Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Mango here. With summer winding down, we
Speaker 1: are taking a little break, but we will be back
Speaker 1: with brand new episodes starting September ninth, and we have
Speaker 1: been working hard on so many fun episodes this summer.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for you to listen to them. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, we are re airing our countdown of the
Speaker 1: twenty five greatest science ideas of the past twenty five years.
Speaker 1: This list was so joyous to make. Mary and Gabe
Speaker 1: did all this extra research for it. We pulled in
Speaker 1: contributors for various places. We got incredible songs written for
Speaker 1: the show. The whole thing is bizarre and delightful and
Speaker 1: fascinating and joyous, and honestly, I just hope you enjoy
Speaker 1: it half as much as we enjoyed making it. Let's
Speaker 1: dig in. You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production
Speaker 1: of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what, Mango, What's that will? It's day four of
Speaker 2: our countdown of the twenty five greatest science ideas from
Speaker 2: the past twenty five years. Can you believe it? Just
Speaker 2: a few short days ago it was day one of
Speaker 2: our twenty five Greatest Science Ideas of the past twenty
Speaker 2: five years.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure you know you're doing something right when
Speaker 1: you've got four sequels.
Speaker 2: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: Well, George Lucas stars Star Wars basically with the fourth film, right,
Speaker 1: Henry the fourth was such an interesting king that Shakespeare
Speaker 1: wrote a play about him. But you didn't even bother
Speaker 1: with Henry the Third.
Speaker 2: No, not worth it.
Speaker 1: And Rush Hour four was so good it made Toy
Speaker 1: Story two seem like Spider Man three.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure you're just saying things now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're right, but maybe you should just get into
Speaker 1: the episode. Today we are covering ideas eight through five,
Speaker 1: and if you want to know what makes the Stratavarius
Speaker 1: sound so good, how a HeLa monster is helping the world,
Speaker 1: and why a single injection might help paralyze people walk again,
Speaker 1: you're gonna love this one. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Speaker 2: Will Pearson, and of course I'm here with my friend
Speaker 2: Mangush hot ticketter and over there in the booth gazing
Speaker 2: wistfully at a portrait of David Dukovney. I don't know
Speaker 2: where he got this thing, but it's an interesting portrait.
Speaker 2: It's our Palin producer, Dylan Fagan. Now, Mango, I can't
Speaker 2: tell if this has anything to do with today's episode.
Speaker 1: They just like slax Files apparently.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, well enjoy that, Dylan.
Speaker 1: But speaking of fun, your podcast listening life will be
Speaker 1: a lot more fun if you're subscribed to Part Time
Speaker 1: Genius on whatever app you use, and you can make
Speaker 1: sure our lives are more fun by leaving us a
Speaker 1: nice review.
Speaker 2: We really appreciate everyone who takes the time to do that.
Speaker 2: But all right, well, let's get back to the countdown.
Speaker 2: So one day in the early two thousands, a man
Speaker 2: named Kai Ching Lee was strolling down in Oregon beach right,
Speaker 2: and Lee is an engineering professor at Oregon State University,
Speaker 2: and he was just enjoying his walk washing the Pacific Ocean,
Speaker 2: just waves roll in and now, and suddenly he noticed
Speaker 2: something along the coast. There were hundreds of mussels clinging
Speaker 2: to rocks, and Lee was impressed with their strength. No
Speaker 2: matter how violent the waves were, no matter how strong
Speaker 2: the pull of the tide was, the muscles just stayed
Speaker 2: in place there and when he actually tried pulling one away,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't budget and that got Lee thinking about plywood.
Speaker 2: M had he also been to an Ikea recently.
Speaker 1: That might have I mean, maybe I don't know, but
Speaker 1: I do know that plywood is everywhere, not just furniture
Speaker 1: and cabinets, but also walls, boats, fencing, toys, and for
Speaker 1: good reason. Like plywood is super affordable because instead of
Speaker 1: a single solid chunk of wood, it's made from thin
Speaker 1: layers together into a slab.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: But it turns out the glue that holds the plywood
Speaker 1: together is really kind of nasty. It's often made with
Speaker 1: formaldehyde and other chemicals that you don't want to breathe in.
