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Widely different cause of death between US/EU and the developing world.
The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation released its report on Global Burden of Diseases. The report can be found here. There are many excellent examples of data envisioning in it. I...
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Finally, we know something about the structure of telomerase!
This paper is particularly interesting to me. I worked on telomerase earlier in my career, and had actually discovered a novel series of inhibitors using pharmacophore modeling. They eventually...
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Infantile Colic is a Predictor for Adult Migraines
Researchers at the Paris Diderot University found a link between colicky babies and adult migraines (in the babies as they become adults, not their parents. Although I imagine there may be a...
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Yet Another Fountain of Youth Found. I Wouldn't Hold Your Breath.
Following a trail from Gizmodo to Live Science to Nature, I felt like Ponce de Leon. I was promised that"science" has discovered the "fountain of youth". Considering the resveratrol debacle that...
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Fossils, Both Genetic and Linguistic
This post is slightly off the beaten path for a drug discovery consultancy, but these two articles were just too juicy to pass up. One paper in PNAS claims to have identified “ultra-conserved words”...
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You Look Like Your Dog, and so do Your Bacteria!
A recent paper in eLife, samples bacterial from the foreheads, palms/paws, stools tongues and the right palm of human household partners. It showed that the phylotypes of bacteria between human and...
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I Find Your Lack of Correlation Disturbing.
This paper in PLOS ONE shows a disturbing lack of correlation between IC50’s for the Ephrin type-B receptor 4 (EphB4) when the compounds were dispensed by conventional disposable pipet tips and...
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Everyone Needs Computational Chemistry and Cheminformatics
I've noticed that most companies in the start-up to small company range don't have in house computational chemistry or a laboratory informatics system. The former is somewhat understandable. The...
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I’m Not Dead Yet…
I’m sure you are all familiar with the Black Death. You may not be aware that in the 6th Century, in the reign of the Emperor Justinian I, a plague of immense proportions spread across the...
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Sampling Bias and Self Help Books
I have to admit I'm a bit cynical. I'm a chemist, trained in theoretical organic chemistry, so it does come a bit with the territory. I also have to say I hate self-help books. Most particularly I...
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A Mouse is not a Human Chapter 5.2X10^23
Early last year, it was reported that Bexarotene (a Ligand product that was discovered when I worked there) cleared amyloid plaques from mice, prompting the hypothesis that the retinoid X receptors...
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Science illiteracy, and one for the "Uh excuse me, did you really say that?"...
I stumbled across this gem of science the other day (hat tip to the Curious Wavefunction). In this piece, a Dr. Mercola, rants against artificial sweeteners. Now, I'm a water man, my self. When I...
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I have seen the future of drug discovery and it's awesome
I am fortunate person. I really have a life filled with tremendous blessings. My wife, who had cancer, is cancer free, healthy and starting her own business venture. When I was laid off, I had...
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The House that Max Built, or Can One Reorganize Oneself to Greatness?
Merck always was the epitome of what a pharmaceutical company should be. Growing up, I knew about what a good company it was. This reputation was largely based on the research organization that was...
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There were many pharmaceutical companies abiding in the fields, and they were...
This graphic roughly shows the structure of the pharmaceutical industry when I joined it in the last gasps of GHW Bush's administration. There were 34 companies that were large enough to merit the...
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Part 3: In which a computational chemist and drug hunter, imbued with...
Leibniz argued we live in the best of all possible worlds. I realize that looking at what goes on around us causes pause at this statement, but ask yourself, what percentage of our problems are...
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Summer weekend fun: the chemistry of Tyrian Purple
In antiquity purple was the color of royalty. Cloth dyed with the purple dye made in Phoenicia was highly prized throughout the ancient world. It was colorfast (i.e. it did not fade) and it was...
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Are all dietary calories created equal, or Sugar: threat or menace
Robert Lustig was talking at the Aspen Ideas Conference last week. He has been on a crusade against fructose for some time. He is one of the leading proponents that all calories are not created...
View ArticleA link to an article with pharma companies that are actively hireing
Should any of you, dear readers, be seeking employment. This article has a list of international pharma companies that are actively hiring.
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This is one for the files.
Journal papers get retracted all the time. It's not always a case of scientific fraud. Sometimes it is. Sometimes massive fights erupt in the literature. Then, on the other hand, every...
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