In this week’s edition of The Prototype, we look at a new AI model for bioengineering, this week’s dueling missile launches, magnets, lasers and more. You can sign up to receive Prototype in your inbox here.
Retro Biosciences CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix
Justin Winokur
OpenAI teamed up with Retro Biosciences to build a machine learning model focused on generating new proteins. The new model, called GPT-4b, is a customized version of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model built specifically for Retro that is focused on bioengineering. Interestingly enough, the model is less focused on predicting specific protein structures, like Deepmind’s AlphaFold, but rather on predicting how those proteins will interact with others.
Using the model, Retro scientists re-engineered two Yamanka factor proteins, which play a key role in fetal development. Previous studies have found that if these proteins are introduced into a mature adult cell, such as a skin cell, it will cause it to revert to behaving like a stem cell. Researchers around the world are trying to take advantage of this property to develop treatments for conditions such as blindness and diabetes.
However, a challenge to developing these treatments is that naturally occurring Yamanka proteins are extremely inefficient at converting mature cells into stem cells. Early laboratory tests, however, showed that these newly engineered versions produced about 50 times more of the biomarkers associated with this type of cellular reprogramming. This suggests that they are significantly better at producing stem cells than proteins found in nature.
Moving forward, the two companies plan to conduct further research to validate these initial findings and explore their potential in developing new disease treatments.
Stay tuned.
Bezos’ Blue Origin sends a rocket into orbit as SpaceX’s Starship test fails
Getty Images
Eearly Thursday morningJeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin, successfully launched its rocket, New Glenn, into orbit. The launch took place at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Although the primary mission was accomplished, its secondary goal – successfully landing the rocket booster for reuse – was not.
Last weekend, my colleague Jeremy Bogaisky reported that Blue Origin had a lot on the line for this launch: it came less than a week before Donald Trump returned to the White House, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk working with him on a promised change in government. Blue Origin has multiple government contracts for New Glenn — notably including NASA’s return to the Moon — so it had a lot to prove.
Speaking of SpaceX, that company conducted a seventh test of its massive Starship rocket on Thursday afternoon. While the company was able to launch the newest version of its rocket, it exploded during ascent (the company euphemistically called it an “unplanned rapid disassembly”). SpaceX was able to successfully capture the rocket’s booster as it returned to Earth.
Although the relationship between Bezos and Musk regarding their space companies has been contentious at times, that seems to be in the past — at least for now. Earlier in the day, Bezos had written luck to SpaceX on its Starship launch. Elon Musk responded with a meme from the movie Step Brothersanalogizing himself and Bezos to Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, the characters’ enemies-turned-friends in the film.
DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK: LASER-BASED INFORMATION
Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara have a new type of photonic chip architecture that uses it LASERinstead of electricity, for calculations. The goal is to achieve better performance with significantly lower energy costs. Previous attempts to develop such chips have bump into roadblocks which includes processing speed or programmability. This system uses magnetic field to dynamically influence the laserwhich could potentially overcome these issues. The research was published in Photonics of nature.
THE FINAL FRONTIER: STANDARDIZED SATELLITES
Attic Orbitalwhich develops standardized satellite infrastructures that can be used for a wide variety of applications, announced that it has raised $170 million in venture capital. In a blog post, co-founders Pierre-Damien Vaujour and Alex Greenberg said 2025 is the year his business “will reach fleet scale.” So far, the company has sold over 30 of its satellites, which the co-founders say are designed to be configured to meet the needs of its customers in a fast and reliable way, reducing the time and cost of building. of one custom satellite for each mission. “We’re prioritizing speed to orbit, scheduling predictability, simplicity and reliability through legacy rather than absolute performance.”
FORBES called it: AUTOMATING PERFECT RESEARCH
Over 10 years ago, we named Surbhi Sarnafounder of the company NVision Medicalon our 30 under 30 list in the Healthcare category. It has since sold NVision for $275 million. Now she’s back with a new company, ABRIDGINGwhich launched this week with $30 million in seed funding on a mission to automate one of the most tiring aspects of life sciences research: completing it all Briefs.
WHAT ELSE DO I WRITE THIS WEEK
Norovirus infections are on the rise across the country. But despite the fact that this disease affects about 20 million people a year “stomach flu” there is no vaccine or treatment. I wrote about the challenge of making one norovirus vaccine– and why Modern may be the closest to bringing one to market.
In my other newsletter, InnovationRx, my colleague Amy Feldman and I covered a wide range of health care news coming out of the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conferenceincluding a number of high dollar dealthe influences of Fires in Californianew healthcare collaborations with AI giant Nvidia and more.
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TIDBITS
Brightline’s project to connect Los Angeles and Las Vegas in one bullet train is raising $2.5 billion in private investment.
California has invested millions in sensors and AI with the aim of detecting – or even predicting – fires so that they can be tackled quickly. But they were no match for actual fires. My colleague Cyrus Farivar explains why.
A research collaboration in Tennessee demonstrated the first transmission of a stabilized quantum signal over a network using multi-wavelength channels, a key step in building an eventual quantum internet.
A team of scientists has developed a method for storing vaccines and biological drugs no fridgewhich can lower supply chain costs and improve access to medicine in remote regions.
Researchers developed an insect-based process for recycling plastic by feeding it mealworm larvae. Composting the eventual waste leads to the formation of a biochar that can be used to fertilize plants.
PRO SCIENCE TIP: ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION WITH IT
One of the challenges of managing a large company is that departments tend to take over siledwhich can lead to friction when one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing. This is especially the case for IT departmentswhose work necessarily affects every part of the company. New research based on cross-industry data conducted by Binghamton University finds that this trend can be mitigated if the company’s leadership works actively to encourage cooperation and collaboration between business and IT units with a balance of motivation and incentives.
WHAT’S ENTERTAINING ME THIS WEEK
I just finished watching the limited series Inside Chinatownbased on the novel by Charles Yu (also the host of the show). It tells the story of a background character in a police procedural who wants a bigger role. It is surprising and extremely strange, based on an amazing cast led by. Jimmy O. Yang. Next, I plan to read the book. All episodes are streaming on Hulu.
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