Antonio Regalado
@antonioregalado
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Progress in science depends on new techniques, new discoveries and new ideas, probably in that order - {Sydney Brenner}. I write about biotech @MIT @techreview
Joined March 2009
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Pinned Tweet
My biotech plant is dead.
Long live biotech.
🧵
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Breaking: Harvard chemist Charles Lieber convicted by a jury of lying about China ties.
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SCOOP: An insanely well-funded company called Altos Labs is going after "rejuvenation" technology.
Yamanaka factors. Epigenetic clocks. CRISPR.
Offering academics $1 million salaries and more.
Investor rumor mill: Milner, Bezos, ARCH. Musk?
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A Neuralink founder is now questioning whether the Elon Musk brain-interface company is rushing too fast to get a high-bandwidth connection to human brains.
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This week, President Donald Trump extolled the cutting-edge coronavirus treatments he received as “miracles coming down from God.” If that’s true, then God employs cell lines derived from human fetal tissue.
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Bloomberg reports the claim of the first child born following polygenic screening as an embryo, via a company called Genomic Prediction.
Basically a test that rank orders embryos by health using genome wide profile 🧵
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Leaked Israel/Pfizer paper says vaccine stops 89% of infections, not just illness.
If vax pace keeps up, country would near theoretical herd immunity threshold next month.
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The more intense a person's opposition to GMO food, the fewer scientific facts they know, and the more certain they are in their knowledge.
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Video of a fetal lamb kept alive inside an artificial womb, published by nature.
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Moderna believes it could update its covid-19 vaccine with new mRNA instructions (say against a variant) without running a new efficacy trial. Same as annual flu vaccine.
@antonioregalado
Just asked this question to Moderna's executive team at
#JPM21
(presentation just ended). The expectation is yes i.e. no RCTs for mRNA-LNP vaccines for variants. However, ultimately it is the decision of regulators. Comparison to annual flu vaccine was also made by the team.
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BREAKING: CRISPR inventor Feng Zhang calls for global moratorium on gene edit babies.
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Holy crud. People may be immune to CRISPR. "The presence of pre-existing adaptive immune responses in humans to .. Cas9 ... may hinder the safe and efficacious use .. to treat disease, and may even result in significant toxicity to patients"
Wow: thanks to commensal infection with staph bacteria, most people have pre-existing antibodies against commonly-studied Cas9 proteins. This may cause a significant hurdle to using CRISPR in the clinic.
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Lately, a deluge of💰 for anti-aging research.
This time, it's the Saudis. 🛢️🛢️
$1 billion-a-year fund, Hevolution Foundation created to back geroscience research and 💊s.
First project: back anti-aging trial of diabetes drug metformin.
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Quotes by top players defeated by Google's "AlphaGo" in 2,500 year old game hugely foreshadowing of AI impact
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George Church... under 30 ... what can’t he do
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Someone got their liver gene edited for PCSK9 in New Zealand. Could lower bad blood cholesterol by 60%.
First genetic therapy with a prevention angle. In the future, maybe, one-and-done editing at age 30 for all of us. End of clogged arteries?
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NIH cancels
@EcoHealthNYC
program that passed U.S. (NIH) funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for genetic engineering of bat coronaviruses.
Reason: WIV/EcoHealth not willing/able to produce lab records. NIH in the dark.
“NIH official said EcoHealth Alliance had not been able to hand over lab notebooks and other records from its Wuhan partner that relate to controversial experiments involving modified bat viruses, despite multiple requests.”
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I know a number of people who think they have had coronavirus already but never were able to get tested.
For those people, ever finding out will require a different " serology " test which sees if you have antibodies to the virus:
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From earlier today, NYTIMES reports Lieber in his own words, when interviewed at Harvard police station upon 2020 arrest.
"seduced" by money and "Nobel" dreams.
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BREAKING: Chinese scientists making CRISPR babies
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JUUL gets warning letter from FDA for unproven claims that vaping is safe.
Company reps played with fire by going around saying what the FDA thinks (99% safer than cigs) and what it will do (approve Juul).
Made comments in a school, to kids.
FDA says Juul has "ignored the law" with claims its vape devices are safe -- sends the company a warning letter, requests more documents on advertising efforts
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@aparanjape
@elonmusk
@Rainmaker1973
The difference of any two human genomes---yours versus the reference -- might be on the order of ~50 million base pairs...stored as 10Mbytes? So one form of compression is just the differences.
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Elderly uncle being taken off the respiratory. 11 days. Organs now failing.
