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YC Bio

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Re: YC Bio

#101

Post by jdale27 »

xyhopguy wrote: post #63
jforman wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every disease is a different beast, and biology is very hard to tame. We've thrown probably trillions of dollars at cancer over the past few decades, and only in the past few years, with immuno-oncology, has there been any real hope of progress toward broad cures (there was a heady moment after Gleevec, too, but that turned out to be the exception rather than the rule). There was just a huge wave of Alzheimer's treat…

To be fair though, we are really close with cancer. Like really really close. cfDNA is revolutionary for our measurements. Crispr is revolutionary for understanding. So close.

To be fair though, we are really close with cancer. Like really really close. cfDNA is revolutionary for our measurements. Crispr is revolutionary for understanding. So close.

Just curious, on what do you base this opinion? Do you work in cancer research, or another biomedical field? These tools will definitely advance our understanding, but my feeling (as someone who worked in genomics for several years, though not in cancer) is that if you think "we are really close" to curing cancer (pardon me if I misinterpreted your statement) with these technologies, you are buying into a lot of hype around them. It's natural that that hype exists, though, given how much VC money is being poured into this area right now.

Re: YC Bio

#102

Post by zappo2938 »

Much of what we learn in biology comes from happy accidents. Targeted research for financial gain is very, very difficult. Moreover, much of what we need to learn will come observing biologic mechanisms that have evolved over eons in life in places like the rain forests of Brazil that are being destroyed with all the knowledge and medicines that can be developed from the research of the species that live there. Sadly, your interest is money but for the human race investing in protecting rain forests as a whole would be a greater investment.

Re: YC Bio

#103

Post by [deleted] »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #79
jacobolus wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t talk about the “default norm for human life” without acknowledging that infant mortality is lower in current developed countries than it has ever been anywhere in the history of the world, is my point. Keep kids home for the first 5 years and don’t let them play with other kids if you want, but I haven’t ever seen careful research showing that e.g. preschool or playground time leads to widespread permanent…

You probably also have not seen careful research proving that putting kids in daycare at an early age is better for their health, both physically and socially. This in no way prevents you from maligning the other choice as living in a bubble. Basically you are speaking from prejudice while acting like it is science. You only want scientific proof for things you disagree with, not for your personal preferences.

[deleted]

Re: YC Bio

#104

Post by jonlucc »

vqc wrote: post #39
jonlucc wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a fellow midwesterner, I agree. It might make sense if the requirement was to move to a bio-rich region (such as San Diego or Boston), but the bay doesn't seem like the place to be for a lab.

The Bay Area is extremely bio rich. It is on par with Boston and SD w/r/t bio jobs, lab space, NIH funding, VC funding, etc.

That's great to hear; thanks!

Re: YC Bio

#105

Post by jacobolus »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #79
jacobolus wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t talk about the “default norm for human life” without acknowledging that infant mortality is lower in current developed countries than it has ever been anywhere in the history of the world, is my point. Keep kids home for the first 5 years and don’t let them play with other kids if you want, but I haven’t ever seen careful research showing that e.g. preschool or playground time leads to widespread permanent…

You probably also have not seen careful research proving that putting kids in daycare at an early age is better for their health, both physically and socially. This in no way prevents you from maligning the other choice as living in a bubble. Basically you are speaking from prejudice while acting like it is science. You only want scientific proof for things you disagree with, not for your personal preferences.

Here’s an example:

> The presence of one or more older siblings at home protected against the development of asthma (adjusted relative risk for each additional older sibling, 0.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.7 to 1.0; P=0.04), as did attendance at day care during the first six months of life (adjusted relative risk, 0.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.2 to 1.0; P=0.04). Children with more exposure to other children at home or at day care were more likely to have frequent wheezing at the age of 2 years than children with little or no exposure (adjusted relative risk, 1.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.1 to 1.8; P=0.01) but were less likely to have frequent wheezing from the age of 6 (adjusted relative risk, 0.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.6 to 1.0; P=0.03) through the age of 13 (adjusted relative risk, 0.3; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.2 to 0.5; P

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200008243430803

Re: YC Bio

#106

Post by BatFastard »

Obi_Juan_Kenobi wrote: post #85
zitterbewegung wrote: post #5

Has YC had successful Biology startups with real exits? Just curious I couldn't find any.

