An Off-The-Grid Nobel Win, And Antibiotics In Ancient Microbes

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to three people whose combined discoveries outlined the role of the peripheral immune system—how the immune system knows to attack just foreign invaders and not its own tissues and organs. But when the phone rang for Shimone Sakaguchi, Mary E. Brunkow, and Fred Ramsdell, only two of them picked up.

Host Ira Flatow talks with Nobel Prize winner Fred Ramsdell, co-founder and scientific advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics.

Plus, Ira talks with bioengineering professor César de la Fuente, who looks for solutions to the antibiotic resistance crisis in unexpected places. Now, he’s used AI to help identify promising antibiotic candidates lurking in ancient archaea, small organisms that can survive some of the most extreme conditions in the world.

Guests:
Dr. Fred Ramsdell is the co-founder and scientific advisor at Sonoma Biotherapeutics.
Dr. César de la Fuente is an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

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