Simon Bayly
@simonbayly.bsky.social
Reformed chemist 👨🔬 IP licensing and spinouts at the Francis Crick Institute. Also post about cycling 🚲 Opinion my own etc.
Pinned
Simon Bayly
@simonbayly.bsky.social
· Oct 17
Welcome new Bluesky users! If you are into biotech, please use the feed I created: bsky.app/profile/did:...
Multiple sclerosis has been shown to have two subtypes. The discovery was enabled by UCL #spinout and KQ Labs alumnus Queen Square Analytics www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Two new subtypes of MS found in ‘exciting’ breakthrough
Exclusive: Scientists uncovered biological strands using artificial intelligence and hope discovery will revolutionise treatment
www.theguardian.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:30 PM
Multiple sclerosis has been shown to have two subtypes. The discovery was enabled by UCL #spinout and KQ Labs alumnus Queen Square Analytics www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Reposted by Simon Bayly
January 17, 2026 at 6:26 AM
Already excited about this!
January 16, 2026 at 1:09 PM
Already excited about this!
Reposted by Simon Bayly
Can AI accelerate exciting science, or is it just giving us more incremental papers to wade through?
timrequarth.substack.com/p/before-ai-...
timrequarth.substack.com/p/before-ai-...
Before AI Can Accelerate Science, We Have to Fix Science
Or, science’s tollbooth problem
timrequarth.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 9:49 AM
Can AI accelerate exciting science, or is it just giving us more incremental papers to wade through?
timrequarth.substack.com/p/before-ai-...
timrequarth.substack.com/p/before-ai-...
Niels Bohr famously dissolved two Nobel Prize medals in aqua regia rather than let fascists have them
www.npr.org/sections/kru...
www.npr.org/sections/kru...
January 15, 2026 at 9:48 PM
Niels Bohr famously dissolved two Nobel Prize medals in aqua regia rather than let fascists have them
www.npr.org/sections/kru...
www.npr.org/sections/kru...
Reposted by Simon Bayly
More details emerge on how mRNA vaccines work:
mRNA Vaccines: What's the Adjuvant?
www.science.org
January 15, 2026 at 7:09 PM
More details emerge on how mRNA vaccines work:
Special Vault protein see RNA, go nom nom
Just reading about these TimeVaults and they seem super cool and useful. www.science.org/content/arti...
Scientists turn cells’ most mysterious structures into spies on genetic activity
Enigmatic ‘vaults’ can be engineered to eavesdrop on RNA, aiding cancer studies and more
www.science.org
January 15, 2026 at 9:11 PM
Special Vault protein see RNA, go nom nom
Reposted by Simon Bayly
Another rare bit of good news!
Epstein-Barr Virus #EBV was linked to #MultipleSclerosis - now a plausible cause has been found, misidentification by longterm memory T-cells that pick on the wrong protein, ANO2, instead of the EBV-antigen. Massive inflection towards the elimination of MS!!!
🧪🧠Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
🧪🧠Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Anoctamin-2-specific T cells link Epstein-Barr virus to multiple sclerosis
Researchers identified anoctamin-2 (ANO2) as a frequent autoimmune target in multiple
sclerosis, with T cell responses against ANO2 occurring in over half of patients.
These ANO2-specific T cells shar...
www.cell.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:24 AM
Another rare bit of good news!
Reposted by Simon Bayly
Noubar Afeyan, one of biotech's top investors and co-founder of Moderna, says U.S. policy is ‘taking a sledgehammer to our miracle machine.’ Story via @matthewherper.bsky.social for @statnews.com
www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/n...
www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/n...
Investor behind Moderna says U.S. policy is ‘taking a sledgehammer to our miracle machine’
Noubar Afeyan, one of biotech’s top investors, says U.S. policy is "taking a sledgehammer to our miracle machine."
www.statnews.com
January 12, 2026 at 5:34 PM
Noubar Afeyan, one of biotech's top investors and co-founder of Moderna, says U.S. policy is ‘taking a sledgehammer to our miracle machine.’ Story via @matthewherper.bsky.social for @statnews.com
www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/n...
www.statnews.com/2026/01/12/n...
