Off the Bench

From Pipettes to Passion Projects: Small Business Saturday Spotlight

To prepare for Small Business Saturday (November 30, 2024), hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Doryan Redding feature four small businesses that are run by fellow medical laboratory professionals. Find links to their businesses here. 

Med Lab + Sci-Fi Med Lab = MALDI-TOF?

In this episode, hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Doryan Redding are joined by Emily Woten and ASCLS President-Elect Dr. Kyle Riding. The four explore the question that's plagued a few medical laboratory geeks—how do science fiction instrumentation work? How reliable are they? And why does MALDI-TOF keep coming up? Tune in and comment below on how you think this stuff works!
References to the science fiction in this episode.
Thanks to our episode sponsor, Memorial Healthcare System.

Laboratory Work and Education Overseas featuring Dr. Audrey Folsom

In this episode, co-hosts Doryan Redding and Sophia Chandrasekar speak with Dr. Audrey Folsom of Arkansas State University, as she shares her experiences as a medical laboratory scientist doing lab work overseas and her adventures in teaching lab and health courses in China. See photos from Audrey's travels.

CDC's OneLab with Dr. Kelly Winter

In this episode, co-hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Doryan Redding talk with Dr. Kelly Winter about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) OneLab initiative. Hear about all that OneLab has to offer, from CEs to virtual reality labs to facilitate training, and catch our enthusiasm to sign up for OneLab today!

2024 JAM Query Check Game Show

Doryan Redding and Emily Woten host the 2024 Query Check Game Show live at the 2024 ASCLS, AGT & SAFMLS Joint Annual Meeting. Our three wonderful contestants, Dr. Audrey Folsom, Heather Santaniello, and Amara Sugalski, face off with BOC-styled questions, lab-ish questions, and scenarios that show who's the most "technically" correct. Find out who took home this year's Query Check Champion trophy!

HIV, Hepatitis, Blood Banking, and More

On today's episode, hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Doryan Redding meet up again with previous guest Grace Leu-Burke, MSCLS, MLS(ASCP), Associate Professor and Program Director of the MLS program at The University of Alaska, Anchorage. Doryan and Sophia pick Grace's brain on how blood banking has changed since her student years, especially with the effects of HIV and Hepatitis in blood banking and safety, and compare it to Doryan's experience being a new graduate in the blood bank during the early days of COVID-19.

Oh, the Paths You Can Make! with Dr. LaShanta Brice

This month, hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Doryan Redding talk with Dr. LaShanta Brice, DCLS, MLS(ASCP)CM, SH(ASCP)CM, about her amazing journey from an MLS in a hospital lab to a Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science (DCLS) in industry. She describes what it's like to go through the DCLS program, and what her role in industry is today.

Moose, Scat, E. coli, Oh My!

In this month's episode, host Sophia Chandrasekar talks with Professor Grace Leu-Burke of the University of Alaska in Anchorage (UAA). Professor Leu-Burke shares the challenges for a medical laboratory professional in Alaska and the research program she developed at UAA for the MLS program. Hear about her students' research and fascinating (and terrifying!) observations that they've cultured.

The Challenges, Opportunities, and Importance of Diversity with Dr. Letycia Nuñez-Argote

In this episode, hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Doryan Redding speak with Letycia Nuñez-Argote, PhD, CPH, MLS(ASCP)CM, about the ASCLS Diversity Advocacy Council, the 2024 ASCLS PRISM: Pride · Respect · Inclusion · Support · Momentum Book Club, and how we can always be improving and learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion and how we see the world. Special thanks go out to our episode sponsor, the University of Cincinnati Online.

2023 Reflections and Look Ahead to 2024

It's the final episode of Off the Bench for 2023. Hosts Sophia Chandrasekar and Doryan Redding reflect on the past year and share upcoming news for 2024. Off the Bench will take a short break this winter and will be back with new episodes in March. Happy New Year to all medical laboratory professionals and listeners!