
Have spent 15+ yrs fostering a better ecosystem for life science entrepreneurship in NYC. Now Dir. Strategic Partnerships @Columbia. Tweets and opinions my own
New York, NY
Joined September 2010
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Microfluidics are governed by real laws of physics. No amount of AI/SI (urgh) is going to measure a molecule that doesn't exist because you are under-sampling biology. And that was only one of their problems.
Send this bullshit somewhere else, stay the hell away from patients
Simple: ship a working version of the @theranos vision powered by SI
Could be 10% of the original vision, with the promise to keep iterating
For bonus points open source all the technology and patents
And given the pace of super intelligence, someone will and then folks will start saying “seeeeeeeee! @ElizabethHolmes was just too early!!!”
I will leave it to @nathanfielder and @JohnCarreyrou to adjudicate that moment! 😂😂😂
[ go see the film ]
Derek Brand retweeted
I wrote this in 2018. It may be relevant.
forbes.com/sites/matthewherp…
I would absolutely sign up for the 60 minute podcast/conversation between these @annewoj23 and @bryan_johnson on connected health.
Bryan, you’re right that for someone measuring hundreds of biomarkers a month, the genome adds less on the cardiometabolic side. But you’re an outlier. Most people don’t want to test themselves continuously, and most can’t.
Even for you, your genome answers questions your biomarkers can’t. Blood work shows where you are now, not what’s coming.
If you carried a BRCA2 variant, your prostate cancer risk would be meaningfully higher, often with earlier onset and faster progression. No panel flags that risk, but it changes when you start screening and how often. And most people with harmful variants in genes like BRCA1 and BRCA2 are not aware that they have them.
There are also new and impactful discoveries still being made from the genome. We recently published a Science paper with Dana Farber on our discovery of an EGFR variant that increases lung cancer risk by 25x - far more than smoking history does (~3.8x). Lung screening guidelines are based on smoking history, so carriers go unnoticed unless someone reads their genome.
The negatives matter just as much. Knowing you don’t carry a high-risk variant is information too. It enables you to know you don’t need increased screening beyond what guidelines recommend. Your APOE result counts even though it didn’t change your protocol, because it ruled something out.
The genome also answers questions that go beyond your own health. For anyone planning to have kids, carrier screening shows whether both parents carry a recessive variant for a heritable condition like cystic fibrosis or spinal muscular atrophy. It’s an answer you want before a pregnancy, not after, and learning you’re not a carrier is just as valuable.
This isn’t niche. On Friday at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), Dr. Noura Abul-Husn presents data on ~6M people who got 23andMe health reports. More than 1 in 10 (660K+) had a medically actionable result linked to a health risk with established screening or prevention guidelines. These results change how people understand their personal health risks and empower them (and their doctors) to take action to stay healthy.
Your genome isn’t a daily dashboard. It tells you which dashboard to build, and where to focus your attention.
Derek Brand retweeted
Two weeks left to apply to the 2027 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize! Learn more at the links below:
We are accepting applications for the 2027 Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize! Early-career PIs in the USA with innovative cancer research projects are encouraged to apply.
Learn more: pershingsquarephilanthropies…
Apply now: prizeapplication.smapply.io
It’s valued somewhere between Biogen and Takeda….
They’re both preclinical right?
"Radically" doing a lot of heavy lifting here
I think questions remain until they show it
(Meant as politely as possible!)
No question that @IsomorphicLabs and other AI drug discovery initiatives can radically accelerate the process, which today is ridiculously protracted. But the objective or expectation of finding "cures" for all diseases is unrealistic IMHO, no matter how much capital is invested.
Good summary of today's news @grok
I stopped reading at "stepbrothers". I think I got the picture
Stepbrothers Dayyan Armstrong and Ross Beane have been adventuring together since they were both 7. With Sailing Collective, they want to bring you along. on.wsj.com/3TLeSr1
One of the many reasons the work of @jhoronjeff and others is so important
This is wild...
There’s a farmhouse on top of a building in the West Village in NYC, and it just listed for $10.5 million.
Porch. Garden beds. A vegetable patch. City skyline instead of a backyard.
The penthouse at 719 Greenwich Street.
If they are pursuing indications where typical commercial entities would not compete
And they stop before the major bottleneck (clinical trials)
What is the big impact they think they are going to have on the field?
(Honest question)
Replying to @AndrewE_Dunn
ADDITIONAL NEWS: Anthropic says it is "drawing the line at Phase 1" for its own pipeline of rare/neglected disease programs.
Kauderer-Abrams tells me he draws that line as before Phase 1 studies begin, in an effort to not compete w/ pharma customers:
endpoints.news/qa-anthropics…
Derek Brand retweeted
If you live, breathe & die cellular and biochemical assay dev, this is the role for you! It's an insanely great starting place for an early-career PhD (or equivalent) scientist interested in startups and working on some really cool programs/technologies.
octant.bio/jobs?gh_jid=62147…
"Zero interest" - sorry for the typo
Did we ever get an edit button?
Replying to @AdamSinger
Zero interface in a voice interface for a task where the goal is to sift through several multifactorial options and make an educated selection. Voice is the least effective medium for that kind of task. Hard pass.
Derek Brand retweeted
October 2 is #LifeScienceCaresDay! This map shows 10 event sites across leading science and research hubs in NY and NJ, where 500+ students will explore life sciences through hands-on activities, connect with 125+ professionals and discover what a career in science can look like.




























