Two Scientists Walk Into A Bar is back for a fourth season with new hosts, Danielle Mandikian, Senior Scientist, and Maria Wilson, Senior Director, Project Team Leader! Get to know the new hosts and preview this season. Subscribe today so you don’t miss an episode!

If you would prefer to read a transcript of this episode, please click here.

SUBSCRIBE BELOW TO CATCH EACH EPISODE

If you want to learn more about the groundbreaking science happening in our labs, click here. To learn more about the jobs in our research and early development group, click here.

Transcript of Two Scientists Walk Into A Bar: "Meet The Hosts of Season Four” with Maria Wilson and Danielle Mandikian

Maria: Hi. Welcome, everybody, to the new season of Two Scientists Walk Into A Bar. I'm Maria.  

Danielle: And I'm Danielle, and we're both thrilled to be dipping out of the lab and checking into the bar as hosts of this next season. 

Maria: Danielle, it's really great to meet you in this socially distanced way.  

Danielle: I'm definitely glad to be here and getting the opportunity to talk about science with you.  So, let's see what our producers, Stephanie and Wellington, want us to go through today. Do you have any notes?  

Maria: I do have one, but why don't you start?

Danielle: OK, so my first note is to kind of give a rough elevator pitch and Wellington's first question is, do we even use that phrase in science? Is that, like, common...?

Maria: Yeah! In biotech, you've got to have your elevator pitch. If you run into your boss in the elevator and they say, hey, Maria, what are you working on? And you need to be able to get it out really fast so that they're excited about it.  

Danielle: Yeah. Or I had a P.I. who used to be like, if you can't explain what you do to your grandmother, you don't really know what you're doing.

Maria: So, tell me – give me an elevator pitch of how you got interested in science.  

Danielle: When I started off in school. I grew up in Texas, and I hated school. I actually flunked chemistry class, which is kind of funny because I ended up majoring in biochemistry. But in any case, when I was younger, I was so sure that I was going to be a welder or a mechanic. My whole thing was like rebuilding transmissions. But eventually, I got into science. I started off at a junior college and really got introduced to the idea of research and fell in love. And I started off with kind of like mechanical stuff, working in nanotech and then eventually made my way to cancer research. And the rest is kind of history.  

Maria: Well, it sounds so interesting. I'm really looking forward to learning more about your background and history and that and I do have like a really dodgy Subaru that has a transmission problem. So, if you ever want to come over to take a look at it, I'll be happy for you to do that.  

Danielle: Dodgy Subarus? Dodgy cancer cells? I'm your girl. All right. So, tell me about you. How did you get started in science and what brought you here? 

Maria: So, I was always interested in science when I was a little kid, and when I was young, I really wanted to be a veterinarian. I loved animals. And in the UK, when I was young at least, you have to specialize super early. So, you kind of go science track or arts track when you're about 13. So, I went down the science track at that very young age in the hope that I would be able to go to vet school -- and vet school is an undergraduate thing in the U.K. I didn't get into vet school. There's only five in England. I interviewed all of them; they didn't want me. But so instead, I went and did a degree in biochemistry like you. So, I got a bachelor's degree in biochemistry. And I really had very little knowledge of the world of scientific, original research. But because I went to a great university and got to do research as part of my undergrad, I then got a real interest in research and I went on and did my Ph.D., and sort of the rest is history. I remain very interested in scientific research ever since then.  

Danielle: That's what they do. They hook you when you're young. OK, so let's see. I think the next note is on yours, do you have it?  

Maria: OK, so my note from the team, which is a good one, is what is one of your favorite scientific theories or ideas or stories, current or past? And could you relate that to how we think about science today?  

Danielle: Well, yeah, that's a tough one, right, but I kind of feel like in the wake of COVID, I don't know that I would say there's just one particular theory. But I'm really interested in these ideas of what always works and then realizing that it won't cut it -- and trying to figure out how to navigate past it. So even just thinking about something relevant, like how the COVID vaccine was founded. It went totally novel technologies because push came to shove and traditional methods just didn't work. And I love seeing those different patterns across all different kinds of fields within research. That's like super exciting.  

Maria: Yeah, super. And when there’s like a big, unexpected event that drives a sudden uptake in a technology, like these mRNA vaccines. Right. They were always there. People were working on them. But now, suddenly their day in the sun came because we really needed that technology, and we needed vaccines fast. Yeah, that's a great point. 

Danielle: Yeah, there's always these routes that are cookie cutter. But when you go past them, it's always really cool. Well, what about you? 

Maria: So, what I was thinking of was that -- I don't know if you saw this in the news, but it's 100 years since the discovery of insulin. It was discovered in 1921 by Banting and Best at the University of Toronto. Now I've worked for a lot of my career in -- early career -- in diabetes research, so I've always been really interested in the story of insulin because it really was the first time that scientists understood the biology of a disease, like something's missing. It's this hormone insulin. And they figured out where it came from. They figured out how to make it. And actually, they went from identifying insulin to having a product to give to patients in about 12 months. It was a crazy drug development and scientific discovery story. So, when I think about what we do, it's still exactly the same thing. We're talking about trying to find out what's wrong and what the pathology is of a disease, and then figuring out a way to make something that we can develop into a medicine to resolve that disease. And I think I love the story of insulin because it's really the first time that was ever done.   

Danielle: Absolutely, and I really think that this is going to be great, I'm looking forward to all of the different scientists that we're going to get to meet and discuss how their research intersects in, you know, unique ways. Just thinking about what you were mentioning about metabolic diseases -- even though insulin was discovered 100 years ago, there's so many different ways that those metabolic pathways intersect with diseases that we don't even understand. There's a lot of research that's even linking insulin profiles to your sleep-wake cycle, which I find absolutely fascinating.  

Maria: The team is working on the lineup of scientists as we speak. I know that we're going to cover multiple sclerosis and asthma and all sorts of other interesting topics. Danielle and I are going to trade off hosting the podcast, so we'll have to fight over who gets to talk to which person, which I think is going to be tough because it's going to be so many interesting people. Danielle, any particular preferences?  

Danielle: It's cool. I like them all. Another thing that we're going to try to do, as we talk to different scientists, is talk about how COVID-19 has impacted research. It'll be really cool to see what types of innovations they've used to work around all of the problems that the pandemic has brought. And also, how is it going to shape the way they think about medicine moving forward.  

Maria: Yeah, I think COVID has obviously had an impact on almost all aspects of science and research and medicine. So, we'll touch on that, I think, over the season as we talk about other diseases as well.

So, as you can tell, we are both really excited to start talking to scientists and we really want you to join us in this journey. So please do subscribe to the podcast wherever you usually find podcasts and get ready! Two Scientists Walk Into A Bar is back!