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Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

lanternbioworks.com

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Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#121

Post by unsupp0rted »

bastawhiz wrote: post #104
apsec112 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Longevity biotech came from a similar milieu and has been doing very well: https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-07-17/t... (along with AI companies of course)

> Longevity biotech came from a similar milieu and has been doing very well They're doing well numerically when it comes to funding but is there anyone who has actually lived materially longer as a result of the field?

Ray Kurzweil will outlive us all, if taking 200 pills a day works:

https://www.wired.com/2008/03/ff-kurzweil/#:~:text=He%20is%2....

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#124

Post by tptacek »

boredpeter wrote: post #105
imjonse wrote: post #77

They have a pitch deck lamenting 90% of US adults have cavities, and they are 2x likely to get untreated if you are poor, then propose to market this for 20k$/dose. Saving the world, again, startup style.

$20k per dose Jesus H Christ. Rent seeking galore. Hopefully the patent has run out by now and others can get in on the action and make it affordable. There’s no way in hell this could possibly cost $20k. Is capitalism ever going to produce innovation that’s affordable to regular people again and not just benefiting the profiteering VC parasite class?

I'm not going to say I buy any of this or that I think it's a good pitch, but you see these numbers for new treatments because the math doesn't work out for the go-to-market without them. When the product is established, the price goes down.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#126

Post by jefftk »

Analemma_ wrote: post #50

Doing a couple Google/Twitter searches for this company it's pretty obvious it's coming out of the Berkeley-area EA/rationalist cluster, which automatically makes me pretty skeptical. These people don't exactly have a stellar track record of medical startups (recall all the hype around MetaMed, which delivered precisely nothing).

> These people don't exactly have a stellar track record of medical startups (recall all the hype around MetaMed, which delivered precisely nothing).

I can only think of one other medical startup coming out of the Berkeley-area EA/rationalist cluster, which would be Equator Therapeutics. They're working on an anti-obesity drug, and my understanding is it's going pretty well. But maybe you have others in mind?

(MetaMed came out of the NYC-area rationalist cluster and ~predates EA, and Alvea came out of the Boston-area EA group and shut down after their vaccine candidate gave disappointing results in human trials.)

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#127

Post by scarby2 »

bastawhiz wrote: post #104
apsec112 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Longevity biotech came from a similar milieu and has been doing very well: https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-07-17/t... (along with AI companies of course)

> Longevity biotech came from a similar milieu and has been doing very well They're doing well numerically when it comes to funding but is there anyone who has actually lived materially longer as a result of the field?

We'll let you know in 20 to 30 years...

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#128

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

realo wrote: post #89
fdye wrote: post #69

So within the existing population today there exist individuals who essentially never get cavities. The hypothesis for this has been 1. they don't eat sugar, or only fibrous foods, etc. 2. They have a genetic difference that builds stronger enamel or similar. I have never heard of anyone discussing bacteria in the mouth as a possible difference. Be interested to see if there is a natural strand that some people have…

I am one of those people who naturally are more or less immune to cavities. My dentist tells me it is because of the pH in my mouth. I _do_ have to brush my teeth etc... though, because i tend to have a lot of plaque if i don't. Apparently either it is cavities, or plaque. You must take care of your teeth!

I have very strong (and ugly) teeth. The few "cavities" that I had, were actually made by dentists (they do that, y'know), and have resulted in a couple of crowns.

Otherwise, my teeth are great. I now have a dentist that doesn't make cavities, and she seems almost disappointed, when she checks me.

But gum care is every bit as important as tooth care (take it from me, you don't want a gum-scraping), and that is why I need to brush, floss, and mouthwash, twice a day.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#129

Post by imjonse »

jey wrote: post #111
imjonse wrote: post #77

They have a pitch deck lamenting 90% of US adults have cavities, and they are 2x likely to get untreated if you are poor, then propose to market this for 20k$/dose. Saving the world, again, startup style.

This is a well established route for new tech: first start by selling to the early adopters who have extra motivation and extra money, then use those funds to lower the costs by increasing scale then reach a bigger market.

but they say this is old tech, with exprired patents, with some confusing 'Pfizer offered to buy it' and no extra details. To me it seems they mostly want VC money from those who would bet on something unproven if the potential market is huge. For a lot of non-software new tech you at least have a visible research group and at least some attempts at presenting peer reviewed papers.

Re: Gene-Engineered Mouth Bacteria

#130

Post by [deleted] »

sijmen wrote: post #44
vitro wrote: post #30

What if you spit it out? Or what about french-kissing someone, can you give this bacteria to the other person that way?

The FAQ in the google drive linked on the page tries to answer these questions. Will this spread to everyone I kiss? It’s very unlikely in non-immunocompromised adults. However, if you’re concerned, you should avoid kissing anyone taking oral antibiotics, or children. [...] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mDJCTO2QySmQOZQcajYReDCA...

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