Clifford Brangwynne, a Princeton bioengineer, is the 2023 recipient of the Dickson Prize in Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's highest honor. He found that biomolecules like proteins can condense into droplets inside of cells, much like oil separating into droplets in water. Scientists are now figuring out how these biomolecular condensates play a role in cell function—which could open new avenues for treating diseases like Alzheimer's and ALS.

You can find an excerpt of this conversation in the fall 2023 issue of Pitt Med Magazine. Andrew Doerfler conducted the interview and edited the episode. Our executive producer is Erica Lloyd. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Pitt Med Magazine is published by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

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Mr. Yuk, the poster child for poisoning prevention, debuted in 1971. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, we caught up with Mr. Yuk’s creator, Dr. Richard Moriarty (MD ’66), a Pitt School of Medicine alumnus and longtime associate professor of pediatrics.   This episode was based on a 2003 Pitt Med magazine story, “It’s Not Easy Being Green,” written by Sally Ann Flecker, and adapted and produced by Elaine Vitone. Our executive producer is Erica Lloyd. Music by Blue Dot Sessions. Pitt Med magazine is published by the University of Pittsburgh Office of University Communications and Marketing and the School of Medicine.

Mothers harbor cells from their children decades after pregnancy—and throughout their bodies. These shared cells from pregnancy, do they help or harm women? In February 2020, we sat down with Dr. R. Swati Shree (Res ’14), a Pitt alum who is an expert in this fascinating yet little-known quirk of our biology, known as microchimerism. Our interview was recorded live from the Sci-Mic Podcast Stage at the annual meeting of the world's largest general scientific society, AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science).

The print version of this interview appears in Pitt Med magazine, which you can find on our website, pittmed.health.pitt.edu. This episode was written and produced by Elaine Vitone, with Maya Best. Our music is by Blue Dot Sessions. Pitt Med magazine is published by the University of Pittsburgh Office of University Communications and Marketing and the School of Medicine.

Evolutionary biology is at the center of some of the most vexing public health challenges of our time: cancer, antibiotic resistance and disease outbreaks. Pitt's Vaughn Cooper has been studying evolution in action for more than a decade. To his amazement, he’s beginning to think it may be possible to predict evolution.

In Dec. 2020, we sat down with Cooper to discuss how the emerging field of evolutionary medicine is helping to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

This episode was inspired by these stories in our magazine, Pitt Med:

• “What Bug’s in You?,” Winter 2021
• “Untangling Darwin,” Fall 2017 

Written and produced by Elaine Vitone. Our executive producer is Erica Lloyd. Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

In this special three-part series, Pitt Medcast introduces Anantha Shekhar—Pitt’s new senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine. In February 2020, we sat down with him in Pitt Studios to get to know him and hear his insights on the future of medicine and Pitt’s place in it. Then, in May, we called him to talk again, remotely, about the road ahead for Pitt in the post-COVID-19 world.

In this episode, Part 1, the MD/PhD and nationally recognized educator, researcher, entrepreneur and leader in medicine, shares his story, his inspiration for pursuing medicine in the first place, and his thoughts on medicine’s most transformative developments in recent years.