I was recently featured in the following video about the use of intelligent agents as coaches for health and wellness. It’s an area of much interest to me as I firmly believe that such technologies can assist with reversing the current obesity pandemic:
Paul Graham penned a wonderfully inspirational post recently in which he discussed a number of ‘frighteningly ambitious startup ideas’. Given his proclivity for software and the Internet it is not surprising that the ideas he raises were things like replacing Google’s search engine dominance and delivering us from inbox evil.
Quite separately, a colleague at The University of Sydney, Matthew Todd, forwarded me an article overnight that he co-authored in Nature on “open science as a research accelerator’.
In the article Matthew and two others discuss how open source-inspired thinking led him on a journey to produce an off-patent drug that could help millions of people around the world deal with bilharzia, a silent pandemic.
From their perspective the key benefit of their open approach was the acceleration of the research:
Experts identified themselves, and spontaneously contributed based on what was being posted online. The research therefore inevitably proceeded faster than if we had attempted to contact people in our limited professional circle individually, in series.
While Matthew was working on open sourcing process chemistry, he posits the question whether a similar approach could be applied to drug discovery.
The pharmaceutical industry is currently undergoing somewhat of a pipeline-related crisis and so the timing could not be better for such an approach to work.
In line with Paul’s thinking this is one of those frighteningly ambitious ideas. As Matthew points out, “There has been discussion of open-source drug discovery, but no coordinated efforts at compound discovery.”
This seems to me to be an area ripe for investigation. One that could herald a new age of abundance (read Peter Diamindis’s new book on this) in health and wellness.
I hope this is a topic that will be covered at the upcoming Founders Fund future conference!
If you’re not yet totally buzzed about the future and how synthetic biology is going to change our worlds, then this video is totally worth watching. It’s time to forget the shiny, the easy, and work on things that really matter. Who cares about apps when you can create the next living platform!
Watch Jason Silva wax eloquent:
I first became interested in personal genomics and DNA profiling over a decade ago when conducting due diligence on a potential investee company. We did invest and I was Chairman of Genetraks during their early years. Sadly the company didn’t make it beyond its first few rounds of venture capital and it’s worth reading the fascinating account by their CEO, Roz Brandon on what transpired.
Fast forward twelve years – this morning I opened up my pack from Lumigenix, aptly labelled “discover yourself in a new light”, and took out their DNA Collection Kit. Thanks to Romain Bonjean, CEO at Lumigenix, genomics was about to get personal for me.
The entire process was simple, fast and intuitive and kudos to the team for focusing on getting this right. I activated my account, collected my DNA sample and wrapped it up in its packaging. Next stop – the Lumigenix labs…stay tuned for another post when I get my results back!
The brain’s hippocampus is analogous to an inbox, with new neurons clearing away old memories, according to a piece in ScienceNOW.
[Picture courtesy of hurleygurley - flickr]
The Doctors Channel is providing medical news vignettes and video analyses of major medical issues to Ozmosis, an online medical discussion forum and knowledge exchange.
Described by CNBC as an “educational YouTube for doctors”, The Doctors Channel videos will be able to be discussed by medical practitioners on “physician only” forums on Ozmosis.
The resultant ability for doctors to share related experiences and learn from each other is a positive move.