Speaker 1: And in fact, there's research suggesting that people who work
Speaker 1: in plywood manufacturing plants are at increased risk of developing
Speaker 1: leukemia and other cancers. And that's what Kaiching Lee was
Speaker 1: thinking about that day on the beach. How to make
Speaker 1: a better, safer plywood glue.
Speaker 2: And if muscles can stick themselves to rocks, maybe they
Speaker 2: could stick wood together too. Yeah, so muscles.
Speaker 1: Natural adhesive has two big advantages over traditional plywood glues.
Speaker 1: First of all, it's non toxic, and secondly, it's waterproof.
Speaker 1: So if you've ever gotten plywood furniture wet. You know
Speaker 1: what a pain it can be because if the water
Speaker 1: isn't dried quickly, the wood layers can start peeling. This
Speaker 1: is a known problem with industrial adhesives, like many of
Speaker 1: them lose their stickiness in the presence of water, but
Speaker 1: not muscle glue.
Speaker 2: Right, but how do you get glue out of a muscle?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good question. So Lee realized right away
Speaker 1: that would be difficult and expensive, not to mention unpleasant
Speaker 1: for the muscles. But he headed to his lab to
Speaker 1: see if he could cook up a synthetic version of
Speaker 1: the muscle glue, and one day, while he was eating
Speaker 1: his lunch, he had another light bulb moment. He realized, soybeans.
Speaker 2: I love how this daily life was just handing him
Speaker 2: the scientific answers that he needed.
Speaker 1: I know, it's just inspiration is everywhere anyway. People have
Speaker 1: been making adhesis from soy for decades. The problem is
Speaker 1: soy based glues tend to be weak and they're not waterproof.
Speaker 1: But Lee knew that soybean, flower and muscle glue were
Speaker 1: made from similar makeup of proteins and amino acids, and
Speaker 1: he wondered, what if I altered the chemical profile of
Speaker 1: soybean glue to make it more like the kind made
Speaker 1: by muscles. So, with the help of a grant from
Speaker 1: the USDA, Lee started tinkering with soy's chemical makeup and
Speaker 1: by modifying the amino acids and the bean, he successfully
Speaker 1: created an adhesive that was just his waterproof and just
Speaker 1: as strong as the glue made by muscles. In fact,
Speaker 1: the soybean based glue was twice as sticky as hot glue,
Speaker 1: three times stronger than Elmer's glue, and had about the
Speaker 1: same adhesive power as contact cement.
Speaker 2: And has this revolutionized the plywood industry or what? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So it's definitely changed things. Like Lee presented his discovery
Speaker 1: to Columbia Forest Products. They're a major plywood manufacturer, and
Speaker 1: they quickly signed on. So fast forward to today. The
Speaker 1: company has converted all of its factories from formaldehyde glues
Speaker 1: to soy and pollition rates that some of these plants
Speaker 1: have dropped by as much as ninety percent. Wow, isn't
Speaker 1: that insane? And other companies have joined them too, So
Speaker 1: today soy based plywood is an option at most hardware
Speaker 1: and home improvement stores. Other big companies like Ikea and
Speaker 1: General motors now use soy for some of their plywood
Speaker 1: products because it's safer, stronger, and better for the planet. Anyway,
Speaker 1: in honor of Lee's incredible discovery that changed home DIY forever,
Speaker 1: we're running a contest on Instagram today. We're giving away
Speaker 1: a home Depot gift certificate, and our want to make
Speaker 1: it very very clear that this is no way sponsored
Speaker 1: by Home Depot, But head over to Instagram at part
Speaker 1: time Genius to get all the details in enter.
