Inside Industry with IREO: Recent Episodes
IREO
Welcome to Inside Industry with IREO, the premier podcast series about working with industry to fund research. This podcast is brought to you by the Innovation and Research Engagement Office (IREO) team located at Washington State University.
Dr. Matt McCluskey is a professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Washington State University and a co-founder of Klar Scientific. Dr. McCluskey's work discusses inventing a new telescope and his WSU spin-out company, Klar Scientific.
Dr. Brian Clowers is an associate professor of WSU, the Boeing Distinguished Professor of Science Education, and the leader of the Clowers Research Group. Dr. Clowers focuses on ion mobility spectrometry and mass spectrometry and explains some of the notable scientific techniques he's developed.
Washington State University's Honey Bee team joins Inside Industry with IREO to discuss their program at the school, which includes their breeding program, their new Honey Bee facility, and how they even use fungi to save bee colonies. Check it out now!
Jon Oatley is an Associate Dean for Research for the College of Veterinary Medicine, a tenured Professor in the School of Molecular Biosciences, and director for the Functional Genomics Initiative. Jon talks about spreading desirable characteristics in livestock with the gene editing tool, CRISPR-Cas9.
Marie Mayes is the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Carson College of Business at Washington State University. Marie talks about the integration of educating student-athletes at Washington State University on name, image, and likeness (NIL).
Dr. Courtney Meehan is an associate dean for research in graduate studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and an anthropology professor. She talks about studying microbiomes in breast milk, as well as a study she did for COVID-19 and how it may affect breastfeeding women and their children. Listen now!
Dr. Karl Englund is an associate research professor at WSU and the Chief Technology Officer at Global Fiberglass Solutions. Karl's research focuses on recycling windmill blades and recycling carbon fibers. Listen now!
Rebecca Connors, a Licensed Veterinary Technician for the PRIME Lab the in the Small Animal Medicine and Research Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, joins Inside Industry with IREO to discuss testing for the MDR1 mutation in pets such as dogs and cats.
Dr. Georgina Lynch is an assistant professor and director of the INLab at WSU. Her work focuses primarily on using eye-tracking technology to screen for ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). She also utilizes various WSU resources for her work and explains how.
Dr. John Harkness, a researcher at WSU Vancouver and the CEO of Rewire Neuro. Rewire Neuro focuses on AI machine learning and John recently had a successful round of funding for his work. John also does various research projects with WSU and Dr. Allison Coffin.
Kate Evans is a WSU researcher and is one of the key people behind creating the newly released Cosmic Crisp apple that's been taking over the apple industry. She joins Inside Industry with IREO to discuss how the apple was created, how apples are bred, and what's next for her and her team.
Juming Tang is the Chair of the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at WSU. Juming focuses on using microwaves to sterilize food to get rid of bacteria. Other benefits of using microwave sterilization include faster times of heating frozen food. The process also gives food a more fresh-like taste and texture along with improving the appearance of the food. The research for microwave sterilization is funded by the US Army and various food companies. Juming also studies safety such as preventing salmonella in “low-moisture food” such as from affecting cereal, flour, dried fruit and nuts.
Aaron Feaver is the Director of the Joint Center for Deployment and Research in Earth Abundant Materials (JCDREAM), a company that focuses on using earth-abundant materials rather than rare materials for developing technology. On May 20th, JCDREAM is hosting the CHARGE Conference to align industry, researchers, and government around cleaning up our power grid, transportation, and technology sectors. Governor Jay Inslee will also be attending. You can find more info on jcdream.org.
Inside Industry with IREO welcomes Sterling McPherson, the head and principal investigator of the Analytics and Psychopharmacology Laboratory (APPL). He is also an associate professor for the WSU College of Medicine.
Allison Coffin is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at WSU Vancouver. Trained as a fish biologist, Allison originally studied and researched how fish sense their surroundings and hear. Now, she uses fish at the Coffin Lab in Vancouver to understand how people hear. Unlike humans, fish can regenerate their hearing which Allison also studies. Allison is also the chair of Science Talk, a non-profit organization that engages and promotes science communication and outreach, networking, and holds an annual conference that features keynote science speakers, workshops on science communication, and opportunities for researchers to share their stories.
