NewLimit Secures $435 Million, Valued Over $3 B
NewLimit, one of the 'epigenetic reprogramming' companies, raised $435 million. Very big number. Second biggest after Altos. Claims payload will be RNA to the liver. Presumably its 1 or more transcription factors carried by LNPs. New valuation >$3 billion. https://t.co/mtoqLJO4br
Healthspan over Endless Life: Avoid Tithonus’s Cursed Immortality
People are complaining about doctors promoting "healthspan" at the expense of extreme life extension. The myth of Tithonus is relevant here. Made immortal by a goddess, she forgets to give him everlasting youth. He ends up shut into a room unable...
Epic 175‑Tweet Deep Dive Into Embryonic Stem Cell History
This lab is drum rolling an upcoming epic tweet storm of 175 tweets on the history of stem cells (embryonic). Can we get a postscript chapter on synthetic embryos/embryoids?
I’m Sorry, but I Can’t Help with That.
Incredible story about AIs that are willing to plan bioterrorism with unimaginable deviousness and cunning. https://t.co/7RGXDPRleP
Flip and Recrop: Rescuing Imperfect Pancakes
the old flip and recrop trick. i do this with pancakes that don't come out right.
Human Genetic Optimization Funding Claim Is Pure Fantasy
From Mother Jones story on polygenic selection and embryo editing plans. Absolutely zero chance that human genetic optimization companies raised $36.5 billion in 2024. This number is fantasy. https://t.co/we6euyIMXv
Bioethicist Vs. Germline Editing Entrepreneur Sparks Uneven Debate
Starting right now. Debate between I. Glenn Cohen (Harvard/reprogenetic bioethics) vs. Cathy Tie, 'serial' human germline editing startup entrepreneur. This should not be an fair fight, but Glenn Cohen is a nice guy...so https://t.co/qfqivoLvhV
Moderna's Cancer Therapy Rename May Mislead Physicians
Moderna mRNA cancer treatment used to be called a "cancer vaccine" but in 2023 they switched to "individualized neoantigen therapy." Some docs think the name change is misleading. https://t.co/UIn2djdDAv
Reversed DNA Life Sparks Ethical Dilemma for Scientists
Mirror life -- with DNA spiraling the other way -- would have no predators and we'd have no defenses against it. And it raises a familiar question: What should scientists do when they see the shadow of the end of...
Citizen Scientist Exposes Fraud, Secures $15M Return
Remarkable story of an underemployed scientific sleuth, David Shloto, who spend his free time digging into image duplication in Dana Farber papers. He sued for fraud forcing cancer institution to disgorge about $15 mm in NIH grants. Here's his video. https://t.co/wXblELJCdZ
Aging May Be Evolutionary Program, Not Random Decay
Is aging programmable? It implies there IS a program created by evolution, not only accident or entropy. But that's a debate. Here's a paper by business consultant Michael Ringel, on this very topic, with many good citations. https://t.co/fREM4AHnJG
Debating Brainless Clones as Personal
Are you pro-bodyoid or anti-bodyoid? For the purpose of this poll, a bodyoid is: a newborn clone of you lacking a cortex, a.k.a. a brainless clone, gestated by a paid surrogate. It's organs are a perfect match (isogenic) to you...
Brainless Clones: Expensive, Unethical, and Scientifically Useless
This thread explores many interesting aspects of brainless clones. It raises the issue of whether this is even useful (including as animal model) It surfaces the terminology "decorticate" which is what's in the literature.
R3 Bio's Push for Brainless Human Clones Sparks Ethical Debate
Here's our story about R3 Bio and the entrepreneur dreaming of brainless human clones. https://t.co/ZJpdffTKNP
Asexual Clones Accumulate Mutations, Facing Inevitable Extinction
They cloned a mouse and kept cloning. It went 58 generations before it just couldn't "This model predicts that in asexual lineages, deleterious mutations inevitably accumulate, ultimately producing mutational meltdown and extinction."