Speaker 2: All right, So I'd like to dedicate this next one
Speaker 2: to all the violinists who have dreamed of owning a
Speaker 2: Stratavius violin but can't stomach the instruments two million dollar
Speaker 2: price tag. They're just not that serious about it, Magnant.
Speaker 2: They don't want to spend the two million So here
Speaker 2: we Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would love to know how many professional violinists listen
Speaker 1: to the show, But two million dollars is obviously a
Speaker 1: steep price tag for a three hundred year old violin
Speaker 1: that you're probably too scared to play anyway.
Speaker 2: Indeed, but thanks to research from Swiss arborist Franz Schwartz,
Speaker 2: there's now a cheaper alternative. And while the new instruments
Speaker 2: don't carry the distinction of having been crafted by Italy's
Speaker 2: most revered violin maker, they do boast a tone quality
Speaker 2: that many experts consider to be just as good and
Speaker 2: in some cases may be better. A claim that might
Speaker 2: seem stunning enough, but the real shock is who's responsible
Speaker 2: for the superior sound? Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1: It's fungus, like Geseppe fungus, the famous Italian violin maker. Nope, nope,
Speaker 1: actual fungus that infested the wood used to make the instruments.
Speaker 1: It is totally bizarre because in most cases, a fungal
Speaker 1: attack destroys wood cell walls and it results in this
Speaker 1: kind of loose soft wood that doesn't sound very pleasant
Speaker 1: if it's made into an instrument. But as Schwartz discovered
Speaker 1: in the late two thousands, there are rare cases where
Speaker 1: fungal infections have a milder effect on the wood's density
Speaker 1: and actually make it sound better. So what happens is
Speaker 1: they thin out the wood cells structure just enough to
Speaker 1: improve its acoustic properties. And so how did he figure
Speaker 1: this out? Exactly like do arboris just go around knocking
Speaker 1: on trees to see what sounds they make.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that's not how they describe it, but it
Speaker 2: is kind of like that. Scientists really do bounce sound
Speaker 2: waves off of trees to gauge their health. The funkier
Speaker 2: the echo, the more widespread the wood rot and so
Speaker 2: Franz Schwartz was using this method himself when he hatched
Speaker 2: the idea for his bungle violin. He wondered how gentler
Speaker 2: kinds of fungus might affect the sound of a wooden instrument,
Speaker 2: so he partnered with Swiss violin maker Michael Ronheimer to
Speaker 2: find out. Now, they selected two different species of wood
Speaker 2: eating fungi for the job, and while I won't bother
Speaker 2: to pronounce their scientific names, I can tell you their
Speaker 2: nicknames their rusty crust and dead mule's fingers. So those
Speaker 2: are both pretty good.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure which is grosser, but I think I'd
Speaker 1: go with rusty crust.
Speaker 2: That is the right answer. But anyway, the top plate
Speaker 2: of the violin, which was made of spruce, was inoculated
Speaker 2: with rusty crust, and on the bottom, the sycamore plate
Speaker 2: was treated with dead mule's fingers. Both plates were submerged
Speaker 2: in a box of water to stimulate the fungui's growth,
Speaker 2: and a few months later, after killing off the spores,
Speaker 2: Ronheimer put the two halves together to create the world's
Speaker 2: first bio violin. So Schwartz was blown away by the
Speaker 2: instrument's sound, which he described as warmer and rounder than
Speaker 2: that of a conventional violin, and he was so pleased
Speaker 2: with it that he decided to stage a blind sound
Speaker 2: test at an annual forestry conference in Germany. So on
Speaker 2: September first, two thousand and nine, a jury of acoustics
Speaker 2: experts and conference attendees. They listened carefully as British violinist
Speaker 2: Matthew Trussler played five different instruments from behind the curtain.
Speaker 2: Four of the violins were made by Ronheimer, two of
Speaker 2: them with fungus treated wood and the other two with
Speaker 2: untreated wood from the same trees. But the fifth instrument
Speaker 2: came from Trustler's own collection, a violin made by Antonio
Speaker 2: Strativeris himself way back in seventeen eleven.
