Monday Mixtape (5/25/20)
In This Week's Issue: Race for a Vaccine, Dopamine Fasts, Virtual Mental Health, Monster Meditations and World Central Kitchen.
Hey all,
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The Dopamine Fast
People ask how I’ve been so productive during shelter-in-place. My secret: The dopamine fast.
Dopamine fasting is a lifestyle trend popular in Silicon Valley which involves cutting yourself off from almost all stimulation for 24 hours. You abstain from actions associated with hits of dopamine, aka the feel-good neurotransmitter.
I wrote about the science behind this practice, rooted in ancient rituals like Vipassana meditation, and how it can reduce stress and boost creativity.
You can read the full essay here: How to Do a Dopamine Fast.
Race for a Vaccine
How can AI speed Covid-19 vaccine development? Who should receive the first vaccine doses that become available? Will there be enough vaccines to meet demand?
It’s great to see 3 of my former colleagues showing leadership in vaccine development.
“The sense of excitement was palpable - there was clapping.”
Moderna Therapeutics (run by my old co-worker, Dr. Stephen Hoge) reported data last week showing positive results from a small, preliminary trial of its vaccine for the coronavirus. Their mRNA-based technology, although yet unproven, has the potential to significantly accelerate the timelines for vaccine development, and has shown promising early results.
With so many treatments and vaccines in development, it can be hard to keep track of everything. Here are the sources I trust to stay informed:
ARTIS Ventures shared this helpful infographic that tracks 256 diagnostic tests for Covid-19, 102 treatments and 15 vaccines in clinical trials. My friend Vas Bailey, partner at ARTIS, created this list. Vas will be a speaker at the fundraiser I’m hosting on Wednesday for World Central Kitchen (see below).
RA Capital (my old employer) just released its comprehensive Covid-19 innovation map. This super-detailed visualization lays out the major biotechnology development efforts underway to solve the Covid-19 crisis, all in one color-coded view.
Science nerds will enjoy “Top 10 Virus Hacks” by my old boss at RA Capital, Dr. Peter Kolchinsky. It’s a fun science explainer with references to signal jamming and face swapping that illustrates the challenges of vaccine development.
Health News Roundup
Wearables, Biosensors, and Smart Home Detectors
Kai-Fu Lee writes in Wired on how Covid-19 will accelerate the use of AI in health care. In China, Alibaba announced an AI algorithm that can diagnose suspected Covid-19 cases in 20-30 seconds using CT scans.
Distance, Time, Activity, Environment
Vox covers 4 ways to think about Covid-19 risk as states reopen. Still a lot of confusion about what’s safe and what’s not.
CDC updated its guidelines, emphasizing the risk of close human contact over other modes of transmission. Touching a contaminated surface is “not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.” To visualize the risk, imagine everyone is smoking.
Handwashing Tech
PathSpot raised $6 million for its real-time hand hygiene management system with a hand scanner that tracks handwashing frequency and effectiveness. Could be a helpful safety measure as restaurants and bars reopen.
Virtual Mental Health
Mindstrong raised $100 million for its smartphone app that can track changes in mental health symptoms using AI-powered digital biomarker technology. Their technology collects data passively from mobile phone use (e.g. typing speed) and translates it into real-world measures of cognition & mood. A great example of how tech can help therapists and psychiatrists treat patients remotely and get ahead of mental health challenges.
Monster Meditations
What does Cookie Monster do when he’s too stressed to bake cookies? He watches Monster Meditations: a new video series from Sesame Street and Headspace to help children learn to manage their emotions using mindfulness techniques. Each video is 3 minutes long and can be found on YouTube.
Podcast of the Week
Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian talk about the relationship between Covid-19 and metabolic health (diabetes, hypertension, obesity). There’s a 2-3 times higher risk of hospitalization for people who have 1 of these conditions; and a 16 times higher risk for people who have all 3.
If the US had a metabolically healthy population, Covid-19 would likely be much less severe. A reminder that improving the health of our communities starts with food and nutrition.
How Can A Story Change The World?
I hope you’ll join me on Wednesday, May 27, at Stories for Community: a diverse gathering of leaders spanning Art, Music, Food, Health, Technology, and Social Impact. Coming together in love and generosity to support José Andres’s World Central Kitchen.
The lineup includes a National Poetry Slam champion, a MoMA museum educator, a tech entrepreneur building emotion-sensing AI, and a woman who rescued 500 people from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Irene devastated the island.
You can sign up for the event here:
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Until next week,
Daniel Zahler
