Advertise on podcast: The Genetics Podcast

Summary This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Jenny Hsieh, Co-Founder and President of the Danon Foundation. They discuss how Danon disease affects males and females, why it is so often misdiagnosed, the current therapy landscape and research priorities, and how families can make informed decisions about gene therapy trials. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Jenny  01:28 An overview of Danon disease 02:34 Sex differences in Danon disease and severe disease in females 05:15 Why Danon disease is misdiagnosed and how it may be spotted earlier 08:50 Therapy pipeline for Danon and the Foundation's global patient coordination 13:46 Origin story of the Danon Foundation 18:10 Research priorities and the burden of Danon disease beyond the heart 22:39 Raising genetic testing awareness among ophthalmologists and cardiologists for Danon disease 25:20 Recognizing broader Danon symptoms and launching the first Danon Awareness Day 29:37 Informed consent and trial literacy for families weighing gene therapy 33:14 Patient-friendly trial experiences 36:19 Ways to support Danon research 37:37 Closing remarks Find out more Danon Foundation

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Inigo Martincorena, Group Leader at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. They discuss the discovery of widespread cancer-driver mutations in normal tissue, the role of somatic mutations in autoimmune disease, new sequencing technologies transforming the field, and the therapeutic potential of targeting these mutations. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Inigo  01:46 How Inigo's eyelid skin study revealed widespread cancer-driver mutations 07:14 Findings from a follow-up study on esophageal tissue 10:02 How NanoSeq technology scaled somatic mutation research across tissues 12:34 The thyroid study linking somatic mutations to autoimmune disease 17:07 How escaped B cell clones evolve into polyclonal autoimmune disease 20:21 Immune gene mutations occurring in healthy aging lymphocytes 21:21 Why driver mutation clones in normal tissue rarely become cancer 24:16 Two therapeutic paradigms for targeting somatic mutations in disease 28:13 Examples of somatic rescue mutations in the colon, liver, and blood 29:20 Why clonal selection only occurs in dividing cell types 31:20 The field's remaining blind spots in mobile immune cells and rare samples 33:46 How new single-cell sequencing will link genotype to phenotype 36:03 What Inigo has learned from collaborating across Sanger's expertise 38:09 Closing remarks Find out more Eyelid study Esophagus study

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Marleah Dean Kruzel, Professor of Communication at the University of South Florida. They discuss her personal path from watching breast cancer move through her family to testing positive for a hereditary mutation herself, the ART framework she developed for managing uncertainty, and the complexities of communicating genetic risk within families. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Marleah 01:35 Marleah's family history of breast cancer across four generations 02:48 Marleah's childhood living through her mother's five-year cancer battle 04:26 Marleah's experience with genetic testing 07:19 How a positive test result reshaped Marleah’s PhD research focus 08:40 The central challenges of living with a positive test result  10:50 The ART framework for managing hereditary cancer uncertainty 15:06 Applying the ART framework to Patrick’s experience with uncertainty and the importance of having a support system  19:53 Common misconceptions in how families communicate genetic risk 23:54 The previvor identity and the chronic uncertainty it brings 25:40 How Marleah has learned to accept and embrace uncertainty 27:57 Balancing logic and emotion in hereditary cancer family planning 31:28 How Marleah grounds her research tools in patients' lived experience 33:21 How AI is eroding our capacity to sit with uncertainty 35:57 Redesigning healthcare for a lifespan of genetic risk information 38:10 Closing remarks

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. David Hallett, Chief Scientific Officer at Recursion. They discuss the biggest shifts in drug discovery over Dave's three-decade career, where AI is genuinely transforming the field today versus where the hype outruns the reality, and how Recursion's perturbational maps have uncovered and validated a novel neurodegeneration target. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 01:00 Welcome to Dave 01:57 The biggest shifts in drug discovery over three decades 06:39 Where AI is delivering real wins across drug discovery today 12:19 How AI-assisted trial simulation reveals which eligibility criteria to relax 14:46 The three biggest reasons drug programs fail in the clinic  18:20 How Recursion's perturbational maps uncover new drug targets 24:58 A four-step framework for validating a novel drug target 28:44 How Recursion balances deep therapeutic focus with partnership breadth 30:52 Why AI can't shortcut clinical trials, and what proof of real impact looks like 34:57 The skills scientists need most in the AI era, and why trusting AI outputs starts with trusting the data 39:52 Closing remarks Find out more: Recursion (https://www.recursion.com/)

