On this episode of "Halteres Presents", Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are chatting about decentralized diagnostic testing with Dr. Donna Wolk, division director of Molecular and Microbial Diagnostics and Development at Geisinger Medical Laboratories. Dr. Wolk helps to put into perspective the market explosion of decentralized diagnostic tests designed for point-of-care, near-patient, at-home, over-the-counter, and pharmacy-based use, and the patient-driven factors to weigh when considering which tests to offer in which decentralized venues. Dr. Donna Wolk is the division chief, Molecular and Microbial Diagnostics and Development, at Geisinger Medical Laboratories and director of the Infectious Disease Research Laboratory at the Weis Research Center. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology, a board-certified medical laboratory scientist, and a professor at the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. Dr. Wolk also serves on the faculty of the Geisinger Pathology Residency Program.  Dr. Wolk received her master’s in health administration at Wilkes University and her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical and molecular microbiology at the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education in Rochester, Minnesota. Learn more about Halteres Associates ⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠.

On this episode of "Halteres Presents", Rich and Mickey are sitting down with David Persing, the Executive Vice President, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer for Cepheid, to reflect upon his experiences at the dawn of molecular diagnostics, the effectiveness of surveilling animal reservoirs to monitor for disease outbreaks, and just how nervous we should be about the spread of H5N1 (and when we should really start to worry). David Persing, MD, Ph.D., has spent most of his 30-year career in biomarker discovery, translational medicine, and innovation in the diagnostics space. Dave joined Cepheid in 2005 and has focused on the enablement of molecular diagnostic technology to meet global needs in infectious diseases and oncology. He conducted his scientific and medical training with Don Ganem and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus at the University of California, San Francisco. After residency training in Clinical Pathology at Yale University, he held leadership roles in academia and industry starting in the early 1990s with the design, implementation, and operation of the first PCR reference laboratory at the Mayo Clinic. His interest in the democratization of molecular diagnostic methods has been longstanding, starting in 1993 with his publication of the first of five widely adopted textbooks to include PCR protocols and guidelines for laboratory operations. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and reviews, including multiple articles in the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and PNAS. In 2020, he was named to the Fierce Pharma list of the 22 most influential scientists in the fight against COVID-19. To maintain a connection with the latest trends in translational medicine, Dave also serves as Consulting Professor of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He obtained his MD and Ph.D. degrees from UCSF in 1988. Learn more about Halteres Associates ⁠HERE⁠.

Welcome to Season 3 of "Halteres Presents", the award-winning, brand-agnostic interview podcast designed to unbiasedly highlight the happenings within the diagnostics industry.  Our first guest of Season 3 is Holden Thorp, the editor-in-chief of Science Magazine and family of journals. Holden brings his unique perspective to the subject of science communications, discussing his thoughts the quandary of fostering public trust in science, how to improve the way science is taught in schools, and just what made the greatest scientific communicators so great. Holden Thorp became Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals on 28 October 2019. He came to Science from Washington University, where he was provost from 2013 to 2019 and professor from 2013 to 2023.  He is currently a professor at George Washington University and on leave to serve as the Editor-in-Chief at Science. Thorp joined Washington University after spending three decades at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), where he served as the 10th chancellor from 2008 through 2013. Thorp earned a bachelor of science degree from UNC, a doctorate in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, and completed postdoctoral work at Yale University. He holds honorary degrees from Hofstra University and North Carolina Wesleyan College and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.   Thorp cofounded Viamet Pharmaceuticals, which developed VIVJOA (oteseconazole), now approved by the FDA and marketed by Mycovia Pharmaceuticals. Thorp is a venture partner at Hatteras Venture Partners, a consultant to Ancora and Urban Impact Advisors, and is on the board of directors of PBS, the College Advising Corps, and Saint Louis University.  He serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Yale School of Medicine and the Underwriters’ Laboratories Research Institutes.  In 2023, STAT named Thorp to its STATUS list of top leaders in the life sciences. Thorp is the coauthor, with Buck Goldstein, of two books on higher education: Engines of Innovation: The Entrepreneurial University in the Twenty-First Century and Our Higher Calling: Rebuilding the Partnership Between America and its Colleges and Universities, both from UNC Press. Learn more about Halteres Associates HERE.