Speaker 1: So I guess the goal was to identify which one
Speaker 1: was the true strad in the mix.
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So attendees were asked to rank the
Speaker 2: sound of each instrument they heard and to guess which
Speaker 2: one of them was over three hundred years old. Schwartz
Speaker 2: later admitted that as good as they sounded, he never
Speaker 2: expected one of the fungal violins to be confused for
Speaker 2: a multi million dollar instrument, But in the end, that
Speaker 2: is exactly what happened. Out of more than one hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty attendees, one hundred and thirteen of them thought
Speaker 2: that one of Ronheimer's violins, which had been covered with
Speaker 2: fungi for nine months, was produced by Stratu Areas.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't It wasn't even close.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, the real strat came in a distant second,
Speaker 2: but the other fungus violin claiming third place, and the
Speaker 2: two untreated instruments pulling up the rear, so like it
Speaker 2: really does show the difference that it made.
Speaker 1: I mean, I get that like a fungus could change
Speaker 1: the wood and the sound of a violin, but like,
Speaker 1: why are they comparable to Stratavarius.
Speaker 2: It's a good question, and honestly, no one can really
Speaker 2: say for sure why is violin sound as good as
Speaker 2: they do. The best guess is that it's due to
Speaker 2: the weather in Italy during his lifetime. So Strata Areas
Speaker 2: happened to live through what people knew as Central Europe's
Speaker 2: Little Ice Age. This happened in the seventeenth century, and
Speaker 2: it brought long winters and cool summers to the region.
Speaker 2: So the unusually chilly temperatures would have slowed the cell
Speaker 2: growth of the local trees there, causing their wood to
Speaker 2: develop more slowly and uniformly, which was the perfect recipe
Speaker 2: for producing wood with stellar acoustics. So, according to Schwartz,
Speaker 2: the fungi treatment he used was able to recreate that
Speaker 2: same ideal structure.
Speaker 1: That's really cool, But if a fungus violin produces a
Speaker 1: richer sound, why don't they do that for all violins now?
Speaker 2: Well, partly because not every violin needs the same tonal
Speaker 2: quality as the strativarius, like, it's nice to have different options,
Speaker 2: But the main reason is that Schwartz and his colleagues
Speaker 2: are still working out the details on how you'd actually
Speaker 2: mass produce these Once they do. The plan is to
Speaker 2: sell the instruments for about thirty thousand dollars each, which
Speaker 2: sounds like a lot, but it's actually about what you'd
Speaker 2: pay for other high quality violence and a lot.
Speaker 1: Less than two million dollars definitely, you're good at math.
Speaker 1: We've got to pause for a quick break, but we'll
Speaker 1: be back with more great science ideas right after. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to part time genius listeners, and we are counting
Speaker 1: down to number Okay, So I'm not going to beat
Speaker 1: around the bush on this one. This research totally blew
Speaker 1: my mind. So scientists and Northwestern University have developed a
Speaker 1: new treatment for spinal cord injuries that allowed paralyzed mice
Speaker 1: to walk again after a single injection. Not only that,
Speaker 1: the treatment has loads of other applications, potentially impacting the
Speaker 1: way we treat everything from bone loss to neurodegenerative diseases
Speaker 1: like Alzheimer's. I can't be I've never heard of this.
Speaker 1: I mean, it sounds like a real life cure. All yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's still early days from the research perspective.
Speaker 1: The team's big breakthrough was only back in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: but so far the data is really incredible and promising.
Speaker 1: So just to give a little background on why this
Speaker 1: is such a big deal, they're currently about three hundred
Speaker 1: thousand people living with a spinal cord injury in the
Speaker 1: US alone, and in the most severe case is less
Speaker 1: than three percent of them will ever recover any basic
Speaker 1: physical functions. The reason for that is that the neurons
Speaker 1: in their spinal cords have been completely severed, and thus
Speaker 1: far as scientists haven't been able to find therapeutics that
Speaker 1: can successfully trigger spinal cord regeneration. But that changed with
Speaker 1: the study from Northwestern University. So researchers were able to
Speaker 1: reverse paralysis in mice by injecting them with something they
Speaker 1: called dancing molecules.
