This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Jagesh Shah, Chief Scientific Officer at Mirai Bio. They discuss why delivery is a central bottleneck holding back nucleic acid medicines, how Mirai's lipid nanoparticle (LNP) platform is built to reach tissues like adipocytes and T cells, and the machine learning feedback loop the company uses to engineer LNP formulations.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast01:00 Welcome to Jagesh01:40 Why delivery is the main bottleneck for gene therapies03:42 Easier vs harder tissues to target for delivery06:40 Overview of Mirai's modular delivery platform 09:02 Comparing viral vectors and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) 12:18 Different approaches for targeting adipocytes and T cells with LNPs15:49 Mirai's machine learning (ML) feedback loop for optimizing LNP formulation20:50 Why lipid chemistry is still hard for ML to learn and factors affecting LNP tropism24:35 Jagesh's path from academia to Mirai27:23 Mirai's platform business model and how it lowers risk29:13 What industry partnerships with Mirai look like31:41 Mirai's next frontier of delivery to muscle tissue and the brain 34:40 Cargo size and immunogenicity of LNPs vs AAV 36:00 Why the field needs to close the regulatory pace gap 37:19 Closing remarksFind out more:Mirai Bio

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Sharon Terry, President & CEO of Genetic Alliance. They discuss how Sharon established a layperson-led biobank, her long-term work on rare diseases and patient advocacy, and her program to bring genetic technology to patients in low- to middle-income countries. We’re re-running this episode for its enduring lessons on patient advocacy, rare disease parenting, communication, and citizen science. Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast00:59 Welcome to Sharon and a discussion of the personal experience with rare disease that started her journey03:47 Reasons Sharon decided to establish the first layperson-led biobank05:34 Challenges with setting up the biobank infrastructure07:00 Balancing financial factors in a non-profit organization 09:30 Recent patterns and future insight into rare disease drug discovery framework and regulation15:32 Barriers to widespread collaboration and cooperation in rare disease research, and why it should be approached from a public health perspective18:12 Background and experiences from the iHope Genetic Health program in low- to middle-income countries24:44 Sharon’s perspective on challenges with the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act28:49 Sharon’s lessons learned in her patient advocacy and policy work, and her hopes for future legislation33:04 Sharon’s hopes for improved access to genetic testing and treatment for children in underserved communities34:34 How Sharon learned about rare diseases and genetics as a “homeschooling mom without a degree”37:54 Insights into how elements of spirituality can support advocacy work40:18 Closing remarks

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Carl Anderson, Senior Group Leader and Head of the Human Genetics Programme at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, where he leads the Genomics of Inflammation and Immunity Group. They discuss IBDVerse, the single-cell atlas Carl's team built to map genetic effects on gene regulation across gut cell types, how coding and non-coding variants converge on shared biological pathways in inflammatory bowel disease, and Carl's vision for longitudinal multi-omics cohorts built around the sickest and most underrepresented hospital patients.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast00:58 Welcome to Carl02:05 The origins of IBDVerse and mapping genetic effects on gene regulation across gut cell types in IBD05:43 How anti-TNFs and newer genetically-supported IBD drugs have reshaped treatment 08:04 Genetic versus environmental contributions to IBD09:53 Using single-cell data to uncover IBD disease subtypes13:22 Drug sequencing and immunogenicity in treatment response16:52 The backstory of building the IBDVerse atlas at scale20:29 How coding and non-coding IBD variants converge on the same genes and pathways23:38 The case for pathway-specific polygenic risk scores28:17 Building a longitudinal multi-omics dataset to predict IBD progression and drug response30:08 Why Sanger's next cohort targets sick and underrepresented patients rather than healthy volunteers34:07 What Carl looks for when interviewing PhD students and faculty candidates 39:20 A call to junior scientists and closing remarksFind out more:IBDverse study

