to get going with its first clinical trial of a malaria vaccine, and last week, the trial officially got underway. The world will be watching these results closely, since a malaria vaccine doesn’t currently exist, and the mosquito-borne disease kills an estimated 1 million people a year.
—Just before our own health IT event, I picked up a fascinating tale about this field at the OVP Tech Summit from Internet pioneer Larry Smarr. He told me how his experience in becoming a “quantified self” with IT has helped him lose 20 pounds since New Year’s Day, and lower his resting heart to 45 beats a minute, which can’t be too far from Lance Armstrong territory.
—Bio Architecture Lab, the University of Washington spinout developing seaweed into renewable biofuel, said it has brought in Shell veteran Daniel Trunfio as CEO to replace founding leader Nikesh Parekh. Parekh will remain involved with the company in another role.
—Will people bid online for a nose job just like an airline ticket? That’s the fundamental question that PriceDoc, a company in Solano Beach, CA and Seattle, is seeking to answer.
—Sometimes we dig up curious little gems from federal records that we don’t hear about through the grapevine, and one of those recent briefs was about Seattle-based Coronado Biosciences. This cancer developer has raised $7 million, according to an SEC filing.
—Emerald BioStructures, the best little biotech company on Bainbridge Island, WA that few people have heard of, went through a Kafkaesque nightmare over the past year or so, when it was almost suffocated by the deCode Genetics bankruptcy. But Emerald survived with the help of some Boston-area venture capitalists, which you can read about here.
—As Greg has pointed out, event season is in full bloom around Seattle. One of the more unusual ones I’ve seen is being spearheaded by Kristen Eddings of the Washington Global Health Alliance, who envisions creating a movement to get more young people involved in global health.