Speaker 2: I've actually never heard of that either, so I'm curious.
Speaker 2: So are the molecules themselves dancing or is it that
Speaker 2: they can restore the mouse's ability to dance? What are
Speaker 2: we referring to?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so no word on whether the mice can dance
Speaker 1: before or after the treatment, but the molecules that were
Speaker 1: injected absolutely can dance. So after being injected as a liquid,
Speaker 1: the molecules coalesced to form tiny synthetic nanofibers that surround
Speaker 1: the spinal cord. And the fibers were composed of tens
Speaker 1: of hundreds of thousands of molecules, and the researchers found
Speaker 1: that by changing their chemical structure, they could control them
Speaker 1: molecules collective motion. This allowed them to fine tune the
Speaker 1: synthetic molecules movements, speeding them up to match the motion
Speaker 1: of biological molecules within the spinal cord. It turned out
Speaker 1: that the most hyperactive molecules, the ones that were dancing
Speaker 1: the most, were able to connect more effectively with receptors
Speaker 1: in neurons and other cells.
Speaker 2: So once the molecules made that connection, they were able
Speaker 2: to like tell the cells to repair the damage neurons.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the dancing molecules triggered two bioactive signals. The
Speaker 1: first prompted the tails of the neurons to regenerate and
Speaker 1: that effectively restored communication between the body and the brain.
Speaker 1: And the second signal promoted the regrowth of lost blood
Speaker 1: cells that feed the neurons and other cells related to
Speaker 1: tissue repair. And the result of this intervention was that
Speaker 1: after just four weeks, these paralyzed mice could regain the
Speaker 1: ability to walk.
Speaker 2: Which is just stunning. Yeah, and it's also kind of
Speaker 2: a testament to the power of dance if you think
Speaker 2: about it, because it sounds like the approach didn't work
Speaker 2: so well when they tried it with more slow, guish molecules.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that souped up molecular motion really was the key
Speaker 1: factor in all of this. The cells and receptors within
Speaker 1: the body are constantly moving, so once the team was
Speaker 1: able to match that speed or vibration, the fast moving
Speaker 1: molecules encountered the receptors much more often, and that allowed
Speaker 1: them to send their signals again and again. The breakthrough
Speaker 1: therapy actually has obvious implications for improving the spinal injuries
Speaker 1: of both humans and animals, but there's reasons to hope
Speaker 1: that the underlying discovery could also be used in other treatments,
Speaker 1: as we allude to before. According to the studies, lead
Speaker 1: researchers Samuel Stupp quote, the central nervous system tissues we
Speaker 1: have successfully regenerated in the injured spinal cord are similar
Speaker 1: to those in the brain affected by stroke and neurodegenerative
Speaker 1: diseases such as als, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Beyond that, our
Speaker 1: fundamental discovery about controlling the motion of molecular assemblies to
Speaker 1: enhance cells signaling could be applied universally across biomedical targets.
Speaker 2: Okay, so they're thinking that could fine tune molecules to
Speaker 2: match the motion of other damage cells, not just the
Speaker 2: ones in the spinal cord exactly. And the most amazing
Speaker 2: part is they've already done it. So just last year,
Speaker 2: the team from Northwestern applied their strategy to damaged human
Speaker 2: cartilage cells and they found some success. Now, normally there's
Speaker 2: no way for humans to regenerate the tissues in our
Speaker 2: joints once we reach adulthood. So if you have a
Speaker 2: disease in which cartilage breaks down over time, you eventually
Speaker 2: get to a point where the bone is grinding against
Speaker 2: the bone with no cushion between them. And currently the
Speaker 2: only treatment for this is joint replacement surgery, which is
Speaker 2: extremely invasive and also very expensive. But once again, the
Speaker 2: team here has found a much better solution. So using
Speaker 2: their injectable therapy, they were able to spur cartilage regeneration
Speaker 2: in damage cells within just a matter of days. And
Speaker 2: once again, it was the molecules dancing that triggered the process.
