Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
-
Fluorine in drug development
Medicinal chemists have been using fluorine as a Hydrogen substitute in drug discovery for a long time. It has been used in drug discovery to the extent that nearly 25% of the drugs today including some of the block busters have fluorine in them; like Prozac, Lipitor and Pervacid. Why do chemists use it? As…
-
Mathematics prizes
There have been a variety of prizes to solve problems that are practical such as space rocket. Some companies have made a business out of problem solving through mediating solvers and problem generators – such as those mediated by Innocentive. However, rarely are problems solved just for the sake of solution of the problem. One…
-
Autism and fever
There have been studies, that show that in a significant proportion of Autistic patients the symptoms of Autism decreases when the patients have a fever, or are treated with an antibiotic – vancomycin. This effect has been known since about 1980 and (also reported on the web at Simons foundation too). When a fever ran…
-
Acuity measurement
How does a hospital measure the acuity of an illness? Acuity is defined loosely as the severity of an illness. The more severe an illness or malady is the more attention it deserves. For example, chest pain is critical and deserves attention vs. flu like symptoms do not deserve as much attention. A doctor in…
-
Funding for startups
RockHealth puts out a report that lists companies that received funding and there are several interesting points in that report for 2017. In their list of megadeals – those companies that received more than $100M in funding, it is interesting that the companies are distributed throughout and not just the two coasts. One of the…
-
Artificial enzymes or Nanozymes
An interesting concept is that typically enzymes have been thought of as proteins that have catalytic properties. However, it would be very useful to have catalyst that is not damaged by heat, pH or other proteins that affect a typical protein. A science that is evolving is to create these novel materials that are different…
-
Healthcare business models
A physician in Indonesia, Gamal Albinsaid, has created a novel system for getting medical treatment. He offers medical treatment in exchange for garbage that his patients pickup. The garbage can be sold and patients get access to cheaper medical care. This effort by Indonesia Medika is commendable because it aims to provide some health coverage…
-
Biomarker databases
Biomarker database There are several databases that are used to track biomarkers. The important thing to keep in mind is that the biomarker may be biological entity like a protein, lipid or DNA/RNA fragment but they can also be a group of cells – for example Tumor infiltrating cells or, physiological test, clinical outcome measure…
-
Drug efficacy is critical
When you look up the drugs that fail due to lack efficacy in a Biotech company database such as this one, there are so many companies that fail because the drug was not efficacious – which means that it did not work as shown by the clinical trial. It is possible that the company is…
-
Simplicity again…
Typical heaters are made very simple with a resistance that generates heat but can be complex to control. For example, see the design picture for a temperature controlled fan. There has to be a sensing element which needs to send an input to the control processor or element which in turns needs to regulate the…
Got any book recommendations?