Alan Kozikowski

There has long been an obsession with the ability to take a pill for any ailment or illness, and Biora Therapeutics wants to be able to do that. But can they? Check out my latest story for Inside Precision Medicine.

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What you need to know about Martin Makary and planning for the Trump 2.0 FDA https://lnkd.in/gC9k3dih How would he impact the cell and gene therapy arena? #stemcells

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Eswar I., co-founder and CEO of Aikium Inc., discusses the novel class of SeqR proteins the company is developing, how they can bind to targets that traditional medicines can’t, and the potential to transform drug development by expanding the world of druggable targets with the use of AI. https://lnkd.in/gJctPPEf

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AI in Proteomics Data Analysis: Revolutionizing Protein Research Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative tool, enhancing data processing, pattern recognition, and prediction in proteomics. This integration is accelerating discoveries and fostering deeper understanding in fields like drug development, biomarker discovery, and systems biology. #AI #neurology

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Could aspirin be the Lp(a) preventative treatment we’ve been looking for? An *observational* study out of Emory suggests it could be, finding that high-Lp(a) aspirin-takers have far lower ASCVD mortality risks than people who don’t regularly take aspirin --- including people who have low Lp(a). PS - We're definitely covering this in the next Cardiac Wire. https://lnkd.in/grkuFgWN

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Google DeepMind's AlphaFold 3 has expanded predictive capabilities from proteins to a broad spectrum of biomolecular interactions, including DNA, RNA, ligands, and more, contributing to key applications, such as drug discovery. However, the publication of AlphaFold 3 without open source code has sparked a larger conversation within the scientific community around the changing landscape of research tools and the role of journals in communicating science to ensure reproducibility and accessibility to allow further scientific progress. Many thanks to Roland Dunbrack, Stephanie Wankowicz, PhD, and Mohammed AlQuraishi for speaking with me. Read my full article in our peer review journal, GEN Biotechnology: https://lnkd.in/gj2ED2kv ..and on GEN Edge: https://lnkd.in/g9gtUsUT #AI #AlphaFold #Biotechnology #DrugDiscovery

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Which mouse behavioral assay to test #psychedelic drugs?   In a new study, now in press at ACS Chemical Neuroscience, my lab systematically determined psilocybin’s effect on fear extinction as a function of dose, timing of administration, and serotonin receptors 🍄🐁   Link to paper: https://lnkd.in/egMtFaNg   Briefly, we adapted the classic auditory 📢 delay fear conditioning paradigm, inspired by pioneering MDMA studies by Young and Howell. Two key parts of our study were to test long-term effects of psilocybin: extinction retention on the day after drug administration and fear renewal on 7 days later in a novel context. We find that a classic psychedelic like psilocybin robustly reduces fear extinction shortly after administration. Importantly, we also find long-term effects: enhanced extinction retention and suppressed fear renewal in unfamiliar situation. Interestingly, the enduring effects on behavior are sensitive to dose, with 1 mg/kg being most reliable for eliciting the changes.   How may psilocybin facilitate extinction? Is it broadly enhancing learning, and can it be used to affect other aspects of behavior? To test this idea, we varied the timing of administration and injected psilocybin at different phases of the paradigm. Injecting psilocybin before fear conditioning did nothing. Injecting psilocybin after fear extinction did not help either. This hints at the importance of an appropriate context for the lasting effects to occur. Finally, we co-administered psilocybin with serotonin receptor blockers to reveal how the behavioral changes depended on 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors.   Overall, the results highlight dose, context, and 5-HT receptors as crucial factors in psilocybin’s ability to facilitate fear extinction. We are excited about follow-up studies to identify the neural circuits that may be driving the behavioral effects.

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DNA computing is a difficult concept to grasp, but it could be the future of data storage. See below for a press release I wrote for ACS on the topic.

