4
May
2025
Tech-Enabled Power To The People: Ingratiating Chatbots and a Virtuous Food App
For at least a decade, nearly every tech company has promoted their product as facilitating the “democratization” of something – perhaps “data driven medicine,” or “genetic information” or “access to clinical trials” or “digital health” (all real examples). Like “mission-driven,” “results-oriented,” and “disruptive,” the term “democratization” has become so overused by the tech community that it’s now more of an... Read More
3
May
2025
Our Collective Hope For AI in Health, Plus Explanatory Models and an Epic Podcast
A recent piece by Nathan Price captures our collective hope for AI in health with unusual clarity, even as there remains impassioned disagreement regarding how close these ambitions are to meaningful realization. For context, Price is Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Human Healthspan at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and CSO of Thorne, a company best... Read More
2
May
2025
A Sublime Experience: Views of Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon Cancer Research
Kathmandu, Nepal We did it together. The Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation completed a splendid expedition to Everest Base Camp on Apr. 23, 2025. This trip succeeded on every count. All 17 members of the team made it to the mountaineering camp at 17,600 feet / 5,364 meters. We exceeded our $700,000 fundraising goal for high-risk /... Read More
22
Apr
2025
Embracing Non-Linear Career Paths: Professor Martin Gaynor
(Guest) Editor Note: Martin Gaynor, the Lester A. Hamburg University Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, was recently honored with the Victor R. Fuchs Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Field of Health Economics by the American Society of Health Economists. His response (shared with his permission) was both striking and magnificent, emphasizing the contingency of... Read More
22
Apr
2025
The Four Dysfunctions of Corporate Cultures—Applied to Biopharma
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14
Apr
2025
Can You Improve Your Health Without Obsessing About It?
Can you improve your health without obsessing about it? I’ve been, well, obsessing about this question as I continue to spend more time and mindshare in the world of healthy aging evangelists, enthusiasts, and entrepreneurs, longevity champions keen to guide you, and often test you, towards their conceptions of healthier aging. (See this piece on the longevity boom, and this... Read More
14
Apr
2025
Finding New Targets for Cancer Drugs: Kevin Parker on The Long Run
Kevin Parker is today’s guest on The Long Run. Kevin is the co-founder and CEO of South San Francisco-based Cartography Biosciences. The company is using multi-omic tools to map out which targets are specifically expressed on cancer cells. The idea is to find new, precise targets that antibody drugs can aim for. Cartography got started during the pandemic, raised a... Read More
11
Apr
2025
Why I Left European Science
Monday was my last day as a group leader at The Francis Crick Institute. I got my job at the Crick in 2020, almost exactly 5 years ago, right as COVID was beginning. I had finished my PhD in 2019, and had always told myself that I would only ever be an academic if I could find a place where... Read More
10
Apr
2025
FDA in Crisis, Parker Institute Snags Big Fish, & Merida Megaround
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $199 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.
9
Apr
2025
What US Biotech Can Do to Meet the Moment
We have entered a new era in biotech. Turmoil at the FDA has introduced new uncertainty. NIH funding cuts and grant delays have led to academic institutions to hold off on job offers to young scientists. The Trump Administration’s reset of trade relations with the world caused a financial market meltdown, and wild rebound. All of these things are... Read More
8
Apr
2025
We Need an mRNA Champion in a Red Cape
I grew up in an era of Superman comic books. Superman captivated the imagination of a generation of kids like me. It told stories of an otherwise ordinary human who could achieve extraordinary feats of speed and strength, leaping tall buildings with a single bound, to defeat the bad guys. Miracles could happen on a foundation of truth and justice,... Read More
7
Apr
2025
Leaving A Mark On Patients
Leading a nonprofit that helps kids and families with terrible diseases requires a certain ability to roll with the punches. That feeling hit last week when I heard about Peter Marks’ forced resignation as Director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). Here was a scientific champion of innovative cell and gene therapies at the FDA. He... Read More
6
Apr
2025
Meet the Timmerman Traverse for Life Science Cares 2025 Team
The 5th annual Timmerman Traverse for Life Science Cares is fired up and ready for outdoor adventure in 2025. We’re on a mission to raise $1 million to fight poverty. This year’s team is preparing for a pair of challenging hikes in the Pacific Northwest, Aug. 18-19. We’ll cover 20 miles of trails, ascend 7,000 vertical feet, and savor some... Read More
3
Apr
2025
FDA Gutted, Novartis Kidney Drug Pays Off, and Isomorphic Raises a Fortune
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2
Apr
2025
Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon Hits $700K Goal, Fueling Cancer Research
Times are tough in biotech, but this is an industry where we learn, adapt, and move forward. I’m proud to announce that the 2025 Timmerman Traverse for Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation has hit its fundraising goal of $700,000 to support high-risk / high-reward cancer research. We stand at $702,555 in closed donations. Our team of 16 hikers is now... Read More
31
Mar
2025
Relationships That Make TechBio Go ‘Round: David Roblin on The Long Run
David Roblin is today’s guest on The Long Run podcast. David is the CEO of London-based Relation Therapeutics. The company uses multi-omic tools to look for drug targets in human tissue samples. It seeks to find the relationships between perturbed biological states and disease, with the help of machine learning. Relation emphasizes relationships in another sense as well – the... Read More
30
Mar
2025
Looking Back and Seeing The Future: The Relationships that Propel Biotech
It’s been a rough week (again) for those of us within the biotech ecosystem. Actually, it’s been a rough month. Hell, let’s just say it’s been a hard year. Or two. Rather than writing about the negatives – there will be plenty of time for that, I suspect – I’d like to share a delightful little story. I recently returned... Read More
29
Mar
2025
GLP-1s Secret Weapon: Improving Health By Enhancing Agency
The arrival of generative AI prompted many to worry about the adverse impact on human agency; after all, if the technology can effectively do what we’re doing, where does that leave us? This concern was the central focus of Reid Hoffman’s “Superagency,” which I reviewed for the WSJ earlier this year – see here. Essentially, Hoffman argues that new technologies... Read More
28
Mar
2025
Longevity Is Having A Moment
Dying, with few exceptions, has never been especially popular, and our shared interest in not dying hardly constitutes breaking news. Nevertheless, the aspiration of living longer — and remaining healthier while doing it — appears to be all the rage. Consider these recent headlines: “Why is longevity sudden so hot?” – Chrissy Farr, Second Opinion. “The longevity business is booming... Read More
27
Mar
2025
A Moment of Peril and Promise
Please subscribe and tell your friends why it’s worthwhile. Quality journalism costs money. When you subscribe to Timmerman Report at $199 per year, you reward quality independent biotech reporting, and encourage more. Subscribe Now Sign in to your account.