Why do things happen where they do?

Bringing Chemistry to Life

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Laura-Isobel McCall is a chemical cartographer. She has a fundamental question: why are chemical responses to an external stimulus, such as a pathogen, different depending on the organ, tissue and even different areas of the same tissue?

Her curiosity and talent for working at the interface between scientific disciplines led her to develop innovative ways to build three-dimensional maps of the chemical composition of organisms. This is what is defined as chemical cartography and it allows us to understand complex interactions and interplay of host and pathogen metabolism.

This episode explores the complex relationship between living organisms and the environment around them. A deep understanding of the metabolic response to exogenous chemicals can ultimately enable the design of better drugs but also generates a new set of ethical questions. Metabolomics, or each person’s chemical map, not only define who we are (like genomics does), but also what we have done, and what we have been in contact with over the course of our lives.

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