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What if the most powerful tools for understanding the human brain are the very tiny particles we're learning to build, atom by atom? In this episode of No Reason to Get Excited (NRTGE), Dr. Aaron Winkler sits down with Rebecca Pinals, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University and Institute Scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H, to explore the frontier where nanotechnology, neuroscience, and chemical engineering collide.

From carbon nanotubes that glow in the near-infrared, to the "protein corona" that makes biological systems so beautifully unpredictable, to lipid nanoparticles that may one day flush the brain clean of disease, Rebecca walks through how her lab is engineering microscopic tools to crack one of medicine's hardest problems: Alzheimer's disease. Along the way, Aaron and Rebecca dig into why almost everything we know about the brain comes from animals that aren't quite us, how a handful of cells can self-assemble into a working capillary inside a hydrogel, and why the long-overlooked story of lipids may be the missing piece in our understanding of neurodegeneration.

About the Guest
Rebecca Pinals is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University and an Institute Scholar at Sarafan ChEM-H. The Pinals Lab engineers neuro-models and nano-tools to uncover mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease, with a particular emphasis on the blood–brain barrier, the vascular interface that serves as the molecular gateway into the brain. Rebecca trained as a chemical engineer at Brown University, completed her PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UC Berkeley with Professor Markita Landry as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and pivoted into neuroscience as a Schmidt Science Fellow during her postdoc at MIT's Picower Institute, working with Professors Li-Huei Tsai and Bob Langer. Her lab combines induced pluripotent stem cell–based 3D brain models with the rational design of nanoparticles to study, intervene in, and ultimately treat diseases like Alzheimer's.

Connect with Rebecca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccapinals/

Chapters

00:00 – Cold Open: A Chemical Engineer at the Edge of Neuroscience

00:32 – Meet Rebecca Pinals

01:20 – From Conventional Catalysis to a Love of the Nanoscale

03:42 – Carbon Nanotubes That Glow in the Near-Infrared

09:55 – The Protein Corona Problem

12:30 – Lipid Nanoparticles, mRNA Vaccines, and a COVID Pivot

14:18 – Why Alzheimer's: The Forgotten Lipid Story

18:34 – APOE, Astrocytes, and Lipoproteins as Therapeutics

24:15 – Why We Need a Human Blood-Brain Barrier Model

33:35 – Endothelial Cells, Pericytes, and the Real Anatomy of the BBB

42:48 – When Cells Find Each Other: Self-Assembly Into Capillaries

50:51 – Microplastics, Prions, and What We Don't Know We're Doing

54:17 – The Moments a Scientist Lives For

57:40 – Becoming a PI: From the Bench to Big Science

If you enjoyed this episode of No Reason to Get Excited, make sure to follow the show, leave a rating or review, and share this episode with someone who loves deep conversations about science, physics, and the mysteries of the universe.

Connect with Dr. Aaron Winkler

• Website: www.aaronwinklermd.com
• LinkedIn: @NRTGEPOD
• Instagram @NRTGEPOD

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What if the secret to understanding life lies in the mathematics of systems that can never sit still? In this episode of No Reason to Get Excited (NRTGE), Dr. Aaron Winkler sits down with Grant Rotskoff, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, to explore the breathtaking frontier where statistical physics, computation, and biology collide.

From the unsolved mystery of how ATP, the "spark of life," actually hydrolyzes, to the way muscle tissue self-assembles from molecular ratchets, Grant unpacks what it means to study living systems that are, by their very nature, perpetually far from equilibrium. Along the way, Aaron draws striking parallels between the molecular machinery of cells and the deepest questions of consciousness, attention, and emergence.

About the Guest

Grant Rotskoff is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University. His research sits at the intersection of theoretical chemistry, statistical physics, and machine learning, with a focus on understanding the non-equilibrium dynamics of biological systems. He trained as a mathematician at the University of Chicago before turning to biophysics, and his lab uses cutting-edge computational methods, including machine-learned interatomic potentials and importance sampling, to study problems ranging from ATP hydrolysis to the self-assembly of muscle tissue.