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Pradeep Natarajan, Director of Preventive Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. They discuss the discovery of clonal hematopoiesis as a driver of cardiovascular disease, the inflammatory mechanisms and emerging therapies targeting it, the growing clinical case for polygenic risk scores, and Pradeep's upcoming move to lead cardiometabolic and human genetics research at Amgen.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast00:59 Welcome to Pradeep01:30 The origin story of clonal hematopoiesis (CH) as a cardiovascular risk factor 09:41 CH mutations such as TET2 that are linked to cardiovascular disease12:27 Evidence tying inflammation to CH and drugs that could target it16:49 TenSixteen Bio’s strategy for targeting CH and the challenge of finding the right patients21:33 Trajectory of CH across age and somatic mosaicism beyond blood26:44 How polygenic risk scores fill a gap in cardiovascular risk prediction34:49 The future clinical applications of polygenic risk scores39:20 The challenge of standardizing polygenic risk scores for clinical and regulatory use42:27 Pradeep's move to pharmaceutical company Amgen and his reasons for it46:23 Closing remarksFind out more:Clonal hematopoiesis paper

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Christopher Walsh, Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Genetics and Genomics at Boston Children's Hospital, and HHMI Investigator. They discuss his path from neurobiology to human genetics, how somatic mosaicism in the brain drives disease from epilepsy to Alzheimer's, and what this reveals about new therapeutic targets for neurodegeneration.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast00:59 Welcome to Chris01:18 Chris’ path from neurobiology to human genetics04:55 How collaboration and mentorship have shaped Chris' career06:59 Somatic mosaicism and genetic mutations in the brain, from epilepsy to Alzheimer’s13:56 Repurposing cancer therapeutics and targeting DNA damage as new approaches to Alzheimer's15:29 A shared pattern of DNA damage across neurodegenerative diseases and the mechanism behind it19:36 How healthy neurons accumulate mutations with age and what that means for the brain23:21 How mutation rates and patterns vary across cell types26:23 How genome quality control and synaptic pruning may explain both brain development and neurodegeneration30:33 Why some people maintain a healthy brain into old age33:57 Chris’ advice for early-career scientists on pursuing goals36:43 Closing remarksFind out more:https://walshlab.org/

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Yentli Soto Albrecht, physician-scientist in training and founder of CureC9. They discuss how losing her father to C9orf72 ALS, and later learning her own genetic risk, reshaped the direction of her career. The conversation explores the biology linking the C9 repeat expansion to ALS and FTD, and how CureC9 is removing barriers across biomarkers, therapeutics, and patient samples to accelerate progress toward a cure.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast00:58 Welcome to Yentli02:34 How Yentli's father's C9 ALS diagnosis and her own genetic risk led her to pivot her research career toward curing it06:41 The biology of the C9orf72 repeat expansion and how TDP-43 dysregulation links it to ALS and FTD11:40 Therapeutic strategies targeting TDP-43 pathology in ALS and FTD15:35 The state of biomarkers for ALS and FTD, and why C9-FTD trials lag behind ALS22:08 How Yentli is lowering barriers for biomarker, cell line, and drug development through CureC930:40 Call for collaborators and where to follow Yentli 32:59 Closing remarksFind out more: CureC9

This week on The Genetics Podcast, we're re-airing our conversation with Eric Green, Founder and CEO of Trace Neuroscience, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Maze Therapeutics, and Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Patrick and Eric discuss Eric's transition from cardiology to entrepreneurship, the role of highly focused biotechs in creating precision therapies, and the development of high-impact gene therapies for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We're revisiting this episode following Trace Neuroscience's recent announcement that the first patient has been dosed with its antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) designed to restore UNC13A function in ALS.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast02:03 Welcome to Eric, his background in cardiology, and how he got into biotech06:23 Eric’s experience incubating and spinning out early-stage companies with Third Rock Ventures and developing Maze Therapeutics09:13 Eric’s decision to transition from academia to the world of biotech11:24 Building Maze Therapeutics and Eric’s focus on and genetic modifiers to discover new drugs   15:09 The growth of therapeutic modalities in the context of genetics and gene therapies16:48 What led Eric to launch Trace Neuroscience to develop ALS therapies28:35 The process of getting Trace’s ALS therapies into the clinic32:22 The identification of therapeutic value in low odds ratio genes35:58 Eric’s view on the APOA1 gene target and its major effect size in kidney disease40:03 How best to integrate genetics and genetic discovery into small and medium biotechs41:50 Closing remarksFind out moreTrace Neurosciencehttps://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260622451252/en/Trace-Neuroscience-Initiates-Global-Clinical-Development-Program-for-TRCN-1023-an-Antisense-Oligonucleotide-Designed-to-Restore-UNC13A-Function-for-the-Treatment-of-ALS

