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Making Art & Living Well with Prosthetics and Assistive Tech

“For many people, technology makes things easier. For some people, technology makes things possible!” In this episode, Angelica and Bey chat with the crew at TechOwl about designing life-changing technology for people who need it. Also in this episode, we also talk to Philadelphia artist Mason Carter about his experience using a prosthetic leg.

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Hello, world, and welcome to So Curious, presented by the Franklin Institute.

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In this season Human 20, we will be talking to scientists and non-scientists

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alike about technology and innovation surrounding the human experience.

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We're your hosts.

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I'm Angelica Pasquini.

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And I'm the Bul Bey.

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But you can just call me Bey.

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In today's episode, we'll be talking to

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the director of the Gene Editing Institute, Dr.

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Eric Kmiec, and chief bioscientist at the Franklin Institute, Dr.

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Jayatri Das.

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Today we're going to be talking about personalized health and genetics.

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Personalized health and genetics is like,

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what, 23andMe, spitting into tubes, DNA tests. Have you done any of this?

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Yeah. You know what, I did?

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My roommate was moving to Beijing and she

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had a 23andMe and was like, listen, I'm not going to be able to do this.

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I've got to go.

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And I was like, okay, I'll do it.

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So we're just sitting in the apartment and

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I tried it, and then I got information back, and it turned out that I was a

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little more Italian than some of my siblings.

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And it's funny because your genetics

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aren't the same necessarily as everyone in your family.

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Each of us has our own breakdown. And do I regret it?

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Yes. Because then later I found out that they

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sell the data, but we'll get into that later.

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How about you?

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I haven't done any swabbing or spitting them myself, but my brother took an

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African ancestry test that traces, I think, the maternal line, essentially the

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mothers of the family all the way back to the continent.

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There's some accuracy there.

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But you brought up such a great point.

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There's so much more diversity within one small group than we ever give credit for.

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Like a small nucleus of family members.

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The gene genetics and the diversity in there is a lot.

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And we think everybody's just like

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identical, and we're all a little distinct.

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Yeah. Also, I think that sometimes with

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personalized health and genetics, you can take a test that will show you what you

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could be mindful of in the future as far as your health is concerned and how to be

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aware of what you have dispositions towards in your health.

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Right. And we'll be going into all of these

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little tidbits, but things evolve and grow.

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DNA and genes and things like that do the same.

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And what's good for you may not be good for someone else.

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What's good for your mom may not be good for you.

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These little health tips that she might give you.

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Or at least maybe I'm projecting.

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Maybe I'll talk about my mother right now.

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I'll just stop.

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No, go on.

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I think that, yeah, I mean, i f I knew that...

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I think a lot of people do breast cancer

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testing and things like that, just like if they have a certain type of gene, they can

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know, they can get ahead of it before it could get potentially dangerous for them.

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That kind of thing is actually, I think, a really amazing innovation.

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I think it's time to transition into our first expert interview with Dr.

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Eric Kmiec.

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Our next guest is Dr.

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Eric Kmiec. Dr.

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Kmiec has directed the Gene Editing Institute of the Helen F.

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Graham Cancer Center and Research Institute at Christiana Care since 2014.

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He is widely recognized for his pioneering

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work in molecular medicine and gene editing.

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Throughout his career, Dr.

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Kmiec has led research teams developing

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genetic therapies for inherited disorders like sickle cell disease.

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He is the author of over 140 scientific

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publications and has been awarded multiple research awards from the National

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Institute of Health and the American Cancer Society.

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Hello and welcome. Dr.

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Kmiec. Can you start by introducing yourself?

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I'm Eric.

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I'm the Director of Christiana Care's Gene Editing Institute.

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And over the past few years, with some

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recent discoveries, there's a movement now to be able to put some genetic medicine

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and gene therapy into the clinic and actually begin treating patients.

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And you work with clustered regular....oh, here we go.

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Can you say it five times fast?

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Can you talk about CRISPR? The technology?

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Gene editing is a process that's like genetic "spell checking." Our DNA can be

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thought of as a series of letters, actually, over 3 billion of them.

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They are broken up into words, which can be functionally considered genes.

