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San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

timesofsandiego.com

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Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#61

Post by Fomite »

dnautics wrote: post #6
rgejman wrote: post #5

We already have crowd funding for science. We do it as a whole society when we fund the various grant-giving agencies in this country. I cannot emphasize how bad of an idea it is to take funding decisions away from professional scientists and place them in the hands of untrained individuals, no matter how enthusiastic they may be nor how much money they are willing to throw away.

Here is a quote that my experience in science has caused me to resonate with. "I think there's been a Gresham's Law in science funding in this country, as the political people who are nimble in the art of writing government grants have gradually displaced the eccentric and idiosyncratic people who typically make the best scientists. The eccentric university professor is a species that is going extinct fast." - Peter…

The idea that somehow the eccentric and idiosyncratic will be better than people who are good at 'playing the game' at raising funds by drawing the attention of wealthy patrons or large groups is...an interesting assumption.

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#62

Post by Fomite »

dnautics wrote: post #12
alex_duf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does state sponsored research guaranties that result will be made public and shared ? (This is a serious question) If so, I agree with you, If not, I see here a strong argument for crowd funded projects like that.

Currently not all state sponsored research guarantees shared results, but the NIH does (after one year). But: Not all results are guaranteed to be public, just the published work. If you really wanted to know, for state-sponsored research in the US, you could probably FOIA results, all the way down to the notebooks.

FOIA requests for medical records, which is much of what we're talking about, is really quite difficult.

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#63

Post by Fomite »

exratione wrote: post #15
rgejman wrote: post #5

We already have crowd funding for science. We do it as a whole society when we fund the various grant-giving agencies in this country. I cannot emphasize how bad of an idea it is to take funding decisions away from professional scientists and place them in the hands of untrained individuals, no matter how enthusiastic they may be nor how much money they are willing to throw away.

This displays a profound ignorance of the real situation, which is that the majority of useful early stage research is funded by philanthropy. Not by government, not by companies, but by people making donations. It doesn't come from the existing funding institutions because they almost never fund anything that hasn't already had its prototype and early stage research completed successfully. If you don't have your pro…

I'm a working scientist, and this really doesn't reflect my experience in the slightest.

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#64

Post by dnautics »

collyw wrote: post #45
dnautics wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly why I'm only interested in crowdfunding a single, early stage, experiment.

Are there not public grants available it this stage?

Short answer is. I'm not a faculty in a university since I tried and choose not to try any longer. I'm not in pharma because of patents. So getting a public grant is hard. It's even harder because my old boss is now in charge of the relevant funding stream and she shouldn't be working with grants that further her former avenue of research.

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#65

Post by dnautics »

lumberjack wrote: post #43
dnautics wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a quote that my experience in science has caused me to resonate with. "I think there's been a Gresham's Law in science funding in this country, as the political people who are nimble in the art of writing government grants have gradually displaced the eccentric and idiosyncratic people who typically make the best scientists. The eccentric university professor is a species that is going extinct fast." - Peter…

Exactly what I thought when seeing the video. I don't want scientific funding to go to those who manage to produce the best quality 3 minute promotional video.

You have no idea how hard making this video was for me. Also I got lucky because a friend had connections to a cameraman who worked for top chef. Also we tried before, and failed spectacularly (and we may yet fail... The campaign is still a smidge below where it needs to be to tilt and that doesnt take into account interest decay.).

If my scientific bona fides are in question, you should check out my publication record. It's not in spectacular journals (which as a scientist would probably be as suspicious to me as a flashy video is to you), but, I've done spectroscopy on a metastable peptide, isolated and characterized an anticancer compound, and improved an enzyme fourfold with hand picked site directed mutagenesis. I'm no Linus Pauling, it's true, but I feel fairly accomplished.

I don't want scientific funding to go to most professors. Seriously, have you actually met those guys?

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#66

Post by dnautics »

Fomite wrote: post #63
exratione wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This displays a profound ignorance of the real situation, which is that the majority of useful early stage research is funded by philanthropy. Not by government, not by companies, but by people making donations. It doesn't come from the existing funding institutions because they almost never fund anything that hasn't already had its prototype and early stage research completed successfully. If you don't have your pro…

I'm a working scientist, and this really doesn't reflect my experience in the slightest.

The early stage research on 9ds was funded by the ACS.

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#67

Post by dnautics »

ig1 wrote: post #55
dnautics wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like saying it takes 7 billion to make a company that competes with facebook, and you'll never get 7 billion series A funding. Trivially true, but to compete with facebook is a process, and not all stages of a process use the same funding mechanisms.

What's the plan for the rest of the money, grants ?

Grants and big donors to push through preclinical and a for profit partner for clinical is my vision, but I am open minded to alternatives.

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#68

Post by lutusp »

Fomite wrote: post #58
lutusp wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Oh yes. I forgot scientists produce life saving medicine from their dorm rooms all the time. How could I forget. That's more common than most people realize (meaning something being discovered through work in an unrelated context). Look at the discovery of Penicillin as one example, there are many others.

"Remember that thing that happened in 1928 " is hardly a compelling case. That's like saying you can build a major telecom company without computers because Bell did it.

> "Remember that thing that happened in 1928" is hardly a compelling case.

And that wasn't what I said -- Penicillin is just one example. Look at the polymerase chain reaction, thought up during a late-night drive by a graduate student and now ubiquitous in biology and medicine. Look at the first polio vaccine, created at very low cost by someone who was so sure of his results, and so short of funds, that he used his own children as test subjects.

Examples abound. One need only look.

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#69

Post by tmuir »

korzun wrote: post #49
tmuir wrote: post #38

To everyone sure this will fail because of the amount of money required, ask yourself this: if you told your mom, and your neighbor, and your mailman, and your boss about the Occulus Rift, or Pebble, or The Peachy Printer, or Zach Braff's latest movie, and the opportunity to help make those products a reality by preordering them/donating money to them, do you really think any sizable portion of those people would be…

Only HN somebody will compare cancer drugs to Pebble.

Compare, contrast, whats the difference?

Re: San Diego Researcher Crowdfunding Patent-Free Cancer Drug

#70

Post by leovan »

EGreg wrote: post #30

What we should really do is have an open source movement in Drugs: http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=93

you are right and judging from the regressive and reactionary fears this project is generating from the "professionals" the man is onto something.

good luck doc, you have everything it takes to start moving history in the right direction, right now.

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