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There's a new open access acronym to learn: ZEGOA. It stands for Zero-Embargo Green Open Access and was announced by the American Chemical Society last week. Here's the backstory and analysis from the latest issue of the Journalology newsletter: --- Last September ACS announced that it would start charging for green open access, presumably in response to the Plan S Rights Retention Strategy. cOAlition S funded academics can’t use their grants to pay for green OA, as this is prohibited, but they can fulfil the funder mandates by choosing this option and using another source of money to pay for it (i.e. the funder has their cake and gets to eat it). Now, researchers working at institutions that are part of the Couperin consortium will be able to deposit their author-accepted manuscripts without charge. Presumably, Couperin are compensating the ACS for this service financially. Publishers generally dislike green OA because it could result in subscription cancellations further down the line — indeed, this was the whole point of Steven Harnad’s 1994 subversive proposal — leaving the publishers with lots of cost and no revenue. The ACS took a logical (if controversial) approach by charging for the costs they incur up until the point of manuscript acceptance. The latest agreement with Couperin is financially possible because of this policy. It’s worth remembering that in October 2022 the Royal Society of Chemistry, the ACS’ major competitor for papers, said that it “aims to make all fully RSC-owned journals Open Access within five years”. --- #openaccess You can read the newsletter in full here: https://lnkd.in/dSnwE8Xa

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Once again, I am committed to American scientific and technological progress and more specifically, I am committed to facilitating researching cannabinoids for medicinal use starting with treating adenocarcinoma that often affects the Pancreas (Pancreatic cancer). I am paying the issue fee for a US patent treating adenocarcinoma using cannabinoids. Here, cannabinoids may be combined with other treatments as a one-two punch to disrupt cancer cells. The adenocarcinoma treatment patent joins many other patents related to cannabis science and applied technology that we have. These other patents relate to methods and apparatus for extracting and processing cannabinoids. These patents would help a pharmaceutical company enter the cannabis medicinal space with immunization against patent litigation. We also have access to proprietary genetics. I helped an old friend (Andy Hospodor), who is no longer with us, develop this intellectual property and am continuing the quest by working with Bronco Ventures Accelerator (BVA) at Santa Clara University (SCU) to establish an entity who will fight cancer as well as other ailments. Andy was an SCU alumni and professor, I am alumni as well. We are also hopeful that rescheduling of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) will happen sometime soon. As such, we are open to a partnership with an aspiring and funded entity, investment group, or combination thereof. If anyone out there a principal in such an entity or investment group that is interested, please let me know.

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Failure is inevitable in life, but it shouldn't be in your cell therapy supply chain! When patients' lives (and tons of money and resources) are on the line, it's important to cross your t's and dot your i's — and then do it again. Listen to Michael Mehler describe a horror story about unplugged freezers. The main takeaway? Prepare for the worst-case scenario, and then some! This is just one highlight from the hour-long panel discussion with Dr. Colleen Delaney, Kathryn Golden, and Michael Mehler. If you missed the live event, no worries! You can access the full recording (as well as other highlights) here, thanks to the event's sponsors, Bio-Techne and Charter Medical, LLC: https://lnkd.in/e43Yhuqs #celltherapy #stemcells #stemcelltherapy #supplychain

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I was truly surprised with I asked SUD industry executives for their predictions for 2025 and three of them mentioned GLP-1s. It's going to be an interesting year regardless of Ozempic's impact, to say the least. Click the link to read insights from nine industry executives (At least I think it was nine when I last counted.) And thanks to everyone who contributed! #behavioralhealth #substanceusedisorders #substanceusetreatment https://lnkd.in/deiZ_qgf

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🧪 A new HILIC-MS/MS method reported by Laura Pollard (Greenwood Genetic Center) offers enhanced sensitivity and specificity for analyzing urinary oligosaccharides, crucial for early and accurate diagnosis of lysosomal storage disorders. 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/epRGrzCE #diagnosis #massspectrometry #HILIC

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