Author: jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

Drug discovery: a combined approach (Accelerating Medicines Partnership)

I’ve been struck repeatedly over the past decade by how dismal the pipeline looks for new drugs, particularly in the domain of brain diseases. Yesterday NIH and some of the biggest drug companies announced a new combined approach at the National Press Club, story here. This is a big project: $230M –even hefty when compared to EU standards. The lions share of the money will be spent on Alzheimer’s disease.

Air Force Office of Science Research moving to the Buckeye State?

Apparently the scientific community is up in arms about the notion, story here. Note that my home town, Arlington Virginia is the current home of AFOSR. Interestingly NSF is apparently leaving their current HQ in Arlington for a further out location in Alexandria in several years. Might DARPA and ONR be next?

So I think the real story is about the nexus of these current federal research agencies dispersing. For years, they’ve essentially been ‘across the street’ from one another. Arlington has thrived, and many universities (including my own) have presences in Arlington to be close to the action.

The Two Cultures are alive and well….

William Dereseiwisz pans Michael Suk-Young Chwe’s ‘game theory’ theory of Jane Austen here. Cutting right to the chase, here’s the money quote:

There is only one problem with this approach: it is intellectually bankrupt. Actually, there are a lot of problems, as Michael Suk-Young Chwe’s abominable volume shows. If this is the sort of thing that we have to look forward to, as science undertakes to tutor the humanities, the prospect isn’t bright.