IMO, need masks for all in public. plus testing etc.
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BREAKING: First human embryos edited with CRISPR in the U.S. (And it works great.)
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The George Church selfie of him taking a DIY coronavirus vaccine. This picture is a classic
This is the thread to go with it.
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Altos Labs came out of stealth today with $3 billion in funding.
Mission: unravel deep biology of cellular rejuvenation programming
Funders: They don't disclose ((only ARCH))
Full list of the scientists that joined is here.
SCOOP: An insanely well-funded company called Altos Labs is going after "rejuvenation" technology.
Yamanaka factors. Epigenetic clocks. CRISPR.
Offering academics $1 million salaries and more.
Investor rumor mill: Milner, Bezos, ARCH. Musk?
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Everyone will eventually write about Alina Chan, the postdoc who tweeted life into the
#lableak
theory. Our profile is out today.
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Quotes by top players defeated by Google's "AlphaGo" in 2,500 year old game hugely foreshadowing of AI impact …
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"Moderna says ... their vaccine remains stable for up to 6 months under standard freezer conditions, up to 30 days under standard refrigeration conditions, and up to 12 hours at room temperature....This is how a lot of medicine (and food, for that matter) is already distributed"
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anyway, you might be able to pick your kids.
but kids cant pick their parents.
good luck to the little one.
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Crispr baby maker suspended without pay and being investigated by Shenzhen health authorities
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Could be, but government just won a signal case against Charles Lieber. Jury finds Lieber guilty on all six counts of false statements, filing false tax returns, Reuters reports.
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Are you hiding from Covid-19?
Here is why I am.
Risk my kid dies=0.01%
Risk that I die=1%
Risk my mother dies= 17%
New result from Jeffrey Shaman at Columbia U. Overall Sars-Cov-2 *infection fatality rate* New York City = 1.45%
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Check out this video Yiyi, age 6, who was born deaf. She got a cochlear implant in her right ear a few years back. But now, if she disconnects it, she can still hear (!👂) This is because of a new gene therapy done on her other ear. First time ever hearing restored w/ a drug
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Harvard University to begin editing sperm with CRISPR, eye towards children with reduced Alzheimer’s risk.
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Eric Lander of Broad Institute named White House science adviser to president elect Joe Biden.
A short thread w/ a few observations about Eric Lander who i have previously called "the single most influential and powerful scientist in America."
1/n
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Lieber case was part of a round up connected to the DOJ "China Initiative" to root out espionage. A story based on survey of cases argues program is a mess thats lost its way.
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Mt.Sinai in New York to use "plasmapheresis" or give severe COVID-19 cases "convalescent serum" from survivors.
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In a discussion of the covid-19 lab theory, Tucker Carlson showed my picture and described me as "another scientist, Antonio Regaldo of MIT."
I am not a scientist, my name is Regalado, and I am a journalist at MIT Technology Review. He did get the quote right.
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Here's the nasty bugger.
Micrograph of the Wuhan coronavirus
Most similar to one found in bats.
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Image found in U.S. government report on synthetic biology.
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Three years in prison for He Jiankui, CRISPR baby creator
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Our story on Renewal Bio, the Israeli startup launching into the fraught arena of manufacturing synthetic models of human embryos.
Using artificial embryos as "bioprinters"
-grow them 50 days?
-harvest gonads for fertility?
🧵
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The Boston Globe is re-establishing a dedicated health & science desk and bringing back a standalone news section.
Probably because Boston is the mecca of medicine + biotech!
Several jobs listed. 1/ 🧵
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holy cow Harvard Medical School dean George Daley is making the case, big time, and eloquently, FOR editing embryos, at
#geneeditsummit
he is says technically we are *ready* for RESPONSIBLE clinic use.
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VERY interesting development. Omicron suppodedly descends from a split in the SARS-CoV-2 family tree that occurred in mid-2020.
Where has it been all this time? 🧵
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Offspring of these two marriages will be genetic siblings
You’re either going to adore this story, or you’re going to hurl. Identical twin sisters married identical twin brothers in Ohio. One more thing, they’re all going to live in the same house together.
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Look what came in the mail. Advanced proof of Walter Isaacson's biography of Jennifer Doudna, CRISPR Nobel (co-) winner.
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wicked big increases in viral RNA in Massachusetts sewage.
(1/3)
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Doctors in Germany study man who received 217 (!! 🤪)) Covid-19 vaccinations.
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New letter in Science. Full probe of Sars-Cov-2 origins, including lab theory, is needed. Chinese must open virus files.
