The “valley of death” in scientific contexts is research that is not profitable to do that is in between research that is profitable to do (and thus is where good ideas go to die). In this particular context, it’s feasible to do preliminary studies of whether or not drugs will help with particular biomarkers of aging in old mice, and it’s feasible to do final studies of whether or not drugs are safe and effective in humans, but it’s not profitable to give those drugs to mice as they age and see how long they live (because you can’t immediately turn that into a drug, and everyone will know if it works, so it doesn’t advantage you relative to other companies, and it’s the sort of thing that normal grantmakers won’t fund academics to do).
Hence, nonprofit work to do the science that everyone wishes someone else would pay for.
The “valley of death” in scientific contexts is research that is not profitable to do that is in between research that is profitable to do (and thus is where good ideas go to die). In this particular context, it’s feasible to do preliminary studies of whether or not drugs will help with particular biomarkers of aging in old mice, and it’s feasible to do final studies of whether or not drugs are safe and effective in humans, but it’s not profitable to give those drugs to mice as they age and see how long they live (because you can’t immediately turn that into a drug, and everyone will know if it works, so it doesn’t advantage you relative to other companies, and it’s the sort of thing that normal grantmakers won’t fund academics to do).
Hence, nonprofit work to do the science that everyone wishes someone else would pay for.
Was “left side” an arbitrary choice in your comment above, or is there a conventional meaning to left vs right for this valley of death?
Arbitrary, inspired by reading left to right.