Connect with Grant

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-rotskoff-47427a31b

Chapters

00:00 – Why Great Research Questions Live in the Gaps
01:07 – Meet Grant Rotskoff
01:49 – What It Means for Life to Be Far From Equilibrium
08:17 – Why Biology Is Too Complex to Brute-Force
18:01 – How Machine Learning Is Changing Molecular Simulation
28:02 – ATP Hydrolysis: The Spark of Life
35:40 – ATP Synthase, Kinases, and Molecular Motors
38:20 – Why Biology Works Like a Ratchet at the Nanoscale
42:06 – How Organisation Emerges From Energy
55:32 – Muscle Tissue, Sarcomeres, and Self-Assembly
56:49 – The Mathematics of Emergence
01:08:33 – Use the Tools You Have

If you enjoyed this episode of No Reason to Get Excited, make sure to follow the show, leave a rating or review, and share this episode with someone who loves deep conversations about science, physics, and the mysteries of the universe.

Connect with Dr. Aaron Winkler

• Website: www.aaronwinklermd.com
• LinkedIn: @NRTGEPOD
• Instagram @NRTGEPOD

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What happens when you apply machine learning and rigorous data analysis to the "Wild West" of American campaign finance? In this episode of No Reason to Get Excited (NRTGE), Dr. Aaron Winkler sits down with Andrew Myers, a PhD candidate at Stanford University and incoming Assistant Professor at MIT, to pull back the curtain on how money, media, and institutional rules shape our democracy.

From the surprising ways donors "punish" extremist candidates to the hidden consequences of term limits, Andrew shares insights from his dissertation that challenge standard political assumptions. Along the way, Aaron draws fascinating parallels between the circulatory system of the human body and the systematic flow of modern civilization.

About the Guest

Andrew Myers is a political scientist and PhD candidate at Stanford University specializing in American politics and political methodology. His research focuses on polarization in legislatures, campaign finance, and election administration. After completing a fellowship at the Hoover Institution, he will join the faculty at MIT as an Assistant Professor.

Connect with Andrew

Website: www.andrewcwmyers.com

Chapters

00:00 – The "Block Power" of Parliamentary Systems
02:00 – Meet Andrew Myers: From Stanford to MIT
04:00 – The Role of Money: Analyzing Citizens United and Direct Contributions
07:20 – Machine Learning in Politics: Mapping Contributions to Voting Records
12:20 – Why "Coin Flip" Elections are a Social Scientist's Dream
15:15 – Aaron’s Lessons from the Obama 2004 Senate Campaign
22:10 – The "Uncontested" Victory: How Obama Won His First Election
33:00 – The Press Coverage Problem: Why Down-Ballot Races Suffer in the Dark
40:00 – Conclusion #1: Do Donors Punish Extremists?
41:30 – Conclusion #2: How Strengthening Local Press Moderates Legislatures
48:00 – Access-Seeking vs. Ideological Donors
53:00 – "Why Is There So Little Money in Politics?"
58:00 – The Chipping Away of Campaign Finance Reform
1:01:00 – The Lack of Competition in State Legislatures
1:06:00 – The Dark Side of Term Limits: Why They May Actually Increase Polarization
1:09:00 – Redistricting and Strategic Residing
1:31:00 – "Dialing for Dollars": The Fundraising Quotas of New Representatives
1:38:00 – The Body Politic: O’Hare Airport as a Heart and the ATP Synthase of Cities
1:46:00 – Blood Pressure and Political Compromise: The Kidney-Lung Connection

If you enjoyed this episode of No Reason to Get Excited, make sure to follow the show, leave a rating or review, and share this episode with someone who loves deep conversations about science, physics, and the mysteries of the universe.

Connect with Dr. Aaron Winkler

• Website: www.aaronwinklermd.com
• LinkedIn: @NRTGEPOD
• Instagram @NRTGEPOD