May 3, 2023 — It’s been quite the day for clinical development! I’m sharing two summary results below and a few prompt questions RE: benefits in special patient sub-populations and benefits of long-term follow up. Would love to hear your thoughts and reactions! 🧠 Eli Lilly and Company reported results…

I’ve been reading quite a bit lately about the National Cancer Institute (NCI)’s response to the Cancer Moonshot goals. This Nature news article covers it succinctly. In it, they quote Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, who heads the NCI. At the AACR meeting last week, she said: “Doing more of what we…

Really exciting findings in the field of #parkinsonsdisease research. This study published in Lancet identified a mis-folded version of the protein alpha-synuclein as a #biomarker for Parkinson’s diagnosis. I hope this discovery will accelerate the development of better diagnostic assays for alpha-synuclein status, and thus, the risk of developing Parkinson’s…

The problem with rare disease data fragmentation, and how real world data and advanced analytics can help improve the lives of those affected by rare and ultra-rare diseases February 28th is Rare Disease Day, a moment to educate ourselves on rare and ultra rare diseases, and reflect on the daily…

It’s been nearly two decades since the National Institutes of Health’s Human Genome Project completed the initial high-quality sequencing of the entire human genome (Nurk et al. 2022). The audacious goal of sequencing and characterizing all human genetic information spanned public and private sectors and crossed national boundaries. As the…

This is a follow-up to the Omicron variant article I wrote a few weeks ago. It’s been about a month since the identification of the Omicron variant, and, while we have more questions than answers, some insights are already emerging and evolving. I’m grateful for all the thoughtful, hard-working, and…

Time will tell whether the B.1.1.529 COVID-19 variant of concern (AKA: Omicron variant) is a more severe, highly transmissible, breakthrough-infection-causing version of COVID-19. For now, South African scientists, clinicians, and the worldwide research community have given us a gift: the ability to be proactive in how we manage the spread…

Today is Clinical Trials Day, organized by the Association for Clinical Research Professionals. Clinical Trials Day is a day for celebration and recognition of clinical trial professionals and the work they do every day to improve patient lives and bring new treatments to market. New interventions are a source of…

As of March 17, 2020, San Francisco and many other US cities will observe “shelter in place” and folks might feel disconnected from their favorite activities and from friends and family. However, in the interest of public health, we should all do our part and stay home. To help with…