Welcome to the first episode of the science podcast about enzymes & molecules. Today we welcome our first guest, Leo Otterbein, PhD, Professor of Surgery and principal investigator of the Otterbein Lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. Dr. Otterbein has published fundamental findings on heme oxygenase and its product, carbon monoxide, establishing the crucial role of this system in inflammation. One of the primary goals of the Otterbein Lab is to study the benefit of carbon monoxide in low doses to help against organ injury, for example in the heart, kidney or lungs, trying to understand the mechanisms that drive this protection. In this respect, Dr Otterbein has led a major effort in developing approaches to deliver CO to organisms for therapeutic application, including a recent gas-entrapping material. In this episode Dr. Otterbein and I will talk about some aspects of heme oxygenase and carbon monoxide biology, including their main function, the toxicity versus the beneficial activities of carbon monoxide as well as the impact on this system in inflammation. We hope you'll enjoy our deep dive into this metabolic pathway!