Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are the latest oracle in healthcare’s quest to predict fate. The basic idea sounds beguilingly simple: take the tiny genetic influences scattered across the genome and sum them up into one risk number. If one mutation can’t foretell disease, perhaps hundreds of thousands of

“Excess capacity” – not a phrase one expects to hear in a high-growth industry riding on the coattails of pharmaceutical innovation. Yet in the once-overheated world of contract research and manufacturing, signs of a glut are emerging. Europe’s gleaming labs and China’s biotech parks, which expanded feverishly

There are few things more sacred in biotech than the sanctity of government grants. At the heart of this cathedral sits the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a $49 billion-a-year colossus that dispenses lifeblood to labs, startups, and research institutions alike. In countless ways, NIH funding is the

The field of longevity therapeutics has rapidly progressed from animal studies to human clinical trials in recent years. Multiple approaches – from senolytics to gene therapy – are being tested in clinics around the world. Figure 1 illustrates the geographic span of these trials (primarily in the US, with some in Europe,

Introduction A new breed of lab-coat-clad blockchain enthusiasts believes they can reinvent biomedical research. In decentralized science (“DeSci”), clinical trials go virtual, IP gets tokenized, and research is guided by DAO votes instead of boardroom decisions. It sounds radical – like replacing Big Pharma’s hierarchy with a Discord

Why Many Interventions Improve a Biomarker Without Altering the Underlying Condition Surrogate Markers vs True Outcomes Clinical research often relies on surrogate markers – laboratory values or imaging findings that stand in for actual clinical outcomes. Examples include tumor shrinkage or progression-free survival in cancer, blood glucose (HbA1c) levels in

The modern pharmaceutical and scientific job market, dear reader, has developed a peculiar affliction—no, not another variant, but something equally transmissible: credentialitis. A creeping malaise in which individuals collect certifications the way Victorians collected venereal diseases: with surprising enthusiasm and an air of scholarly pride. There is, of course,

It is not often that the bounds of acceptable discourse are described in terms of architecture. Yet the Overton Window—a tidy metaphor for the range of ideas considered palatable in public life—has quietly shaped not only politics, but science, finance, and the technological imagination. What is permissible to

10 Slides You'll Always See If you've been pitched by more than three biotech startups in your life, you’ve probably suffered from slide déjà vu—that uncanny sensation of seeing the same deck, over and over again, with only the logo swapped. Instead of complaining

Why constant reinvention is both vital—and a sign you may have no idea what you're doing Once upon a time, to pivot meant something rather graceful. Dancers did it. Basketball players did it. Generals, occasionally, did it—sometimes with disastrous consequences. In business, however, the pivot arrived