Kurt Thorn

Mastodon: [email protected]. Microscopy and DS/ML. Chief Technology Officer @ArrePath. Tweets are my personal opinion. Pronouns: he/him/his.

[Kurt Thorn @ScopeKurt]

@joannejang

[Kurt Thorn @ScopeKurt]

@dr_alphalyrae Worth noting that the molecule in question is a fairly straightforward medchem derivative of ISRIB, which was discovered at UCSF. I doubt Calico’s tech had much to do with it.

[Imran S. Haque (@ihaque@{bsky,genomic}.social) @ImranSHaque]

Very good post about the economics of and investor dynamics in drug discovery/biotech/techbio startups, where the hard problems are, and the fundamental challenges in assessing outcomes and quality.

[SF Parents #SFKidsCantWait @SFParents]

And yes, school board elections matter!

Vote for parents’ #1: SUPRYIA RAY @RayforBOE, and rising education leaders like @jaimenina and @ParagGuptaSF

[Alfred Millett-Sikking @amsikking]

Thermal expansion -> a typical problem in time-lapse microscopy at high resolution. Here I measure the axial shift of the focal plane of a Nikon 40x0.95 air objective at ~1.6um/K, or about ~1.5x the depth of field per degree C:
https://t.co/ZafijhH7AX

[Jack Butler @jackbutler4815]

I believe James Earl Jones was the last surviving cast member from DR. STRANGELOVE (his first movie). What a career. RIP.

[Kurt Thorn @ScopeKurt]

@manorlaboratory I’d ask whoever’s hosting you.

[Kurt Thorn @ScopeKurt]

@manorlaboratory I think a jacket, no tie is probably fine. I’ve only been at a few east coast biotechs but they’re not much more formal than CA. Honestly I suspect a jacket will have you better dressed than many.

[Imrat @imrat]

Are you new to Cursor and looking for some tutorial videos?

Here is a list of the good ones.

First place to start for sure is @hive_echo list of Cursor videos:

https://t.co/UYtdndVF4o

More below

[Ryan Moulton @moultano]

He failed at the two problems, cache invalidation and naming things.

[Reiter Lab @ReiterLab]

Come to San Francisco and hang with us!

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

I gave the “map of every European City” by itchy feet to Claude and asked it to do one for the US. Given its drawing skills, this was pretty solid, even a couple funny bits. (yes, of course similar things exist, this didn’t seem to be pulling from them)

[Kurt Thorn @ScopeKurt]

@amelie_iska Take a look at what @SavageCatsOnly is doing

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

Right now the advantages from AI accrue to workers, not firms. As a result, they can be hard to notice (especially if you don't try to seriously use AI yourself, which is illuminating)

These two accounts by coders are instructive:
https://t.co/dqxzw1mIJs
https://t.co/ryNKP7hY7H

[Phage Directory @phagedirectory]

ePhective (San Francisco) is a newly founded #phagetherapy company started by @joeBondyDenomy (@UCSF) & Zemer Gitai (@Princeton). They are currently looking for:
2 #Phage Scientists to lead projects in phage discovery, characterization, & engineering

[Imran S. Haque (@ihaque@{bsky,genomic}.social) @ImranSHaque]

PCA is surprisingly hard to beat

[Kurt Thorn @ScopeKurt]

It’s funny how moving from academia to industry changes your perspective. Looking for my second industry job I spent a lot of time asking questions about business strategy, to find a company that I thought would be successful. That never would have occurred to me in academia.

[Keith Hornberger @KRHornberger]

@ScopeKurt 💯 when I joined my current company when it was private and much smaller, the first thing I looked for was who they’d hired already - the concept was cool, but they’d also brought in many pharma veterans who knew how to get out the hammer and tongs and get sh*t done

[Kurt Thorn @ScopeKurt]

Agreed. There’s a reason VCs prefer an A team with a B idea over a B team with an A idea. Execution matters more than you think.

[Keith Hornberger @KRHornberger]

Second this. Pharma prioritizes action and decision-making. Scientific excellence is important, but execution is equally important. The work is iterative. Turn the crank, fail fast, learn from the failure, improve design, repeat. You can be scientifically excellent to a fault.

[Keith Hornberger @KRHornberger]

Second this. Pharma prioritizes action and decision-making. Scientific excellence is important, but execution is equally important. The work is iterative. Turn the crank, fail fast, learn from the failure, improve design, repeat. You can be scientifically excellent to a fault.