Steve Altschuler and Lani Wu are Professors in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco.

In this episode of The Microscopists, Peter O’Toole talks to Steve Altschuler and Lani Wu—two mathematicians who leapt from Princeton and Microsoft into systems biology, high-dimensional data, and cell imaging.

They share the (brutal) grad-school mailroom origin story of their partnership, how video compression work at Microsoft shaped their thinking, and the risky jump into biology from Rosetta to Harvard, during the early days of systems biology.

Watch or listen to all episodes of The Microscopists: http://themicroscopists.bitesizebio.com/

In this episode of The Microscopists, Uri Manor, Assistant Professor of UCSD, opens up about growing up with profound hearing loss and how, despite wanting nothing to do with becoming a scientist, a winding path through baseball, music, and restaurant work eventually led him back to physics and then biology.

He reflects on how those early challenges shaped his confidence, communication, and resilience as he navigated graduate school, personal hardship, and the unpredictable reality of academic funding.

Now at UCSD, he's expanding access to science by teaching immersive, hands-on microscopy workshops to community college students.

Watch or listen to all episodes of The Microscopists: http://themicroscopists.bitesizebio.com

In this episode of The Microscopists, Peter O’Toole sits down with Leonel Malacrida of Universidad de la República & Institut Pasteur Montevideo, Uruguay.

Leonel reflects on his early ambition of becoming a veterinarian, the twists and turns that led him into the world of microscopy, and the unique challenges and opportunities of doing science in Latin America. He also shares how biking and staying active helps him remain balanced and connected beyond the lab.

This conversation offers a candid look at Leonel’s career journey, his scientific passions, and the personal habits that keep him grounded.

Watch or listen to all episodes of The Microscopists: http://themicroscopists.bitesizebio.com