Mark Fortner
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markfortner.bsky.social
Mark Fortner
@markfortner.bsky.social
430 followers 620 following 580 posts
CEO @ https://aspen.bio, bioinformatics, cheminformatics, cancer research, AI in Drug Discovery, Research Project & Portfolio Management, FAIR data, semantic web, web components, java, groovy, genomics, proteomics, DEL, TPDs, Pancreatic Cancer
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markfortner.bsky.social
I'm sure this will pop up at some point.
November 13, 2025 at 3:00 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
I love #art that transports you through time. Whether it's a #Vermeer, #Caillebotte, #Tissot or one of the PreRaphaelites. Recently the work of Jean Béraud appeared in my feed. He was truly a prolific painter of Belle Epoque life in Paris. Not just paintings of the well-to-do, but of every day life.
November 2, 2025 at 5:49 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
I was searching through YouTube recently for videos of the RCSB office hours webinars when I saw all these truck videos in my search results. What do trucks have to do with proteins?| #AlgorithmFail
November 1, 2025 at 3:06 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Example of using the @Grab annotation to add library dependencies to a Groovy script.
October 13, 2025 at 3:45 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
#EroomsLaw got drug discovery down? Not for long!

New whitepaper, "The #DigitalTransformation Roadmap," reveals how #AI, #automation & data analytics are reversing rising costs & slowing timelines in #smallmolecule #drugdiscovery

Reverse Eroom's Law & unlock productivity: lnkd.in/gQ8NhbAD
September 9, 2025 at 6:57 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Academic Publishing 2.0
A friend of mine shared this with me recently and it started me thinking about all of the problems that I've seen over the years in field, and how some of these problems might be solved.
May 31, 2025 at 10:36 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
In our series "Across The Great Divide" we're taking a look at the "Great Divide" between drug discovery and drug development projects and how drug discovery project planning can improve the capital efficiency of your programs and the…

https://aspenbiosciences.com/across-the-great-divide-part-2/
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May 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
There's a new Sargent exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. One of the paintings on exhibit is Dr Pozzi at home. If you're a fan of The Portrait of Madame X, then it's time to meet the man who convinced her to pose for that infamous portrait. | #art #Sargent
April 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
This is Biddy(L) and Bob(R). They saved our sanity the last time we had to go through this.
March 22, 2025 at 7:51 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
She also painted Susanna and the Elders and Yael tent-pegging Sisera. In the latter I'm struck by how her demeanor seems completely unaffected by what she's doing. No look of anger in her face.
November 29, 2024 at 4:34 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
"There is nothing new under the sun" -- Ecclesiastes.
In the mid-19th century, physicist Albert Michelson echoed the sentiment -- just before the birth of quantum mechanics. Some latter day prophet always seems to make this declaration just before everything changes.

#drugdiscovery #TPD #AI #DEL
BRD4 & CBLN with a heterobifunctional degrader J252. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq2216
November 28, 2024 at 5:00 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Here are a couple of Waterhouse paintings depicting scenes or characters from The Odyssey.

#art #pre-raphaelite #waterhouse
In this scene we see Odysseus tied to the mast of his ship. Flying about him, you can see the sirens attempting to lure the men to steer the ship towards the rocks. However, Odysseus has told his men to stuff wax in their ears and row past the island. This painting is called Circe Invidiosa, and it depicts a scene written from Ovid's Metamorphoses in which the witch Circe pours out oil into a pool of water where a woman Scylla is known to bathe every morning. Glaucus, a prophetic sea god who rescues sailors, has spurned the love of Circe for Scylla. In this scene, Circe is transforming Scylla into a sea monster. If you're a fan of the Police, then you've heard about Scylla in that line from their song "Wrapped Around Your Finger" -- "You consider me the young apprentice Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis" It's the equivalent of being "caught between a rock and a hard place".
November 27, 2024 at 7:31 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Another reason to visit the Tate Britain is the PRB-adjacent artist John William Waterhouse. He was born in 1849, the year that the PRB was first making a splash. This is one of 3 versions of The Lady of Shalott that he painted. The story is in the alt text.

