Nawal Lodha

Charging the #sharing #economy with Plugo!

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

@Jason I'm in

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

A man in Sydney just built a personalized cancer vaccine for his dying dog. Using AI. With no background in biology.

Paul Conyngham adopted Rosie, a staffy-Shar Pei cross, from a shelter in 2019. She’s been with him through some of the worst stretches of his life. “She’s my best mate,” he says. In 2024, Rosie got diagnosed with mast cell cancer, the most common skin cancer in dogs. He threw everything at it. Surgery. Chemo. Immunotherapy. The tumors slowed down but wouldn’t shrink. Vets gave her one to six months.

Conyngham works in AI and data science. So he did what he knows. He opened ChatGPT and started asking it what else was possible. That conversation led him somewhere wild. He got Rosie’s tumor sequenced at UNSW’s Ramaciotti Centre for Genomics, basically converting her cancer from tissue into raw data. Then he ran that data through AlphaFold, a Google AI tool that predicts the 3D shape of proteins (it won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2024). He used it to pinpoint the exact mutations driving the cancer and match them to drugs. A genomics professor at UNSW was, in his own words, “gobsmacked” that a guy with zero biology training had pulled together a complete analysis.

And then the really hard part started. Not the science. The paperwork. You can’t just create a vaccine and inject your dog in Australia. He spent 3 months writing a 100-page ethics application, two hours every night after work, just to get permission to treat his own pet. The red tape was harder than the actual drug design.

Once he cleared that, he connected with Páll Thordarson, director of the UNSW RNA Institute, who built a custom mRNA vaccine (same tech behind the COVID shots) from Conyngham’s data. Sequencing to finished vaccine: less than two months. Conyngham drove 10 hours to the lab with Rosie for her first injection in December.

Within a month, the tumor on her leg, roughly tennis ball sized, shrank by up to 75%. Her coat got glossier. She started acting like herself again. The treating vet called it “magical.” Conyngham is now sequencing a second tumor that didn’t respond to the first vaccine, trying to figure out why it’s resistant.

The part that keeps rattling around in my head: Moderna and Merck are running billion-dollar Phase 3 trials on a human version of the exact same idea. Their vaccine, mRNA-4157, sequences a patient’s tumor, identifies mutations, and builds a custom vaccine to teach the immune system to attack that specific cancer. Five-year data shows it cut melanoma recurrence by 49%. Expected cost per patient when approved: $100,000–$300,000. Expected approval: around 2027. Over 120 similar trials are running worldwide right now.

Conyngham did it for tens of thousands of dollars with free AI tools and university lab access. The tools to build personalized medicine already exist. The bottleneck is a regulatory system still calibrated for a world where designing a treatment took a decade, not eight weeks.

[van00sa @van00sa]

China knows exactly what this does. Their domestic version of TikTok caps kids under 14 at 40 minutes a day, locks access between 6am and 10pm, and swaps the entire feed to educational content. Science, history, museums.

The version they export to everyone else? Unlimited, unrestricted, pure dopamine on demand.

When kids in the US and China were asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, the number one answer in America was influencer. In China it was astronaut.

Macron calls this a cognitive war. Export what dulls young minds and keep what makes them intelligent for your own population.

This is the most effective weapon ever deployed against a generation’s ability to think.

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

@RohanPaliwal7 @warikoo We took Rs 299 as deposit but realized it should be more. We had a partnership+franchise model. Tried with few partners. Currently, closing down Plugo. Companies in China moved from 100% owned to 65% franchise model. This biz needs good scale.

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

@warikoo @RohanPaliwal7 We founded India's first shared power bank business 'Plugo' and differ a bit. Enough people need emergency charging in public places everyday. We had 4k+ rentals per day in Blr alone. We could avoid theft/fraud through product design. It's high capex, true, needs partnerships.

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

@jumoora This is amazing work. Must have taken huge effort.

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

@vijayshekhar @Paytm Sir, ask the 1000s of taxi drivers & merchants who were falsely lured by your sales team into getting the sound boxes & kept paying until they switched. The support is non-existent. No response to emails. It's a good joke. Paytm is heading down the same path that Byju's once did.

