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UC San Diego's N Equals One Podcast

 

N Equals One is a podcast about science and discovery, produced and hosted by UC San Diego Health's Communications team. In each episode, we bring you the story of one project, one discovery or one scientist.

Listen to episodes featuring UC San Diego PREPARE Institute faculty below, and find more episodes on the N Equals One website.

A Government in COVID-19 Denial
Despite political risk to researchers and participants, a new study provides the first glimpse into the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on health care workers in Nicaragua, a country where the government refuses to acknowledge that there is a pandemic, or do anything about it. Researcher James McKerrow, MD, PhD, discusses his work with colleague Jorge Huete-Pérez, PhD. Richard Feinberg, PhD, provides his insights as an expert on U.S.-Latin American relations.

COVID-19 Vaccines: Our Shot at Immunity from SARS-CoV-2
Around the world, at least 53 COVID-19 vaccines are currently undergoing clinical trials. Four of the largest and most promising have reached the final Phase III stage. UC San Diego is a testing site for three of the big four: Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson. We speak with Susan Little, MD, principal investigator for two COVID-19 clinical trials in San Diego that are focused on finding a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Little discusses the science behind vaccines, how they will work to address the current pandemic, and when a potential COVID-19 vaccine will be ready.

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What Mini-Lungs in a Dish Might Tell us About COVID-19
In this episode we speak with Aaron Carlin, MD, PhD, and Sandra Leibel, MD, assistant professors and physician-scientists at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Carlin studies viruses such as Zika virus and Leibel has developed “mini lungs” — stem cell-based organoids that grow in a petri dish in the lab, where she can study diseases that affect newborn lungs. That’s what they were doing six months ago, anyway. Then SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that has caused the COVID 19 pandemic, entered our lives. Carlin and Leibel quickly teamed up to explore what happens to the lungs when they are infected with SARS-CoV-2, and how we might be able to mitigate that damage.