It's all getting a bit toppy
Wellcome Trust builds cash pile as it warns on record high equity markets ft.trib.al/Jtjs6ej
Wellcome Trust builds cash pile as it warns on record high equity markets
One of the world’s wealthiest charitable foundations notes ‘exceptional levels’ of market concentration in tech stocks
ft.trib.al
January 13, 2026 at 7:25 AM
It's all getting a bit toppy
The ‘town square’ analogy of X/Twitter was always terrible, but, yes, if this sort of thing is going on your town square, it’s time to move town.
To anybody still using X: sexual abuse content is the final straw, it’s time to leave | Marie Le Conte
To anybody still using X: sexual abuse content is the final straw, it’s time to leave | Marie Le Conte
It was hard for me to quit Elon Musk’s poisoned platform, but I urge others to do the same, especially in light of Grok’s imagery of women and children, says journalist Marie Le Conte
www.theguardian.com
January 12, 2026 at 5:16 PM
The ‘town square’ analogy of X/Twitter was always terrible, but, yes, if this sort of thing is going on your town square, it’s time to move town.
New family of biological foundation models based on 10x protein diversity compared to all public databases combined, collected over five years from more than 150 locations across 28 countries and five continents www.genengnews.com/topics/artif...
Basecamp Research Achieves Programmable Gene Insertion with EDEN AI Models
Trained on 9.7 trillion tokens of evolutionary data, EDEN designs therapeutics from large gene insertion to antimicrobial peptides.
www.genengnews.com
January 12, 2026 at 4:56 PM
New family of biological foundation models based on 10x protein diversity compared to all public databases combined, collected over five years from more than 150 locations across 28 countries and five continents www.genengnews.com/topics/artif...
NAMs (new approach methodologies) in pharma/biotech must be the worst bit of industry nomenclature since LTE (long term evolution) in the telecomms industry. Even if you know what words the acronym stands for, it doesn't give you any hint of what it refers to.
January 12, 2026 at 4:07 PM
NAMs (new approach methodologies) in pharma/biotech must be the worst bit of industry nomenclature since LTE (long term evolution) in the telecomms industry. Even if you know what words the acronym stands for, it doesn't give you any hint of what it refers to.
Reposted by Simon Bayly
“We’re gonna need a bigger bus”
January 12, 2026 at 1:51 PM
“We’re gonna need a bigger bus”
JPM starts today and the #biotech announcements are starting to roll in...
SciNeuro and Novartis $NVS enter into a licensing and collaboration agreement for next-gen therapeutics to treat #Alzheimers
Amyloid beta targeted antibody program with a proprietary BBB shuttle technology
$165M upfront and up to $1.5B total deal #JPM26
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
Amyloid beta targeted antibody program with a proprietary BBB shuttle technology
$165M upfront and up to $1.5B total deal #JPM26
www.prnewswire.com/news-release...
SciNeuro and Novartis Enter into a Licensing and Collaboration Agreement for Next Generation Therapeutics to Treat Alzheimer's Disease
/PRNewswire/ -- SciNeuro grants Novartis an exclusive worldwide license to develop SciNeuro's novel antibody program that leverages a proprietary shuttle...
www.prnewswire.com
January 12, 2026 at 3:11 PM
JPM starts today and the #biotech announcements are starting to roll in...
Conversion by directed evolution of a DNA polymerase into an multipurpose enzyme for RNA synthesis, reverse transcription and synthesis of DNA-RNA chimeras
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Client Challenge
www.nature.com
January 10, 2026 at 5:51 PM
Conversion by directed evolution of a DNA polymerase into an multipurpose enzyme for RNA synthesis, reverse transcription and synthesis of DNA-RNA chimeras
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New biotech venture fund for U Penn. Interestingly it is backed by BioNTech thenextleap.is/news/penn-px... #spinout
The Next Leap » Penn joins BioNTech and OUP to launch $50 million PxB Fund
The Penn-BioNTech Innovative Therapeutics Seed Fund follows the announcement of Penn's $10 million StartUP Fund last month.
thenextleap.is
January 10, 2026 at 5:44 PM
New biotech venture fund for U Penn. Interestingly it is backed by BioNTech thenextleap.is/news/penn-px... #spinout
New pharma corporate venture fund endpoints.news/servier-laun...