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And occasionally one of those words is misspelled.

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Then, up to this point, it's been really hard, no matter how hard we've tried, to

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be able to replace or fix or repair or do a genetic "spell check" on genes.

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And real quick, when you say "misspelled," you mean flawed?

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Yeah. And in what way?

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There are four bases in DNA, and let's say

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there's supposed to be a T in one position and it's an A, and that just comes from

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inheriting malfunctioning genes or sequences from your parents.

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What does that look like on a human?

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Probably the one genetic disease that

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people have wanted to approach with this is sickle cell disease.

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So sickle cell disease is caused by a single base or a single letter that's

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incorrect in the entire human genome , or on all your chromosomes.

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There hasn't been a very good series of treatments developed for sickle cell.

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So actually, for most inherited diseases,

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CRISPR is now maybe the first genetic tool that might be able to address it.

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So a fair bit of work is going on around

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that. The people in my lab are pretty good at using CRISPR.

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We have a very active lab doing that work now.

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So there's actually some hope for

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something that has been a dreaded inherited disease for a long time.

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And you can see in the embryo, that typo?

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If we're using the Microsoft Word, we're going to use that analogy?

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Yeah.

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Shortly after a child is born, there are a number of genetic tests that are done to

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predict what sort of inappropriate genes or typos or mutations are present.

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This is also kind of important, on a

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slightly related topic, is the importance of having genetic counseling and genetic

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testing being done to parents prior to conception. We'll at least inform folks

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that there's a chance here that you could pass this gene onto your child.

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And if they make a decision to go ahead, it's not our place to tell them not to do

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it, but at least they have the information ahead of it.

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And CRISPR and many other practices falls under precision medicine?

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Precision medicine. Yes. Can you tell us about that?

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Sure.

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So precision medicine right now is not so precise.

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Got you.

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We have a dedication to try to figure out the complexities of diseases.

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Now, this actually started primarily in cancer therapy.

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What happened was people thought there's got to be a better way, and they started

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to understand more about the proteins and the DNA and the guts of the cell, and they

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developed these things called targeted therapies.

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Keytruda, you'll see advertised on television.

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Opdivo.

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These are targeted therapies that have

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been designed to attack a specific genetic trait in a specific patient.

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And that's why we call it precision medicine.

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It's going after a certain number of people.

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The problem is, it's a certain number of people.

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So Keytruda is a very good drug, but it

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only is appropriate for 19% to 20% of lung cancer patients.

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They can be treated, but it will do no good.

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And that's a tough conversation. Absolutely.

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People try everything, they do. Okay.

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So what are your conceptions of treating cancer?

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So it's a very complex issue with very complex treatment.

I'm just going to ask:

if it happened to you or someone in your family, like

I'm just going to ask:

precision treatment is what you would hope you could be able to do?

I'm just going to ask:

So the standard of care, chemotherapy,

I'm just going to ask:

radiation, targeted therapies, immunotherapy, they actually do work.

I'm just going to ask:

A lot of times the side effects are worse than the disease itself.

I'm just going to ask:

And so what we try to do is we try to augment those side effects.

I'm just going to ask:

And by doing that, you allow the standard of care therapy to work better.

I'm just going to ask:

So if I could make you less sick over chemotherapy and keep you healthier in

I'm just going to ask:

response, you would be able to respond better to that specific therapy.

I'm just going to ask:

So that's where I think CRISPR and genetic medicine is going.

I'm just going to ask:

So we're working on eliminating a gene in a tumor by directly placing CRISPR into

I'm just going to ask:

the tumor, that causes that tumor to be resistant to chemotherapy.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:03

number one, it allows the tumor to remain small

And so that allows now two things 00:09:09

or even shrink, and then that allows the surgeon to go in and remove it because the

And so that allows now two things 00:09:14

best therapy is surgical removal of a tumor.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:17

But in some cases, those tumors have gone around blood vessels and you can't do it.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:22

So it's a really ugly situation.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:24

Yeah, that's pretty low-hanging fruit.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:26

Just reduce the size so a surgeon can

And so that allows now two things 00:09:28

remove it, but that's a legitimate endpoint.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:30

You know, Dr.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:31

Kmiec, we did a Google search of CRISPR before you came in.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:33

So we're halfway there, almost where you are.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:36

But the auto-fill response of CRISPR was, "is CRISPR ethical?

