Felicia Samuel has worked for Charles River for years, but recently the work she contributes to has taken on a new meaning. Her daughter will be part of a clinical trial to receive one of the brand new sickle cell treatments, with the potential to drastically change her own and her family's lives. She joins me to discuss the details of this amazing but involved gene therapy process, and how working for one of the companies that contributed to this treatment's research makes her feel. Note: in the podcast I mistakenly refer to the treatment changing your DNA, when it just makes changes to the p ..read more

What if we could replace mouse model control groups with a virtual equivalent? What would that mean for drug development in terms of cost, time, and animal model reduction? To answer, I am joined by Charles River associate director Laura Lotfi and Guillemette Duchateau-Nguyen from F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Pharmaceutical Sciences - Roche Innovation Center Basel. Listen now to learn how close we are to replacing some physical models with 1's and 0's ..read more

Alex Sargent, Director of Process Development at Charles River in our Cell and Gene Therapy department, joins me to discuss the work he and his partner put into developing an algorithm to make his job faster and easier. How can you train a computer to accurately sift through the mountains of data generated in drug development? Listen now to find out ..read more

There have been many articles recently about cellular agriculture, or lab-grown meat products. But what happens when a company takes a practical approach to this science fiction concept? Joining me are Charles River's Steven Miklasz from our Biologics Testing Solutions team; and Ramsey Foty, Scientific Director for Fork & Goode, a cultivated meat company, to discuss how the sausage is made ..read more

Norm Wainwright and Foster Jordan have been immersed in the field of limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) testing for decades, and have seen the progress and refinement of this crucial safety test. With the 20th anniversary of Charles River's Endosafe Cartridge and the recent introduction of recombinant alternatives, we look back at the past and future of endotoxin testing ..read more

I am joined by four experts in their field to discuss what will be hot in rare diseases, drug discovery, artificial intelligence, and animal models in 2024.  ..read more

Molly Dupre, a lab assistant at Charles River's Reno site, was recently diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type B/ Acid Sphingomyelinase Deficiency. After years of waiting, doctor's visits, and tests, she could finally put a name to the condition that flared up after the birth of her son. But what came next? She joins me to tell her story ..read more

Senior Principal Scientific Advisor Stan Spence joins me to discuss off-target liability: what happens when a drug misses its target? What are the risks to the patient if the off-target effects aren't caught early? Has there ever been an example of an off-target effect being beneficial to the patient? Find out here ..read more

Rachel Kiserow and Susan Desmond have joined us year after year as part of Eureka's Breast Cancer Roundtable. This year, they wanted to share what happens after - after the treatments, after remission - life after cancer ..read more

For this episode, I am joined by Charles River's Doug Botkin and Pure Microbiology's Abby Roth to discuss the 2012 NECC meningitis outbreak. Doug and Abby bring their background in microbiology to explain how it happened, and how we can prevent such tragedies in the future.  ..read more