jacobtref.bsky.social
@jacobtref.bsky.social
blog.jacobtrefethen.com OpenAI Foundation science!
New episode of HARD DRUGS! GLP1 drugs have transformed obesity & diabetes, help treat heart disease, kidney disease and sleep apnea. They're far from the only drug with multiple uses. But sometimes, it takes several decades - and public funding - to learn about new uses.
Are miracle drugs hiding in plain sight?
Hard Drugs · Episode
open.spotify.com
who knew that availability of tree bark was a bottleneck for vaccine manufacturing
Guys, how do you invent a vaccine? Or even wilder, how do you invent a vaccine during your PhD?! In a new episode of Hard Drugs, we talked to someone who did just that: @kat-a-collins.bsky.social! Plus: • Why did the first malaria vaccine take so long? • Could we make better vaccines today?
Inventing the second malaria vaccine with Katharine Collins
open.spotify.com
Finished listening to this excellent episode. Great exercise in triangulation of different lines of evidence! So should you be taking statins? Maybe! Might make sense to get your cholersterol levels checked!
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 5mo agoNew episode of HARD DRUGS! Should everyone be taking statins? Statins have revolutionised heart disease and they're one of many reasons for the long-term decline in cardiovascular mortality.
Main goal of podcast achieved ✅ Hope you enjoy the new episode! open.spotify.com/episode/792E...
Should everyone be taking statins?
open.spotify.com
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 5mo ago- Plus, I sing an adaptation of 'Barbie Girl', tons of fatty blob content, and Jacob makes me laugh so much I almost started crying
Wooohooo, our podcast Hard Drugs now has listeners in 100 countries! 🥳 Now's the time to share that when we brainstorming the name, @jacobtref.bsky.social suggested adding the subtitle 'by two softies' 😆
*30 minutes in* **....people infected with the virus have about 500 quadrillion particles of viral surface proteins circulating in the antibodies during an infection.** Jacob: That's...that's a lot. I am no mathematician. 🤣
jacobtref.bsky.social@jacobtref.bsky.social · 8mo agoSo far this is the Hard Drugs episode I personally learned most from while recording. Some holiday listening for those of you traveling this week (I’m headed to the airport in 30 mins…). Fun to record 8 episodes this year. With that, signing off for 2025! ✌️
If you have a long drive or flight coming up, I recommend our latest Hard Drugs episode! The story of developing the hep B vaccine is wild, and it was very fun to record. This episode also contains the most swearing.
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 8mo agoThe hepatitis B vaccine is amazing. It was the first viral protein subunit vaccine, the first recombinant vaccine, AND the first vaccine to prevent a type of cancer. That's right: we've had a cancer vaccine for over 40 years. Our new three-hour episode of Hard Drugs is all about it:
So far this is the Hard Drugs episode I personally learned most from while recording. Some holiday listening for those of you traveling this week (I’m headed to the airport in 30 mins…). Fun to record 8 episodes this year. With that, signing off for 2025! ✌️
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 8mo agoThe hepatitis B vaccine is amazing. It was the first viral protein subunit vaccine, the first recombinant vaccine, AND the first vaccine to prevent a type of cancer. That's right: we've had a cancer vaccine for over 40 years. Our new three-hour episode of Hard Drugs is all about it:
Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...
I appreciated the reflection on how insane 18th and 19th century science seemed. What do you mean you put a dog's brain into a rabbit's brain? Wait, you are carefully observing a sealed dead eel?
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 8mo agoImagine you lived in the 18th century. Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine? In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!
THIS is what I need no more ryan lizza and so forth etc
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 8mo agoImagine you lived in the 18th century. Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine? In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!
Attenuation Is All You Need (Well, inactivation too) We cover the invention of 20 vaccines from the 1700s through 1970. Technology (smallpox vaccine) preceding scientific understanding (germ theory), then speeding up once theory established from experiments (maggots…) & new tools made (agar plates)
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 8mo agoImagine you lived in the 18th century. Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine? In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!
Some news: Open Philanthropy is now Coefficient Giving! Our mission is unchanged but the new name reflects our growing work with other donors to multiply the impact of their giving. 🧵 on our work to make philanthropy a more efficient "market" and plans going forward:
Some amazing jobs here! Our science and global health R&D team works on funding breakthroughs for neglected, high mortality/morbidity diseases and does a ton of great and interesting work -- see job links in Jacob's thread!
jacobtref.bsky.social@jacobtref.bsky.social · 9mo ago🚨 Hiring scientists to help give away money 🚨 At Open Philanthropy, we have given away $600M in biomedical research since 2016. Now, we're expanding the team to do more. We're hiring: * Up to 3 Senior Program Associates * Program Officer in strep A Remote OK, salaries in links! (Thread below)
🚨 Hiring scientists to help give away money 🚨 At Open Philanthropy, we have given away $600M in biomedical research since 2016. Now, we're expanding the team to do more. We're hiring: * Up to 3 Senior Program Associates * Program Officer in strep A Remote OK, salaries in links! (Thread below)
Hiring scientists to give away money
At Open Philanthropy, we have given away $600 million in biomedical research since 2016. That funding has supported the work of thousands of scientists across hundreds of universities, nonprofits, and...
blog.jacobtrefethen.com
Welp @scientificdiscovery.dev and Jacob are back again, Will AI Cure Disease? By the end of the 4.5 hours you'll be significantly older and might find out! www.worksinprogress.news/p/will-ai-so...?