#art #pre-raphaelite #waterhouse
It's this painting of the Lady of Shalott that really grabs most visitors to the Tate. It's the one that people most associate with Waterhouse. As with most artists of the time they were well-acquainted with the mythology, legend and literature and the influence of writers like Tennyson inspired the art of both the Pre-Raphaelites (PRB) and PRB-adjacent artists like Waterhouse. The poem tells of Elaine of Astolat who was in unrequited love with Lancelot. She's confined to a room near Camelot, where she weaves intricate tapestries and is cursed to only be able to see the world through a mirror. She decides to break the curse when she hears Lancelot riding by and looks directly at him. In the end she leaves the room and gets in the boat to glide down the river to her doom. You can see one of her tapestries decorating the gunwale of the boat. Waterhouse executed 3 versions of the Lady of Shalott. This one is called "I am half-sick of shadows" which is part of a line from the poem by Tennyson. Here you can see her at her loom, weaving one of her tapestries. Outside her window we can see Lancelot walking by and presumably Guinevere walking beside him. It's in this moment that she decides to break the curse (or fulfill it) by looking directly out the window at him. In this version, the Lady has just stood up from her loom after spotting Lancelot outside her window -- you can just make him out in his armoured helmet. She turns around to leave the room and try to catch Lancelot, but in that moment she's also caught up in the yarn that she's using to weave one of her tapestries.
November 27, 2024 at 7:18 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
These paintings are The Briar Rose and The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon. Although he was not a founding member of the PRB, Burne-Jones is often associated with the group due to the thematic similarities in their art. Story in the alt text.

#art #pre-raphaelite #burne-jones
The Briar Rose is part of a series of paintings that were made to decorate a salon and depict a scene from the fairy tale. This is similar in many respects to The Beguiling of Merlin and once again shows the motif of entanglement that we see in Burne-Jones' paintings. This painting is considered the magnum opus of Burne-Jones. It shows Merlin laid to rest on the Isle of Avalon. It took the artist over 17 years to complete this painting. Arthur is modelled on William Morris, the artists lifelong friend. Morris had passed away and this painting in many ways shows the isolation that Burne-Jones felt as many of his friends began to die. They day before he died, Burne-Jones was still working on the painting.
November 27, 2024 at 5:58 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Part of the joy of visiting the Tate Britain is rediscovering their collection of Pre-Raphaelite art. One of the most instantly recognisable artists is Edward Burne-Jones. This is the story of his life in his own paintings. As usual, the story is in the alt text.

#art #pre-raphaelite #burne-jones
This is "King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid". The story comes from an old ballad, and was referred to in Shakespearean plays like It is Love's Labour's Lost, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, and Henry IV, part 2 and Tennyson's The Beggar Maid. The story is a bout an African King named Cophetua who falls in love with a beggar maid and marries her. In his hands you can see him holding his crown. Burne-Jones wife Georgiana was the model for the Beggar Maid. This is a portrait of Georgiana Burne-Jones. In the background you can see their son Phil, who became a portrait artist, and their daughter Margaret. Georgiana contracted Scarlet Fever from Phil when he was a child. She was pregnant at the time, and lost their second son Christopher. Georgie was a painter and engraver in her own right. Both she and Edward were committed socialists, and Edward rather reluctantly accepted a baronetcy. His son Phil was part of the Prince of Wales entourage, and the baronetcy gave him some cachet with the group. The book she's holding is a book of flowers. Edward painted a series of watercolours, which Georgie published as a book entitled The Book of Flowers in 1905. She said it was the most soothing piece of work he ever did. The book she's holding is a different book. Edward created this painting in 1883. Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris were friends from college. They formed a group of Birmingham artists that they called The Brotherhood and they befriended Rosetti and other Pre-Raphaelites and the group sort of merged. There is some research that indicates that William Morris was in love with Georgie. But how far this went isn't really known. This painting is The Beguiling of Merlin. It depicts the witch Nimue casting a spell to trap Merlin in a hawthorn bush. I first encountered this painting when it was used as the cover for AS Byatt's book "Possession". The model for this was Maria Zambaco whom Burne-Jones first met in 1866 when he was asked to paint a portrait of her. They began a life altering affair which nearly destroyed his marriage. Zambaco attempted suicide via laudanum when she tried to get Burne-Jones to join her and leave his wife. Everytime I look at this painting I'm struck by the parallels between the artist and models lives, and characters in the painting. You can almost see Burne-Jones being beguiled by Zambaco. This painting is called "Love Among The Ruins" and the title comes from Robert Brownings poem of the same name. Here once again you can see Maria Zambaco. There were two versions of this painting. The first was a watercolour that was nearly destroyed, when a conservator mistook the watercolour for an oil painting and attempted to apply a varnish to it. The painting was returned to the artist and was thought to be a complete loss, but he was able to eventually remove the varnish and restore it. When he first received news that the painting had been destroyed by the varnish he was so distraught by the news, that he painted another copy of it in oils. I suspect that a large part of his distress had to do with the emotion attached to the painting through his love of Zambaco. At his feet you can see a briar rose entangling them. This motif of entanglement which appears in several of his paintings always brings to mind the affair between the two of them.
November 27, 2024 at 5:43 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Many years ago on a trip to Amsterdam I came across an exhibit of artists from the Ottocento. The story behind this painting is in the alt text.