Speaker 2: So building on that second success, the team's next goal
Speaker 2: is to test the therapy's effectiveness at regenerating bone and
Speaker 2: from there, the sky's limit because, as Stupp explained, quote,
Speaker 2: now we have observed the effects in two cell types
Speaker 2: that are completely disconnected from one another. Cartilage cells in
Speaker 2: our joints and neurons in our brain and spinal cord.
Speaker 2: This makes me more confident that we might have discovered
Speaker 2: a universal phenomena and it could be applied to many
Speaker 2: other tissues. That really is amazing. So what's the status
Speaker 2: of the spinal cord repair?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Have they been able to test this in humans yet?
Speaker 1: Fortunately not. The team's been petitioning the FDA for approval
Speaker 1: to start clinical trials, but so far it's yet to
Speaker 1: be granted.
Speaker 2: Well, I hope it does come through sooner rather than later,
Speaker 2: and it sounds like something that could seriously change people's
Speaker 2: lives and of course the lives of mice as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll have them all dancing again soon.
Speaker 2: Why. Well, our next breakthrough is a reminder that medical
Speaker 2: advances can truly come from anywhere, even from inside the
Speaker 2: mouth of a venomous lizard. Now we know this for
Speaker 2: a fact thanks to the work of doctor John Aang.
Speaker 2: He's an endocrinologist and VA researcher who found a way
Speaker 2: to stimulate the insulin producing cells and the pain creas
Speaker 2: using a hormone found in wait for it, the saliva
Speaker 2: of a HeLa monster.
Speaker 1: I feel like there's no way to make that not
Speaker 1: sound crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, just to be clear, helo monsters are not,
Speaker 2: in fact spased monsters or aliens. They're big, desert dwelling
Speaker 2: lizards native to the southwestern United States. They can grow
Speaker 2: to be about twenty inches in length and are easy
Speaker 2: to recognize thanks to their splotchy orange and black coloring. No,
Speaker 2: it's rare to see one in person, though, since they
Speaker 2: spend about ninety percent of their lives underground and only
Speaker 2: come to the surface when it's time to eat.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you dc one, you should probably clear away, right,
Speaker 1: because they're pretty venomous.
Speaker 2: Well, you really don't want to mess with one of
Speaker 2: these guys. They have a pretty powerful bite, and because
Speaker 2: their main defense is to pump you full of venom,
Speaker 2: they tend to hang on to whatever they chomp on
Speaker 2: for as long as possible. And the venom glends are
Speaker 2: inside their mouths obviously, right, Yeah, and they're lower jaws
Speaker 2: I think so. The longer a helo monster clamps down,
Speaker 2: the more venom is injected through their teeth and into
Speaker 2: the bite wound. It was unfortunate enough to have been bitten, say,
Speaker 2: the venom stings like molten lava. So these people have
Speaker 2: not only been bitten, but they also have experienced molten lava.
Speaker 2: Apparently they are unlucky people rough, But for people with
Speaker 2: type two diabetes, it actually can be a lifesaver.
Speaker 1: Which is wild. So how did doctor Ng even think
Speaker 1: to try this? Like, like, why was messing around with
Speaker 1: HeLa monster spit? Like h the first thing you was
Speaker 1: thinking about?
Speaker 2: I actually wondered that too. But keep in mind that
Speaker 2: medications derived from animal venom aren't that unusual. Sure, the
Speaker 2: venom of snakes, scorpions, spiders, even the world's only other
Speaker 2: venomous lizard, the kmodo dragon. They've all contributed to different
Speaker 2: treatments over the years, and some of the existing research
Speaker 2: is what convinced doctor Ng that HeLa monsters might be
Speaker 2: helpful for treating diabetes. So let's go back to the
Speaker 2: nineteen eighties when doctor Ng was practicing as a physician
Speaker 2: and a researcher at the VA Hospital in the Bronx.
