EP 153: How genomics is re-writing the taxonomy of disease with Lon Cardon, President and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory

The Genetics Podcast

0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast

01:00 Welcome to Lon

01:51 Lon’s involvement in the very first GWAS and what drew him to large-scale genomics research

03:32 Was moving away from candidate genes towards GWAS and data sharing initially a controversial idea?

05:25 What Lon believes has driven collaboration and data sharing within research communities

07:38 How and why Lon transitioned from academia to working for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

10:43 Why GSK was one of the largest initial investors in genetics and how the company came to have the largest genetics department in the world in the early 2000s

11:46 How the emergence of tens of thousands of biomarkers for genetic diseases has changed the way Lon thinks about the role of genetics in drug discovery

13:29 The future of genetics research and how much that path has diverged from expectations 20 years ago

18:14 The current challenge: From exquisitely precise genetics tools to clumsy phenotype predictions

19:45 Paradigm shifts in the taxonomy of disease

22:29 What it takes to reorganize the taxonomic definition and approach to diseases such as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH)

24:22 The changes needed within biotech and pharma to fully harness the possibilities of genetics in drug development

26:18 What drew Lon to the Jackson Lab, how it has evolved, and what he’s been focused on for the past three years

31:02 The Jackson Lab’s new precision medicine and cancer program, plus future plans for the institute’s legacy

35:56 What Lon has learned about running an international organization and global scientific collaboration

37:30 Lon’s advice to early career scientists on up-and-coming fields and technologies

41:40 Closing remarks