Our guest this week is Samuel Little, a bioengineering PhD candidate at Concordia University. His current research is focused on developing an innovative treatment known as CAR-T Therapy, in which an individual's immune system is removed from the body, genetically modified, and reinserted into the body to fight off cancer with unprecedented strength and efficiency. Sam brings the heat and turns the knowledge volume up to 11, if that makes sense -- this is a crazy episode, in the best way possible. I've already listened to it thrice from start to finish! What are you waiting for? Hey are you still reading this?
Questions Answered
How has bioengineering paved the way for a new innovative cancer therapy?
How can we beat cancer at its own game?
Why is cancer a more perfect version of us?
Are we on the brink of a revolution in cancer treatment?
How can we manipulate our own immune system to maximize its efficacy?
Is it worth engaging in research for research sake?
And many, many.... many more!
Topics & Concepts
A Day in the Life of an Interdisciplinary Lab
Microscopic vs. Macroscopic Engineering
The Biological Scale
Somatic Gene Therapy
CAR-T: Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy
Cancer's Invisibility Cloak
ALL: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Cancer: A More Perfect Version of Us
Immune System Evasion
Famous Papers: The Hallmarks of Cancer
Blood Cancers: A Starting Point for CAR-T
Chemotherapy: Thank You Dr. Sidney Farber
The CD-19 Protein
Microfluidics
Electroporation
CRISPR
Research for Research's Sake
The Dream: Mechanizing CART-T Therapy
Sam's Book Recommendation:
The Emperor of All Maladies - Siddhartha Mukherjee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor_of_All_Maladies
Jeremy's Book Recommendations:
Originals - Adam Grant
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Richard Carlson
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