>FASTA_26: "To believe in science"

GPT coming to your brain in the 30s; First GLP-1 pill?; Fix baby formula; Michael Trinh; Timed caffeine pill; HHS abandons mRNA vaccines; Harvard & Valley DAO; Poetic science; Designer fruit

>FASTA: weekly short reads of the global biotech ecosystem | Papers and patents, acquisitions and bankruptcies, biotech philosophy | Read in under 5 min | Follow on LinkedIn, X, YouTube, and Instagram! | Versión en Español

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☣️ BSL5

1/10: Tour of the Brophy lab

In another episode of BSL5, I visited the Brophy Lab in Stanford, where they build genetic engineering tools for plants and bacteria. This video includes a lab tour, as well as an interview with PhD student Vivian Zhong and Postdoc Alexander Borowsky on their work, hyped and underhyped plant synbio, and their perspective on ag biotech as an industry.

Stay tuned for the full release next week!

2/10: GPT coming to your brain in the 30s

The CEOs of OpenAI and Tools for Humanity will cofound Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface company. Nothing else is known apart from the fact that it may be valued at $850 million, still nothing compared to Neuralink’s recent $9B valuation.

To me, it’s no surprise that both Altman and Musk are playing in very similar stages. The human-computer symbiosis was first proposed by Martin Heidegger in The question concerning technology. What a privilege to be the generation that can make crucial design decisions that will literally change what a human is.

3/10: GLP-1 or just a scam?

EV1 is a peptide engineered to mimic the effects of both GLP-1 and GIP (Glucose-dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide), delivered through a yeast probiotic. 30 capsules come at a $148 USD price. No human trials, no prior relevant research by the founder, no data except for some five-star reviews that really don’t say much…

Obviously, The weight loss pill is no small deal. Any big pharma that has GLP-1 agonists has a pill in the pipeline, and many related startups do too. In April of this year, Lilly’s oral GLP-1, orforglipron, demonstrated efficacy and safety in a successful Phase 3 trial. The small molecule was discovered by Chugai Pharmaceutical and was licensed by Lilly in 2018.