Hello World,
Simon here, writing from lockdown. You’ve got to enjoy the little things at times like these and for me, it is sitting here at a cluttered, disordered desk. There’s papers, journal articles, books, old coffee mugs, moisturiser, decks of cards and pens scattered around. I love it and thrive in chaos. But the best bit... no-one is going to hot-desk here after me so at the end of the day I can get up and just walk away 😊. Bliss.
On the team, I’m the one who has been going down coronavirus research rabbit holes 🤓🐰 and now is the most important time to pay attention! Why? Because it is only now that we have had sufficient time and patients to study for the meaty work to get done! As one example, this comment piece in the Lancet from Feb 2020 provided good (historic), clinical evidence why corticosteroids were unlikely to be effective as a treatment for covid-19. Fast forward to June and dexamethasone (a cheap corticosteroid) has been shown to reduce deaths in certain patients. While we’re all hoping for a one-stop cure-all, lots of small steps forward might get us to a good place faster!
But how to stay on-top of all the work being done? I’m using Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource center for data, MedCram’s free videos (also on YouTube) for rapid expert assessment of research, UpToDate for peer reviewed literature used by clinicians and RAPS to track vaccine progress. Let me know if you’ve found other good resources (simon.king@octopusventures.com).
A massive shout out and congratulations to the amazing folk at deep tech portfolio company UltraSoC who were acquired last month by Siemens Mentor. UltraSoC has built some fantastic technology to keep track of what is happening on a System-on-a-Chip (SoC) at a hardware level. Gajinder Panesar, UltraSoC’s CTO, explains more about the applications of the technology here. And our very own Dr. Luke Hakes has voiced his personal experience of sitting on the board at UltraSoC here.
Finally, much love for Zoe Chambers from our Deep Tech pod, as she talks to New Scientist about how entrepreneurs with the right drive and some capital behind them can go after the big crazy ideas. |