And so that allows now two things 00:09:41

Is it legal?

And so that allows now two things 00:09:42

Is it safe?" Can you go on about that and

And so that allows now two things 00:09:46

talk about some of those worries, concerns?

And so that allows now two things 00:09:48

Because clearly those autofills are like what people are generally asking.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:51

Common concerns.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:51

That's a great point, and it's an important one.

And so that allows now two things 00:09:55

So as scientists, they are much more socially-conscious than used to be.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:00

So when you introduce a difficult and

And so that allows now two things 00:10:03

challenging technology, people are at different levels of understanding.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:08

We do not believe, nor will we work on anything related to germline.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:12

So we are not going to design a child by treating a fertilized egg or sperm oocyte.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:20

That's known as germline gene editing.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:22

To us, that's completely unethical

And so that allows now two things 00:10:24

and completely forbidden in the United States.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:27

But like anything, it's open for abuse, so we have to police ourselves.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:32

Is that the structure at this point? You are policing yourselves?

And so that allows now two things 00:10:33

Yeah. So there's no regulations on it yet?

And so that allows now two things 00:10:36

Well, there's regulations.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:37

So the law in the United States, again,

And so that allows now two things 00:10:39

the National Institutes of Health will not fund that kind of research or development.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:44

But can somebody in a private company, in a biotechnology company go do it?

And so that allows now two things 00:10:47

Yes. Right, now that the technology exists.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:51

It completely exists.

And so that allows now two things 00:10:53

I think the other thing about the consequences and the ethics of this...

And so that allows now two things 00:10:58

there is a fairly high misconception that you can engineer human traits.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:04

So you can engineer hair color, eye color, perhaps skin color, creativity,

And so that allows now two things 00:11:09

creativity, athletic abilities, things like that.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:12

And the chances of doing that now are beyond possibilities because they are

And so that allows now two things 00:11:17

controlled by so many different genes that we don't understand.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:21

There's a built-in safety out there that

And so that allows now two things 00:11:23

even if we were to try to design children in the way that we prefer, or induce

And so that allows now two things 00:11:29

certain traits, it would be almost impossible.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:32

Yeah. Right now.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:33

Yeah. Right now.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:35

I think that what's happening is people see, when you begin, where does it go?

And so that allows now two things 00:11:40

And that's what we don't know, too, is like how far things go.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:43

It all starts with treating people who are not well and finding a solution for them,

And so that allows now two things 00:11:48

or maybe someone with a disability, like around hearing or sight.

And so that allows now two things 00:11:52

And then you create something like Siri for them, and then down the line, it's

And so that allows now two things 00:11:56

sold in Mac stores, right? So everything becomes luxury that was once for a need.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:01

Is there a technology that can detect

And so that allows now two things 00:12:03

cancer in an embryo? Can you look at that that early and say, hey, they're likely to

And so that allows now two things 00:12:07

have cancer? Let's gene edit, let's CRISPR?

And so that allows now two things 00:12:10

There are things called genetic panels.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:12

So unfortunately, there's not one specific test that can predict any form of cancer.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:18

We don't know yet.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:19

We don't have the algorithms yet to predict anything.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:23

So we're thinking we're going to get there.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:25

There's a tremendous amount of money and effort and research going into

And so that allows now two things 00:12:28

develop these software programs, and it's an area called bioinformatics.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:33

That being said, there are a few markers for breast cancer, for a certain percent

And so that allows now two things 00:12:38

of breast cancer, there's a gene called BRCA1.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:42

Oh yeah. You can test for that, right? You can test for that.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:44

Right.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:44

And I think there's even a home test for that now, believe it or not.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:47

I have friends that have done that who've lost their moms to breast cancer.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:51

Right. So unfortunately, there isn't a lot of

And so that allows now two things 00:12:53

treatment that's been better, although surgeons would say, no, we're better.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:56

And that could be true.

