They traverse miles and miles of highways and byways, and cross hazardous physical barriers, risking it all for no pay to deliver significant quantities of a high-potency drug. The drug in question is not cannabis, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine or fentanyl, but...
Blog
Meeting of Da Minds (MDS)
All divers require a platform. Accordingly, Dr. Richard Gordon, an Associate Professor from Queensland, Australia will do a deep dive on the anti-Parkinsonian activity of EpicentRx lead small molecule, RRx-001 (nibrozetone), during a one-hour platform presentation at...
No Favres
Some sad news to report. Brett Favre, one of the roughest, toughest quarterbacks to ever put on a football helmet and certainly the most fun to watch as a Green Bay Packer, has been diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)/Parkinson’s Disease. Favre joins...
A September to Remember
It’s officially Fall, y’all. Fingers crossed that this will be a September to remember for patients with neurodegenerative diseases (NDs). Same for October, November, December etc. Recent preclinical data from the laboratory of Queensland University of Technology...
EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Demotic
“Demotic should be a common word.” “Talk like an Egyptian.” Demotic Definition (adjective): 1) popular, common, colloquial, used by or typical of ordinary people “a demotic style of language is used on TV”; “the speech was intentionally demotic, intended for ordinary...
Boarder Crisis
We are in the midst of a “boarder crisis” the likes of which has never been seen before. 😉 Sound familiar? It should or, at least, it would if not for the spelling of border as “boarder”. A boarder is a lodger. The boarder in this scenario is lead EpicentRx therapy,...
Run, Forest, Run
The central lesson from the 1994 Oscar Award-winning movie, “Forrest Gump,” starring Tom Hanks as the title character, is “when in doubt, haul ass” (our words, not an actual quote lol). Forrest is constantly running — away from trouble and after his flighty childhood...
Off with Their Heads!
Symbol of the French revolution, the guillotine, a ruthlessly efficient beheading machine, is in the news of late. Lead EpicentRx therapy, AdAPT-001, is a molecular guillotine that decapitates the immunosuppressive cytokine, transforming growth factor-beta (TGFβ)....
It’s On
WOOHOO! It’s on! Heck, yeah, it is! It’s on like freakin’ Donkey Kong. We’re talking about a good old-fashioned, knock-down, drag-out, winner-take-all heavyweight slugfest between AdAPT-001 and soft tissue sarcoma (STS), for which a Phase 3 clinical trial has been...
EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Shibboleth
“Say shibboleth 5 times in a row if you can.” Shibboleth Definition (noun): custom, tradition, mode of dress, way of speaking, widely held belief, slogan, catchword, or truism that distinguishes on group from another: (as in widely held belief) “it is a shibboleth...
Tempus Non-Fugit
We’ve all heard the expression “tempus fugit” or “time flies,” which is especially true on vacation or if you are 1 day ahead in Australia. (Here’s one you haven’t heard “fruit flies — in a food fight” since we just made it up. See above. LOL 😂) But time doesn’t...
Vimeo Killed the Radio Star
Too right. In 1979, Buggles, an oversized sunglasses-wearing English band, wrote a prescient and catchy-as-all-get-out earworm called “Video Killed the Radio Star." It was no accident that when MTV debuted just after midnight on August 1, 1981, Video Killed the Radio...
Nothing To Declare
This morning as we sat down in front of the computer to write a blog post and stared at the blank screen, waiting for inspiration to strike, it dawned on us that for the first time maybe ever, we were blocked. Try as we might, “we got nothing.” Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch....
BD Eyes
Beady eyes are round and shiny usually with malice or greed like this. BD eyes are often — but not always — squinty and narrow from research, research, research, networking, evaluation of potential partners, back-to-back face-to-face meetings, writing and reading term...
EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Solecism
"It is bad grammer not to know the word solecism." Solecism Definition (noun): 1) a grammatical mistake “to say we done it instead of we did it is a solecism” 2) a faux pas, a gaffe, bad manners “it is a social solecism to ask someone how much money they earn.”...
A Blog About A Log: Part 2
The log in the title here refers to “logjammed,” a word that means a crowded mass of logs, which block a river or in the case of lead EpicentRx therapy, RRx-001 (nibrozetone), a crowded mass of cells that obstruct blood flow in tumor vessels. In a well cited 2021...
At Symbol
Ever stop to consider, as we did this morning for no apparent reason, that the interesting symbol @ has the most atrociously unimaginative and booooring name ever: at? This is no offense to AT, the uber-talented, cool, and creative MCS Healthcare PR point person,...
