Some non-nitwit (actual-economic-value-generating) startups I’ve heard proposed lately by people in this or related communities:
Kevin Fischer is interested in identifying useful sub-chemicals in certain legal psychoactive plants. Anyone with biotech, chemical-identifying training would be useful to him.
Mike Darwin (not LW-style rationalist, but cryonicist) says that his research and numerous other papers show that melatonin, among some other chemicals, is very effective at preventing cerebral-reperfusion ischemic injury which is the real killer in heart attacks and strokes, and for which there are apparently not currently approved medications.
Zvi Mowshowitz is now trying to refound a startup to provide evidence-based, rationalist-filtered medical care—evidence-based doctors as opposed to just evidence-based medical research that often gets ignored by actual doctors.
John Schloendorn is the most competent biotech guy I know. He was literally trying to cure cancer—by trying to duplicate the abilities of a 100%-cancer-immune strain of mice, in humans—when his startup ran out of money; and he has a lot of other low-hanging fruits on his list as well.
People at the Berkeley LW meet-up are very interested in Schloendorn’s work at the meetup. It sounds too good to be true, is there a good summary link someone can send?
Colby asks—can you elaborate more about meletonin? What is he thinking should be made? How can this be turned profitable?
Is he saying that we should look into melatonin’s effects more? What are you getting at? Can you explain in more detail about how this could be a business idea?
Kevin Fischer is interested in identifying useful sub-chemicals in certain legal psychoactive plants. Anyone with biotech, chemical-identifying training would be useful to him.
This non-nitwit, I’ll grant, but this seems like a very capital-intensive idea which won’t work unless you can get a lot of investment. It has to solve two subproblems:
Big Pharma-level biological research
Not getting shut down by the FDA. No matter how good your argument for why this might be legal to sell/distribute/teach, you will have to fight (it seems) lengthy court battles before you can start making significant money this way.
Atul Gawande has a new article on how the medical industry can learn from other businesses that use production methods to achieve consistent results. He mentions a couple of national start-ups that are trying to use consistent evidence-based practices, and continuous review of outcomes to make health care more reliable and consistent and do it at a profit.
Some non-nitwit (actual-economic-value-generating) startups I’ve heard proposed lately by people in this or related communities:
Kevin Fischer is interested in identifying useful sub-chemicals in certain legal psychoactive plants. Anyone with biotech, chemical-identifying training would be useful to him.
Mike Darwin (not LW-style rationalist, but cryonicist) says that his research and numerous other papers show that melatonin, among some other chemicals, is very effective at preventing cerebral-reperfusion ischemic injury which is the real killer in heart attacks and strokes, and for which there are apparently not currently approved medications.
Zvi Mowshowitz is now trying to refound a startup to provide evidence-based, rationalist-filtered medical care—evidence-based doctors as opposed to just evidence-based medical research that often gets ignored by actual doctors.
John Schloendorn is the most competent biotech guy I know. He was literally trying to cure cancer—by trying to duplicate the abilities of a 100%-cancer-immune strain of mice, in humans—when his startup ran out of money; and he has a lot of other low-hanging fruits on his list as well.
What happened to the first one?
About Zvi’s business, what would constitute evidence that the medical practice should follow? -Asked by KatelynS at the Berkeley Less Wrong Meetup
Shannon—can you explain a little more about how the company works?
People at the Berkeley LW meet-up are very interested in Schloendorn’s work at the meetup. It sounds too good to be true, is there a good summary link someone can send?
Colby asks—can you elaborate more about meletonin? What is he thinking should be made? How can this be turned profitable?
Is he saying that we should look into melatonin’s effects more? What are you getting at? Can you explain in more detail about how this could be a business idea?
This non-nitwit, I’ll grant, but this seems like a very capital-intensive idea which won’t work unless you can get a lot of investment. It has to solve two subproblems:
Big Pharma-level biological research
Not getting shut down by the FDA. No matter how good your argument for why this might be legal to sell/distribute/teach, you will have to fight (it seems) lengthy court battles before you can start making significant money this way.
If they have the backers, great, but do they?
Atul Gawande has a new article on how the medical industry can learn from other businesses that use production methods to achieve consistent results. He mentions a couple of national start-ups that are trying to use consistent evidence-based practices, and continuous review of outcomes to make health care more reliable and consistent and do it at a profit.
I don’t know if this is Zvi’s balliwick, but I’ve seen people go through a lot of doctors until they find one who will listen and think.