Coffee Revisited: Is Java Healthy?
You may recall a few weeks ago I wrote a post about how coffee has become more and more accepted as a healthy choice when it comes to beverages. First, it’s chock full of antioxidants, and it’s now been linked to lower risk of stroke, liver cancer, and Parkinson’s disease. Further, athletic performance appears to be boosted by coffee consumption, which I’ve noted myself when exercising after having a good cup of coffee.
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Genetics for Dummies?
When you think of companies that started before the internet became ubiquitous, you hearken back to the early days of entrepreneurs who got their start in garages, basements, or a dorm room on a college campus somewhere. Even now, amid sour economic news there are entrepreneurs who have taken a bad situation and are trying to make the most of it, building on an idea for which there was never time, for which they never had the tools. It’s always been easy for me to conceptualize how that could come to pass in my industry using the tools available on the internet and advancing computer systems in order to get your message across.
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Pharma Trendsetters: Xceleron
Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to host Xceleron’s Melinda Turner as part of our monthly event at the New York Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Meetup group. Her presentation, “Streamlining Drug Development with Accelerator Mass Spctrometry (AMS),” provided thoughtful insight into early stages of the drug development process and how Xceleron’s product and methodology can work to improve that timeline in some cases.
To my untrained eye, Xceleron’s approach is certainly novel. They argue that the current drug development process is flawed because it follows a decades-old approach that may no longer be as effective as possible. Advances in technology should arguably allow pharmaceutical companies to better predict not only how drugs themselves will interact in the human body, but how their metabolized components might behave and at an earlier stage in clinical trials than is widely accepted now.
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Having the Conversation: How Pharma can Get Social
The economy has prompted many business owners to think differently about how they reach and furnish valuable information to their customers. Social media has been at the forefront of this movement, providing a forum for customers and prospects of business, allowing them to help mold the shape of the business to conform to their needs. Never before has a business had the opportunity to get so much feedback so instantly.
The behemoth conspicuously absent from any direct interaction with their customers has been the pharmaceutical industry, as we first touched upon in “Go Ahead Pharma: Social Media Okay, says FDA.”
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Think Differently: Life and Intelligence by Our Hand
Don’t misplace your brain!
Those of you who know me know that I love the Mel Brooks classic, “Young Frankenstein.” It is the comedic story of Dr. Fredrick Frankenstein (pronounced, “Frahnkensteen”), grandson to the immortal Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelly’s classic, and his struggle with his legacy, stained by madness and shame of his grandfather’s experiments. The film’s anti-hero, Fredrick Frankenstein’s monster, struggles much like his predecessor in that he is created out of scientific genius but left as a symbol of fear for the villagers who are aware of his existence. It is all thanks to an abnormal brain he received instead of the intended brain (I’ve included a video clip at the end of this post for those of you who haven’t seen it before).
As far-fetched as the story might appear, that some brilliant, if misguided, scientist would devise a way to re-animate dead matter, three articles I’ve come across in recent months make me believe that it’s not as impossible as it once might have seemed.
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