Up to date innovations from our staff in the fields of science, medicine, and education!

**Stephanie Caligiuri, Ph.D**
Senior STEM Instructor Host of *The People’s Scientist Podcast*

#WomenInScience

#VitaminA

#nutrition

The Neuroscience of Scrolling and Swiping

February 25, 2021

On episode 94 of The People’s Scientist podcast, Teddy’s Tutoring Senior Science Educator Dr. Stephanie Caligiuri dives into the changes that are undergone in the human brain when we engage with popular social media platforms.

Social media can empower us to acquire new knowledge, maintain relationships, and build professional brands, but all can benefit from understanding the impact that social media may have on mental health!

To learn more about how creating digital avatars to navigate social media may affect brain networks and mental health outcomes, check out Episode 94 of The People’s Scientist podcast by clicking the button below!

#WomenInScience

#socialmedia

#mentalhealth

Vitamin Mini Series–Vitamin A

February 25, 2021

Teddy’s Tutoring Senior Science Educator Dr. Stephanie Caligiuri details the scientific discovery and health benefits of Vitamin A on Episode 93 of The People’s Scientist podcast!

Listen as Dr. Caligiuri deepens our understanding of the role that Vitamin A plays in boosting our #ImmuneSystem, promoting the health of our skin, enhancing our eyesight, sharpening our #learning and #memory skills, and much more! 👩🏼‍🔬👩🏼‍🏫🧬🧠

To learn more about the health and brain benefits of a Vitamin A-rich diet as well as food items that serve as abundant stores of Vitamin A, check out Episode 93 of The People’s Scientist podcast by clicking the button below!

#WomenInScience

#Melatonin

#Sleep

The Brain Hormone–Melatonin

January 29, 2021

In Episode 88 of The People’s Scientist podcast, Teddy’s Tutoring Senior STEM Educator Dr. Stephanie Caligiuri examines the neuroscience of sleep by diving into melatonin–the chemical released by the pineal gland in the human brain that regulates our sleep-wake cycles!

Listen as Dr. Caligiuri elaborates on changes that we can make to our everyday routines that can help naturally boost our quality of sleep such as reducing our cell phone screen time before bed and increasing our intake of healthy carbs as well as the amino acids tryptophan in our diets! 👩🏼‍🔬👩🏼‍🏫🧬🧠

For more on healthy life style changes we can make to improve our sleep and health, check out episode 88 by clicking the button below! 👇🏾

#WomenInScience

#Habit Formation

#Pleasure Pathway

Neuroscience-Based Strategies to Help Us Achieve our Goals

January 16, 2021

Teddy’s Tutoring’s Senior STEM Educator, Dr. Stephanie Caligiuri, discusses the neuroscience of habit formation on this week’s episode of The People’s Scientist–a weekly podcast dedicated to helping us optimize our health using discoveries and innovations in the fields of neuroscience and nutrient!

In episode 87, Dr. Caligiuri addresses the brain science behind habit formation by delving into the striatum, an integral portion of the reward pathway within the human brain, as the center of habit formation and pleasure sensitivity!

Dr. Caligiuri uses neuroscience to offer tips on how to break unhealthy habits and form healthy new ones that may lead to better sleep patterns, sharper memory, more efficient studying, and getting rid of harmful addictions by goal-oriented strategies and conscious thought! 👩🏼‍🔬👩🏼‍🏫🧬🧠

To listen to episode 87 of The People’s Scientist podcast, click the button below! 👇🏾

The immunization timeline for the Moderna vaccine trial. undefined/iStock/Getty Images Plus

#COVIDVaccine

#mRNA

#Moderna

#Pfizer

The Race to a COVID-19 Vaccine

December 22, 2020

December 2020 has marked great advancements in the race to a cure for COVID-19! Pzifer and Moderna are the two biotechnology companies taking an innovative approach to finding a solution to the global pandemic that have taken the lives of over a million people around the world.

In the past, vaccines were designed by using a weakened form of the virus to help our immune cells develop antibodies to fight the infection. The new COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA–a genetic molecule that serves as biological instructions for the production of proteins in the cell. The COVID-19 viral mRNA is introduced into the body in order to facilitate the production of the “spike protein” found on the surface of the coronavirus. This production catalyzes the development of COVID19-specific antibodies that are primed and ready to fight an infection upon exposure to the virus! 👩🏾‍🔬🧬🦠🧫💉

For more information on this new, cutting-edge vaccine technology, click the button below! 👇🏾

Learn More!

#WomenInScience

#NobelPrize

#CRISPR

CRISPR Gene-Editing Wins Nobel Prize!

October 25, 2020

On October 7, 2020, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier made history by becoming the first all-women research team to win the #NobelPeacePrize in Chemistry “for the development of a method for genome editing” called CRISPR/Cas9! This innovative gene-editing technology gives biomedical scientist the ability to edit any part of the human genome with cutting edge precision.

#CRISPR is currently being used to treat an umbrella of inherited human diseases–from various cancers to cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia! The potential for this gene therapy platform is endless! A special thanks to Doudna and Charpentier for developing a once in a life time medical breakthrough!