"Halteres Presents" is back with Season 3 beginning Tuesday June 11th! Seasons 1 and 2 of "Halteres Presents" had a very rewarding awards season, having been honored with: a Gold 2024 American Business Award, a Silver 2023 Davey Award, a Gold 2024 Muse Creative Award, a Gold 2023 Titan Health Award, and an Award of Distinction from the 2024 Communicator Awards. Thank you all so much for your dedicated listening. This season's guests include Holden Thorp the editor-in-chief of Science Magazine and their family of journals, and 2020 Nobel Laureate Sir Michael Houghton, the co-discoverer of Hepatitis C, as well as many others to cover a wide variety of topics including infectious disease outbreaks being unleashed by global climate change, new FDA guidance on laboratory developed diagnostic tests, and the latest information on the spread of H5N1 avian flu. Follow us on Apple or Spotify, and enjoy season three of "Halteres Presents" beginning Tuesday June 11th!

In honor of World TB Day 2024, we're re-releasing our three-part series from last year on the status of tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide. For World TB Day 2024, the World Health Organization updated their new ⁠⁠recommendations⁠⁠ and their ⁠⁠TB sequencing portal⁠⁠. Our guest Morten Ruhwald also wrote this ⁠⁠press release⁠⁠ on behalf of FIND. These episodes originally premiered on March 3rd, 2023. In a special 3-part season premiere, Halteres Presents is spotlighting tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide, and where things stand in the field today. In Part Three, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Dr. Shibu Vijayan, the Medical Director for Global Health Practice at Qure.ai, a healthtech company that uses artificial intelligence assistance for medical imaging diagnostics. Dr. Vijayan is a senior clinician in Community and Public Health Services with over 25 years of experience in developing, monitoring, and evaluating public health projects, including developing healthcare-related proposals in both private and not-for-profit organizations. He is also an accredited International general Tuberculosis (TB) expert by the TB team hosted by WHO and Stop TB Partnership. Prior to Qure.ai, Dr. Vijayan was at PATH and has also worked with the WHO as Technical Consultant for the TB Control Program in India and was associated with Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF, Netherlands) as a field Epidemiologist in Ethiopia.

In honor of World TB Day 2024, we're re-releasing our three-part series from last year on the status of tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide. For World TB Day 2024, the World Health Organization updated their new ⁠recommendations⁠ and their ⁠TB sequencing portal⁠. Our guest Morten Ruhwald also wrote this ⁠press release⁠ on behalf of FIND. These episodes originally premiered on March 3rd, 2023. n a special 3-part season premiere, Halteres Presents is spotlighting tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide, and where things stand in the field today. In Part Two, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Dr. Peter Small, the Chief Medical Officer at Hyfe.ai, an acoustic epidemiology company which uses machine learning to build acoustic tools for respiratory diagnostics and monitoring. For more than a decade, Dr. Small was responsible for building and running the innovative TB program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, performing seminal work on clinical, epidemiologic, evolutionary, and genetic aspects of tuberculosis. He has deep expertise in translating cutting-edge science into drugs, diagnostic methods, and vaccines, as well as the business and public health processes to get innovative tools to those in need. Dr. Small holds a BA from Princeton University and a MD from the University of Florida, and he is also the Founding Director of the Stony Brook University Global Health Institute.

