TechTalk Podcast

Since we started this podcast, a lot has happened in the battle against COVID. The vaccines have been finalized and we’re in the middle of a vaccination process throughout Europe, a process that seems to take as much time as the development of the vaccin. In this episode we talk to Mike de Leeuw from MyLifeTechnologies, Mike is an entrepreneur who’s product could help speed up this process tremendously.

As Corona progresses we learn more and more about it. We have a better understanding of the risk groups, why some people are more effected than others. COVID hits some people far harder, people are reporting to be out of breath for a long period, and say their physical condition deteriorated tremendously. Some of these effects seem to stem from diets, in this episode we learn that a diet could also help you in the recovery from COVID.

Our guest is Rein Strijker, an entrepreneur who developed a medical nutrition (‘food on precription’)

Future pandemics, can we prevent them?

Our guest: Eric Snijder. Eric is professor of molecular virology at LUMC and has been studying coronaviruses and their relatives for over 30 years. He is particularly fascinated by their replication machinery, evolution and interactions with host cell and immune system. And of course his team also provides theoretical and practical training to young scientists at many levels with an interest in virology.

We talk about what a next pandemic could be, and how the world could take preventative measures.

Our guest: Eric van der Veen Born and raised in Canada, Eric moved to the Netherlands at an age of 21 to study Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam. After these studies he returned to Canada where he pursued a Ph.D degree at the University of Western Ontario in Biochemistry, specializing in vascular biology and lifespan extension. He then returned to the Netherlands where he started researching RNA-binding proteins in cardiovascular settings at the LUMC’s Department of Nephrology. After several years he started up his own research group that focused on how alternative splicing decisions in cells impacts there function in healthy and diseased conditions, highly fundamental research laid the groundwork for his decision to shift his RNA biology knowledge to a more translational setting. In September 2019 this resulted in his leaving the LUMC and starting up Hybridize Therapeutics, a RNA-based therapeutics company that focuses on developing small molecules that specifically target viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Our guest: Pieter Hiemstra, professor of Respiratory Cell Biology and Immunology and head of the research laboratory of the Department of Pulmonology at the Leiden University Medical Center. His research has focussed on innate immunity and cell biology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, and he is using human cell culture models to study host-pathogen interactions and lung repair. He teamed up with his LUMC colleagues at the Molecular Virology group of the Department of Medical Microbiology, and those at the Departments of Chemical and Cell Biology, Parasitology and Intensive Care,  and colleagues in Sydney in Australia, to join forces and extend his work to studying the role of the epithelial cells that cover the airways and air sacs in COVID-19.