Ramblings: November 2021
5 December 2021
Here are some collected Twitter ramblings from November 2021.
This should make it painfully obvious where my roots are. I’ve also been waiting for the Orioles to win another World Series since 1983.
So much scientist behavior in social settings can be predicted by the predominantly introverted phenotype. This short thread has a little fun with that. And is true.
Someday I’ll do a longer post on the current and future role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in drug discovery. But briefly: in current form, AI/ML is presently massively oversold re: its scientific capabilities and its ability to impact drug discovery timelines. AI/ML routinely fails to hit at some of the main rate-determining steps in drug discovery. I’ve also been in this business long enough to know that there are no panaceas. I’ve seen so many would-be panaceas come and go in the last two decades (remember when combichem was going to find all our drugs for us? maybe you’re not old enough, but I do remember) that I’m instantly skeptical of the next startup that comes along and declares one. What we do have, and have built up over time, is a collection of useful tools in the toolbox, each with its purpose. That’s still a series of wins, but not a magic bullet. And yes, I’ll include targeted protein degradation, and more broadly proximity-induced drug discovery, on that list of not-panaceas. TPD can do many things and open many new doors, but it won’t open them all.
This was just good plain fun. Although 100% preaching to the choir.
This month I led the Arvinas crew on a “haunted hike”. The place we went is an old abandoned 19th century mill town (now preserved as a state park) with a very dark history. Sometimes these treks are just as much about the stories and the history as they are about logging miles and getting to the next scenic vista.
A retweet from Bruce Booth had an impact this month. Thanks Bruce!
I probably watched this video of a robot arm bowling about 100 times. Hypnotic.
Hard to believe I’ve been leading our hiking club at work for a year now. So great to have friends (sometimes lots of friends!) on the trail.
My entry in the Great Flourine Debacle of 2021.
It was so terrific to hit the road and lecture again. Even better to see my old friend Tom. Hope we get to do this again. Incidentally, I’m more than happy and available to speak at academic institutions on targeted protein degradation. Hit me up!
And maybe the only thing better than Thanksgiving is piling up turkey, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce on bread or a roll the day after. A sandwich fit for a king!
True story. Since I’d graduated from undergrad by the time our mutual friends got married and was well into grad school at Columbia, it was pure dumb luck that I both: a) met my future wife at this wedding; and b) she lived close enough to NYC (New Brunswick, NJ) that we could actually have a relationship. We spent a lot of time on NJ Transit during my last two years in grad school having a commuter relationship!
Consensus: yes. Yes it does.