{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Hard Drugs","title":"Can we switch off diseases?","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/eec44d3f\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":4545,"description":"What if treating diseases was as simple as telling your cells to stop making a harmful protein? That’s the premise of siRNA, a technology that silences genes without changing DNA. Just a single dose of siRNA can last for months. Better, it can be reprogrammed to silence a different gene or mutation by simply switching its sequence.\nIn this episode, Jacob and Saloni explore why it took so long for siRNA to be turned into drugs, why most siRNA drugs so far have targeted liver diseases, and whether they could eventually be used to treat many diseases, from infections to heart disease to rare diseases to cancers.\nHard Drugs is a podcast from Works in Progress about medical innovation presented by Saloni Dattani and Jacob Trefethen.\n\nYou can watch or listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.\nChapters:\n\nSaloni’s substack newsletter: https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/\nJacob’s blog: https://blog.jacobtrefethen.com/ \n\nAcknowledgements:\nGraham Bessellieu, video editor\nAbhishaike Mahajan, cover art\nAtalanta Arden-Miller, art direction\nDavid Hackett, composer\n\nArticles\nJacob Witten (2026). The kill switch for harmful genes. Works in Progress. https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-kill-switch-for-harmful-genes/ \nVirginie Baylot et al. (2024) Between hope and reality: treatment of genetic diseases through nucleic acid-based drugs. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-06121-9\nChokwassanasakulkit et al. (2024) SiRNAs as antiviral drugs – Current status, therapeutic potential and challenges. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2024.106024 \nAntonio Fontanellas et al. (2025) RNA-based therapies in liver metabolic diseases. https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2023-331742","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/bBbAA3-An3hw3uv_Sf647ZQV-IpESOooEROiyEp4Ytg/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS81MzM2/YTc5NmRlZGI2Zjhi/YWM2ZDk4MzBhZjg4/YTRjMi5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}