And so that allows now two things 00:12:58

But it's about diagnosing it early.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:00

And breast cancer, prostate cancer, are

And so that allows now two things 00:13:02

two types of cancer that can be seen early.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:05

So really the two effective things are

And so that allows now two things 00:13:08

early diagnosis, and then the other thing, of course, is surgery.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:12

Cancer is energy-draining.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:14

Your energy just leaves and your cells

And so that allows now two things 00:13:16

can't support you and you pass on from that very wasting kind of disease.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:20

It's very hard to watch.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:22

Is your biggest dream and goal with CRISPR and many other different treatments to

And so that allows now two things 00:13:26

eliminate this completely, or is it just to alleviate the pain and the suffering?

And so that allows now two things 00:13:30

What are your biggest dreams around CRISPR?

And so that allows now two things 00:13:33

The first level is to make standard of

And so that allows now two things 00:13:35

care therapies work better and improve the quality of life.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:39

What we learn from those patients will

And so that allows now two things 00:13:41

eventually draw into preventing it or even reversing it.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:44

So we try to be as realistic as possible because the folks ahead of us who were

And so that allows now two things 00:13:50

pioneers in some ways actually went a little bit too quickly.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:54

So I think that's the right way to approach this right now.

And so that allows now two things 00:13:58

Same with genetic disease.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:00

That's so tough because you want to

And so that allows now two things 00:14:01

help, you want to do some good and change the world and...

And so that allows now two things 00:14:05

Nuance, you know what I'm saying?

And so that allows now two things 00:14:07

Add gray to everything you're doing, and I think you'll always find a better

And so that allows now two things 00:14:12

outcome. Trying to do things absolutely just kind of backfires.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:17

I've always wanted to ask someone like you this kind of question, what is your day-to

And so that allows now two things 00:14:21

-day like with this? Do you have a lot of big picture questions all the time, or do

And so that allows now two things 00:14:25

you sort of find a way to compartmentalize doing this kind of work?

And so that allows now two things 00:14:28

Yeah, I think both.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:30

We always have our eye on the goal line.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:34

We definitely feel that we can contribute something, but at the

And so that allows now two things 00:14:38

same time, we're sort of humbled by the challenge.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:41

A lot of really smart people have come

And so that allows now two things 00:14:43

before us where there were very few original ideas actually in science.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:49

Putting them in different compartments, for me is really sort of thinking about

And so that allows now two things 00:14:53

them in a different angle, different dimension.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:56

And this doesn't stop at 05:00.

And so that allows now two things 00:14:59

There are people in the Institute lab at all hours of the night.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:02

Over Thanksgiving, half of the lab was in

And so that allows now two things 00:15:04

there in the afternoon on Thanksgiving day and the other half on Friday morning.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:07

Because if you're drawn to this kind of work, you can't stop thinking.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:11

So one of the questions that we are constantly asking through this series is,

And so that allows now two things 00:15:14

not only what the science look like, but what do scientists look like?

And so that allows now two things 00:15:18

One of the minorities in science beyond

And so that allows now two things 00:15:20

the obvious ones -- and we need to do a lot better at that -- are actually women.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:24

Interestingly, in the field of gene

And so that allows now two things 00:15:26

editing and CRISPR biology, the majority of the young scientists are women.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:32

That may be linked to the fact that the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded

And so that allows now two things 00:15:38

to Jennifer Doudna and Emmannuelle Charpentier, two women.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:42

And for the first time, they shared the

And so that allows now two things 00:15:44

prize without a man standing on the podium with them.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:48

And I think we all said it's about time.

And so that allows now two things 00:15:51

One of the things we also do is we're

And so that allows now two things 00:15:53

really trying to get out into the communities to share gene editing as a

And so that allows now two things 00:15:57

breakthrough technology so that we have lots of color in the field.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:02

We're tending to bring breakthrough

And so that allows now two things 00:16:04

technologies to underserved communities by back-teaching them.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:08

Oh, this really works great...