#art #ottocento #corcos #realism
This painting is called Dreams and was created by the Italian artist Vittorio Corcos. He specialised in portraits of fashionable young women and men in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This is really a picture that has to be seen in person because the gaze of the model holds your attention. This picture caused a bit of a scandal at the time because of the realism of the portrait, the fashionable modernity of the subject and the scandalous books she's reading. In 1896 when this portrait was painted Italian publishers had a tendency to publish crime fiction and mysteries with yellow covers. And these types of books were not considered subjects for young women to read.
November 27, 2024 at 7:47 AM
markfortner.bsky.social
Here's another Tissot picture called Le Petit Nimrod. In the Old Testament, Nimrod is a great hunter and in this picture we see the children of Kathleen Newton, Tissot's muse playing in a park. More in the alt text.

#art #arthistory #tissot
The painting shows four of cousins playing in a park. They are the children of Tissot's muse and lover Kathleen Newton and her sister Polly. There's always been some speculation that one of the children was Tissot's son but that has never been proven before.
November 23, 2024 at 6:47 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Every time I go home I visit the Tate Britain to see their Pre-Raphaelite collection this painting in particular. It's Millais' Ophelia and the story behind it is in the alt text.

#art #arthistory #millais #pre-raphaelites
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded in London in 1848 at the home of John Everett Millais's parents on Gower Street about a block from the British Museum. The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of young artists and one writer who rebelled against the Royal Academy of Arts' academic approach to painting. They wanted to paint art with the color palette and style that predated Raphael hence the name pre-Raphaelites. They decided to exhibit their paintings and to sign them using the initials PRB which stands for pre-raphaelite brotherhood. The subjects of their paintings were often characters from literature, theater mythology and legend. This painting is of the character of Ophelia from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. In the place she throws herself into the river and floats down it while singing and eventually drowning herself. One model who appears in a number of pre-raphaelite paintings is Elizabeth Siddal. In order to achieve the realism that you see in this painting Millais placed it all in a bathtub of water which was warmed only by oil lamps. Millais was so engrossed in the painting that he didn't notice that the lamps had started to go out and that the water be in the bathtub began to grow cold. As a result Siddal caught pneumonia, and it was only after Millais promised to pay her doctor's bills that Siddal was allowed to pose for the artists again. She married one of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood Dante Gabriel Rossetti - the brother of the poet Christina Rossetti. In addition to being an artist Dante was a poet. When Siddal died of a laudanum overdose years later, Rossetti buried an unpublished book of his poems in the coffin with his wife. He began to regret that decision and in the middle of the night, with a group of comrades, snuck into the graveyard and dug up the coffin. According to legend her famous red hair had continued to grow and had filled the coffin. This story found itself in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book Love And Other Demons.
November 23, 2024 at 6:26 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
I love the story behind a painting almost as much as the painting itself. This is the story of a painting, The Portrait of Madame X, that made and unmade two very different people. Read the Alt text for more details.

