Gassing the biotech engine @a16z. Tweets on 🏔️ climate, 🧬 syn bio, 💊 therapeutics, 👩💻 comp bio, 🌱 agriculture, 🚀 startups
Mar 9, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Why *imaging* is the most important add-on to 'omics stacks for drug disc/dev:
if you're looking for disease-relevant targets or disease-modulating compounds, the read outs available are likely imaging based - either staining relevant markers or computer vision on a raw image.
Some disease models will have strong 'omics-readable phenotypes (e.g. tau protein accumulation), but definitely not all.
On the other hand, there's almost always an imaging assay available for disease-relevant phenotypes.
Dec 15, 2021 • 11 tweets • 8 min read
2021: year of the Modern Science Revolution? 👩🔬🧪
A cambrian explosion of new science funding models was driven by covid urgency, open science, frustration w/status quo. Most exciting: these models are built for translation & startup creation!
🧵of new science funding models:
1. Mega-LabCos
For-profits comprising several teams led by top scientists from academia. Groups are independent to enable blue sky creativity, but work toward a shared moonshot like taming non-model organisms (@ArcadiaScience) & cellular reprogramming for aging (Altos Labs).
Nov 28, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
🧬Bio tools can be split into
🔍ID tools = look for genes, proteins, metabolites using known set of probes
🔡Sequencing tools = read out these molecules de novo
[example: microarrays (ID) vs RNAseq (Seq)]
ID may win at first, but Seq will always win in the long run. Why? ...
ID tools are typically faster to invent and deploy, b/c we can "identify" by binding to a known probe and we know many ways of measuring binding. (eg antibodies)
Sequencing, however, will require new measurement tech for each molecule type.
So ID tools will be first to market.
Nov 22, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
🔃 Positive feedback loops where 📈 temp -> 📈 GHG emissions ->📈 temp are the scariest part of climate change.
AND YET in nature, positive feedback loops are WAY less common than negative feedback loops.
Where are all the negative feedback loops we can pin our hopes on?
A few examples of positive feedback loops:
Arctic methane bomb theory
Wildfires: heat->wildfires->released CO2
Silicate-carbonate cycle: heat->rising sea levels-> less surface area for siliate weathering (natural CO2 sequestration)->more CO2->heat
Oct 19, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
WHY VC? 🧪➡️📈?
I get asked a lot why I chose to go from doing science to investing in science.
Here's my answer: a tale of two technologies. 🧵
Going into my PhD, I wanted to join the startup ecosystem in syn bio. If science was a 2D puzzle, commercializing added a 3rd dimension, an extra challenge -> extra fun.
At the time, two opposite, but highly influential stories were unfolding:
