EC2 makes some important changes
March 27, 2008
From an email I received earlier today about two new pieces of functionality for Amazon’s EC2 service
Elastic IP Addresses are static IP addresses designed for dynamic cloud computing, and now make it easy to host web sites, web services and other online applications in Amazon EC2. Elastic IP addresses are associated with your AWS account, not with your instances, and can be programmatically mapped to any of your instances. This allows you to easily recover from instance and other failures while presenting your users with a static IP address.
Availability Zones give you the ability to easily and inexpensively operate a highly available internet application. Each Amazon EC2 Availability Zone is a distinct location that is engineered to be insulated from failures in other Availability Zones. Previously, only very large companies had the scale to be able to distribute an application across multiple locations, but now it is as easy as changing a parameter in an API call. You can choose to run your application across multiple Availability Zones to be prepared for unexpected events such as power failures or network connectivity issues, or you can place instances in the same Availability Zone to take advantage of free data transfer and the lowest latency communication.
More details on the AWS blog. These pieces of functionality and the new kernel functionality really make EC2 a more viable alternative for SMBs and not just startups.
Somewhat related, I am eagerly awaiting the official launch of Assay Depot, since to my knowledge they are the first life science company that is really using AWS consciously as part of their strategy. I had a chance to speak with Chris from Assay Depot at SOT and was quite impressed by what they are doing and even more so by how they are doing it.
Further reading
O’Reilly Radar
Rightscale on Fault Tolerance and Elastic IPs
Technorati Tags: Amazon Web Services, EC2, Assay Depot
We are always between the hype and the naysayers
October 22, 2007
Lest we need to be reminded, the Guardian dutifully comes to our aid. Setting aside the fact that I’ve never heard Synthetic Biology being referred to as SynBio before, the article just goes to show the muddled world of science/technology writing, and the general approach of the main stream press, who either hype up things to heights that are way beyond logic, or scare the living daylights out of an impressionable public.
Further reading
Of hypes and cycles
Technorati Tags: Hype, Alarmist, Synthetic Biology
Putting viruses to use (in our clothing)
October 18, 2007
Ever since my gig in nanobiology and nanomedicine, I have always been fascinated by the work Angela Belcher and colleagues at MIT have done with viruses. Technology Review is carrying a story on some of the work that the group has done lately, using viruses as building blocks for nanoscale materials.
So what makes these viruses tick?
Self assembly is one of the fundamental paradigms of nanotechnology, and in sufficient concentrations the viruses tend to spontaneously organize themselves. Additionally viruses can be genetically engineered to alter their properties, e.g. you can engineer them to bind to and organize inorganic materials. These “programmed” viruses coat themselves with the materials and then, by aligning with other viruses, assemble into crystalline structures that can be used to engineer high-performance devices.
The really cool aspect of the ability to create fibers is the possibility of weaving the nanomaterials into clothing, which means that you could walk around with your clothes functioning as transistors. While we are not close by any means to wearing hyper-functionalized clothing, you can imagine all kinds of applications, from military applications, personal biosensors, various electronic devices, etc. I actually find the concept of your clothing functioning as batteries being rather intriguing.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the work is how the viruses are engineered using directed evolution and other techniques. Biological engineering, which is how I look at some of these tasks is a fascinating field which I would love to understand better some day. Right now a lot of the physical forces driving some of the properties of these materials are not well understood. If we could have a better idea of those driving forces, perhaps our engineering skills could be further improved and the reality of some of these materials coule be brought forward by a few years (hopefully before senility hits yours truly).
Technorati Tags: Angela Belcher, Nanotechnology, Viruses
From tech to biotech: One person’s journey through radio
September 9, 2007
As a long time listener of Tech Nation and Biotech Nation (mostly online these days), when I got a chance to review Moira Gunn’s new book I jumped at the opportunity. Not only was this going to be a rare formal book review, but also a book by someone whose show I like and best of all, a book on an industry I can claim to know something about; Biotech.
