Lab Notes--Podcasts from the Allen Institute

Linda Sloate started living with rheumatoid arthritis when she was a 30-year old mom with three small kids. Now, she is 70 years old and is grateful for new feet, feet that were reconstructed because her feet had been come so deformed by the disease that she could not longer walk. Everything hurt--and yet Linda says you have to have a positive attitude--no matter what. She and her doctors tried a number of treatments but none of them worked. And then she started on the biologic drug Embrel.  It works by tamping down the immune response that destroys the patients' own body.  And for Linda, it was a life-changing drug, and it has helped her for 20 years.  However not all people have the same response, and so the research is still on-going.  Listen in to Lab Notes Podcast, 'Fire Inside: The quest to understand & prevent rheumatoid arthritis' and hear how researchers at the Allen Institute and their collaborators are trying to treat the disease, and ultimately prevent the disease from starting so the damage never happens.

There are other Allen Institute Lab Notes podcasts, such as 'The Novelist and the Scientist', and 'Starved but unable to eat:  Life with Crohn's disease', and 'SCANning for Coronavirus', to name a few.  They are fascinating stories of science and people, all under 30 minutes so relatively easy to fit into a busy day.  Transcripts are also available at the podcast website.