In honor of World TB Day 2024, we're re-releasing our three-part series from last year on the status of tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide. For World TB Day 2024, the World Health Organization updated their new ⁠⁠recommendations⁠⁠ and their ⁠⁠TB sequencing portal⁠⁠. Our guest Morten Ruhwald also wrote this ⁠⁠press release⁠⁠ on behalf of FIND. These episodes originally premiered on March 3rd, 2023. In a special 3-part season premiere, Halteres Presents is spotlighting tuberculosis diagnostics worldwide, and where things stand in the field today. In Part One, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Dr. Morten Ruhwald, who leads the TB Programme at FIND in Geneva, Switzerland. He trained as a medical doctor at Copenhagen University Hospitals, Denmark and obtained his PhD in TB Immunology at Copenhagen University. Prior to joining FIND, Morten served as CMO and Head of Human Immunology at Statens Serum Institute of Denmark, overseeing the clinical development of the TB and chlamydia vaccine programs. Morten's research interests include molecular and immunoassay development for TB and TBI diagnostics, non-sputum-based diagnostic approaches, biomarkers, digital tools, and personalized medicine in TB. FIND Tuberculosis Programme: https://www.finddx.org/what-we-do/programmes/tuberculosis/

In Part Two of the Season 2 Finale of "Halteres Presents", Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea continue their discussion with Paul Davis, dissecting the potential improvements to be made to today's lateral flow technologies, the possibilities (and realities) of what is yet to come with LFAs, and the best ways to build a team of inventors out of disparate personalities. Paul paints a detailed portrait of what "imagineering" can do to expand the scope and capabilities of lateral flow technologies, based on his trailblazing experiences in the field. Please enjoy Part Two of our interview with Paul Davis. Paul Davis has worked in immunology for over 45 years and has founded or co-founded eight bioscience businesses since 2002, with Mologic being the most prominent. As Mologic’s chief scientific officer, Paul led the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics (CARD), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Until 2002, he was as a senior scientist at Unilever Research leading applied immunology, and is one of the inventors of the lateral flow immunoassay.

In Part One of the Season 2 Finale of "Halteres Presents", Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are interviewing Paul Davis, PhD, on the founding of the consumer diagnostics industry. In celebration of his upcoming retirement, Paul Davis reflects on his involvement in the development of Clearblue, the first one-step home pregnancy test, among many other accomplishments while at Unilever, as well as his next adventures as an entrepreneur, founding multiple life sciences companies, including Mologic with his son Mark. Paul shares much of what he learned along the way, including the challenges for creating tests for untrained users, and how opinions on rapid testing technologies have changed over time. On Part Two, Paul will further elucidate the technology behind lateral flow assays - what works, what doesn't work, and where the field is going. Enjoy Part One, and stay tuned for Part Two. Paul Davis has worked in immunology for over 45 years and has founded or co-founded eight bioscience businesses since 2002, with Mologic being the most prominent. As Mologic’s chief scientific officer, Paul led the Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics (CARD), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Until 2002, he was as a senior scientist at Unilever Research leading applied immunology, and is one of the inventors of the lateral flow immunoassay.

On this week's episode, Rich Thayer and Mickey Urdea are exploring metagenomics with Dr. Rick Nolte, an engaging expert on the subject. Dr. Nolte helps to define what metagenomics is, its diagnostic uses, its advantages, and where the field is going. This is a delightfully in-depth interview about a complicated but important topic that is very much worth your time; please enjoy. Frederick (Rick) S. Nolte, PhD, is currently a Senior Director/Medical Advisor at Karius, the microbial cell free DNA company, and Professor Emeritus of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. He served as Vice-Chair for Laboratory Medicine/Medical Director of Clinical Laboratories and Molecular Pathology. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Nolte completed his B.S. degree in Biology at the University of Cincinnati, and his Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology at the Ohio State University. Dr. Nolte completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Public Health and Medical Laboratory Microbiology at the University of Rochester. Prior to coming to MUSC in 2007, he spent 18 years at Emory University School of Medicine where he was a Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Director of the Clinical Microbiology, Molecular Diagnostic, and Serology Laboratories at Emory Medical Laboratories. He is active in and held positions of responsibility in the American Society for Microbiology, Association for Molecular Pathology, Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, Infectious Diseases Society of America, American Society for Clinical Pathology, College of American Pathology and American Association for Clinical Chemistry. He has authored numerous book chapters, practice guidelines, and peer-reviewed publications in the areas of clinical microbiology and molecular diagnostics.