Next Jen
Here’s our word of the weak, spelling intentional: next gen. This is the cringeworthy, empty phrase overused by the “fake it until you make it” crowd to describe cars, cellular service, software, and even pharmaceuticals. Why say “advanced”, “innovative” or...
EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Prolepsis
“In the future, it will help to learn the definition of prolepsis.” Prolepsis Definition (noun): 1) The anticipation or portrayal of an event before its actual occurrence. “Dead man walking is an example of prolepsis because the man isn’t dead yet.” “Another example...
A Blog About A Log: Part 1
The “log” in the title refers to “log phase.” Our use of this term in a strictly mathematical sense to describe the exponential rate of replication of intracellular AdAPT-001 (or log phase of growth) has engendered some confusion. That’s because in common parlance,...
At the Speed of Lysis
The speed of light, made up of particles called photons, is the fastest in the universe at 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second). The infinitely slower speed of lysis, that is the speed at which cancer cell membranes rupture or lyse during infection...
Lost at SCLC
Are you lost at SCLC, a complex tumor type with several potential up-and-coming therapies including RRx-001 (nibrozetone)? If so, read this EpicentRx-authored review entitled, “Lost at SCLC: a review of potential platinum sensitizers.” The review focuses on five...
A Blog About Fog
The fog of war. This was a metaphor coined by the Prussian military analyst Carl von Clausewitz in his book, On War (1832), to describe the confusion, and uncertainty that results from the chaos of warfare. Comparable to the fog of war is the fog of treatment since it...
Word of the Woche (WOW): Fingerspitzengefühl
“This definition of Fingerspitzengefühl should be at your fingertips.” Fingerspitzengefühl Definition (noun): instinctiveness, intuitiveness, flair, or extreme situational awareness. “If a guy asks his girlfriend whether she's put on weight, or gotten dressed in the...
A Pointless Phrase
Raise your hand if – like us – you can’t stand the phrase “to your point.” 🙋 No, can’t stand is too mild. We despise it. Those three simple words grate like fingernails on a chalkboard. To. Your. Point. Screeeeech! We hear it all the time from talking heads on TV, and...
Mad, Bad, and Dangerous To Know Part 2
Gulp. Forget Lord Byron. The person perhaps most deserving of the famous epithet “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” is a fictional one — Jack Reacher who goes by “Reacher” only in the celebrated series by the author Lee Child. Reacher is a super-swole, vigilante...
Underconsumption Core
The latest craze on TikTok with over 31M views is called #underconsumptioncore. This long and unwieldy phrase ironically champions/romanticizes an ethos of minimalism, make-do-and-mend, and less is more at a time when prices and rents are up, many live...
Act Your Age!
Act your age, young people, and don’t grow up so fast! According to research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting, which took place from April 5th-10th, accelerated aging is to blame for the recent troubling trend of rising...
EpicentRx Word of the Weak (WOW): l’ esprit de l’escalier
“It’s not too late to learn about the definition of l’esprit de l’escalier.” l’esprit de l’escalier Definition (noun): a perfect comeback thought of on the way home and, therefore, much too late. “The French have had the wit to pack into the words esprit d’escalier...
ICI Hot
A long-range forecast from the Climate Prediction Center favors warmer-than-average weather beginning this Fall across most of the United States. A long-range forecast from the EpicentRx Prediction Center, which includes Principal Investigators like Drs. Anthony P....
Elevator Pitches
Going up? Not if Will Ferrell’s, Buddy the Elf, was on the elevator with you. LOL! Love that scene. However, if you were a Pharma exec and our heads of business development, Babak Alizadeh and Sa’ar Yaniv, happened to encounter you on an elevator, assuming Buddy the...
Pharmaceutical Breaking
Not to be confused with the newly minted Olympic sport of breaking, which featured the instantly memeable routine of Australian University lecturer, Rachael Gunn aka “Raygun,” shown above, is pharmaceutical breaking. The indubitable champion of pharmaceutical breaking...
InferNO
Per tradition, the Olympic cauldron burns for the duration of the Games until the Closing Ceremony when it is extinguished. 🔵🟡⚫️🟢🔴 #Paris2024 To borrow an instructive analogy from this EpicentRx authored manuscript entitled, “What Exactly Is Inflammation (and What Is...
EpicentRx Words of the Week (WOW): Apodictic
“An apodictic statement is incontrovertible.” Apodictic Definition (adjective): incontrovertible, irrefutable, demonstrably true, not false. “He spoke with apodictic certainty about a subject that he knew well”; “Faith in a higher power does not require apodictic...
