Revolution Science - Gene Editing, Major Cures & Eugenics

Today, I was reading up on genetic advancements and reread an article that came across my desk about a week ago.  I thought to myself:  I really, really need to get this out a bit more because the consequences of this research being "out" are astounding.

True enough, since this came out about 3 years ago from the labs (once again, very well documented, peer-reviewed science, well supported), a great many startups have picked up on it to create applications in the real world and many Venture Capital companies have invested huge sums to get it all going.

Dr.  Jennifer Doudna, Berkeley University, California

In the following Youtube video I talk a bit more about this and integrated into my video is the TED talk video from the head researched herself that published the paper a few years back.  She describes the technique and its potential applications better than I ever could.  Check it out:

Bottom line, this is once more a revolutionary piece of science that, in just a few years, will change our world.

Why?

We can soon say goodbye to potentially ALL genetic diseases. 
For example:

• Cystic Fibrosis
• Tay-Sachs disease
• Some cancers
• Sickle Cell Disease
• Huntington's Disease
• Many more

We can also say hello to  possibilities in:

• Genetic human enhancements
• Designer babies
• Designer pets and other animals
• Cures for retroviral and persistent genetic viral infiltration diseases such as:
• AIDS
• Herpesvirus
• Proviruses

This is very exciting because we can get, as a human species, get more ownership over our own physical bodies, customizing it the way we want and feeling more in control of what it does (eradication of some diseases). 

Others would likely say that this is terrible news since governments and corporations would also be able and likely will use this technology to create better soldiers and biological weapons.  Using this tech, it would be pretty simple to create a bio weapon that would target a certain population for example and make them extremely sick (disable) on a genetic level.

I'm of the opinion that science must advance and we have to lobby, and be active in our desire as a society to see through ONLY the positive applications of great technologies.  Science is not evil... only people can be evil (people hungry for power.

For those of you who believe this can be "canned"... its unlikely at this point.  Way too much money has been spent from investors to take this new research down into oblivion, just too much money to be made.  But this time into long duration cures.  Not only that, but with the CRISPR technology, we can also heal the gametogenesis cells of both genders so that they cannot transmit whatever genetic defect they have to their children.  Cool huh?

One of many startups using CRISPR to attempt genetic cures and other genetic modifications

 

One of the biotechnology companies in the race to make things happen, Editas Medicine, hopes to do human testing on a specific genetic disease by 2017, a genetic eye disorder that renders people carrying the erroneous gene blind, called Leber congenital amaurosis, cure it and report findings.  If successful with this one disease, they hope that the FDA will approve more testing for other diseases and release them to offer a cure for this disease to all affected desiring treatment.

And you know what?  The technique is super simple and inexpensive they say.  How that translates into $$$ and cents, we'll soon see but sounds good to me!

For the biochemistry and biology fans out there, here is a picture of the process involving CRISPR and the Cas9 protein at work in cutting the bad gene and duplicating a healthy DNA copy below.

Cas9 at work during the CRISPR process of editing a gene

 

So keep watch for more developments on this in a couple years where we'll start seeing firms, hospitals and not-for-profit organizations offering treatment for all sorts of debilitating diseases as well as all sorts of beneficial designer genetic modifications to the population... for a cost... :) .

 

Keep the revolution going, using great science! 

 

Support this sort of excellent research everywhere and we can create our own paradise of peace, harmony and health for all soon enough.

 

The investor fund and digital game design dilemma

As usual, I was perusing some subjects on my LinkedIn and once more I found some people ranting on why investors don't invest in small unaccomplished firms that have a great digital game design made until the game is actually completed. 

Here is what I responded, roughly, but edited so people that didn't follow the thread can follow.

Click Here for the actual LinkedIn thread if you wish.

There are different types of investors that are willing to put money down, let's not forget that. VCs in the game space will typically fund on design only with the strongest studios with a well proven track record of generating sales. That rings true of Publishers like EA and others which act a bit like VCs. 

If you are a studio that doesn't have a multimillion dollar franchise under your belt, you need more than a design for VC money, you need at least a prototype, and in some cases, a finished product you wish to pitch to get the $$$ to publish properly etc... 

However, if your project is small enough, Angel investment can be a path for a startup, as long as you have a demo OR you have a design and a super strong team with really high class management. 

Friends and family or Kickstarter money can be used to raise small budgets on an idea with a strong team behind it. 

The business model here is simply to match the "story" you are telling to the investor with the amount that needs to be raised to match perceived risks. 

This is true in ANY business, anywhere. 