Servier launches VC unit focused on European biotech startups
Servier has set up a corporate venture capital unit armed with about 200 million euros at the outset, joining most other large pharma companies in employing the early-stage startup investment model.
endpoints.news
January 10, 2026 at 5:23 PM
New pharma corporate venture fund endpoints.news/servier-laun...
Reposted by Simon Bayly
Almost 80 European deep tech university spinouts reached $1B valuations or $100M in revenue in 2025
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/353985/
Universities and research labs have long been Europe’s deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated into…
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/353985/
Universities and research labs have long been Europe’s deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated into…
Almost 80 European deep tech university spinouts reached $1B valuations or $100M in revenue in 2025 - United Kingdom News Beep
Universities and research labs have long been Europe’s deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated into a solid startup funnel worth
www.newsbeep.com
January 5, 2026 at 9:24 PM
Almost 80 European deep tech university spinouts reached $1B valuations or $100M in revenue in 2025
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/353985/
Universities and research labs have long been Europe’s deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated into…
https://www.newsbeep.com/uk/353985/
Universities and research labs have long been Europe’s deep tech treasure trove. Now, academic spinouts have consolidated into…
Reposted by Simon Bayly
UCL spinout EpilepsyGTx has raised $33M Series A to advance its gene therapy EPY201 into clinical trials, offering hope for millions with refractory epilepsy. We are pleased to have supported this lab-to-market journey from the early stage. Details: bit.ly/4qXYGxJ
January 6, 2026 at 10:00 AM
UCL spinout EpilepsyGTx has raised $33M Series A to advance its gene therapy EPY201 into clinical trials, offering hope for millions with refractory epilepsy. We are pleased to have supported this lab-to-market journey from the early stage. Details: bit.ly/4qXYGxJ
Reposted by Simon Bayly
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug – Endpoints News
https://www.europesays.com/uk/679295/
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug Endpoints News Amgen swoops on UK…
https://www.europesays.com/uk/679295/
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug Endpoints News Amgen swoops on UK…
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug - Endpoints News - United Kingdom
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug Endpoints NewsAmgen swoops on UK cancer biotech in deal worth up to
www.europesays.com
January 7, 2026 at 7:20 AM
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug – Endpoints News
https://www.europesays.com/uk/679295/
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug Endpoints News Amgen swoops on UK…
https://www.europesays.com/uk/679295/
Amgen to acquire Oxford spinout Dark Blue, tucking in a preclinical cancer drug Endpoints News Amgen swoops on UK…
Reposted by Simon Bayly
I strongly suggest this read on the topic and LLM antropomorphism:
The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con
softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con
softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
January 8, 2026 at 2:51 PM
I strongly suggest this read on the topic and LLM antropomorphism:
The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con
softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con
softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llme...
Is this the new direction for AI in drug discovery - commoditise the models, but monetise bespoke implementation?
endpoints.news/exclusive-bo...
endpoints.news/exclusive-bo...
Exclusive: An MIT trio built some of biotech’s favorite AI models. Now, they're building a business
Boltz raises $28M seed round to develop open-source AI models for drug discovery, partners with Pfizer. Founded by MIT researchers after AlphaFold 3's closed release.
endpoints.news
January 8, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Is this the new direction for AI in drug discovery - commoditise the models, but monetise bespoke implementation?
endpoints.news/exclusive-bo...
endpoints.news/exclusive-bo...
Shucks, will there be any British Grand Tour winners left in the peloton?
Simon Yates to retire with immediate effect. It is sudden and looks to have surprised the Visma-LAB team as he was picked to pose with colleagues to show off the 2026 kit and the team shared the photos on 30 December
January 7, 2026 at 2:44 PM
Shucks, will there be any British Grand Tour winners left in the peloton?