Black Plague and HIV resistance in Europe(eurekalert.org)
eurekalert.org
Black Plague and HIV resistance in Europe
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-03/uol-bdw031005.php
14 comments
Slight correction, we'd have to introduce other human receptors that HIV binds to, not just the human CCR5 receptor. It's still not that difficult though, we can put them all on the same plasmid. New techniques, such as magnetofection (http://www.chemicell.com/products/Magnetofection/Magnetofect...) should allow almost 100% transfection (inserting a plasmid, or circular piece of DNA, into a cell) rate. Granted, this is all still theoretical and there may be something I am overlooking, but I still feel it's worth pursuing.
Why are you not pursuing NSF funding for this research? I am nowhere near as informed as you on this but there has to be money out there to pursue this investigation if what you say has even a small chance of working.
It's an intimidating and overwhelming process. Josh (ingenium) and I went to a multi-week university seminar for faculty spinning off research into commercial ventures and the speaker on NSF grants said that it's really tough to get government grants without hiring a consultant who knows the ins and outs of the system. This will be something to do as soon as we have a spare $10,000, but we don't have any spare capital for now.
We also need a PhD on board... we haven't looked for a faculty sponsor because if we get someone from the University of Pittsburgh on board, Pitt owns all of our IP. Pitt has a much worse IP policy than many other large universities; PG and I had this discussion a while ago on here and he posted the link for MIT's tech transfer policy which was much more reasonable.
Basically, Josh and I aren't qualified to lead the research, in the eyes of the government. But Josh is pretty good at what he does and I am confident we could lead a team of Biology PhDs pretty well. They have really low salaries in Pittsburgh too, $40,000 is the starting salary for a post-doc and $100,000 and a pittance of equity would get you anyone you wanted that didn't have tenure at a university.
You can also only get NSF/NIH funding if it has been posted as a "Funding opportunity" or "Funding notice." They don't take unsolicited ideas; they say in advance what ideas they are funding. I hadn't looked at these for a while and I see we may have just missed one that may have been relevant. It's not exactly the idea above and I really don't know if the process is flexible enough to allow for our adult stem cell treatment. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AI-07-014.h...
It seems to me that Josh and I aren't going to be able to get government funding without handing our IP over to the University of Pittsburgh, and I have no desire to have to deal with academia. So that means we need to wait until we are independently wealthy to start researching. I also feel that we kind of have a moral prerogative to get research in this area moving forward, and I'm not sure what else we can be doing. We've casually mentioned this treatment technique to various PhDs and MDs and they unanimously say "Yes, that could work." However, they don't say "That's the best idea I've ever heard and I'm going to get be your Principal Investigator for an NIH grant."
Can you think of anything else we could be doing? For now, we're just bootstrapping our genetic testing company and seeing where that takes us.
We also need a PhD on board... we haven't looked for a faculty sponsor because if we get someone from the University of Pittsburgh on board, Pitt owns all of our IP. Pitt has a much worse IP policy than many other large universities; PG and I had this discussion a while ago on here and he posted the link for MIT's tech transfer policy which was much more reasonable.
Basically, Josh and I aren't qualified to lead the research, in the eyes of the government. But Josh is pretty good at what he does and I am confident we could lead a team of Biology PhDs pretty well. They have really low salaries in Pittsburgh too, $40,000 is the starting salary for a post-doc and $100,000 and a pittance of equity would get you anyone you wanted that didn't have tenure at a university.
You can also only get NSF/NIH funding if it has been posted as a "Funding opportunity" or "Funding notice." They don't take unsolicited ideas; they say in advance what ideas they are funding. I hadn't looked at these for a while and I see we may have just missed one that may have been relevant. It's not exactly the idea above and I really don't know if the process is flexible enough to allow for our adult stem cell treatment. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AI-07-014.h...
It seems to me that Josh and I aren't going to be able to get government funding without handing our IP over to the University of Pittsburgh, and I have no desire to have to deal with academia. So that means we need to wait until we are independently wealthy to start researching. I also feel that we kind of have a moral prerogative to get research in this area moving forward, and I'm not sure what else we can be doing. We've casually mentioned this treatment technique to various PhDs and MDs and they unanimously say "Yes, that could work." However, they don't say "That's the best idea I've ever heard and I'm going to get be your Principal Investigator for an NIH grant."
Can you think of anything else we could be doing? For now, we're just bootstrapping our genetic testing company and seeing where that takes us.
Credibility is a large hurdle you will need to overcome. No one will want to talk to you unless you have some big names backing up your research, and patents showing that you control the IP. In the science world, so much data is produced that the signal to noise ratio is high, and recognized scientists are extremely valuable. In other words, you will need to collaborate with academia, and it's probably better now than later. I suggest pitching your idea to senior faculty in different universities, especially ones focused in doing HIV stem cell research. Or perhaps working at someone's lab and setting up a collaboration with them. From what I understand, grant committees look at the name first, and then project second.
