Ian Hay 🧬

Writing about the future of biology | @Northeastern | @FactorBio

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

The problem with healthcare is we do not understand the human body as a system of single cells.

This misconception is the primary reason 90% of clinical trials fail. Promising experimental results rarely translate to human patients.

I have an idea for how to overcome this.

[Julia Bauman @JuliaBauman2]

Making CAR T cells in vivo (& with a TRAC knockout) using a new cell type-specific delivery vehicle!

Cool study from @doudna_lab in @NatureBiotech

[Alvin Foo @alvinfoo]

White blood cells fighting germs in our body.

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

We can fold DNA like origami paper to create smiley faces :) and countless other shapes.

This fun experiment has applications in drug delivery and perhaps most notably in CRISPR gene editing.

Let me explain 🧵

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

[1]: https://t.co/pJBWiPVaCL

[2]: By Tanveer Ahmed - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://t.co/II7ubOW6qu

[3]: https://t.co/v3qssnzEfE

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

Beyond being an incredibly cool and nerdy art form, DNA origami has its uses.

The folded DNA origami is much smaller, which is more efficiently packaged and delivered to the cell's nucleus. Evolutionary pressure led bacteriophages to develop a folded DNA genome for this reason.

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

This awesome technology originally used to create cute electron microscope images of DNA has the potential to broaden gene editing applications across difficult-to-engineer cell types like T cells.

What a cool way to make use of DNA doodles! :)

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

Paul Rothemund of Caltech detailed a method in 2006 [1] to use the M13 bacteriophage genome to along with DNA "staples" to create customizable DNA structures.

Computer simulations can take an input design and output which "staples" to use to fold the DNA in that pattern. [2]

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

We can fold DNA like origami paper to create smiley faces :) and countless other shapes.

This fun experiment has applications in drug delivery and perhaps most notably in CRISPR gene editing.

Let me explain 🧵

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

RNA forms secondary structures where the sequence folds over itself, unlike DNA which remains a rather uniform helical strand.

Some bacteriophages, however, have evolved to fold their DNA to package it tightly and improve its movement across the bacteria to replicate.

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

If you want to read more about how this will reinvent healthcare as we know it, I wrote an essay all about it.

Subscribe to my Substack to learn more about the future of medicine! Linked in my bio.

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

More than 150 million people in the US have taken a prescription drug in the last 30 days.

Yet HALF of chronic patients do not adhere to their prescription.

This causes about 100,000 deaths and $100B in damages per year.

How can we fix this?

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

This isn't some mad sci-fi idea, either. Scientists at ETH Zurich have already done this to treat multiple sclerosis in mice.

And the NIH unveiled a massive grant proposal for more ideas to get this into clinical trials this decade.

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

We can't just nonstop produce our prescriptions, though.

We can take photosynthesis receptors that are sensitive to light and put them on engineered cells in a device with a light to turn on or off the prescription production.

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

@peterrhague FYI, an updated version of this chart. It tells largely the same story but incorporates the inflationary uptick in some (but not all) sectors from 2020-2022

[Ian Hay 🧬 @hayitsian]

@erika_alden_d @NikoMcCarty A great read :) I wholeheartedly agree with your points and am very excited for the 21st century of biology