And so that allows now two things 00:16:09

CRISPR and gene editing is a current technology.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:13

So let's work our way in there.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:15

And what we see when we do that with high

And so that allows now two things 00:16:16

school students in summer camps, they love to see women and women of color.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:21

And those are the people they want to talk to, not me.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:24

And that's very important.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:26

So the structure of the population of this

And so that allows now two things 00:16:28

field may help to change the rest of science in general.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:33

That's so dope. Great.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:34

Thank you so much for opening that up and giving us all this fresh information,

And so that allows now two things 00:16:38

because at the beginning, we were like what?

And so that allows now two things 00:16:41

We had no idea what to expect.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:45

What is "clustered regularly....?"

And so that allows now two things 00:16:47

We learned so much.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:50

It's been great. Thank you.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:51

All right. Take care.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:54

All right.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:55

So we just got a lot of information and things presented to us.

And so that allows now two things 00:16:59

Time to reflect.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:06

Well, that was really interesting.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:08

I have to admit, I came in a little

And so that allows now two things 00:17:11

nervous about what we were going to be talking about.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:14

So where are you now?

And so that allows now two things 00:17:17

Cautiously relieved. You?

And so that allows now two things 00:17:19

I really appreciated the presence of ethics.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:23

Right. And trying to be careful

And so that allows now two things 00:17:26

and also acknowledging there is some scary parts of it.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:30

But most people are focused on the early

And so that allows now two things 00:17:33

lifecycle, the embryos, and also at the end.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:36

I absolutely loved that.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:38

This is another cool example of how a

And so that allows now two things 00:17:40

technology that's developed to help people who are not well later becomes a luxury,

And so that allows now two things 00:17:44

potentially, down the line, in genetic modification.

And so that allows now two things 00:17:48

So we're starting off first with trying to heal or detect and manipulate

And so that allows now two things 00:17:57

early-onset signs of something particular, maybe even just in the embryo and

And so that allows now two things 00:18:02

adjusting the cells early on to prevent disease later on.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:07

Right.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:08

So that's something that we're using for people who are unwell.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:11

That's what the doctor said.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:12

And then later it can become something that's a luxury tool.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:16

Right?

And so that allows now two things 00:18:16

And that's what people's biggest fears are.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:18

And I did love that he talked about

And so that allows now two things 00:18:19

regulation around designer babies and making a baby with

And so that allows now two things 00:18:24

a certain color eye and s certain ability to play tennis or something like that.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:29

He really knew.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:31

And he has very strong thoughts about that not being where this goes.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:34

Right. And, you know, I came into the

And so that allows now two things 00:18:36

conversation a little pessimistic about cancer and other things that ail the human

And so that allows now two things 00:18:42

species and really kind of keeps people in unwell space, like, just sick sometimes.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:48

But some of the details that he gave left me optimistic.

And so that allows now two things 00:18:52

I'm like, maybe we can start to move towards an actual cure for cancer and an

And so that allows now two things 00:18:58

actual answer to these really hard-hitting diseases.

And so that allows now two things 00:19:03

Yeah. It sounds like molecular medicine and gene

And so that allows now two things 00:19:06

editing are much more multifaceted than we could have ever imagined.

And so that allows now two things 00:19:10

Yeah. Let's switch gears a moment.

And so that allows now two things 00:19:13

Okay, time for a Body of Knowledge segment.

And so that allows now two things 00:19:15

In this segment, we're going to discuss

And so that allows now two things 00:19:18

the topic of personalized health and genetics in an open-form discussion.

And so that allows now two things 00:19:22

We're going to be throwing ideas, asking

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questions with the chief bioscientist at the Franklin Institute, Dr.

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Jayatri Das.

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Welcome, Jayatri.

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Okay, so we are back with Jayatri, and we

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are talking about personalized health and genetics.

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What does that make you think of?

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I'm going to ask you guys a question. First is, like, when you think about your

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DNA and who you are, what connection do you see between them?

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I think of a long line of creative people,

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and I'm super-creative, and I can't turn it off.

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And sometimes I love that about myself.

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And other times I'm like, oh, my God, stop making everything into a song.

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But that's kind of my connection. I see a lot of creativity.

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I see a lot of pride.

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I love the fact that you thought really about thinking back about your family.

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It's not just about physical traits, right?

