Our guest today is Dr. Ariel Fernandez, the former Karl F. Hasselmann Chair in Bioengineering at Rice University, now director of the Daruma Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Pharmaceutical Research. Ariel Fernandez authored nearly 500 peer-reviewed professional papers, four books and several biotech patents. He recently turned his attention to COVID-19 for obvious reasons, and […]
The immune checkpoint blocker pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) has proven most successful to treat solid tumors harboring a DNA mismatch repair (MMR) deficiency. This striking result recently reported by Luis Diaz Jr., Bert Vogelstein and their collaborators was anticipated a couple of years before by Dr. Vogelstein, a towering figure in oncological research. Ariel Fernandez […]
Ariel Fernandez Drug designers often implement molecular therapies to block malfunctioning proteins that are causing disease. They do so by creating small molecules that bind to the intended protein target when suitably delivered. The procedure has its risks as unintended targets (off-target proteins) may also be hit or impaired, especially when they are structurally similar (homologous) […]
“Physics at the Biomolecular Interface” is the latest book by Ariel Fernandez (阿列尔·费尔南德斯), the physical chemist and mathematician who developed the center manifold thermodynamics, unraveling the physical basis for the onset of life, and discovered the dehydron (脱水元), an idea that laid the foundation for the new field of epistructural biology. The hardcover is expected by June 8, 2016. The bibliographic information […]
Translational research involving converging technologies is clearly the way of the future for drug discovery and the pharmaceutical industry. At least, this is what we are being told by leading scientist Sangtae Kim in a recent NSF lecture on Converging Technologies. The great Sangtae Kim himself appears to have followed this mantra when he founded the biotech […]
On 26 June 2015, Science magazine published an article in its section “Policy Forum” entitled “Promoting an Open Research Culture” (B. A. Nosek et al. Science, Vol. 348, pp. 1422-1425, DOI: 10.1126/science.aab2374). The article and two related pieces (“Self-correction in science at work”, and “Solving reproducibility“) published in the same issue seem to have been inspired by the perception that there […]
IN COMPROMISED HEARTS, muscle contractions are weakened as the protein motor myosin binds too tightly to its regulator MyBP-C. Richard L. Moss , the Senior Associate Dean for Basic Research, Biotechnology and Graduate Studies at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, in collaboration with Ariel Fernandez Stigliano, the discoverer of the dehydron (脱水元), invented a […]
The blog Retraction Watch plays a game both dangerous and revolting. By making a travesty of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, Retraction Watch has allegedly managed to generate and propagate slander while protecting the anonymity of their tipsters. A recent Court order indicates that this allegedly venal practice will eventually come to an […]
Ariel Fernandez (阿列尔·费尔南德斯, also styled as Ariel Fernandez Stigliano, CV linked and updated 5/18/2015) is a physical chemist and mathematician and the former Karl F. Hasselmann Endowed Chair Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University. He got his Ph. D. in record time from Yale University under the guidance of Oktay Sinanoglu (who recently passed away according to Yale News). Completed […]
“Residents and interns worked a lot of hours, and I wrote honestly about what it was like to be an intern. One of the deans wasn’t crazy about that. It reminded me that my core identity is as a journalist, constantly challenging things…Blogs are powerful and lower the publishing barrier.” Ivan Oransky This post constitutes […]
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