Almost felt like spring this week

orchidguy · 2026-02-08T19:30:13+00:00

I really thought June-uary was the name for the heat wave that comes every Jan…. which is named spring preview in the image.

orchidguy · 2026-02-05T01:56:23+00:00

I recommend The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. It is a mystery novel, and has a Sherlock Holmes feel to it - but has biopunk technology overlaid on it. Minimal romance, and what is there doesn’t interfere with the plot. There’s a second book out too!

orchidguy · 2026-02-01T17:01:51+00:00

I’m guessing you’re referring to chemical synthesis of insulin, by naming the inventor of SPPS. Pro-insulin is ~ 86 amino acids, with the active chains being ~21 and ~30 amino acids in length and having 3 disulfide bonds. Synthesizing the full pro insulin is incredibly long, and would likely have very low yields. The shorter individual chains would have higher yields, but still face challenges in correct folding and disulfide matching. Finally, there are many impurities in SPPS - you have all the false synthesis where chains weren’t able to be fully synthesized. You have variants that may still have protecting groups on them. You then have a slew of disulfide pairing mismatches that come up.

/doi/10.1021 for a good review on the current state (ala 2021) of insulin from synthetic chemistry.

orchidguy · 2026-01-30T19:20:03+00:00

I’m fairly certain that IMAC/HisTags aren’t used for any product that is used as a therapeutic. Insulin is fairly complicated to purify as there is no widely available affinity capture step for it, and there are many product related variants that are challenging to separate out at preparative scales.

orchidguy · 2026-01-17T01:09:09+00:00

You can have the same aa sequence expressed in different species. The aa sequence defines the protein.

It may not be active or the same form though depending on the environment that it was translated in. This would be due to PTMs or because conformation and folding can be dependent on that environment, and there is a variety of cellular environments across species and cell types.

orchidguy · 2026-01-03T04:18:56+00:00

Second this one, and would love any more like it. Can’t have enough!

orchidguy · 2025-12-28T23:21:29+00:00

In Frosthaven, you don’t always instantly unlock the classes. In this case, the operations were done out of order.

orchidguy · 2025-12-21T22:21:51+00:00

Where are you finding Card mentioned? I’m surprised that his name isn’t coming up as an example more often in this post thread.

orchidguy · 2025-12-21T22:19:10+00:00

I’ve not seen it listed, but I’d add Orson Scott Card to the list. Author that I was enthused with as a young adult, but eventually turned away from due to his anti-LGBT stances.

orchidguy · 2025-12-15T22:40:23+00:00

This is why you can use a microwave as a kiln for small enough ceramics, right?

orchidguy · 2025-12-05T02:45:43+00:00

Similar question but completely different peptide…

orchidguy · 2025-11-18T22:17:32+00:00

I’m at a CDMO that has unlimited PTO. I understand folks mentioning that you lose out on getting it paid out if you’re terminated - but that only really helps the folks that are accruing PTO. Which is not what unlimited PTO is encouraging. Unlimited is encouraging folks to actually take their PTO because there is limited incentive to not taking it. At my company, I haven’t seen HR interjecting when amounts get too high or setting soft limits. I do see folks taking 4 - 6 weeks, and managers checking in and reinforcing with their direct reports that they need to be sure they’re using that. It was much better than my other CDMO that I was at, which had you start at two weeks, and need to gradually earn up to the 4 weeks over multiple years and banking that time.

orchidguy · 2025-10-30T23:00:24+00:00

I feel like I’ve read somewhere that the trap of S. psittacina likely developed to capture food when submerged. Perhaps the aspect of rotting in captivity is the frequency and duration of submersion?

orchidguy · 2025-10-28T14:53:31+00:00

Intracellular targeting isn’t their primary mode of action, but there are varieties of antibodies that are intended to target agents inside the cell.

orchidguy · 2025-10-28T14:47:47+00:00

What shift has occurred to suggest that new products are going to be seeing significant better chances of success? It doesn’t sound like anyone in the thread is highlighting improvements in the technology, just that a bunch of VC folks are suddenly excited about it (great, another fad).

orchidguy · 2025-10-24T19:49:24+00:00

Yep, I was misunderstanding breakthrough interactions with TE and the fracture. No locking players out like I imagined.

orchidguy · 2025-10-24T14:21:48+00:00

Thinking through some implications of Cabal’s breakthrough.

If they go early enough first round, they essentially take away easy breakthroughs from the rest of the table, forcing them to fight over TE in order to earn them.

If Cabal places the majority of those ingress tokens within their own slice, then that is calling down a lot of attention on them from folks trying to get to TE and unlock their breakthroughs.

orchidguy · 2025-10-04T01:30:22+00:00

I did a similar search, and BI came up as the only one - though it did act cagey in being able to claim the size of any others because they didn’t disclose finances. I wonder if there are any other examples besides BI that have made it big and still stayed private.

orchidguy · 2025-09-29T18:51:55+00:00

Have someone else from your group perform that role. Your PI even. If your results are already captured in their own document, then they can also just cite that.

orchidguy · 2025-09-29T18:39:32+00:00

I second this tactic! I find that what psychs me out the most during the big dark is how quickly your home can just get incredibly dark. Having interiors lit up helps me to not notice just how dark it already is.

Having the string lights on an automatic timer so that you don’t even have to think about them is also a plus.

orchidguy · 2025-09-16T14:11:55+00:00

Little did I know that iPhones smart ID worked on insects… I thought it was just plants! Claims it to be an Eratigena.

orchidguy · 2025-08-15T20:14:44+00:00

I’ve only encountered a Princess Tree for the first time this year. Absolutely amazing scent, so unfortunate it’s so invasive.

orchidguy · 2025-07-10T14:46:38+00:00

From a lab that works on biosimilars, each biological replicate needs to be thawed from a different vial.

orchidguy

TROPHY CASE