Big names signing: Baric, Lipstich, Relman, Stearns, Iwasaki.
Wuhan virologist Shi Zhengli replies: "Definitely not acceptable."
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The combination of "CDC says" and Twitter pushing it as an absolute certainty has me wondering, for the first time, if covid-19 vaccines cause male fertility problems.
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On the eve of a major summit to discuss ethics of gene edited babies....looks like it already happened in China
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Here's a funny sidelight to the CRISPR story.
When Charpentier Doudna paper came out 2012 in Science, the journal did not highlight it in their tip sheet for journalists as news. It just listed in the obscure "additional reports" category.
No one wrote about it!!!!
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South China Morning Post says verdict came back after 3 hours and "could pressure universities to strengthen their research safeguards against foreign leaks even as it chills collaborative research and further intimidates Asian-American scientists."
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Someone organizing a conference panel asked me "would you happen to have come across a great female CRISPR scientist?"
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China investigation of "Genetic Editing Baby Incident" initial findings
(via Xinhua)
-CRISPR twins are real
-1 more pregnancy underway
-He Jiankui sought "personal fame and fortune"
-public security organs will handle "suspected crimes"
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"I received the new gene-editing drug for sickle cell disease. It changed my life."
But "It’s clear to me from my experience that this treatment is not made for everyone"
-eight hour stem cell collection procedures
-chemotherapy
-17 weeks in hospital
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Big study in Vo, Italy, town w/ early case and lockdown. Most of town PCR tested twice
--2.5% infected, then 1.6%
--43% never had symptoms
--evidence for asymptomatic spreading
--estimate 4.4% of pop exposed
--lockdown caused dramatic >90% slow in spread
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preprint: covid-19 has reduced U.S. life expectancy at birth by 1 full year. Comparing largest life expectancy losses in a single year.
Covid-19: 1 yr lost
Opioids: 0.1 yr lost
HIV: 0.3 yr lost
US Life expectancy now back to 2010 level.
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Is your DNA spiral turning in the right direction? Here's the easy way to find out.
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Listening to a Christian radio discussion about covid-19 vaccines. They were not in favor. Concerned about the use of "luciferase."
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Team that sent stocks down with report saying CRISPR causes huge number of unwanted mutations repeated the experiment and found...not it doesn't. (Corrigendum is latin or something for "correction")
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@elonmusk
definitely a ton of people claiming to be co-founders. if
@neuralink
were to include a "Team" page on the site that would clarify for the public at large.
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Parent of alleged first polygenically selected child has also posted about the predictive power of skin color, vis a vis IQ and violence.
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Uh-Oh. CRISPR might not work in people
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Chinese CRISPR babies had their brains altered in ways that could enhance memory, cognition.
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I answered the world's most frequently asked questions about CRISPR.
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MIT goes back to SAT scores after covid hiatus.
believes tests show if you know math.
necessary because "there is no path through MIT that does not rest on a rigorous foundation in mathematics."
including 4 semesters of mandatory calculus w/ "challenging" final exams.
"not having SATs/ACT scores to consider tends to raise socioeconomic barriers to demonstrating readiness for our education"
an interesting development: MIT reinstates its SAT/ACT requirement. worth reading the footnotes.
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Lieber was a specialist in nanowires with interesting electronic properties. Not even sure if this stuff has had any application or anyone would wish to steal it.
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Quite a story. In a report on adversarial networks, Meta (aka Facebook) unpacks the case of "Edward Wilson," a Swiss biologist who turns out to be a fake "persona" created by China to put a wrench in covid origins hunt.
Complete with GAN generated profile image.
I'm expecting the
#scicomm
reporters chasing
#OriginsOfCovd
#disinformation
to follow up on this story ... like never. (Hard ignore!)
"China-based Covid disinformation operation pushed fake Swiss scientist, Facebook says"
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In China, the government has deleted uncomfortable aspects of the history of the early days of SARS-CoV-2.
In the US, some scientists are deleting their own contemporaneous records and observations.
Jan 2020. Responding to the demands of covid-19, key scientists begin employing Twitter as a way to speak directly to the public and the press, a transformative event in
#scicomm
and a fascinating and valuable public record.
June 2021:
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Inside the startup companies trying to turn adult cells into oocytes.
🍼 Eliminate age limit ♀️ having kids
🍼 Large-scale embryo selection👀
🍼...♂️+♂️ Reproduction?
