This Is Only A Test

In the debut episode of "This Is Only A Test", Dr. Mickey Urdea is marching to his own rhythm - his own algorithm, that is! In order to help you understand how modern diagnostic technologies utilize mathematical algorithms, Mickey is covering the ABCs on AUC, scouring the rock bottom of ROC curves, and connecting the algebraic work of 7th century Persian polymath Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi to today's best practices for diagnost...

In this episode of Interesting Stories in the History of Diagnostics, Mickey Urdea is presenting this practical guide on the breadth and depth of the proteome! From an overview of the proteome itself to the techniques used to find subsets of proteins of interest that may correspond to a particular disease state, as well as the top technologies available and what separates them from the rest, this episode will serve as your guide fo...

Just in time for Thanksgiving, Halteres Associates is serving up a new episode of Interesting Stories In The History of Diagnostics about the microbiome! As you munch on every bite of stuffing, remember that your body is made up of a community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, archaea, fungi, algae, and viruses, as well as protozoans and other protists, so you are actually giving a little tast...

In the third and final installment of "Getting Hip To Hepatitis!", Mickey Urdea is recounting the progress that was made, in the immediate aftermath of its discovery, to know more about the Hepatitis C virus, how to measure it, and how to treat it. Armed with alpha interferon, viral load, and some help from Japan, Mickey will walk you through how Hepatitis C went from discovery to treatment, and perhaps someday soon, to a vaccine c...

In Part Two, Mickey Urdea is picking up where he left off with the discovery of Non-A, Non-B Hepatitis, moving forward to the work that was done for developing accurate RNA tests for Hepatitis C, what genotypes and subtypes were uncovered, how the universally agreed-upon nomenclature and labeling of those subtypes were solidified by him and his team at Chiron, and how surprisingly important genotyping became for appropriate treatme...

“Getting Hip To Hepatitis!” Part One - On the first part of this two-part series, Mickey Urdea is sharing his perspective on the discovery of Hepatitis C Virus, and the subsequent impact on global health! Part One covers the earliest work on "Non-A Non-B" Hepatitis at Chiron Corporation up to the first approved blood screening test for the newly discovered pathogen, and Part Two will continue on with what happened after that Nobel ...

On Episode 24 of Interesting Stories in the History of Diagnostics, Mickey Urdea is buzzing about malaria! Earth's leading mosquito-borne disease affects 247 million people worldwide every year, with about 619,000 deaths. On this episode, Mickey guides you through the massive scope of this parasitic infection, the historic obstacles and solutions for proper diagnosis, the many Nobel prizes that have been awarded for combating this ...

On Episode 23 of "Interesting Stories in the History of Diagnostics", Mickey is resurrecting the idea of the "zombie life science company" to elucidate just why diagnostics companies fail. Some life science companies with a great idea turn out to be successes, some end up as failures, and some make a critical error somewhere along the way and are dead before they even know it yet - hence, a zombie! Mickey and the Halteres team perf...

While we tend to associate mummies with Halloween, manmade and naturally occurring mummies are one of science’s greatest sources of the genetics of human history, and analyzing parasites and diseases within their preserved bodies can help unwrap (if you will) the layers of yet-untold stories of how mankind got where we are today. In this episode, Mickey is unsealing the entombed secrets of the Incan Ice Mummies, the smoked mummies ...

On episode 21 of "Interesting Stories In The History Of Diagnostics", Mickey Urdea is asking: "Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?" That's no puzzle - it's a palindrome! Yes that's right, he's discussing CRISPR, or Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, the hallmark trait of a bacterial defense system that forms the basis for CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology, which can be programmed to...

On this episode, Mickey Urdea is plunging into the plague! The bubonic plague pandemic, or The Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, killing at least 75–200 million people and forever altering the future of Europe and Asia - but where did the plague come from? How did it spread so quickly? Why have we learned so much more about the plague in the last decade? And...

In Part 1 of this 3-part series on "the emperor of all maladies", Mickey Urdea tracked cancer all the way from Australopithecus bones and Egyptian mummies up to the first days of modern day protein assays for the detection of cancer markers, especially focusing on the contributions of the global pioneer in such assays, the company Centocor. Now in Parts 2 and 3, Mickey Urdea gets to move on to the wide panoply of tests and technolo...

In Part 1 of this 3-part series on "the emperor of all maladies", Mickey Urdea tracked cancer all the way from Australopithecus bones and Egyptian mummies up to the first days of modern day protein assays for the detection of cancer markers, especially focusing on the contributions of the global pioneer in such assays, the company Centocor. Now in Parts 2 and 3, Mickey Urdea gets to move on to the wide panoply of tests and technolo...

Happy New Year to you from Halteres Associates! As we wrap up 2022, Mickey Urdea is just getting started on the history of diagnosing cancer! In Part 1 on this subject, Mickey tracks cancer all the way from Australopithecus bones and Egyptian mummies up to cutting edge modern day protein assays for the detection of cancer markers for potential uses in early detection, secondary screening, therapy selection, recurrence, and beyond, ...

On Episode 18 of “Interesting Stories in the History of Diagnostics”, Mickey Urdea is reviewing breath-based diagnostics, or what is transpiring with transpiration! Exhaled breath holds many secrets beyond what you ate for breakfast, and analysis of the compounds in breath can help to diagnose SARS-CoV-2, gastrointestinal disorders, and even lung cancer (among many others). New instruments and technologies are emerging and succeedi...

On October 17th, 2022, Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of the now-bankrupt diagnostics company Theranos, will be sentenced after her conviction for one count of wire fraud conspiracy and three substantive wire fraud counts relating to the scheme to defraud investors, including wire transfers totaling more than $140 million. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a fine of $250,000, plus restitution, for the...

Tick tock, it’s time for some tick talk! On this episode, Mickey is discussing tick-borne diseases – their causes, their related detection technologies, and why climate change might exacerbate the problem worldwide. Lyme Disease receives much of the spotlight (especially given its many famous cases, including Shania Twain and Yolanda and Bella Hadid), but even Lyme is not fully understood (or agreed upon) and there are at least 18 ...

This week, we’re getting to the very last drop on the subject of wastewater testing! Hot in the news after recent occurrences of polio and monkeypox, as well as for the continued monitoring of Covid-19, wastewater testing is the future of public health monitoring. Breakthroughs in wastewater screening by the CDC and at UC San Diego, among others, have expanded the scope and capabilities of wastewater testing, but ethics questions o...