Geology geek and activist investor.
"Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation" - Alasdair Gray
_________
Nov 27, 2021 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
There have been some (quite fair) comments that we've seen plenty of CoV-2 variants so far, and Omicron is just another.
Here's a summary of the amino acid changes in Spike in the well-known Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta variants, with Omicron alongside.
If that looks like a shed load of changes in S, you're right. Including indels, 'Delta Classic' has 8 changes.
Omicron has 33. This is way more than seen for any previous variant.
Nov 26, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
A paper from 11 months ago predicted Q498R could arise on existing variant backgrounds, and would increase their infectiveness by <<a lot>>.
Until now, this mutation has not been seen "in the wild".
In brief, changing the amino acid at position 498 from a Q to an R has an effect on binding to ACE2, but only if you've already made the 'Kent' N501Y change. That alters the spike slightly so that wehn R498 comes along, it is now in then right place to make a bond to ACE2.
Jun 5, 2019 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
A bit of background to #KAV@KavangoRes and their RNS today, which is generating deserved interest 1/
In much of the world, the low-hanging fruit have been found. "Out cropping, at-surface" etc.
Explorers are now having to move to new areas, where there are no visible signs at surface to guide them. 2/
May 16, 2019 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
#KAV@KavangoRes is setting itself up to be a very attractive pure "discovery drilling" play, and its showing all the right signs. 1/
First, #KAV is first-hole-in-an-area, pure discovery drilling.
Not infill, step-out or other follow-on holes. Yes these are a necessary part of the journey of a junior, but market excitement comes at initial discovery. 2/
