N Equals One: New Podcast Features Hot Topics in Health Sciences

UC San Diego Health Sciences launched a new podcast this month called N Equals One that will feature early-career scientists, such as graduate students and postdocs, talking about hot topics in science. Each will offer the story of one project, one discovery or one scientist.

The name N Equals One alludes to truly personalized medicine, in which the experimental sample size (n) includes just one person—you.

“We wanted to create a communications platform where science enthusiasts can listen, learn—and hopefully be entertained — at times when they can’t read or watch videos, for example while exercising or driving,” said Kim Kennedy, executive director of Marketing and Communications for UC San Diego Health Sciences. “At the same time, this podcast gives us a chance to talk about science in an informal, conversational way, and feature younger researchers who are working at the leading edge of science every day, but whom we don’t often hear from in other media outlets.”

Check out N Equals One at health.ucsd.edu/podcast or subscribe on iTunes or SoundCloud.

The first three episodes tackle the following topics:

Episode 1: What’s living in your poop?

Microbiome research—studies of the unique constellations of microbes living inside you—has exploded in recent years, driven by advances in genetic sequencing. Learn how your microbiome might influence your health and how you can participate in a citizen science initiative called the American Gut Project. Features Daniel McDonald, former American Gut project manager, and Embriette Hyde, American Gut's current project manager and postdoctoral researcher in Rob Knight's lab in the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Episode 2: Stem cells behaving badly

You might hear a lot about stem cells in the news—especially the promise they hold as treatments for a number of diseases. But stem cells can have a dark side, too. Learn more about cancer stem cells and leukemia from Leslie Crews, senior project scientist in Catriona Jamieson's lab in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine.

Episode 3: When antibiotics stop working, what’s next?

A young, healthy boy lost his leg due to an antibiotic-resistant infection. How does this happen? Why do antibiotics sometimes fail? What other treatment options are on the horizon? This episode features Ross Corriden, a project scientist in the UC San Diego School of Medicine who discovered in lab and mouse experiments that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen helps give the immune system a boost.

Leave a review or email healthscicomm@ucsd.edu with feedback or ideas for future episodes.