Episode Description: Welcome to another intriguing episode from our AMA series, where we're diving deep into the realms of cell biology, cognitive aging, and neurodegenerative disease, all through the lens of zebrafish! We're delighted to have Dr. Liz Haynes, a cell biologist and post-doctoral fellow, as our special guest. A proud advocate for open-source tools and publishing, Dr. Haynes wields a microscope and an unyielding curiosity for the brain's smallest defenders, the microglia. She...

Let's dive headfirst into a fascinating episode of our AMA series featuring a disruptor who's rewriting the playbook of cell biology and challenging the status quo in the scientific world. Meet Dr. Zara Weinberg, a cell-signaling sorceress and postdoc at UCSF. She's got a big love specifically for cyclic AMP and G protein-coupled receptors. If you're scratching your head wondering what those are, don't worry, you're not alone. But buckle up, because you're in for a crash course in synthetic...

Prepare for an episode of the Fancy Labcoat Guild with an AMA in our Discord where we're going to jump into the world of pancreatic cancer research with Dr. Mike Feigin, an Associate Professor and Director of Experimental Therapeutics at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Known for his investigative pursuit of understanding the gene regulation mechanisms that drive tumor growth, Dr. Feigin shares his insights on how commonly prescribed medications can impact cancer progression. But...

Prepare for an episode of the Fancy Labcoat Guild that's less 'blinding flash of light' 🔦 and more 'steady, comforting glow' 💡. We've got an AMA on our Discord with the humble luminary - Dr. Phillip Kyriakakis. He's the kind of guy who tinkers with molecular light switches in optogenetics, a field most of us can't even spell correctly on the first try. 🧠🔬 His career trajectory has taken him from UMass Boston 🏫 to UC San Diego, and now to Stanford as a Senior Research Scientist. He's spent...

In this captivating episode of our AMA series, we dive into the fascinating world of floral ground plants 🌺 with our special guest, Dr. Min Ya. As both a talented researcher and artist, Dr. Min Ya shares her unique insights into the molecular basis of these plants, which make up over 90% of known land plants. Her passion for her work is contagious, and listeners will undoubtedly leave with a newfound appreciation for the complexity and beauty of flowering plants. Dr. Min Ya discusses her...

In our first special AMA hosted by Scifind on our Discord, we brought in Sebastian Cocioba–the 21st century's very own modern Mendel. 🧬 Sebastian is an amateur biologist and one of the founders of Binomica Labs, who works from the comfort of his home lab, surrounded by his beloved plants and instruments. From cultivating his passion to surviving the joyful grind of tinkering away in his bespoke workshop, he's seen it all. Sebastian is a plant whisperer and microbe wrangler who has a burning...

Esther Kim is a scientist working in synthetic biology. But she isn’t just a scientist, she’s a premiere community builder in these burgeoning scientific spaces. She has worked at small start-ups in the Bay Area at The ODIN, Synbiobeta, Braid Theory, and spent her early years working as a genetic engineer in biomanufacturing. She is most known for her work championing independent scientific researchers in the biohacking community to disrupt and transform scientific research and communication....

Our guest, Erin McConahey, is a Principal in Mechanical Engineering with Arup, an employee-owned global engineering, advisory and planning consulting firm that focuses on all aspects of the built environment. Erin’s passion for finding integrated design solutions through a collaborative design process began with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Structural Engineering from UC Berkeley. As she rose in leadership, she has served on Arup’s global Trustee...

Dr. Anthony Casarez is a California native, a sought-after and talented “Molecular Architect”. An expert in organocatalysis by research during his Ph.D. in the laboratory of David MacMillan, the 2021 Nobel prize laureate in Chemistry. He completed his undergrad at SFSU, did his Master's in Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, and then joined Gilead Sciences, working for 2 years on HCV therapy (before pursuing his Ph.D.). He then came back to the Bay to work on antibiotics at Novartis...

Dr. Victoria Piunova is a world-class polymer chemist with a boatload of accomplishments. As CTO at her current company Loliware, she’s disrupting the plastic industry with her seaweed-derived plastic analogues. Loliware has engineered a new category of high-performance products designed to disappear and be carbon negative at scale. By using seaweed to replace plastic at scale, Loliware is tapping into the power of seaweed to regenerate our ocean and contribute to the decarbonization of our...

Science is often perceived as complex, formulaic, and insanely detailed–but did you ever think that it can be treated as an art? Designing experiments, thinking creatively, flowing through the material and immaterial to discover and mold the world we live in. Today, we've got Dr. Serhat Gumrukcu wearing the fancy lab coat. He's one of the founders of Enochian Biotech (a company focused on creating gene-modified cell therapies), and the current director of the Seraph Research Institute where...

The Fancy Labcoat Guild welcomes Dr. Louis Metzger. He's a top-tier protein biochemist (just one of his many specialties!) who's got his Ph.D. from Duke, worked on his Postdoc at UCSF, and at Novartis as an investigator. Louis is a real renaissance man, who does everything from running a Biotech thinktank, a consultancy, a mentor at IndieBio, an advisor for numerous scientific companies. He's a writer, a scientist, an entrepreneur, and a profound thinker. Join us for a deep dive into...

In our first episode, The Fancy Labcoat Guild welcomes Dr. Kris Tatiossian to the fold. She’s a scientific rockstar: a molecular biologist from USC’s Keck School of Medicine. We start from humble beginnings in entomology. We follow her through her PhD into the world of research with the groundbreaking CRISPR technology to ultimately creating her own educational platform-CRISPR Classroom. Learn about her journey and her positive approach to science in a very competitive space.