#art #arthistory #johnsingersargent #portraitofmadamex
On April 6, 1862 disaster befell the Avegno family. A rich creole, mercantile family in New Orleans, the father Anatole Avegno decided to raise a contingent of soldiers called the Avegno Zoaves (named after the mercenary soldiers who fought for the Pope during the Papal Wars in Italy). On this particular day however, at the Battle of Shiloh, he faced off against two writers: Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur) and Ambrose Bierce (author of The Devil's Dictionary). Unfortunately, he lost and he and all of his men were killed on that day. His wife and daughter (Virginie) were forced to sell up, and move back to France. There Virginie attended finishing school and met and married an older banker by the name of Pierre Gautreau. In those days, it was common for people of a certain class to have mistresses, and this was accepted as long as there was no proof of infidelity. One day Virginie's lover, a Parisian doctor, mentioned that a fellow countryman of hers was painting the most enchanting portraits and suggested that she get hers done. The artist was John Singer Sargent, an ex-pat American who had grown up in Italy. She sat for him, and the painting on the left was the result. The painting outraged Parisian society. It showed a woman who was seemed to be coming out of her dress. Remember what I said about there "being no signs of infidelity". There were lines around the Paris Salon and an uproar in society, and Virginie was forced to spend the next 10 years in the Gautreau country house away from polite society. The painting however, made Sargent's reputation as a painter, and on the strength of this painting he moved to London and began painting the cream of British society. He kept this painting for many years, and eventually repainted the strap (at left) before selling it to the Met with the proviso that it always be titled The Portrait of Madame X. The model could never be identified.
November 23, 2024 at 5:22 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
A few years ago, in the Before Times, on one of my regular trips to San Francisco, I decided to spend an extra day at the Legion of Honor to see the Tissot exhibit. Read the Alt text for the story of his life in 4 paintings.

#art #tissot #arthistory
Tissot's Young Lady In A Boat, painted just before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The young lady has a rather bored look on her face. She's sitting on drapery, and dressed in the latest fashions. Tissot's father was a draper, and his mother was a fashion designer. It's that eye of the fashion designer that you see reflected in so many of his paintings. This painting is called The Gallery of HMS Calcutta. In the visual language of painters, an open fan over the left ear meant, "do not betray our secret". What's particularly interesting about this painting is that after Tissot moved to London, he met, painted and fell in love with his neighbour Kathleen Newton. At sixteen she was promised in an arranged marriage to Dr. Isaac Newton in India. On her way to India, she met an officer, Captain George Palliser and fell in love with him. When she arrived at Dr. Newton's place in India, she was already 7 months pregnant with George Palliser's child. She divorced Newton and returned to London to live with her sister in a house in the St. Johns Wood neighbourhood on Grove End (not far from Abbey Road and the site of the Beatles famous picture) In 1872, Tissot moved into a house a few doors down from Kathleen and was so taken by her as she walked by his house, that he asked her to pose for him. She was his muse and his mistress for a number of years, and by all accounts they were devoted to one another. Tissot was a Catholic, and as a divorcee with an illegitimate child Newton could not marry him. Had she attempted to get the original marriage annulled, all of her children would have been rendered illegitimate. Instead, Newton lived at Tissot's house at "Madame Tissot". But at this time she was suffering from consumption, and a few days before she died, a local priest was able to convert her to Catholicism and they were able to marry. Tissot was so broken by the death of Kathleen Newton that for over a year he didn't pick up a paintbrush. He returned to Paris and attended seances. He decided to make the first of 2 journeys to the Holy Land, and there he began painting a series of watercolours called "The Life of Jesus". They were eventually collected, and used as the illustrations for a Bible, and it was these paintings that he was most famous for in his later life. In this painting you can see Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount -- Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
November 23, 2024 at 4:59 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Yesterday was #WorldPancreaticCancerDay and during the course of a local meetup I ran into two different founders who were working on new pancreatic cancer therapies. The biggest challenge for treating pancreatic cancer is early diagnosis. Most patients present at Stage 3 or 4.
Pipeline is a platform for managing drug discovery programs. The Indication Management module helps scientists understand and visualise the target space for genetically complex diseases. The visualisation shows vertical swimlanes with green headers that represent the stages of the disease. Blue horizontal boxes that span these stages represent disease processes. Inside these disease processes are potential drug targets that play a role in those disease processes.
November 22, 2024 at 10:40 PM
markfortner.bsky.social
Papers That Changed My Preconceptions
This paper opened my eyes to the evolutionary nature of #pancreaticcancer and how this added to the biological complexity of the disease.

Distant metastasis occurs late during the genetic evolution of pancreatic cancer
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20981102/
November 17, 2024 at 4:22 PM