PODCAST

Absolute Gene-ius

Jordan Ruggieri, Christina Bouwens

Inspiring stories and advice from dPCR gene-iuses.

science life sciences

All Episodes

00:30:09

An introspective retrospective

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/09/27

It’s not every day that you discover a new podcast series you like, and it’s not every day that you start hosting a podcast series either! To bookend this inaugural season of Absolute Gene-ius, Jordan and Cassie interview each other to provide a retrospective look at the season and to learn more about each other and their respective career paths.In their recap of the season, we revisit the diversity of applications that guests used digital PCR to progress, from monitoring wastewater for infectious

00:36:33

Let’s make a bet – Poisson statistics of digital PCR

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/09/13

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was discovered in 1983 by Kary Mullis and Michael Smith, who were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. Since then, PCR has been a cornerstone method that has been a pillar of discovery and applied science. The various types of PCR are sometimes confusing, and the relative pros and cons of each method are not always clear, which is why it’s so great to have this episode's guest explain them all in a simple and clear-cut way. Dave Bauer, PhD, is an

00:36:26

Bioinformatics — the bridge to understanding biology

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/08/09

Bioinformatics is a relatively new field of science that is very interdisciplinary in nature. Its practitioners use a mixture of biology, chemistry, physics, statistics, and computer science to develop methods and software aimed at helping integrate and understand biological and other data.  Our guest for this episode is Nikhil Ram Mohan, Staff Scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He describes bioinformatics as the bridge to understanding biology. We learn about his international

00:32:39

PCR on ‘zombie’ organisms in extreme environments

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/07/26

There are very few remaining locations on Earth that are untouched by humans, and those that do remain are in very extreme environments that are difficult to access. However, accessing and studying life in these extreme environments can provide unique insights to the biology of life. Understanding how simple organisms adapt and survive in seemingly unlivable conditions is a unique field of study with the potential to inform and affect the human condition. We’re joined in this episode by Dr. Brandi

00:02:43

An Absolute Gene-ius announcement

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/07/12

This mid-season message from Cassie includes the announcement of the arrival of Jordan’s first baby, which will mean a short delay in production of the second half of the season. We will be back soon though with more great conversations with the Gene-iuses using dPCR to progress their science. In the meantime, we hope you’ll constructive feedback via absolute.geneius@thermofisher.com or in a review on whatever service you stream us through. We also hope you’re tell a friend about us so that they

00:34:49

Shrimp-ly amazing science

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/06/28

Microbial consortia are groups of diverse microorganisms that have the ability to act together in a community. Such consortia are common in nature and are known to play important roles in many ecosystems but are not always well understood. Soil management and nutrient mobilization are one area where complex communities of microbes are known to be important, whether it be a naturally occurring consortium, or a man-made consortium. In this episode of Absolute Gene-ius Jordan and Cassie talk with Dr

00:35:53

Raising the fish that spawn our insights

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/06/14

The use of model organisms in science dates to ancient Greece and represents an important way humans have progressed our collective understanding of biology and disease. We’ve probably all heard of using mice, rats, or even Drosophila melanogaster (i.e., fruit flies) in the lab, but zebrafish have surged in their use as a model organism. Zebrafish are small, more cost effective to maintain, have a fast generational lifecycle, and have clear embryos that enable direct observation of their

00:36:33

Avoiding the itch with digital PCR

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/05/31

Parasites may bet a bad rap overall, but they play a vital role in healthy ecosystems. In this episode, we focus on the role parasites play in freshwater ecosystems. Specifically, we’re talking about the role of avian schistosomes, a very interesting parasite that infects waterfowl, but that also uses snails as a host in its larval stage. Larvae also infect humans to cause what’s know as swimmer’s itch.To guide this conversation we have Dr. Patrick Hanington, associate professor in the School of

00:34:54

Insights from a PCR Whisperer

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/05/17

Visit the Absolute Gene-ius page to learn more about the guest, the hosts, and the Applied Biosystems QuantStudio Absolute Q Digital PCR System.The details of what make digital PCR (dPCR) different from real-time, or quantitative PCR (qPCR) are relatively simple but not always explained very well. Likewise, it’s not always clear which use cases are a good fit for dPCR, and which others simply don’t require the power of dPCR. The power of digital PCR is real, if you understand it.In this episode we

00:33:54

Tales of a pandemic PhD

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/05/03

Visit the Absolute Gene-ius page to learn more about the guest, the hosts, and the Applied Biosystems QuantStudio Absolute Q Digital PCR System.Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) has been around for a while and has been used to track drugs of abuse, chemical waste, and pathogens alike. It may not be the most glorious of samples to work with, but wastewater has proven to be a valuable way to do community-wide monitoring. The COVID pandemic brought new attention and focus to WBE once it was shown it

00:05:00

Season 1 Teaser

Absolute Gene-ius ·

2023/04/03

This series and season 1 intro is a perfect bite-sized taste of the Absolute Gene-ius podcast series. You get to meet the hosts, Jordan and Cassie, and hear about their backgrounds while sampling their hosting style and sense of humor. They cover what their goals are for the series and some of the interesting digital PCR topics and applications that will be covered in the inaugural season of this new series. Tune in to become an Absolute Gene-ius!

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Absolute Gene-ius

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