Welcome to Biotech Nation: My Unexpected Odyssey into the Land of Small Molecules, Lean Genes, and Big Ideas is a book that talks about how Biotech Nation was born and what Moira Gunn gleaned along the way. First things first; if you are expecting a book that goes into technical detail about the inner workings of the biotech industry, this is not where you want to go. If you want to get a first hand look into the wonders of the world of biotechnology written in a breezy, easy to consume style, you have reached the right place. Welcome to Biotech Nation has a pace and delivery that will appeal to many, especially those not familiar with biotech. Via her radio program, Dr. Gunn has been able to get access to some luminaries in the biopharma industry and others associated with it. The stature and roles of some of the people she has interviewed, and how she interacted with them, makes for some fascinating reading.
More than anything else, Welcome to Biotech Nation is a book of anecdotes. It often starts in one place and then goes on to a personal account or a related incident before returning to where everything started, bringing the thought to its logical conclusion. As someone who came to biotech from the outside looking it (albeit with a very strong tech background), it is very interesting to read how Dr. Gunn reacts to certain pieces of information. The anecdotes, often around the industry’s annual BIO showcase, range from meetings with a lord to stories about Brooke Shields and her attempts to have a child to stories about India and Africa. Through all of those, we learn a little bit more about the industry, , its global impact and implications, its complications, how things might get discovered, and some of the breakthroughs. The chapter on The amazing Chakrabarty, where she talks about her interview with Dr. Ananda Chakrabarty is a classic example of how she manages to fill in a lot of information around one interview.
Dr. Chakrabarty was the first person to be awarded a life science patent, for genetically engineered bacteria. In this chapter, using Dr. Chakrabarty as a backdrop, Dr. Gunn manages to discuss patents, the WTO, globalization, and the Indian generics industry (which she talks about a few times in the book). All this without making things so jargony that the layperson would be left completely befuddled. In the chapter about Brooke Shields, one learns a little more about sex selection, just one of many such examples in the whole book. The last chapter, Lesson’s Learned is one of my favorites, as it brings some points home, e.g. you don’t have to have a PhD to work in the biotech industry.
My take away from reading the book (I don’t want to add too many spoilers) is this. if you think you know anything and everything about the biotech industry, you should read it. You will walk away with a few laughs about people who you just might know or nodding your head about some of the issues and quirks with the biotech industry. If you are not an insider, the book provides a breezy, casual look at an industry that most outsiders just don’t understand. Once you pick up the book, you are unlikely to put it down, a rare statement to make for a book about technology and an industry not always considered riveting reading.
I had a chance to speak briefly with Dr. Gunn, and it was evident that she had a lot of fun writing this, her first, book. I am glad she chose to make it personal and anecdotal. There are other books which do an excellent job of dissecting the industry. This one does a great one of making it just a little more accessible.
Footnotes:
Welcome to Biotech Nation is published by the American Management Association
Moira A. Gunn, Ph.D. is the host of BioTech Nation and Tech Nation, which airs weekly on 200 public radio stations, on NPR channels on Sirius Satellite Radio, and internationally to 133 countries via American Forces Radio. A former NASA computer scientist with a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and a patent in Human Nutrition Research, she has recently been named a Science Laureate for her contributions to science journalism.
Technorati Tags: Moira Gunn, Biotech Nation
What does the Black Swan have to do with pharma?
August 27, 2007
(Via Bio-IT World) Apparently, Frank Douglas, former CEO of Aventis, brought up the metaphor of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s controversial idea and it’s potential impact on the biopharma industry. Speaking as the opening keynote at the DDT conference, Douglas predicted that in 10 years the industry would look very different.
One of the potential Black Swan scenario’s that he presented was one where there would be just 3-4 top pharma, complemented by a number of small specialty players, strategic global outsourcing, increased emphasis on virtual research, and VC firms acting as research translators. Is it me or is this scenario a eerily similar to the enterprise software industry. And is this even a Black Swan scenario? If one looks at what’s happened over the past few years, such a scenario seems well within the realm of possibility. It is certainly not a scenario which seems like it will be creative or nimble enough to develop and bring to market a new generation of medicine. What do you think?
Technorati Tags: Pharma, Biotech, Black Swan