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Danny Miller, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington and Attending Physician at Seattle Children's Hospital. They discuss the case for making long-read sequencing the first genetic test every patient receives, the reference dataset his lab is building from the 1000 Genomes Project to resolve structural variants, publicly available methylation signatures as biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment response, and his vision for genome-informed care from newborn screening through the NICU. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 01:00 Welcome to Danny 01:41 The case for long-read sequencing as first-line genetic testing 02:52 Current barriers to wider use of long-read sequencing  04:14 Building a long-read reference dataset from 1000 Genomes for variant filtering 06:47 How long-read sequencing can solve a missed diagnosis  08:12 The clinical case for complete telomere-to-telomere genomes 10:39 What it will take to shift the clinical genetics status quo 12:06 Making methylation signatures public to diagnose disease and track therapy 15:58 Danny's path from programming and finance into clinical genetics 18:19 Danny's lived experience with deafness and achondroplasia, and how it shapes his approach to genetic counseling 21:46 Danny's optimism about AI in genomics and worry about AI in education 27:15 The path to making genomes a routine part of the medical record 29:47 The vision of same-day newborn genomic data guiding NICU treatment decisions 34:31 Closing remarks Find out more: Miller Lab (https://millerlaboratory.com/)

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Brent Richards, CEO and Founder of 5 Prime Sciences and Professor of Human Genetics, Epidemiology, and Medicine at McGill University. They discuss how to triangulate different types of genetic evidence to validate a drug target, why herd psychology often drives which targets get funded, why strong genetic support didn't save the Zeus IL-6 trial, and how collider bias can distort genetically stratified clinical trials. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Brent 01:43 How company size shapes access to genetic drug discovery tools 04:10 Brent's framework for triangulating different types of genetic evidence 06:50 The herd psychology behind which drug targets get funded 10:01 Potential reasons the Zeus IL-6 trial failed despite strong genetic evidence 12:49 What a gold standard genetic evidence package actually looks like  17:13 Closing the data gap with diverse genomes and systematic pipelines 19:03 The diabetes patient story that drove Brent into drug development and balancing academia with industry 25:39 Why obesity went from a drug development graveyard to its biggest frontier 29:13 How collider bias can distort genetic risk trial results 38:20 Where to go deeper on advanced genetic drug discovery concepts 40:11 Closing remarks Find out more: 5PrimeSciences’ symposium on human genetics at ASHG2026 in October

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Dr. Andrew Jackson, Programme Leader at the MRC Human Genetics Unit at the University of Edinburgh. They discuss how his lab discovered that gain-of-function DNMT3A mutations cause both microcephalic dwarfism and an accelerated aging syndrome, and what that reveals about the shared biology of growth and aging. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Andrew 01:34 The origins of Andrew's work linking brain size and aging 02:54 The genetics of mammalian size range and epigenetic factors regulating growth 05:02 How DNMT3A mutations causing dwarfism led to discovering an accelerated aging syndrome 09:46 Cell number rather than cell size as the shared driver of growth and aging 13:07 Whether brain size within humans actually predicts cognitive ability 15:20 Why intellectual disability has far more known genes than dwarfism 19:26 Discovering ribonuclease H2's role in DNA repair, and its unexpected link to cancer  23:35 Why studying rare monogenic diseases reveals broader biology 26:59 Andrew's next research questions on aging, cancer, and mutation biology 28:42 Why humans, model organisms, and cell assays each have a role 31:00 Somatic mosaicism's growing role in aging and disease beyond cancer 36:11 Closing remarks Find out more: Mentioned studies from Andrew’s lab:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-026-02633-8 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-018-0274-x

This week on The Genetics Podcast, Patrick is joined by Stevie Ringel, co-founder of Nome and founder of the Kizuna Foundation. They discuss Stevie's own ultra-rare disease diagnosis and shaped his path to founding Kizuna Foundation and Nome, how Nome's AI agents help scientists navigate the operational complexity of small-batch drug development, the technical and business model advantages underpinning Nome's accuracy, and what it will take to build a sustainable funding model for ultra-rare disease. Show Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Stevie 01:37 Stevie's inherited retinal disease (IRD) diagnosis and subsequent path into genomics 03:16 Why Stevie founded Kizuna Foundation and why ultra-rare drug development is so operationally complex 06:27 The origin story of Nome and using AI to automate the operational work  10:09 The inspiration for the name “Nome” and who the company is built to serve 12:44 The biggest blockers to program speed 15:07 How AI and scale can bring down the cost of gene therapy manufacturing 18:01 FDA signals and global regulatory competition  19:33 Priority review vouchers and why Nome stays out of molecule IP 20:33 Nome's AI and review process for patient reports and its expansion to health systems 25:04 Nome's agent architecture and the data behind its accuracy 28:17 Why delivery remains gene therapy's biggest bottleneck and approaches for solving it 31:34 The case for a new capital model in rare disease drug development  33:25 What’s next for Nome as they advance preclinical programs 34:25 Nome’s focus on process excellence across therapeutic modalities 36:34 Closing remarks Find out more: Nome

