EP 163: The intersection of loss and genetic insight with Susan Liebman of University of Nevada

The Genetics Podcast

0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast

01:00 Welcome to Susan, and an introduction to The Dressmaker's Mirror and the personal experience that inspired her to write it

03:17 How a question she asked her book club sparked the idea for a family memoir, intertwining personal stories and the impact of genetics.

04:28 The heartbreaking story of Susan’s niece, whose sudden tragic death was a result of an undiagnosed genetic condition

08:11 How Susan pieced together the clues pointing to genetic heritability, uncovering the cause of her niece's death and shedding light on the implications for her family

11:38 Susan’s personal experience of whole genome sequencing within her own family

15:04 The role of Susan’s Ashkenazi Jewish heritage in her family’s diagnostic journey to dilated cardiomyopathy

16:20 The importance of genetic screening, managing potential health outcomes, and the ethics of sharing results

19:32 Understanding the potential for mutations to have different impacts within different ethnic groups

21:00 The challenges of managing edge cases, understanding penetrance, and the need for dynamic knowledge transfer as the volume of available genetic data rapidly expands

23:44 Defining “actionability” in the context of genetic results and what it could mean for the next generation

25:53 Susan’s career and work in yeast genetics and its translation to human disease

30:35 Her experience being part of the first ever cohort of women to live on campus at MIT

34:20 The Westinghouse Science Fair project that won her a place at MIT

36:25 How Susan went from aspiring to be a grade school teacher to becoming a research scientist and professor

37:31 Advice to early career scientists on grant applications and beyond

39:49 Closing remarks

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The Dressmaker’s Mirror