The Gigaom interview: Why synthetic biology and the Netflix model are the future of medicine

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23 hours ago May. 3, 2014 - 8:00 AM PDT

Look inside nearly any medicine cabinet in the U.S. and there will be a few bottles of prescription pills. They might be blue, white, round or square, but their development has followed the same pattern for decades: One of the few gigantic pharmaceutical companies that have come to dominate the industry pours millions, or even billions, of dollars into designing and getting a drug approved. Then the same pill is prescribed to every single person.

Molecular biologist and futurist Andrew Hessel doesnt see that model lasting for much longer. He envisions a world in which every individual receives pharmaceutical drugs perfectly formulated to their genetic and medical needs for a fraction of what treatment would currently cost.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Hessel.

That future is on its way. Companies like Cambrian Genomics are making it possible for anyone to print strands of DNA. Autodesks bio/nano/programmable matter group, where Hessel is a distinguished researcher, is building design software known as Project Cyborg that will allow individuals to make 3D models of living matter.With the price of genetic sequencing dropping every year, he believes it wont be long before anyone who wants to will be able to create with the building blocks that make up life itself. The future of healthbelongs to any startup that wants in on it, instead of just the Genentechs of the world.

By learning to read and better understand the molecular world and self-assembling world, we have the opportunity to create really novel things using the same machinery that creates a plant or a cat, which is kind of fun, Hessel said. The genetic language is like the internet protocol: open, and so its a really fascinating language to learn. You learn one language and you can basically speak all of life, which is really cool. Its my favorite programming language.

What follows is an edited transcription of our conversation.

Signe Brewster:Why do you think individuals should have that kind of power?

Andrew Hessel: Every time I hear of a big challenge for the world, whether its, oh, how do you cure cancer or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels or clean up water or create anything sustainable, for me, its these technologies that are going to apply. If we can democratize their use and keep them open and transparent and make better tools for people to do the work, then were going to change the world in ways that are positive.

What would the pharmaceuticalindustry look like if the big companies were not in charge?

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The Gigaom interview: Why synthetic biology and the Netflix model are the future of medicine

Demystifying Medicine 2014 – HAV and HCV RNA Viruses: Clinical and Basic Advances and Challenges – Video

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Demystifying Medicine 2014 - HAV and HCV RNA Viruses: Clinical and Basic Advances and Challenges
Demystifying Medicine 2014 - HAV and HCV RNA Viruses: Clinical and Basic Advances and Challenges Air date: Tuesday, April 15, 2014, 4:00:00 PM Category: Demystifying Medicine Runtime: 01:43:58...

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Demystifying Medicine 2014 - HAV and HCV RNA Viruses: Clinical and Basic Advances and Challenges - Video

McGill students voice concerns over new medical school curriculum

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Even the best and the brightest are struggling with McGill Universitys rigorous new first-year medical school curriculum this year so much so that an alarming failure rate has prompted the class president to write to faculty to ask that changes be made to address some major curricular concerns.

Nebras Warsi, president of the McGill Medicine Class of 2017, outlined curriculum and evaluation problems in his letter, which was obtained by The Gazette and which he said was intended for internal purposes to rectify minor problems with a program that is much more demanding than the old curriculum.

Although David Eidelman, the dean of medicine, said he couldnt confirm the failure rate circulating among students, they say that in the class of about 200 students, 45 failed histology (the study of tissues) and about 35 failed anatomy.

Eidelman said those who failed had remediation and all but one or two eventually passed. There is no bell-curving of exams, and students who fail are required to pass remedial exams of comparable difficulty.

Warsis letter said there was an unusually high failure rate on multiple exams within the reflection and evaluation week and that there has been real confusion about the objectives of the curriculum. He subsequently said its hard to compare the failures with previous years because of the increased amount of material on this years tests.

For example, he said, under the new curriculum students are tested on almost double the amount of material on an anatomy exam compared with previous years.

We have realized that the tight scheduling of exams in the new curriculum (we often have five exams within one week), coupled with the greater amount of knowledge we are now learning, is what likely led to this outcome, he said. As well, the academic requirement to constitute a pass has been raised from passing the overall unit to passing each individual component separately.

The amount of cumulative information required, plus the new grading scheme, has some students panicking.