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What you end up is more about...

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Well, noses.

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My family has big noses. Big noses.

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What about you, Angelica?

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I did think physical.

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Okay, so I'm Italian, so I'm like...hairy.

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I look at all the photos, and I'm like, you guys are all hairy!

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Like, it's just the way it is, right?

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We're all hairy.

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And I think of heart stuff has come up in

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my family or like, my grandma did have brain cancer.

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So I do think of those things, but

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generally I love to look at my family, and I can just see how we all look similar.

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And I think part of why people love having kids, too, is to see this version of

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themselves, of their personal health and their genetics growing.

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I think that that's a fascinating part of human life and family.

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Well, I think the two elements that you

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each brought to that conversation kind of illustrate the power of why we want to

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take a more personalized approach to health and medicine.

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Because, Angelica, you're absolutely right that there is so much of the DNA that

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shapes our physical appearance and our health, but not entirely.

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If anybody ever told you that whether or

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not you can roll your tongue is based on your genetics, that's a myth.

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Wow. Have you ever heard of any of those?

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I haven't thought about it in that way, but yeah, right.

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Like, speech and capabilities.

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If your dad can play tennis, can you? Right.

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So a lot of those traits are much, much more complex than being able to boil it

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down to like, oh, you have a gene that tells you whether you can roll your tongue

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or you have a gene that makes you creative.

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That's not real.

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There are some diseases that are caused by single changes in DNA.

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Turns out earwax is also affected by a single gene.

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It's one of my favorite examples, whether your ear wax is wet or dry.

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Whoa. Wow.

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What are yours? It comes down to one gene?

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Yeah. What are yours?

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Is it wet? That was a weird question.

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Sorry.

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That's a little personal. Your ear wax, sorry.

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You know what? It's what I've seen.

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So it's part of my personalized health and genetics and me and my friends and family.

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That's fascinating. Wow.

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Right. And so where that level of genetics comes

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into play is thinking about whether medicine or some sort of behavioral

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treatment, whether your genetic background will respond to that.

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Right? Because all of our genes are different.

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And sometimes that background makes a difference in whether or not your body

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will respond to one medicine or another medicine.

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You mentioned some things that were not necessarily true, like rolling the Rs and

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being creative and so on and so forth. Are there some things that are actually

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understood to be passed along dynamic in genes?

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So, aside from a few diseases and then the

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earwax trait, most things are not only influenced by a whole number of different

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genes, but also very much from your environment.

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Right? And this kind of gets, Bey, at what you

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brought up, this being in a creative environment from a creative family. You

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see that helping you become a creative person as well.

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And so where we're looking now in terms of what's possible with health and genetics

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and things like that is thinking about what we know about how our genes and the

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environment actually interact with each other.

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Genes don't necessarily make up who you are, but they can be very important in

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thinking about how to design the most effective treatment for you.

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Right.

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My aunt went through this.

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She passed away from lung cancer several years ago.

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But part of her treatment was actually looking at the genetics of her cancer and

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thinking about, okay, which drugs are best suited for her specific cancer.

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And that's the power of medicine that we didn't have just a few decades ago.

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Yes. It feels like luxury.

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It does. It feels like luxury medicine, where

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we're going to look at you and we're going to help you -- not just, we're not going

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to just give you what works on most people.

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We're going to look at what's going on with you.

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And that's so important as we realize the genetic diversity among people.

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Right.

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That we can't just take these shortcuts like a social construct of race, for

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instance, to make those assumptions about what's going to work.

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That's so true.

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Okay, we're going to move into our Body of

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Knowledge auto-fill segment where we turn to the Internet to see what people are

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asking about personalized health and genetics.

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These are some of the most popular questions people are asking the Internet.

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So we're going to get into some of the

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questions that people have asked. "Is personalized healthcare legit?"

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Yeah, definitely, for sure.

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I think where that term...

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I think there's a reason that we're kind

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of moving from "personalized medicine" to "precision medicine" is to be a little bit

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more intentional about what personalized means, because I feel like it's not like

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somebody just monograms your medicine or something like that!

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Right?

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That would be cool.

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I would buy that.