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 Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 01:00 Welcome to Jagesh 01:40 Why delivery is the main bottleneck for gene therapies 03:42 Easier vs harder tissues to target for delivery 06:40 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 LNPs 15:49 Mirai's machine learning (ML) feedback loop for optimizing LNP formulation 20:50 Why lipid chemistry is still hard for ML to learn and factors affecting LNP tropism 24:35 Jagesh's path from academia to Mirai 27:23 Mirai's platform business model and how it lowers risk 29:13 What industry partnerships with Mirai look like 31:41 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 remarks Find 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 Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Sharon and a discussion of the personal experience with rare disease that started her journey 03:47 Reasons Sharon decided to establish the first layperson-led biobank 05:34 Challenges with setting up the biobank infrastructure 07:00 Balancing financial factors in a non-profit organization  09:30 Recent patterns and future insight into rare disease drug discovery framework and regulation 15:32 Barriers to widespread collaboration and cooperation in rare disease research, and why it should be approached from a public health perspective 18:12 Background and experiences from the iHope Genetic Health program in low- to middle-income countries 24:44 Sharon’s perspective on challenges with the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act 28:49 Sharon’s lessons learned in her patient advocacy and policy work, and her hopes for future legislation 33:04 Sharon’s hopes for improved access to genetic testing and treatment for children in underserved communities 34:34 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 work 40:18 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 Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:58 Welcome to Carl 02:05 The origins of IBDVerse and mapping genetic effects on gene regulation across gut cell types in IBD 05:43 How anti-TNFs and newer genetically-supported IBD drugs have reshaped treatment  08:04 Genetic versus environmental contributions to IBD 09:53 Using single-cell data to uncover IBD disease subtypes 13:22 Drug sequencing and immunogenicity in treatment response 16:52 The backstory of building the IBDVerse atlas at scale 20:29 How coding and non-coding IBD variants converge on the same genes and pathways 23:38 The case for pathway-specific polygenic risk scores 28:17 Building a longitudinal multi-omics dataset to predict IBD progression and drug response 30:08 Why Sanger's next cohort targets sick and underrepresented patients rather than healthy volunteers 34:07 What Carl looks for when interviewing PhD students and faculty candidates  39:20 A call to junior scientists and closing remarks Find 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 Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Pradeep 01:30 The origin story of clonal hematopoiesis (CH) as a cardiovascular risk factor  09:41 CH mutations such as TET2 that are linked to cardiovascular disease 12:27 Evidence tying inflammation to CH and drugs that could target it 16:49 TenSixteen Bio’s strategy for targeting CH and the challenge of finding the right patients 21:33 Trajectory of CH across age and somatic mosaicism beyond blood 26:44 How polygenic risk scores fill a gap in cardiovascular risk prediction 34:49 The future clinical applications of polygenic risk scores 39:20 The challenge of standardizing polygenic risk scores for clinical and regulatory use 42:27 Pradeep's move to pharmaceutical company Amgen and his reasons for it 46:23 Closing remarks Find 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 Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:59 Welcome to Chris 01:18 Chris’ path from neurobiology to human genetics 04:55 How collaboration and mentorship have shaped Chris' career 06:59 Somatic mosaicism and genetic mutations in the brain, from epilepsy to Alzheimer’s 13:56 Repurposing cancer therapeutics and targeting DNA damage as new approaches to Alzheimer's 15:29 A shared pattern of DNA damage across neurodegenerative diseases and the mechanism behind it 19:36 How healthy neurons accumulate mutations with age and what that means for the brain 23:21 How mutation rates and patterns vary across cell types 26:23 How genome quality control and synaptic pruning may explain both brain development and neurodegeneration 30:33 Why some people maintain a healthy brain into old age 33:57 Chris’ advice for early-career scientists on pursuing goals 36:43 Closing remarks Find 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 Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 00:58 Welcome to Yentli 02:34 How Yentli's father's C9 ALS diagnosis and her own genetic risk led her to pivot her research career toward curing it 06:41 The biology of the C9orf72 repeat expansion and how TDP-43 dysregulation links it to ALS and FTD 11:40 Therapeutic strategies targeting TDP-43 pathology in ALS and FTD 15:35 The state of biomarkers for ALS and FTD, and why C9-FTD trials lag behind ALS 22:08 How Yentli is lowering barriers for biomarker, cell line, and drug development through CureC9 30:40 Call for collaborators and where to follow Yentli  32:59 Closing remarks Find 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 Notes 0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast 02:03 Welcome to Eric, his background in cardiology, and how he got into biotech 06:23 Eric’s experience incubating and spinning out early-stage companies with Third Rock Ventures and developing Maze Therapeutics 09:13 Eric’s decision to transition from academia to the world of biotech 11:24 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 therapies 16:48 What led Eric to launch Trace Neuroscience to develop ALS therapies 28:35 The process of getting Trace’s ALS therapies into the clinic 32:22 The identification of therapeutic value in low odds ratio genes 35:58 Eric’s view on the APOA1 gene target and its major effect size in kidney disease 40:03 How best to integrate genetics and genetic discovery into small and medium biotechs 41:50 Closing remarks Find out more Trace Neuroscience https://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