I was really disappointed to see YC involved with 'glowing plants' a few years back, which predictably failed (non-science founders, among other reasons). Color me skeptical. Biology is a very different field; stuff that is wonderfully promising can get help up for years based on trivial mistakes or simple strategic errors. And on top of that, 95% of the stuff that sounds great won't amount to anything, and you can't…

Personally I love the idea of glowing plants. We first discussed it in 1983 after the announcement that the luciferase gene sequence had been added to a tobacco plant.

What could be better than glowing monkey grass leading up to your house? But as always, devil is in the details.

Re: YC Bio

#107

Post by jforman »

indescions_2018 wrote: post #32

Timing is perfect on this. We are fortunate enough to be witnessing Year One in the Age of Crispr ;) For those brainstorming startup ideas some relatively recently funded companies include: eGenesis - Dr. George Church's company that uses edited porcine stem lines for human xenotransplantation Twist Bio - synthetic bio for applications ranging from novel materials to data storage Denali - focus on age related neurode…

Well...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-00335-8

Maybe the first startup YC should fund is one to mutate the enzyme to avoid immunoreactivity while preserving function...

Re: YC Bio

#108

Post by DoreenMichele »

jacobolus wrote: post #105
DoreenMichele wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You probably also have not seen careful research proving that putting kids in daycare at an early age is better for their health, both physically and socially. This in no way prevents you from maligning the other choice as living in a bubble. Basically you are speaking from prejudice while acting like it is science. You only want scientific proof for things you disagree with, not for your personal preferences.

Here’s an example: > The presence of one or more older siblings at home protected against the development of asthma (adjusted relative risk for each additional older sibling, 0.8; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.7 to 1.0; P=0.04), as did attendance at day care during the first six months of life (adjusted relative risk, 0.4; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.2 to 1.0; P=0.04). Children with more exposure to other c…

Correlation does not prove causation.

Other possible explanations include: You need a certain baseline of health for both parents to successfully pursue careers. Older siblings actively help care for younger siblings. Wealthier families are likely to be generally better educated and better cared for.

Your position was openly hostile from the start. You posit that I am talking about a hermetically sealed bubble and not allowing children to have any contact whatsoever with anyone but the parents. It is hyperbolic and not a good faith engagement. Defending myself against this de facto attack forces me to sound more and more like the extremist nutcase you intentionally painted me as.

I don't plan to engage further. This is not a constructive discussion.

Re: YC Bio

#109

Post by dragonwriter »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #61
jacobolus wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course kids in {daycare, school, the playground, riding the bus, ...} get sick (especially lots of minor viral infections) more often than kids who live in a hermetically sealed bubble, never share toys, and only ever interact with a couple of adults. Adults who never leave home also get sick less often than adults who go to school, work, etc. But it is also the case that the human immune system remembers various…

We have 7 billion people on the planet and in my lifetime we went from more than half of all people living in rural environs to more than half of all people living in cities. Your hostile description of living in a bubble was the default norm for human life until very recently. The aberration here is not people with limited contact to others. The aberration is that in recent decades it is the new norm to work at a jo…

> We have 7 billion people on the planet and in my lifetime we went from more than half of all people living in rural environs to more than half of all people living in cities. Your hostile description of living in a bubble was the default norm for human life until very recently

Modern rural living in the developed world is not much like rural living in most of history, so, no the modern rural living the GP criticized was not the “default norm” for most of history.

> The aberration here is not people with limited contact to others. The aberration is that in recent decades it is the new norm to work at a job that exposes you to many people every day and attend a public school that exposes you to many people every day.

From the various descriptions of historical rural life (e.g., medieval European village life) I've seen, neither adults nor children having daily contact with numbers of other people rather than being isolated with their nuclear family was at all uncommon; for most of history that wouldn't be school for children or wage labor for adults, but it would still happen.

Re: YC Bio

#110

Post by DoreenMichele »

dragonwriter wrote: post #109
DoreenMichele wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have 7 billion people on the planet and in my lifetime we went from more than half of all people living in rural environs to more than half of all people living in cities. Your hostile description of living in a bubble was the default norm for human life until very recently. The aberration here is not people with limited contact to others. The aberration is that in recent decades it is the new norm to work at a jo…

> We have 7 billion people on the planet and in my lifetime we went from more than half of all people living in rural environs to more than half of all people living in cities. Your hostile description of living in a bubble was the default norm for human life until very recently Modern rural living in the developed world is not much like rural living in most of history, so, no the modern rural living the GP criticize…

You have a personal track record of attacking me and being incredibly dismissive of me. I asked you once to simply leave me alone. You informed me that was not a reasonable request and affirmed your right to do as you please towards me.* I view your behavior towards me as a form of harassment.

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15848464

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