winkelstein Lab's research

Hosted by Osama Ahmed