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Is precision medicine the future of healthcare?

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There are some complexities around that

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question that we don't know the answer to yet, because some of it is very much in

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terms of the theory versus the practicality of it.

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If we could design everything to

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everybody's particular genome, how much of a difference would that make?

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I don't know that we know that yet.

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And there's also a question of how expensive is it, right?

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The realities of health care in the world that we live in?

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Definitely. It seems expensive.

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I hope everyone gets access to it eventually.

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Oh, this is a cool question, and I'm glad

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people are asking this : "is my DNA unique?"

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Well, are you an identical twin?

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I'm not. Are you guys?

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No, I am not.

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I don't know why I said it like that.

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You had to think about it for a minute.

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No, I am not an identical twin.

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Do identical twins have exact same DNA?

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So their DNA sequence is exactly the same when they're born.

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But what's cool is that even identical

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twins, they're not completely identical, right?

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And part of what we've learned over the

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last few decades is that there are ways that our genes are turned on and off in

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different ways that don't just depend on the actual sequence of letters.

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One of the simplest examples is that even

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though identical twins have the same genome, their fingerprints are different.

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Right. Wow.

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Because there are so many other factors,

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environmental factors that affect how those genes are turned off and on.

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Even different parts of the body can have

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genes turned off and on in different ways at different times.

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For most of us, our DNA is unique.

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But even among identical twins, there are

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differences in terms of how you go from your DNA to who you are.

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And I have a bit of a silly question, I

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guess. Does your DNA and genetics change as you grow in age and develop different

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experiences and travel and find a favorite color and eat some food and make a song

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and all these different things with your experiences? Does your DNA change?

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So, for a lot of those experiences, that's not going to affect your DNA.

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Is it changing your brain?

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Absolutely. Okay.

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But your body does accumulate mutations in your DNA just over time.

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Like every time your body makes a new copy

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of DNA, there's a possibility of making a mistake.

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Okay.

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And sometimes there are environmental factors, like the sun:

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UV rays can create mutations in your DNA that can lead to things like skin cancer.

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Okay.

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How often does your body make a new copy of DNA?

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Oh, man. All the time.

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I didn't know that. That's amazing.

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So it's constantly making new DNA?

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Yes. Fascinating.

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Yeah. We think of ourselves as kind of like...

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Stagnant. Done?

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It's over!

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Yeah, y ou're making new, you're replacing your

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body's cells all the time and getting rid of all the dead ones.

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Wow. Fascinating.

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I love that.

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Oh, I love this question.

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Okay. "Are my genetics good?"

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Oof! There's another value question!

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They aight.

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If you have to ask, Bey, they might not be.

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No, I'm just kidding. If you're looking at the mirror and you're going, is this good?

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I think we all feel that way.

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There's some social pressure there.

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There is for sure. And the last one is: "is my DNA in a database?"

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So that's a really good question because a

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lot of people choose to put their DNA in a database.

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If you've gotten your

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23andMe or Ancestry.com, then y eah, your DNA is in their database.

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Low-key, I feel like Angelica put that question in there.

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That's right up my alley! Right?

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Yeah.

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I will say, I didn't know when I did 23andMe.

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I didn't read the paperwork and know that it's now in a database.

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It's one of those things. I hate fine print.

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I will accept it, yes, it is fine print, but life ultimately goes on.

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Hi, this is Angelica Pasquini from So Curious.

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You know what?

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We love making this show, OK? B ut sometimes there are great fits.

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We just can't fit them into the episode.

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So we put together a bunch of great bonus

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content and you can find that available at beyond fi.edu.

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Thanks so much, Jayatri, and thank you so

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much for tuning in to this episode of So Curious.

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This podcast is part of The Franklin Institute.

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The Franklin Institute is a science museum located in Philadelphia.

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inspire a passion for learning about science and technology.

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For more information on everything about

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The Franklin Institute, visit fi.edu. This podcast is produced by Radio Kismet.

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Check them out at radiokismet.com.

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There's a lot of people who make this podcast happen.

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Thanks to the producers Joy Montefusco and

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Jayatri Das. Our managing producer, Emily Charash.

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