Jacob Verghese

The relationship between sleep duration and some chronic conditions in ~7,000 @AllofUsResearch participants @NatureMedicine nature.com/articles/s4159…

A study was published on how personality traits relate to life satisfaction. The no.1 trait of people satisfied with life? “Having a lot of fun.” Here’s what else they found:

“If you ask for money you get advice and if you ask for advice you get money.” - keep engaging with investors even if you are not raising capital. #BioEquityEurope #BioEquity2024

Listening to a keynote: How to rise above the noise - “Evolving healthcare environment will likely increase the bar for biotechs in terms of differentiation, efficiency and data quality.” acc. to the McKinsey report. #BioEquityEurope #BioEquity2024

Wishing you a joyous New Year! May 2024 bring you endless opportunities, love, and happiness. Let's leave behind the challenges of 2023 & step into a bright future filled with success and fulfillment. Cheers! #HappyNewYear2024

RIP Charlie Munger I'll always remember him for this talk he gave on the Psychology of Human Misjudgement. If you have an hour, it's well worth the time:

A new, very good review on #LongCovid nature.com/articles/s4139…

BREAKING: The 2023 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman "for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19."

He 5X'ed AstraZeneca's productivity from pre-clinical to phase III completion and transformed the company's R&D strategy, culture and approach to innovation. I spent hours researching Mene Pangalos. 10 key principles from his leadership playbook:

An outstanding review of how these 3 systems—gut microbiome, nervous system, and immunity—interact cell.com/immunity/fullt… @ImmunityCP

A mind-blowing paper has come out today in @Nature In 2016, JC Venter Institute scientists trimmed a bacterial genome to its barest minimum required for life to synthesize what they called a "minimal genome" (science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…). Today, a group of scientists from Indiana University reports how that minimal genome evolved over 2000 generations in comparison to the non-minimal genome. The authors found that even when you reduce a bacterial genome to its absolute minimum where every nucleotide matters, the genome undergoes mutational events generation after generation as much as the non-minimal genome. One simply cannot stop the evolution. Just over 300 days of evolution (equivalent to 40,000 years in humans) the minimal cell has gained everything it lacked in fitness on day one in comparison to the non-minimal cell. When comparing the evolved traits between the minimal and non-minimal cells, the scientists found something striking. The evolutionary process increased the cell size of non-minimal cells but not that of the minimal cell. But that is not the striking part. The scientists were able to identify the key mutation that resulted in cell size evolution. And it turned out that the mutation that helped the non-minimal cells to grow bigger is the same that helped the minimal cells to stay smaller. Growing bigger had a survival advantage for non-minimal cells and not growing bigger had a survival advantage for minimal cells. So, the mutation had a context-dependent effect. This just demonstrates that the evolutionary effects on traits have no absolute direction. All that matter is what is beneficial for the organism's survival. The conclusion of the paper is metaphorically a quote from the Jurassic Park movie: “Listen, if there’s one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained. Life breaks free. It expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers painfully, maybe even dangerously, but . . . life finds a way". (scienmag.com/artificial-cel…) nature.com/articles/s4158…

„Nein zur Elterngeld-Kürzung!” - Jetzt unterschreiben! chng.it/NVqkRXFF via @ChangeGER

Quote of the day. #QOTD

Classic! 😎

mRNA vaccines helped us through the covid-19 pandemic—but they could also help defend against many other infectious diseases, offer universal protection against flu, and even treat cancer. trib.al/R0vT24A

I watched 'Air' last night for the first time. This is Phil Knight’s manifesto for Nike from 1980. I'm now convinced every startup needs this on their wall.

Quote of the day. #QOTD

The World’s Best Venture Capital Investors In 2023 Produced in partnership with TrueBridge Capital Partners, the #ForbesMidas List has long tracked venture capital’s ebbs and flows as the definitive ranking of the top 100 tech investors. FULL LIST: trib.al/n863HA1

#StarWarsDay dating back to its first mention in 1978.

@RLCscienceboss @BostonGlobe Congrats Ryan!

Some personal news: This is my last month at the @BostonGlobe. It was an incredible privilege to work at the paper, and it's hard to say goodbye, but I'm excited to move to a rapidly growing publication to cover science and biotech in April...stay tuned!