Lab Notes
Allen Institute
Subscribe
The 21st century is the century of biology. Discoveries made in the lab today will shape the cures of tomorrow. Hosted by award-winning science writer Rachel Tompa and creator Rob Piercy, Lab Notes pulls back the curtain on the human stories behind headline-grabbing scientific studies and breakthroughs. Lab Notes is a production of the Allen Institute.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Mar 14, 2022
Why don't we understand the brain?
Scientists have known for centuries that the brain is the seat of human thought, but we’re still in the dark about how it works. *For Brain Awareness Week 2022, Lab Notes asked four neuroscientists to get into the weeds with us about why the brain is so complicated and hard to understand*. Do we have any hope of understanding our own brains?
playlist_add
May 17, 2021
Fire Inside: The quest to understand & prevent rheumatoid arthritis
In the early '80s, Linda Sloate was a 30-year old mom raising three little kids when she became one of an estimated 20 million people worldwide living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It has been a 40-year struggle filled with dozens of treatments and surgeries. Today there is new hope for patients as researchers have come together for a collaborative project to uncover how RA begins – and how to stop it in its tracks.
playlist_add
Mar 1, 2021
The novelist and the scientist
When neuroscientist Christina Kim published an important research study, her close friend, novelist Yaa Gyasi, wanted to understand more about her friend’s work, so she asked to shadow her in the lab. That experience eventually formed the basis for Gyasi’s moving novel about addiction and mental illness, Transcendent Kingdom.
playlist_add
Dec 21, 2020
Starved but unable to eat: Life with Crohn's
Aldan Beaubien was in high school when a smorgasbord of bagels, cream cheese and apple juice left him in agony. Months later, doctors diagnosed him with Crohn's disease. Now an IT engineer at a research institute studying the disease, Aldan has new hope for better treatments or even a cure.
playlist_add
Sep 22, 2020
SCANning for coronavirus
In the winter of 2019, a series of storms dubbed “Snowpocalypse” dumped more than 20 inches of snow on the Seattle area, forcing the closure of schools and businesses. This weather-induced social-distancing caused flu cases to plummet. What researchers learned from these snowstorms helped prepare them for the coronavirus pandemic and find what, at the time, were the earliest known cases of community spread. Their work has gone on to provide invaluable data that social distancing works to slow down deadly viruses.
playlist_add
Aug 4, 2020
Taming the Beast
When the first U.S. COVID-19 cases began arriving at the hospital, doctors nicknamed the illness "The Beast" because of the way it attacked the body. Dr. Ryan Padgett treated several patients before he himself became infected and nearly died. How can this beast be tamed? A team of researchers in Ohio believes they have identified a set of tools that could help save lives and speed recovery times for patients like Dr. Padgett.
playlist_add
Apr 27, 2020
A face mask that detects coronavirus
*What if there were a face mask that could tell you you're infected with coronavirus before you ever show symptoms?* In this episode we chat with Allen Distinguished Investigator Jim Collins from MIT and the Wyss Institute, about a wearable diagnostic that could help in the fight to trace and contain COVID-19 infections.
playlist_add