Speaker 2: He was working to discover new animal hormones with medical potential,
Speaker 2: and since he was an endocrinologist, he was especially interested
Speaker 2: in ones that might treat diabetes. This eventually led him
Speaker 2: to an article from the National Institutes of Health about
Speaker 2: the effects of certain snake and lizard venoms on the pancreas.
Speaker 2: Studies showed that some venoms, including that of the HeLa monster,
Speaker 2: could trigger inflammation in the pancreas where insulin is produced.
Speaker 2: Now this convinced doctor Ing that the HeLa monster venom
Speaker 2: was worth a closer look, and so in nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: two he discovered a new hormone in the animal salivam,
Speaker 2: which he called extendin iv. Now. When he tested the
Speaker 2: compound on mice, he was shocked to find that it
Speaker 2: reduced their blood glucose levels by stimulating the insulin producing
Speaker 2: cells in the pancreas. In fact, it worked very similarly
Speaker 2: to the GLP one hormone found in the digestive tract
Speaker 2: of humans, but with one other important difference. Extending four
Speaker 2: degraded in the body much slower, so for reference, a
Speaker 2: diabetic would have to inject GOLP one every hour to
Speaker 2: keep an effective amount of insulin in the bloodstream, but
Speaker 2: extending four would only need to be injected once a day,
Speaker 2: which obviously sounds like a game changer. It absolutely was,
Speaker 2: but unfortunately it took quite a while for doctor Ng's
Speaker 2: discovery to get the attention it deserved. Although the VA
Speaker 2: had funded his initial research, it showed very little interest
Speaker 2: in his findings, and neither did big pharmam. Injecting diabetics
Speaker 2: with proteins from lizard venom was just kind of deemed
Speaker 2: too weird for mainstream medicine, so doctor Ang's research wound
Speaker 2: up languishing for years until this small biotech startup with
Speaker 2: a focus on diabetes finally took notice. So the resulting drug, exenotide,
Speaker 2: was approved by the FDA in two thousand and five,
Speaker 2: and it's now used by millions of diabetic patients worldwide.
Speaker 1: I do love that these like venomous lizard creatures are
Speaker 1: you know, these things that like everyone is afraid of,
Speaker 1: are responsible for saving humans lives.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they don't even know it, the lizards or
Speaker 2: the people. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also, the lizards might not be too happy about it.
Speaker 1: I read that HeLa monster numbers are way down in
Speaker 1: recent years because we keep destroying their habitats, and if
Speaker 1: we aren't careful, we might lose those little guys completely.
Speaker 2: Which would be a huge loss, even from a self
Speaker 2: serving perspective. I mean, if they prove this to be
Speaker 2: useful in humans wants. Who's to say other medical secrets
Speaker 2: might be hiding in there.
Speaker 1: I also think it's kind of a branding problem. Like
Speaker 1: if we renamed them HeLa cuds instead of Heala monsters,
Speaker 1: I feel like they'd have more of a chance.
Speaker 2: I think that's a great idea. Maybe we should push
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: Anyway, that's it for today's episode. Be sure to tune
Speaker 1: in tomorrow for our big, big finale, where we'll be
Speaker 1: counting down to the number one greatest science idea of
Speaker 1: the past twenty five years. And don't forget to check
Speaker 1: out our Instagram at part Time Genius. For today's contests,
Speaker 1: you could win a home Depot gift certificate, which again
Speaker 1: is very much not sponsored by Home Depot, but from
Speaker 1: Gabe Dylan, Mary, Will Lucas Riley and myself. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. Part Time Genius is the production
Speaker 1: of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show is hosted by Will
Speaker 1: Pearson and me Mongas Chatikler and research by our good
Speaker 1: pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was engineered and produced
Speaker 1: by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.
Speaker 1: The show is Executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell
Speaker 1: and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay,
Speaker 1: trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.