The Torchbearer
With the 2024 Olympics now in full swing, we thought to recognize lead EpicentRx therapy, and torchbearer, AdAPT-001. This is an oncolytic adenovirus that encodes and expresses a transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) trap. On injection, the AdAPT-001 TGFβ trap, which...
Wisdumb and Wisdumber
Jerry Seinfeld recently declared that comedy is dead. Is he right? Maybe. But, hey, why let that stop us from trying on a few jokes for size. After all, we have nothing to lose but our dignity — and we already lost every shred of that a long, long time ago! Haha! Here...
Mad, Chad, and Dangerous To Know
On the heels of a previous post entitled “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous To Know”, which was Lady Carolyn Lamb’s famous epigram about the English poet, Lord Byron, we decided just for fun to list out some Chads that are dangerous, essential and/or interesting to know. ...
EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Callow
“If a prequel to Shallow Hal were ever made, when the actor was young and immature, it could be called Callow Hal." Callow Definition (adjective): immature and inexperienced. “No longer a callow youth, he is now older and wiser." "High school students are...
Adpocalypse Now
The end, the cataclysmic end, is near (or nigh to use the Biblical term). Extinction—nay, extermination on par with the event (asteroid strike?) that ended the 150-million-year reign of the dinosaurs— is almost a foregone conclusion. All signs point to an imminent...
Can You Smell What The Rock Is Cooking?
The Rock in this case isn’t the ex-professional wrestler and somewhat salacious actor, Dwayne Johnson. The rock to be discussed here is not salacious but siliceous, which refers to a high content of silicon dioxide (SiO2) or silica. When siliceous rocks are...
Sussudio-progression
If Phil Collins, Genesis band member and genius solo songwriter, had also been an oncologist, he might have renamed his hit song from the 1980s, Sussudio, Sussudio-progression, which, mouthful though it is, makes a lot more sense. (Perhaps Sussudio, an otherwise...
EpicentRx Word of the Weak (WOW): Feckless
“If you give a feck, read below.” Feckless Definition (adjective): worthless, weak-in-character, incompetent, irresponsible, inept. “It is impossible to rely on a feckless person; The attempt was ill-fated and feckless; Congress is feckless." Pronunciation: feh- klis...
A Blog About Sm-AH-g
Why did we spell “smog” like “sm-AH-g” in the title? Well, if you made it past that first sentence, it’s not to imitate a “Bahston” accent from, say, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, or Mark Wahlberg, even though we have been known to say, “Pahk yah cah in Hahvahd Yahd” and...
The Agony of De-Heat
This summer across the US the heat is on - really on - both outside and thanks to lead EpicentRx therapy and transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) inhibitor, AdAPT-001, inside tumors as well. Inside tumors it is the presence or absence of infiltrating T cells that...
The Flame Game
Let’s play not the Blame Game or the Plame Game (which involved the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2007) but the Flame Game with lead EpicentRx therapies, RRx-001 (nibrozetone) and AdAPT-001. The object is to determine under what circumstances or conditions...
A Blog About Smaug
Following on from a previous post called, “A Blog About Smog,” is this one about Smaug, an antagonistic, treasure-hoarding dragon from J. R. R. Tolkien’s, The Hobbit. In “A Blog About Smog,” we describe the mechanism of action of lead EpicentRx therapy, RRx-001...
EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Ecumenical
“For a universal definition of ecumenical read below.” Ecumenical Definition (adjective): 1) general; universal; worldwide “The FDA issues an ecumenical set of policies for drug developers hoping to get their drug approved in the US” 2) interreligious or...
A Blog About Smog
Los Angeles. City of Angels…and smog. In LA, famous for its smog as much as its celebrities and palm trees, bad air quality is sort of par for the course like the constant rush hour traffic no matter the time of day - this is just a fact of life. Natural topography...
IO, IO, It’s Off To Work We Go
The IO from the title stands for immune-oncology. This term, IO, refers to therapies that mobilize the immune system to recognize and eradicate tumor cells. Instead of 7 dwarfs, EpicentRx features 2 therapies: RRx-001 (nibrozetone), a small molecule, with a molecular...
A Blawg About a Dawg
Why is the word “blog” spelled like “blawg” in the title? For the Aw! factor. Dogs, or rather, dawgs, are awesome. Some would say pawsome. 😁 And cute! So cute! Yes, they are! Aren’t you, boy? (Petting one right now). Look at this bloodhound below and tell us he isn’t...