Through a Scientist's Eyes

When we talk about the new mRNA vaccines it is important that we define what is NEW and what is the culmination of decades of research. For example, the design of a mRNA construct for vaccination is actually decades old with a long research history. What is new in the last 3-5 years research into how to efficiently utilize the translational machinery of the host cell to generate a antigen (part of a virus) presented appropriately to the immune system. This review goes through the long history of "systems biology in understand vaccines and how to target the immune system. Overall we have a very detailed understanding about vaccines, the immune system. General resources for understand the immune system https://www.immunology.org/celebrate-vaccines/public-engagement/guide-childhood-vaccinations/how-vaccines-work https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/how-do-vaccines-work To the point where we have some really great video resources that use Normal language or ones that use medical terminology. ...

Now that I have your attention:  In cell biology we have this really interesting set of problems where we need to pack a lot of information into a small space yet have a logical way to get to what we want....kind of like an iPhone and the zillions of Apps that most folks have 😉 So...how does the cell map its "Apps [genes]"? well thats a deep subject. I cover the why its important in my most recent podcast: [ Google Podcasts ,   Spotify ,   Anchor ] Here I want to go through a little of the "Why should you care?" How a cell goes from a naïve cell "baby cell" to neuron "brain cell".  It's important to remember that no cell defines its own identity in a vacuum. It's surrounded by other cells that are also making decisions and there there's a lot of developmental biology I won't go into here but suffice it to say what happens is that at some point there's enough cells that have all made the same decision. There are a lot of varia...

 Cell Biology 101 In my upcoming Podcast (now published: Spotify  and Google ) I'll go through some background for what an mRNA vaccine is:  I want to do is take you a little deeper as I mentioned if you listen to the trailer my goal here is talk about the iceberg behind what  what  we see in the traditional media.   What I want to share here is a simple whiteboard session that goes through the basics: I do want to start off with is when we look at a  mammalian  cell or A to use the fancy term a eukaryotic cell it's broken down into  into  zones and regions the two major ones that most of us have heard about is the is the cytoplasm and the nucleus so the nucleus is the central part of the cell it's kind of the  the  central processor to steal a computer term of the cell and the cytoplasm is where all the action happens and this is all bordered by two lipid structures and so when I say lipid structures way that I  I ...

 Hello World! This is a companion blog for a podcast series- "Through a Scientist's Eyes" Here I'll go a little deeper than the spoken word.  Place some interesting research results that helped me shape episodes.  The genesis of this is 2 parts: 1 My frustration with how little depth there often is to explaining scientific discoveries to the general population [see Rant ] 2  A friend of mine, mentor really, sent me this episode of T his American Life. Where David Kestenbaum interviews several "lesser known" scientists in the race to create the vaccines that have recently gone to market. Rather poignant for me; a former scientist- I have written extensively on blogs most recently   here ; back in 2017 when I last had a bout of melancholy regarding my career change.  It reminded me what the public doesn't see: The long hours that it takes to discover something new, the commitment to the unknown and the recognition that if you fail you may be out of a job,...