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Timothy Yu, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Physician/Researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. They discuss how one child’s hidden genetic mutation led Tim into individualized ASO medicine, what it takes to develop n-of-1 therapies, and how new regulatory frameworks could expand treatment options for children with ultra-rare genetic disease.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast01:00 Welcome to Tim02:05 How uncovering the genetic mutation underlying an ultra-rare disease led Tim into personalized ASO medicine07:38 Challenges in developing a custom ASO 12:25 How Tim’s team has scaled individualized ASO therapies to reach more than 50 patients worldwide16:18 Measuring clinical benefit in n-of-1 therapies with natural history data, wearables, and biomarkers20:24 How the N-of-1 Collaborative helps rare disease researchers share infrastructure 24:28 Comparing ASOs, base editing, and prime editing for individualized rare disease therapies30:06 Finding scalable models for n-of-1 therapies in newborn genetic disease33:52 The potential impact of the FDA’s Plausible Mechanism framework on bespoke therapies36:58 Connecting rapid newborn genome sequencing to earlier treatment for rare genetic disease42:10 Closing remarks

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Cara Altimus, CEO of BD², and Dr. Benjamin Neale, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. They discuss how rare variant discovery is opening new routes into bipolar disorder biology, how BD² is combining genetics with longitudinal multimodal data, and how patient priorities are shaping a research model focused on faster diagnosis and more precise treatments.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast00:58 Welcome to Cara and Ben01:57 The origin and aims of BD2 04:20 Major knowledge gaps in bipolar disorder genetics06:43 Using genetics and deep phenotyping to map bipolar disorder biology13:47 Why bipolar disorder genetics needs both scale and deep clinical data17:32 Finding the most predictive data for bipolar disorder biology and care19:19 The search for scalable biomarkers in bipolar disorder21:35 How BD² is building a bridge from discovery to clinical trials26:48 Why bipolar diagnosis takes years and what patients want research to solve33:08 How BD² is looking to other programs as inspiration to build a new research model35:31 What overlapping risk genes reveal across bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and autism37:40 How rare variants could de-risk precision psychiatry trials41:25 How BD² is scaling from early milestones to global funder momentum45:04 Closing remarks Please consider rating and reviewing us on your chosen podcast listening platform! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bp2_wVNSzntTs_zuoizU8bX1dvao4jfj/view?usp=share_linkFind out more:BD2

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Angela Bradshaw, Director for Research at Alzheimer Europe and honorary lecturer at the University of Glasgow. Following a series of recent episodes exploring Alzheimer’s disease research, we’re revisiting this conversation to bring in an essential patient advocacy and nonprofit perspective on the field. Patrick and Angela discuss how Alzheimer Europe partners in and supports pan-European dementia research, the heterogeneity of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the future of potential new gene therapies, and the critical role advocacy organizations play in ensuring research reflects the needs and priorities of patient communities.Show Notes0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast01:27 Welcome to Angela and how she joined Alzheimer Europe06:06 The biggest priorities and areas of focus for dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) research10:10 Biomarkers for dementia and how early in disease development they can be utilized12:40 The heterogeneity of dementia and AD and current understanding of subtypes and treatment journeys17:20 The challenges of diagnosis, early identifiers, and the integration of genetics18:53 Angela’s view on the latest breakthrough therapies22:50 Partnering in and supporting dementia research efforts across 30+ European countries29:15 Reimbursement frameworks and shared regulations across different countries33:40 Angela’s thoughts on the near future of gene therapies for AD and dementia38:04 Why Angela spent 50 hours travelling the length of Australia by bus41:26 Closing remarksFind out moreAlzheimer EuropePlease consider rating and reviewing us on your chosen podcast listening platform!