Inside Industry with IREO is joined by Joe Harding, a professor of physiology and neuroscience at WSU and co-founder of Athira Pharma. His primary work focuses on treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. These small molecules’ main targets are HGF/MET, which are growth factors that can help stimulate new connections, produce new neurons, and protect nerve cells from damage. Harding states “there isn’t a single disease that couldn’t be improved with a drug that either activates one or more growth factors or drug that inhibits one or more growth factors.” Currently, Athira Pharma has been running a clinical trial with Alzheimer’s patients and may be in their final testing stages of the small molecule therapeutics. Athira’s goal is to improve the lifestyle of Alzheimer’s patients and potentially to keep them out of assisted living longer. This could be the first regenerative drug to hit the market.
Inside Industry with IREO is joined today by Amit Dhingra, the leader of the Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors and the interim chair for the Horticulture Department at WSU. Entrepreneurial Faculty Ambassadors is not an organization or department, but a grassroots movement. As Amit would say “it’s all about creating that community of faculty members, staff members, students, as well as scientists, who come together to really develop solutions of the pressing problems that we face today”. The EFA’s goal is to grow a culture of taking concepts from the university out to society to make an impact. They are planning on expanding the movement across the different campuses and customizing a program for each community. Amit also runs a genomics lab here at WSU, and his interest in genetics and food science came about from witnessing his parents, who are both medical doctors, giving away medicine to malnourished people. He questioned “why don’t we give them food instead of medication?” The genomics lab studies crops such as apples, pears, and cherries. Some of the research goals are to understand how to regulate the ripening of fruits to prevent waste, how to fight diseases by creating more resilient crops, and how to change architecture of trees to modernize production systems. The genomics lab is currently working on how to use huckleberries, which is a common fruit in the Palouse, for their flavor and genetics to improve blueberries.
Inside Industry with IERO is joined by Maria Gartstein a psychology professor and Head of the Gartstein Temperament Lab here at WSU. Maria was also recently featured in the Netflix documentary “Babies” for her work in infant temperament. The Gartstein Temperament Lab studies all things temperament related in early childhood both within and across cultural practices. Through a mixture of survey tools and observational practice the lab seeks to better understand the factors that impact temperament and related human development. Maria says what drew her to this research was because “there are things in how we react and how we begin to regulate ourselves as infants that are predictive of how we are going to be as adults.” Parents are asked to bring their baby to the lab where they are put in structured situations to solicit different emotions, such as parents playing peekaboo with their baby through a window. These temperament studies can help predict symptoms, disorders, and whether or not babies are going to be at risk of behavioral and emotional problems. These problems can include internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression related symptoms, or externalizing problems which include being disobedient and aggressive.
This episode is joined by Jacob Leachman, a WSU professor. His research interests include rocket and space vehicle designs, hydrogen, and cryogenics.
This episode, we welcome Tiffany Reiss, the head of the E3 group, which supports the land grant mission of WSU by aligning efforts, energies, and resources across the university system.
Inside Industry with IREO brings a special episode with WSU faculty David Makin and Lois James. Listen to how their research is being used to improve policing and fight racism.
David Makin is the co-founder and Director of the Complex Social Interactions Lab at Washington State University (WSU) and an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology. His work examines the relationship between technology and criminal justice practice, with an emphasis on police interactions.
Lois James is an assistant professor in the Washington State University College of Nursing. Dr. James’s simulation-based research on the impact of bias on police decision making has significantly advanced what is known about how suspect race and ethnicity influences police officers during critical encounters with the public.
This episode, we interviewed Sheryl McGrath, the associate state director of the Washington Small Business Development Center, to find out about what the SBDC does to support and aid small businesses.
This episode, we interviewed Brian Kraft, Vice President of IREO, to talk about the role of industry and the IREO team at Washington State University.