The new video tour of the new space artifacts in the Future Ventures office just went live. Enjoy!
Tags: Future Ventures 2024 Space Museum Tour new artifacts Peter Alexis Thoeny
Imagine directing the liver to become a factory to crank out personalized immunotherapies for most cancers and prevent them from spreading.
Vironexis came out of stealth today with FDA clearance to begin the first-ever clinical trial of an AAV-delivered cancer immunotherapy. By delivering instructions for the body to do continuous manufacturing, it just takes a single dose and is much less expensive than current gene therapies.
FD: we co-led their seed financing. From their press release:“Steve Jurvetson, Co-Founder of Future Ventures, added, ‘We were drawn not only to the novelty of the TransJoin technology but also to its broad applicability, spanning treatments for blood-based cancers, solid tumor metastasis prevention, and cancer vaccines, as well as immune disorders. The versatility of this platform is truly extraordinary.”
And from a great backstory article on the clinical need:
“Vironexis Biotherapeutics' mission seems lofty and impressive — treating cancer with gene therapy. But the heart of the biotech, which emerged from stealth Thursday with $26 million in seed funding, was born from Timothy Cripe's desire to make it a little easier for children with leukaemia to take their medication. As the chief of the division of paediatric haematology and oncology at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Cripe said children often have to receive continuous infusions of bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTEs) that last for weeks due to their short half-life, requiring patients to wear specialised backpacks to carry around a bag of the drug. Hospital visits are frequent to readjust tubing if it slips out, or to replace the syringe. Cripe's idea to eliminate the drug's cumbersome administration was to develop a one-time treatment that would give the liver long-lasting instructions to make the cancer therapy itself.
According to CEO Varma, 90% of deaths caused by cancer can be attributed to metastasis, which occurs when a primary tumour sheds circulating cells. By administering the gene therapy before a tumour has the chance to metastasise, the generated bispecifics act as cancer-killing sentries that patrol the bloodstream for any sign of circulating tumour cells. And if a BiTE finds one, ‘it zaps the cell before it has a chance to embed,’ he described. The company's second-most advanced programme, VNX-202, is slated to enter the clinic next year and is intended to prevent HER2+ breast cancers from metastasising.”
Company site just went live too: vironexis.com
Tags: Vironexis AAV BiTE immunotherapy CAR-T cancer therapy metastasis Treatment
Our Benisty statue arrived today, an incredible gift from some incredible friends. Merci Matt et Thor!
They know how much we love it, as it became our wedding motto and part of my wedding vows.
Tags: Michael Benisty In Every Lifetime I Will Find You Statue Art Installed Wedding Motto Gift
Apollo 11 CAPCOM and Apollo 16 Moonwalker Charlie Duke toured SpaceX with the crew in this new video. At minute 1:30, he stopped to look at the Apollo astronaut tribute I made for SpaceX, with signed congratulations from each Apollo mission, including his.
Polaris Dawn launched this morning, taking four private citizens the farthest from Earth, ever. Two of them are lucky SpaceX employees. All four will test the new SpaceX spacesuits during the first private spacewalk (EVA) by Jared and Sarah. And it will be the first with Starlink-quality video streaming.
Back to the Charlie Duke video: when asked what his dreams are for the future of human space exploration:
“Well I’m excited about the privatization of space. When it first came about, I was a little dubious, but then it was quickly obvious that SpaceX knew what they were doing, and I have been a big supporter of what SpaceX is doing in space in manned and unmanned launches. I’m impressed with this facility, and it’s the first time I’ve been here.”
Duke himself did a standup-EVA 52 years ago on Apollo 16, during its trip back to Earth. At minute 3:00 of this interview:
Q: What was the most memorable thing you went through during Apollo?
A: “Well , let me cover something that was very similar to y’all’s, and that’s the trans-Earth EVA. They’re very spectacular; I mean the view, that was my most impressive memory, really, to float out with the Earth down here”
“My advice is: Don’t let go! I wish you well.”
· My visit to Sarah Gillis in training here
· Backstory on how a cruel 60 Minutes program motivated me to make the Apollo tribute to SpaceX, which hangs at the entrance in HQ here
· At minute 0:11, you see an iconic photo of Duke using his Apollo 16 rock scoop as an arm rest. He visited us to discuss it after I bought that very scoop from him: video And he describes his use of the scoop for three days on the lunar surface to collect samples: video
Tags: Charlie Duke SpaceX Tour Interview HQ Polaris Dawn Commercial Space Internview