>FASTA_16
NeutraOat captures microplastics, Cancer vaccines graveyard, Ozempic but for superpowers, Sequence the damn sperms, Veminsyn's Type XVII collagen, Conductor Labs TEAs, and more
>FASTA sequences the biotech ecosystem, across all domains of life | Papers and patents, acquisitions and bankruptcies, biotech philosophy as dessert | Read in less than 5 min | Follow along on LinkedIn and Twitter.
1. NeutraOat captures microplastics
Few things make me angry in life: inefficiencies, air pollutants in our brains, boring biotech, and microplastics in our blood. No matter how much of an almond mom you are, the microplastics will catch you and your family. They’re in our fertilizers, thus in our crops. They’re in our clothes, thus in our skin. They’re literally in the air, in placenta, salt and honey. BOOOOO!!!! 👻… 😰
How to get rid of them? Bryan Johnson has undergone Total Plasma Exchange (TPE) as a potential way to lower his levels of microplastics and other toxins. But that’s $10,000 USD per session, and several sessions might be required for it to work. Will be interesting to see his results but, what about the rest of us?
Well, this FASTA issue is not yet sponsored by NeutraOat, the first supplement designed to prevent the absorption of plasticizers like BpA and DEHP!!! It’s literally oat, modified with food-grade ingredients to trap plasticizers. Within an hour or two of consuming plasticizer-containing food, NeutraOat will trap the plasticizers, preventing them from entering your bloodstream. Next, you excrete both the hell out of your body!
2. Cancer vaccines graveyard
If we strictly used the term ‘vaccine’ to refer to a preventive measure as opposed to a treatment, there are actually only 2 FDA-approved cancer vaccines in the market, BCG and T-VEC, that target the viruses that may cause that cancer. All the others (e.g. Provenge) are usually cell therapies that train the patient’s immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.
outlines biological and clinical reasons why dozens of new (actual) cancer vaccines tested since the 90s have failed to prove efficacy in clinical trials (even at phase III). As a complete ignorant of cancer medicine, I got curious about how patient selection may be optimized and how helpful single-cell sequencing may be in navigating the genetically heterogeneous cancer maze.On the bright side, literally one day after that blog post was published, Strand Tx announced promising results in their Phase 1 trials for their mRNA ‘vaccine’ in advanced melanoma patients. While Strand is going the monotherapy route, Kat reasons most cancers will probably require immunomodulatory agents in addition to the vaccines.
3. Ozempic but for superpowers
In 2009, scientists from UCSF discovered a single-point mutation that grants a whole family of people the ability to sleep only 4-6h per night without developing any cognitive, metabolic, or emotional impairments. The gene, DEC2, codes for a transcriptional repressor that usually inhibits the “wakefulness hormone” orexin. When mutated, DEC2 has less repressor activity, resulting in increased orexin expression, and thus prolonged wakefulness.
I was catching up with a friend this week, Isaak Freeman from the Church lab, who’s basically turning these insights into Ozempic for Sleep. To circumvent the myriad of challenges of gene therapies, the team is considering DEC2 inhibition via small molecules. While over-degradation could have unknown downstream effects, it’s a creative business opportunity as the phenotype has already been proven existing and safe.
At the same time, and maybe I’ve just read too much Byung-Chul Han, my philosophical take is that biotech like this could only reinforce the industrialization of our humanness. If we all had five more hours in our days, would we use them towards more self-exploitation, more careless consumption? Let’s remember how we thought AI was going to free us up to do more beautiful things — Has it, really, though?
Bonus recommendations
“Sperm donor with TP53 mutation fathered 67 children. Ten now have cancer”. I can’t believe DNA sequencing is not already routine in sperm screening. Orchid is already offering embryo whole genome sequencing, Nucleus $500 somatic WGS, so why not sequence the damn sperms? Sure, sure, ethical questions “will we also allow the parents to select for other traits too?” but let’s not fool ourselves: when it comes to disease prevention, we will sequence.
China is also leading cosmetics. L’Oréal has taken a minority stake in Veminsyn, a Chinese biotech that makes sustainable bioactive ingredients for cosmetics, particularly Type XVII collagen that is skin absorbable. The CEO, Zhao Yaran, was a Forbes 30U30 in 2023 and has PhD in biology.
- & Conductor Labs’ open-source biomining TEA. An Excel-based tool to help scientists calculate and understand if their biomining strategy is economically feasible. Conductor helps climate innovators with other techno-economic analyses.
ARIA is deploying £62.4M to make Synthetic Plants. Seven different research teams will move towards the goal of developing whole synthetic chromosomes and chloroplasts that go beyond what can be accomplished with gene editing.
First-ever Colombian Thiel Fellow is doing bioelectricity research. From neurostimulators to zero-carbon rare earth metals, this cohort of Thiel Fellows is definitely less AI-ish and more deeptech-ish, finally reaching congruence with Peter’s view that the world (especially the US) should be building more things other than software.
CRISPR in China. Identifying some of the most important companies developing gene editing technology in China. Some Chinese, others who just happen to operate there too.
, my plant engineer friend who came on the pod, has launched his Substack with a great piece about the lessons he learned during his PhD — Go show him lots of love!
