#50 Dr. Melina Fan about Addgene

Dr. Melina Fan joins me on the show to discuss plasmids. Dr. Fan is the Chief Scientific Officer and a co-founder of Addgene. Addgene is a nonprofit organization that operates a plasmid repository for the research community. The organization works with thousands of laboratories to assemble a high-quality library of published plasmids for use in research and discovery. 

During the show, Dr. Fan explains what plasmids are, highlights cool genes that are inserted into plasmids and how Addgene's plasmid repository works. Dr. Fan recently co-authored a paper on the Zika virus. Her team developed a rapid, low cost detection method of the virus using CRISPR, which she sheds some light on.

Dr. Melina Fan received her PhD in Cell Biology from Harvard University, where she studied diabetes and metabolism. Melina has worked at Genetics Institute in Cambridge, MA and Sequana Therapeutics in San Diego, CA. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from MIT.