
Episode 33 Season 7: Cancer Clues, Dog Socialization, and Interview with Author Melanie Kaplan on Lab Dogs
From The Science Pawdcast by Jason and Kris Zackowski
November 22, 2025 · 57 min · Season 7 · Episode 33
About this episode
This episode discusses the potential of mRNA COVID vaccines in cancer treatment and features an interview with author Melanie Kaplan about lab dogs.
Send us Fan Mail A vaccine built for a virus might be whispering a powerful message to cancer care. We dig into a new Nature paper suggesting that mRNA COVID shots could enhance the effectiveness of checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy—especially in non‑small cell lung cancer and melanoma—by acting as an immune alarm that sharpens anti‑tumor responses. The data is retrospective, not causal, so we break down why the signal is exciting, where confounders can hide, and what the next generation of ...
People in this episode
Hosts: Jason Zackowski, Kris Zackowski
Guest: Melanie Kaplan
Topics covered
- cancer research
- dog socialization
- immunotherapy
- mRNA vaccines
- interview with author
- lab dogs
Keywords
- cancer clues
- dog socialization
- mRNA COVID shots
- immunotherapy
- lab dogs
- Melanie Kaplan
- non-small cell lung cancer
- melanoma
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Nature
Products: mRNA COVID shots
More episodes of The Science Pawdcast
- Season 8 Episode 10: Screw Worms, Selfish Cats, and Dr. Laci Brock on Space Art! · June 8, 2026 · 1h 9m
- Season 8 Episode 9: Winged Flight, Rile up The Dog, and Melly the Science Geek! · June 1, 2026 · 59 min
- Season 8 Episode 8: Hantavirus High Seas, Pets for Stress, and Comedian Matt Koff the Catman · May 23, 2026 · 57 min
- Season 8 Episode 7: Stiff Person Syndrome, Cat's Kidneys and Dr. Vikram Baliga on the Wonder of Plants! · May 4, 2026 · 53 min
- Season 8 Episode 6: A.I. Issues, Tick Meds, and Dr. Mitchell on Volcanoes · April 19, 2026 · 1h 1m
- Season 8 Episode 5: Medical Cannabis Falls Short and Dog Diabetes · March 21, 2026 · 23 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Science Pawdcast podcast page.