While Warsi tried to downplay concerns on Friday, other students said they are alarmed about their eventual fundamentals of medicine program, which will have an exam covering 18 months of material with almost no time off to study for it. And the coming set of June cumulative reflection and evaluation exams gives them only a weekend to prepare for testing on a years worth of material.

Its insane! said one student, who didnt want to be identified, but insists its much harder for students to succeed under the new curriculum and many are discouraged.

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McGill students voice concerns over new medical school curriculum

2014 Sodexo Future Chefs Finalist Highlight: Noeli Hernandez — Liberty Hill Intermediate School – Video

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2014 Sodexo Future Chefs Finalist Highlight: Noeli Hernandez -- Liberty Hill Intermediate School
View all the Future Chefs finalists here: bit.ly/SodexoFutureChefs Vote for your favorite receipe here: bit.ly/PwlDXj The Sodexo Future Chefs program, which ...

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2014 Sodexo Future Chefs Finalist Highlight: Noeli Hernandez -- Liberty Hill Intermediate School - Video

Liberty alums return to mingle and mentor

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The 2nd Annual Liberty Alumni Day held at Liberty High School in Bethlehem.

A lone bagpiper in full uniform stood at the top bleacher in the Liberty High School gymnasium, playing as scores of alumni, staff and students looked on from below.

Then drums outside the gym started beating and the Pipe and Drum section of Liberty's Grenadier Band came marching in, performing the rousing "Scotland the Brave" which filled the cavernous hall. The crowd cheered.

Not for the first time that day, Susan Redline got choked up.

"It brings tears to my eyes," said Redline, of the Liberty Class of 1964. "The memories, the band, the bagpipes. My father played in the band, he also played in the alumni band. My father was president of his class and he'd be proud."

Redline was among those returning to their alma mater Saturday for Liberty's second annual Alumni & Community Day. Students, staff, alums and community members took part in activities that began at 11 a.m. and were slated to run until 9:15 p.m.

Events included performances by several Liberty music groups, the alumni band and community musicians. Students led tours of the high school for those returning and manned an activities fair to showcase some of their clubs and projects.

A silent auction was held to raise funds for some of Liberty's new initiatives, including transforming the library into a complete technology center.

On tap for Saturday evening was a community bonfire and the "Mr. Liberty" contest, in which high school seniors vie for the title in a kind of spoof of a beauty pageant.

The day was designed to reinforce the bonds Liberty has to its alumni and the community and get both more involved in the school and students' success.

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Liberty alums return to mingle and mentor

After 44 years in business, Liberty Tool Co. is up for sale

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LIBERTY, Maine At 7:30 on Saturday morning, a group of eight people stood on the road outside a three story shop thats housed in a former inn at the center of town.

They were waiting for Skip Brack, the owner of the shop, Liberty Tool Co., to unload the most recent haul of tools hed picked up in towns across New England and brought to Maine to clean, refurbish and sell.

Brack, 69, had hardly opened the doors of his van before the group descended on the boxes of tools, picking through hammers, saws, axes, planes, drill bits and chisels.

A lot of these people are here every week, said Laure Day, who has worked at Liberty Tool for five years. Theyre not just shopping for something they need, but because of a shared passion, she said. Its part tools, part camaraderie.

The regulars consisted of boat builders, timber framers, collectors and a jeweler. They come early to get first dibs before the newest finds get mixed in with the thousands of other tools that line the shelves and fill labeled jars and drawers throughout the store.

As of about a week ago, its not only tools that are up for sale. After 44 years in business, Brack is selling the whole store and business, as well as a storage facility across the street and Captain Tinkhams Emporium in Searsport.

Brack is hoping to find someone who will carry on the business, he said. Hes posted the sale on craigslist and said hes received emails from a few potential buyers.

I want to make sure that Liberty Tool will still be in business if Im not up to doing what I do now, he said. He explained that he works 70 to 75 hours a week, driving up to 1,200 miles in a week to find tools, clean them at his barn in Bar Harbor, set prices and manage the stores. Now that hes a few weeks away from turning 70, he wants to scale back.

Brack said he would keep the tool shop that he runs in Bar Harbor and continue to operate the Davistown Museum, a space across the street from Liberty Tool where he displays his most prized discoveries, along with work by Maine artists.

The historical aspect has motivated me, he said of his business.

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After 44 years in business, Liberty Tool Co. is up for sale