BioTime

In this episode, I interview Dr. Shana Burstein, a second-year pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She received her MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2021, followed by a residency in Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. Her current research interest is identifying novel genomic variants associated with pediatric cancer predisposition syndromes. During this conversation, Dr. Burstein shares the challenges and life lessons she learned along the way to becoming a physician. Further, she tells us about the incredible research she has performed from her work with calcium ion channels at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to the computational biology work she is spearheading at Emory University. Lastly, we close the interview with Dr. Burstein sharing valuable advice for those aspiring to have a successful and healthy career in medicine.

In this episode, we have a discussion with Dr. Caroline Li, an assistant professor at City of Hope, a top ten cancer research center. She shares with us her academic journey from discovering her passion for science at a young age to establishing herself as faculty member of City of Hope. This episode gives great insight into the journey of a scientist, showing the successes and failures one encounters along the way.

Our bodies love processing glucose, the primary energy source for many organisms. It is simple and easy to extract the energy contained within this simple sugar. But, there are other sugars that organisms can utilize such as lactose. One way that E. coli and many other bacteria harness lactose as an energy source is with the help of the lac operon. This episode explores the components of the lac operon and how the operon functions under varying levels of lactose and glucose.

In the early 2000s, news headlines were all reporting of the same terror: ricin laden letters. Once a person comes in contact with ricin and the poison is absorbed, cells lose the ability to perform translation. Without translation, the body is unable to synthesize proteins critical for life. In today’s episode, we will explore the step by step process of translation along with the structural components involved (ribosomes and t-RNA).

Translation YouTube Video Link: https://youtu.be/Vu6LBOQSqiE

DNA serves as the genetic blueprint for all living organisms. They hold all of the information that govern our very existence. Our growth and development as living organisms relies on this essential biological molecule. In this episode, we will be explore the structure of DNA. Specifically, we will analyze nucleotide structure, dehydration synthesis, complementary base pairing, and the double helix.