Salaries alone are nothing in the sciences, but it is expensive to set up your own lab, and could take years before you have validated that your thing actually works. For developing diagnostics, I bet there is someone trying to make a drug or therapy from CCR5. Collaborate with them and make the diagnostic part.
I know that at Johns Hopkins, anything you develop as an undergrad is 100% owned by you. Check the IP rights of other schools by talking to their tech transfer offices, and maybe consider transferring to another school.
Get someone reputable behind you, and then you guys can actually start doing something.
Salaries alone are nothing in the sciences, but it is expensive to set up your own lab, and could take years before you have validated that your thing actually works. For developing diagnostics, I bet there is someone trying to make a drug or therapy from CCR5. Collaborate with them and make the diagnostic part.
I know that at Johns Hopkins, anything you develop as an undergrad is 100% owned by you. Check the IP rights of other schools by talking to their tech transfer offices, and maybe consider transferring to another school.
Get someone reputable behind you, and then you guys can actually start doing something.
Have you thought about move to Singapore? Govt.funding for stuff like this is way easier to secure and stem cell research is encouraged, I believe.
How does this solution address HIV transmission to uninfected individuals?
I don't think this is appropriate for hacker news. reddit.com is a better place for stuff like this.
Why do you think this?
The intention of Hacker News was not to combine Startup News and programming.reddit.com. I don't think there is any controversy about the relevance of pure science on this site.
The intention of Hacker News was not to combine Startup News and programming.reddit.com. I don't think there is any controversy about the relevance of pure science on this site.
I am a little frustrated by the ability to not vote things down (hence the need to make a negative comment).
Also, I have no idea why I commented on this story. I must have had mouse parallax error and clicked on the wrong one. I was outside in the sun (at a cafe) and there was a bit of glare, but it definitely was NOT this story that I intended to comment on.
Also, I have no idea why I commented on this story. I must have had mouse parallax error and clicked on the wrong one. I was outside in the sun (at a cafe) and there was a bit of glare, but it definitely was NOT this story that I intended to comment on.
You might want to try this guy. He has no shortage of capital and seems to be moving his company in that direction:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._E._Shaw_%26_Co.
http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._E._Shaw_%26_Co.
How exactly would one go about getting in touch with a hedge fund guy without an introduction? It seems like it would be even more fruitless than just sending a business plan to a VC.
He was/is on the faculty at Columbia. They have a group dedicated to comp. biology and they may be interested in modelling the interaction you are talking about. Associate with some of the professors there in the chem/bio dept and you may get something going. Drexel University also has a great IP/funding program, you may want to try them. Do what this woman did: http://lungevity.org/uploads/files/WSJ.2007.pdf. Hell, start a benefit run or bike ride...something. This line of work is too important rms. Make it happen.
Sorry, click on the 'new architectures for a new biology' on that Stanford link. It only gave me the root url.
The title of this article is even worse, ~10% of people of European descent are resistant to HIV and 10% of those individuals are practically immune to HIV. The mutation is more common in people of northern European descent and some eastern European ethnic groups, like Ashkenazi Jews.
This summary of a paper published in Nature shows that mice with the CCR5 delta32 mutation still get the plague. http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_... Subscription/university tunnel required for the real paper.
This is another study concluding that smallpox was the more likely selecting factor for the mutation. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=29... http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=12...
This is a personal interest of mine because testing for this mutation is my startup. http://www.hivgene.com There's an enormous amount of untapped potential with the CCR5 receptor; I wish I had the money to do private research.
To cure HIV: Start with some adult stem cells from the HIV patient to be treated, specifically the stem cells that produce T cells. Introduce the 32 base pair deletion in the CCR5 gene and grow the cells in culture. These can then be "transplanted" back into the patient. These transplanted stem cells will create HIV immune T cells. Once there are enough immune T cells, the patient will probably still have HIV, but it will not develop into AIDS. There will be no chance of rejection since they are the patient's own cells. Furthermore, since the body does produce antibodies to HIV, these modified T cells may even be able to fight off the HIV.
To test this, we would get a mouse line, which are genetically very similar to each other from inbreeding so we won't have to worry about rejection of the transplants, and introduce the human CCR5 receptor into them. This, in theory, will allow the mice to be infected with HIV since HIV attaches to the CCR 5 receptor to enter and infect the cell. If this works, we can then try the technique of taking some of their stem cells, introducing the mutation, transplanting them back in, and see if their T cell count increases or if the levels of HIV decrease. It could also be used as a preventative therapy, which we can also easily test on the mice.
(HIV curing idea is courtesy of my partner, his username is ingenium on here. If anyone with money is interested in branching out into a different kind of biotech company, please get in touch with me.)