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The PhD scientists that I know choose to join government labs because the work (esp. basic research) interested them even if the pay was often less than could be obtained in industry or even academe.
Later several of my friends later left the government lab to assume tenured professorships in research universities. Unfortunately, the prospect of pursuing cutting edge research has significantly decreased in my government lab. Security guys are going wacko making it harder and harder to do anything or get anything published. (I understand their concerns, but for heaven's sakes!) I've had many occasions to interact with scientists and engineers and sit on program review committees at major industry R&D facilities. Our government people compare very favorably with industry researchers.
But then again there's simple patriotism.
Years ago friends in the material science and chemistry divisions of my lab were studying the use of functionalized magnetic beads to detect and classify aerosol pathogens using microfluidics. When the antibody attaches to a pathogen the mass and inertia of the composite particle significantly increases and particles+pathogens can be sorted using magnetic fields and microfluidic circuits.
At least that's what I thought they were doing.
It was new and innovative at the time. It could be standard procedure now.
Seeing that we are being asked to evaluate and select Ronin/SWIM's candidates for BOD it would be helpful to have detailed position statements for each candidate and to be able to personally communicate with them well in advance. How about giving us their telephone numbers so we can access if they at least appear to have our best interests at heart.
It's true I was assuming that they played in the CAR-T space.
Thanks for the correction.
I do not like our present BOD nor do I trust Stafford/White.
Been burned too many times in micro-tech takeovers and take-privates.
Thanks for the correction.
But hey, I don't have time to closely follow all the posts here and perhaps I was misled in my previous post.
Mea Culpa.
I await further enlightenment.
But I do not trust people, especially hedge fund people, involved in big money or even not so big money and am prone to assume the worst.
Fred
The point for me is that Ronin/Swim stated that their nominees were independent (of them) and qualified. Now we find that the nominees are associated with their hedge fund. This appears to be particularly disingenuous of Ronin/Swim and tells me that they can not be trusted. This is not a small matter in my book.
FYI:
liquid biopsy
Oops...I meant this to be a new topic post. Sorry...
FYI from today's NYT:
A Cancer Conundrum: Too Many Drug Trials, Too Few Patients
I'll happily endorse Black's beach! Though in October it may be too cold to go "native".
I, of course for the record, only go there to lie on the beach and watch the hang gliders circling overhead. :>
Hummm... The BOD plans on nominating three highly qualified candidates to fill the new seats. In the best of all worlds these new candidates are indeed well qualified and with the Ronin guys have a 10 person ballot for seven BOD seats. I would vote for all the new candidates plus SK and happily bid farewell to ES, DP and CJ. The new BOD then votes in a new chairman and compensation committee, etc., reduces their compensation and everyone is, well not completely happy, but at least temporarily mollified.
Sunstar & NH I am weary also of Ronin's intentions. With many years of high tech/bio tech investments, I have been snookered a number of times by financial shenanigans posing as a relief to poor beleaguered stockholders followed by protracted lawsuits benefiting only lawyers. Ronin may be doing the right thing but I need a better accounting of their intentions. The present board is pathetic and not qualified to lead this company to profitability in my opinion. But what are Ronin's true intentions? Can there be another slate of directors in the offing?
Well for now it looks like the Ronin has won.
(Sorry about that but I'm a Kurosawa fan.)
It's time for ES to ditch his sock-puppets DP and CJ and nominate credible replacements.
SK should make a convincing case for PS-targeting investments and be clearly reiterate that the clinical trials will be outsourced with ongoing expenditures <<$30*10^6 in order to counter Ronin and/or make them release a more detailed statement concerning their plans for the IP. Otherwise, a Ronin takeover appears to be a no brainer.
In my opinion at the moment...
Things can change and I hope they will for the better.
I'm a little disturbed by Stafford's association with Xencor. Xencor is into CAR-T cells and, noting the recent Wolchok, et. al. poster:"Targeting phosphatidylserine in combination with adoptive T cell transfer eliminates advanced tumors without off-target toxicities in a melanoma preclinical model."
last line of 2017 poster conclusions ---
"PS targeting can be combined with CAR T cells to enhance anti-tumor potential."
Is this all a slight-of-hand to strip bavi from PPHM and slip it to Xencor?
And maybe add someone who knows the science to their BOD list, e.g., Brekken or Wolchok.
I agree with Ronin's inditement of the BOD but strongly disagree with their trashing of the science. I realize that they felt that the needed to pile on with everything at their disposal to strengthen their case. But, for instance, the breast cancer trial appeared to be promising though it involved chemo.(So so 20th century!) What about exomes? It sure looks like bavi should be useful in prepping for 21st-century immunotherapy and certainly should be retained until this avenue is thoroughly explored. Ok, BP and academe should take the lead in developing this but PPHM should be the gatekeeper and retain a substantial financial interest.
---
A couple asides:
I recall meeting our COB Carlton Johnson and thinking "You got to be kidding!".
On the other hand, Steve King is a serious person and would make a fine CTO.
Univ of California lecture Engineering Immune Cells to Recognize and Kill Cancer
No I was too cheap to pay for attendance. Just relied on your coverage.
Thanks.
Fred
Biology it just too darn complicated...
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/04/06/522262881/how-flawed-science-is-undermining-good-medicine?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20170407&utm_campaign=npr_email_a_friend&utm_term=storyshare
But with the accumulating evidence of ps importance in shutting down the immune response and the quality of our collaborators the tide will turn.
Its a vaccine to treat cancer caused by HPV infection, not a vaccine to treat HPV.
Hey Wookie how does that work?
I could hop on a bikeshare or take an uber and be down there in 15 min from my house but don't want to pay the entrance fee. I doubt that I could sneak into the convention center.
Fred
Bingo EndoTarget. I was sitting here thinking this morning of using functionalized magnetic beads to separate and concentrate exosomes. Years ago friends in my lab were exploring the use of magnetic beads to detect very small quantities of pathogens for DoD.
Its hard to see how a patent approval can result in such a run. 4+ times the float traded in a half days trading. How many investors know anything about flux pinning?
Thanks for the reference. I've added it to my library of Pdfs.
As
JDog
pointed out earlier in the day, the authors of the paper discovered this morning used the CD63 antibody charistic of ovarian cancer in their analysis.
Ok, Thanks Jake. I didn't know that CD63 antibodies signaled ovarian. Great observation.
Jake I do not dispute that the results accurately detects ovarian cancers but can it distinguish ovarian from, say, pancreatic cancers? That was not addressed in this study. The test is valuable in accessing the presence of cancer but can it tell which type of cancer is present? This was not addressed in the study. I look forward to further work in this area.
PC I know the test was blinded and the knowledge that there was cancer present or not is certainly worth testing for but I wouldn't rush out and excise the ovaries on a positive result. Perhaps its the pancreas. Perhaps its hiding somewhere else. That is if the test were administered to the general population.
Now if they can query the ps tagged exome and find use the exome to specify the type of cancer all the better. Its not clear that this can be done at present.
Problems with replication of cancer studies...
How replicable is cancer research?
Cancer immuno theropy trials -- from todays NYT
Trials & race.
Move over ps UTSW now is looking at pH.
Will they pass the technology to Peregrine?