Will AI solve medicine?
Some say AI will solve medicine within a decade. Others believe biology is far more complex than people imagine and AI will hit the limits of clinical trials and economics. Who's right?
worksinprogress.news
Will AI solve medicine? We decided to be as definitive as is possible in 2025. That meant going long, through the drug development process Sections 1. Clashing worldviews 2. Drug discovery 3. Models 4. Efficacy 5. Safety 6. Manufacturing & healthcare 7. Funding 8. Trust & ambition Hope you enjoy!
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 9mo agoThis year Demis Hassabis predicted AI could cure all disease in a decade. But other scientists like Claus Wilke & Derek Lowe say biology is far more complex, or progress will be limited by clinical trials & economics. In a new 4hr podcast episode of *Hard Drugs*, we answer: Will AI solve medicine?
Apparently some people think I'm AI generated, because... I don't blink enough
Tune in to find out: - how to go from hallucinated cat pictures to hallucinated proteins - whether @jacobtref.bsky.social can do photosynthesis - whether we can make tiny protein straws for tardigrades to drink from
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 10mo agoNew episode of Hard Drugs! What if you could design a protein never seen in nature? Scientists are using new AI tools like RFDiffusion, AlphaFold & ProteinMPNN to hallucinate novel proteins to solve problems nature hasn't. @jacobtref.bsky.social & I talk about the art of protein design 🧑🎨
Our most practical episode yet for people who want to dabble in biotech As of 2022, you can hallucinate protein structures using AI similar to Midjourney (RFDiffusion) -> create amino acid strings for them (ProteinMPNN) -> validate with AlphaFold Biology becomes engineering…
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 10mo agoNew episode of Hard Drugs! What if you could design a protein never seen in nature? Scientists are using new AI tools like RFDiffusion, AlphaFold & ProteinMPNN to hallucinate novel proteins to solve problems nature hasn't. @jacobtref.bsky.social & I talk about the art of protein design 🧑🎨
Cool episode on how AI can help us design new proteins (e.g., for vaccines). I’d heard of AlphaFold before, but not of ProteinMPNN. You feed a protein structure into PMPNN & generate possible sequences of amino acids. And then you feed those into AlphaFold to check whether they’d fold up that way!
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 10mo agoNew episode of HARD DRUGS! AlphaFold, ProteinMPNN & other AI tools are transforming biology and drug design. But how do they work? What can’t they do? And can we use them to make a vaccine against Strep A for the very first time? In this episode, Jacob and I talk about hacking proteins with AI.
Hearing a lot about AI designing drugs, but not sure what specifically that means? Ever wonder how AlphaFold works, or what practical problems it helps with? How rattan daybeds can hold their own in a modern home? This episode is for you!
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 10mo agoNew episode of HARD DRUGS! AlphaFold, ProteinMPNN & other AI tools are transforming biology and drug design. But how do they work? What can’t they do? And can we use them to make a vaccine against Strep A for the very first time? In this episode, Jacob and I talk about hacking proteins with AI.
every time i feel bad about writing long essays / blog posts i think, no. what would saloni and jacob do.
The reviews are in! "I heard it just now! So good 😊" – my mom "Just listened to the new insulin episode and loved it." – @rossaokod.bsky.social "you should have added 5 more minutes on how early researchers checked for the sweetness of animal urine..." – @pseudoerasmus.bsky.social
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 11mo agoNew podcast episode of HARD DRUGS! A hundred years ago, insulin was scraped from pig pancreases. Today, it’s made by bacteria in giant tanks. In this episode, we cover 100 years of insulin … in 15 minutes!
1/3 As someone diagnosed as Type 1 in 1976, I can remember beginning on porcine insulin (bovine was another alternative). The first "human" insulin I had was actually enzymatically modified porcine. I started with glass syringes, with exchangeable all metal needles, stored in methylated spirit.
Last episode: an introduction to what proteins are This episode: proteins can be medicines! Insulin is a protein. 104 years ago, no one with diabetes had been injected with it, then came insulin from animals, then came bioreactors...
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 11mo agoNew podcast episode of HARD DRUGS! A hundred years ago, insulin was scraped from pig pancreases. Today, it’s made by bacteria in giant tanks. In this episode, we cover 100 years of insulin … in 15 minutes!
Saloni and Jacob have a natural way to make everything sound like it’s the coolest thing in the world, so naturally I’m now all on board of the protein train 🚂
Saloni@scientificdiscovery.dev · 11mo agoNEW EPISODE of HARD DRUGS! “5 hours is too long!” some of you said after our first episode. So our second episode is 20 minutes 🤭 @jacobtref.bsky.social and I explore the world of proteins: how proteins fold into complex shapes, why complexity matters, how crowded and dynamic a cell really is.
