TOP ENGINEER STOPS DISEASES BY REPROGRAMMING CELLS | Dr. Tara Deans
Holy Shift! Biomedical Breakthroughs Shaping TomorrowShow Notes
What if the next breakthrough medicine wasn't made in a factory, but inside your own body?
In the Season 2 premiere of Holy Shift! Biomedical Breakthroughs Shaping Tomorrow, host Angela Gill Nelms sits down with Dr. Tara Deans, a leading stem cell engineer who is reprogramming the body's own cells to fight disease. From cancer and immune disorders to future cell-based therapies, Dr. Deans explains how scientists are turning living cells into powerful new medicines.
You'll discover how platelets can help cancer hide in plain sight, why stem cells may transform the future of healthcare, and the surprising moment that sparked an entirely new direction in Dr. Deans' research. Along the way, she shares the role of curiosity, collaboration, and hope in tackling some of medicine's toughest challenges.
You'll also get a glimpse of the person behind the science, from childhood dreams of becoming a veterinarian to a love of wildlife photography and rescuing orphaned possums. As a happy postscript to our conversation, the young possums Dr. Deans helped care for have now been successfully released back into the wild. If you're fascinated by cancer research, stem cells, biotechnology, personalized medicine, biomedical engineering, and the future of healthcare, this episode is for you.
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In this special Season 1 roundup of Holy Shift!, host Angela Gill Nelms revisits standout moments from this season's conversations with researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Guests share their engineering solutions, the personal stories and unexpected paths that brought them to the lab, and why public funding for basic science and biomedical innovation is more critical than ever. This episode features clips from conversations with Melissa Kemp, Lena Ting, David Myers, Mike Davis, Scott Hollister, Zachary Danziger, Annabelle Singer, Shella Keilholz, Machelle Pardue, Anant Madhabushi, Chethan Pandarinath, Felipe Quiroz, and Ming Fong. As we look ahead to Season 2, we want to hear from you! Take a few minutes to fill out our listener survey and let us know what you loved, what you want more of, and what we can do better. One lucky respondent will receive a Holy Shift! listener swag package.
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