Early, but famous tech figures backing: Altman, Wojcicki, Armstrong, etc
🧵coming
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Three people convicted in the CRISPR baby case are
We all know who He Jiankui is. But who the heck are Zhang Renli (two years) and Qin Jinzhou (18 months)??
Turns out they are the embryologists. THREAD on why that matters.
Three years in prison for He Jiankui, CRISPR baby creator
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CRISPR made her rich and famous. Now Jennifer Doudna is looking for a way to stop the technology.
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Hey
@andrewyang
great answer on geo-engineering! I am a journalist specializing in gene-editing (CRISPR). Do you think American society should purse germline gene-editing of humans?
Thanks!
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Stepping up. A big moment for biomedical science, self organizing to respond. My best and thank you to all the scientists who find their way to the front line.
Wow — dean of University of Washington medical school is asking qualified graduate students to pause their research and instead help run COVID-19 lab tests.
Voluntary until compensation structure can be determined
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This is a decent list of some things that people who keep tabs on biotech read, look at and follow.
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Best article I have seen on vaping as a chaotic medical experiment.
"We're conducting a big, uncontrolled and poorly documents set of chemistry experiments inside people's lungs"
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@zarawesome
Your tweet proves to be an excellent prompt for OpenAi text-davinci-002, which delivers a serviceable parable in response.
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How did Lieber become a target? I know for a fact that other people in Harvard chemistry department take a dim view of China influence, and think enough is enough. Have to wonder if a colleague turned him in.
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Back in 2018, I profiled a Brooklyn family, the Landsmans, trying to crowdfund a gene therapy for their sick kids.
Honestly, I didn't think it would ever happen. I dreaded writing a followup article about how they failed.
But last Thursday it did happen. Their son got treated.
In a bid to treat ultra-rare genetic diseases, some parents are embarking on multimillion-dollar quests to finance experimental gene therapies—and designating their own children as the first recipients.
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Interested in what 'cellular rejuvenation' and Altos Labs are all about? Here's our latest look at reprogramming technology with Yamanaka factors.
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Altos Labs is going bananas hiring professors. Here are some names we heard.
JC Belmonte, SALK (hu-monkey chimeras)
Wolf Reik, Babraham (reprogramming)
Steve Horvath, UCLA (biological clocks)
Peter Walter, UCSF (memory drugs)
Manuel Serrano, IRB Barcelona (reprogramming)
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i have a CRISPR joke that is a real knock out
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So we learned some details about George Church's DNA dating app
-its a startup company called Digid8
-funded by Church and unnamed others
-prevent dates between carriers of same recessive mutation
-WILL NOT block dates for people carrying dominant genes
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Andrew Yang for president?
Yes
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No
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Who is Andrew Yang?
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There are several CRISPR documentaries in production. The first to hit the screen is "Human Nature" by Adam Bolt and produced by
@DanRather
. It's going to premier this Sunday, Mar. 10th
@SXSW
.
The trailer is just out. Watch:
(1/4)
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“LaMDA is sentient.”
Crazy story about Google engineer and occultist who gets suspended after sending a mass email claiming that an experimental AI chatbot called LaMDA is conscious. 1/
This non-buzzy article by
@nitashatiku
includes points about the real risks of non-GAI from
@mmitchell_ai
as well as a succinct summary of the root of the issue by
@emilymbender
: “We haven’t learned how to stop imagining a mind behind [the machines].”
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Born deaf, this Chinese girl can hear again.
A remarkable experiment takes gene therapy to a new frontier: restoring the senses.
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The Intercept finally got a copy of the EcoHealth Alliance grant which funded the creation of hybrid bat coronaviruses via genetic engineering in Wuhan Institute of Virology, China.
It's here 1/4
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Pfizer is amending its protocols to do frequent swabbing of volunteers. Pfizer hopes to learn what the rate of 'asymptomatic' coronavirus infection is among the vaccinated.
That will give clues to whether transmission can happen, even after the shot.
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It's funny how long it took before I heard modelers highlight the obvious: rising population immunity is affecting the pandemic in the US.
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"Currently, mRNA is considered a gene therapy product by the FDA."
I am old enough to remember Twitter blocked tweets saying mRNA is gene therapy.
There are threads on twitter right now which are blocked for covid misinformation because they include a definition of gene therapy that encompasses mRNA.
Someone at Twitter may think gene therapy has a precise definition, but it doesn't.
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MIT recorded a 55% investment return in 2020, largest return since 2000 dot-com year, bringing endowment to $27.4 billion.
Endowment is run by a fellow named Seth Alexander, who has been mopping the floor vs. the Ivies.
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