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

Bengaluru needs Mr Indrajeet now more than anything. @CMofKarnataka @TVMohandasPai @BBMPofficial #SwachhBharat #Bengaluru #Lucknow #CleanIndia #WasteToWealth #UrbanTransformation #IAS

[The Better India @thebetterindia]

Lucknow just jumped from Rank 41 to 3 in India’s cleanest cities list and the credit goes to one man and a mission.

Meet IAS Indrajeet Singh, the Municipal Commissioner who turned garbage hills into green parks and waste into fuel.

Watch how Lucknow cleaned up its act one electric vehicle, one tree, one citizen at a time.

#CleanIndia #Lucknow #CityTransformation #Inspiring

[Shiv Aroor @ShivAroor]

2 months ago, Sqn Ldr Lokendra Singh was on Op Sindoor readiness duty.

1 month ago, he became a father.

Today, his wife cradled their newborn at his funeral in Rohtak, Haryana.

No neta attended.
No CM.
No minister.
No local MP.
No MLA.

[Anuraag Peesara @anuraagp15]

“I just have one request. Keep supporting hockey, we will win more medals” - Indian captain Harmanpreet Singh

Man led by example with 10 goals - leading goalscorer of the tournament. He only has one plea.

We can do this, right?

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

Singur moment for Bangalore! Time to diversify our company to other states. 🤨 #Bengaluru @nasscom @TVMohandasPai @kiranshaw #KarnatakaReservationBill #jobquota

[Greg Brockman @gdb]

GPT-4o for customer service, concept demo:

[Sreemoy Talukdar @sreemoytalukdar]

It is easy to overlook the momentous achievement that was possible today when 41 miners came out into the open after being locked inside the bowel of the earth for 17 days. The entire government machinery, led by leaders and domain experts, gave it their all. For a nation that is regularly accused (and rightly so) of *not valuing the lives of its citizens unlike the developed nations*, this is truly huge and a welcome change in attitude. Feeling extremely relieved and proud. Kudos to everyone involved. #UttarakhandTunnel #UttarkashiRescue #UttarakhandRescue

[PlugO @GoPlugo]

Energizing Bangalore's delivery champs with Plugo Powerbanks no more downtime, only deliveries.

Contact us at 080 47112182 To Partner With Us
#Plugo #goplugo #swiggy #zomato #zepto #yulu #yuma #chargingstation #startup #startups #together #lifesaver #service #chargeonthego

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

@JioCare @reliancejio @JioTrue5G We have not heard back yet. @JioCare @reliancejio @JioTrue5G
#JioTrueConnect has no service option. Please refund our registration amount.

[Nawal Lodha @nawall]

Dear @JioCare
@reliancejio @JioTrue5G
#JioTrueConnect Team, no one responds to support email even in 15 days. There's no other way to get support on template approvals. Templates rejected wrongly. Please help refund our registration amount.

[PlugO @GoPlugo]

ISRO's historic MIssion CHANDRAYANA-3, successfully separated from the Vikram lander. One more step to go!!!

#ISRO #Chandrayaan3 #HistoricDay #india #launch #successful #Plugo #goplugo #watchlive #VikramLander

[PlugO @GoPlugo]

Don't let a dying battery ruin your day! PLUGO - your ultimate mobile charging partner. Your reliable power buddy. #Plugo #GoPlugo
Download the app at: https://t.co/6SuVC4AWjd
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#Rent_Charge_Return #poweronthego #partnerwithus #yourpowerbuddy #pickanywhere #dropanywhere

[Derek J. Grossman @DerekJGrossman]

"Indian PM Narendra Modi has an unusual nickname on the Chinese internet: Modi Laoxian (莫迪老仙). Laoxian refers to an elderly immortal with some weird abilities. The nickname implies...Modi is different--even more amazing--than other leaders."
https://t.co/2fswEIFEfC

[EVs and Dhandha | Save Money with Electric Vehicle @EVDhandha]

Is the Taxi Market really shrinking in India? Are #EV taxis getting popular?
https://t.co/Q5Yl8hsyMj
@ETAuto #ElectricVehicles #evIndia @TataMotors