The advantage I see with Kickstarter is that if you need more than a little, and you have some strength in the team and a few moderately successful titles, you can actually raise funds without giving away equity and you have some pre-sales which is really awesome. 

Sure the bigger companies will also use the system and draw lots of attention and $$$. As a small firm, you just have to ask for less, make your first title a success, then next time you have a better "story" and experience, thus you can ask for more. 

Of course in our industry, we would love to receive $2million for our awesomely designed idea, but that'll never happen if you have never spent $2million in the business making a game yourself with the same team and making a higher ROI off of it. 

Instead of criticising reality, we must create great business "stories" and raise funds that match it, then move on. 

There are LOTS of ways to increase the appeal of a "story", but that's the subject of perhaps another blog post if people want to read up on that.

The Need for funding for a startup right at the start

Typically you want to NOT need funding at the beginning.  Sometimes it is required but its usually best to start with manageable bites for your business through an intelligent strategic plan.

For example, one of my mentored students wants to open up a niche coffee shop but she has no money for an extra rent, staff, furnishings, equipment.  Its a reasonable expense but over her budget or her current ability to raise.

Well, after talking to me and fellow Master Entrepreneur Chris Castillo we elaborated a plan where she leverages things she loves to do such as writing and marketing to draw people to the ideology of her niche cafe idea first, writing a little handbook on the subject and producing podcast-like videos on the subject in the meantime. 

These are things she loves to do and can do for free.

Through this initial process she has a blog and youtube video channel, gathering feedback and followers through her marketing talents while getting the properly tuned materials for the handbook she will write (another thing she loves to do, writing).  After the booklet is finished, she can self publish and share the book at very low cost to her followers, people she meets as well as publishers and media to draw attention to her idea and gather people's attention on her.

At that point, with some reasonable amount of work, she can likely draw funds from multiple sources having gathered a following of interested buyers she can demonstrate, publicity and other forms of leverage that makes it easier to acquire the necessary funds to buy what she needs to make the idea come true in reality.  All the better, she also has regional clients that like the idea and that are waiting for her to open her doors, making it easy for an opening launch.

So you see, there is always a way to even start businesses that require significant funds by strategically preparing through good planning.

Bottom line is you gotta think strategically, creatively and many times sideways to create success with your idea.  Most importantly if you don't have a network of helpful high class advisors, get a mentor to help you out with this.  It will be the best time (and sometimes a bit of $$$) investment you'll ever do.  Be different, be awesome!

If any of you want to have our help from Master Entrepreneur, please feel free to contact me directly and I'll let you know what we can do for you.

Tradewars(R) Rising V1.2a and on

Its been a while since my last blog post. Much has happened in my life as an entrepreneur and as a person. Going from small success to the next in the development of my business Sylien Games through our flagship product Tradewars Rising has been an inspiration to me and has taken up most of my time.

Here are the highlights:
1. Deal to have a free minisite on the browser-based game site bbgsite.com
2. On-site statistics going up and up, and spiking as soon as the TWR tutorial went up, followed by a new probing marketing test looking for advertising opportunity sweetspots which increased our registrations by 2x.
3. Lots of compliments from players on the quality and fun they are having on site.
4. Other partnerships from Asia and North-America coming up with other game community sites.
5. Simplifying of administrative processes (which is a timesaver for me!)
6. Launch of V1.2b of TWR which is essentially some new minor features and mostly the most annoying bug fixes.
7. Establishment of a Level system on site to promote player growth and give them in-game perks if they become Premium (paying) members.
8. Possibility of a couple new consulting contracts coming up.

There's more but those are the ones I can discuss and off the top of my head. Suffice to say, I'm at peace with this and looking for more.

Funding upcoming
The whole exercise is designed to get into the right position to get proper funding from a publisher or VC. And in order to do this, we must show scalability and that it is "worth" investing in growth. I.e. if we spend $1 in marketing, do we get the money back (or close) in revenues from this drive. If we can show profitable or level ROI off of adverts now, as well as a significant market to grow in, it isn't really a problem to get investors involved. Doesn't matter how poor the economy is, there are always people with money looking to invest in good deals. All you gotta do is show them that its a relatively safe and highly lucrative deal, and, the hardest part, having the right contacts to get connected to the investors with $$$ that know your segment of the market and understands your product.

We're almost there.

So we're working on V1.2b, then V1.3 of Tradewars Rising now. After V1.3, we'll be in a very strong position with the product as most features and fixes will be complete in there and the product will be mature with a metrics path to show just about any piece of data we want to anyone. Getting here was hard, but we're all happy of what we've done so far. :)