Digitalis Ventures

LISTEN to Misti Ushio's interview with Kate Adams on #StartupSuccess to learn about her entrepreneurial journey from investor in life science companies to founder of the cardiovascular biotech firm TARA Biosystems to Managing Partner at Digitalis Ventures.  Also available on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. #entrepreneur #founder #womeninscience #leadership #venturecapital

It is indisputable that the construction and expansion of human society have come at a cost to parts of the environment, and human health and environmental protection are sometimes at odds. In this context, what efforts have been made to improve our understanding of changes in the environment, what are we actually measuring as we try to understand the environment, and how are these measurements applied to change policy? PLUS: Fasting to beat cancer, getting nutrients directly to cancer cells, spatial biomarkers, and yet another study on coffee. #environmentalhealth #humanhealth https://lnkd.in/e4Q2DUag

With the Paris 2024 Olympics rapidly approaching, many of us are looking forward to watching the best human athletes in the world compete for their home countries. As amazing as many of these athletes are, one wonders how other animals, specifically other land mammals, might compare. In this latest installment of Notes on Animal Health, Cynthia Cole looks at differences in speed and endurance, and asks how we've come to believe that humans are superior endurance athletes to other land mammals. PLUS: Psychiatric service dogs, the history of horses in North America, human-to-animal viral transmission, & hungry, hungry dogs.

The demand for obesity drugs seems inexhaustible—which has given rise to a confusing situation: an online pharmacy offering off-label versions of a patented drug. Is this legal? Can a compounding pharmacy prepare and sell protected molecules? What even is a compounding pharmacy? In the fifth installment of our series on the American Healthcare system we look at pharmacies. How did their role expand from the first apothecaries to the modern tech firms tasked with the safe distribution of drugs to the public? PLUS: life-saving epidurals, aging clocks, proteins that restructure when warmed, and (yet more) evidence on the benefits of exercise. #pharmacies #pharmaceuticals #healthcare #ozempic #wegovy

Marie Curie and her family harnessed the power of the atom to cure humans, sacrificing their own health in the process. Read how invention (and some reckless experimentation) ushered in an era of nuclear medicine, including radiopharmaceuticals that are generating palpable excitement and promise today. PLUS: The music in our genes, ageless RNA, survival of the nicest, taste throughout the body, and in praise of chemists. #radiopharmaceuticals #nuclearmedicine #health #science #investment

Many of us know instinctually that our pets are good for us. Now there is a growing body of evidence to support that belief. But are people good for pets? We certainly can be. In this latest installment of Notes on Animal Health, Cynthia Cole looks at what we can do, before we get a pet, to increase the chances that benefits to health and welfare are a two-way street, good for the pet and good for you. PLUS: The dog’s amazing sense of smell as a diagnostic tool, animals and eclipses, the threat to migratory species, a not-so-heroic dog in Paris, and a feline WWII vet.

As medicine has grown more complex and costly, the way to organize its delivery has had to adapt. In the fourth installment of our series on the American Healthcare system we turn to providers — how has the work of delivering care evolved, how has it been integrated with the health insurance system, and what trends have emerged that point to ways in which hospitals may continue to evolve? PLUS: Deep Protein Language Models, how the body feels cold, breathing and speaking, the first hours of the immune system, and AI and radiology #healthcare #hospitals #healthinsurance #public

Scientific publications have become the lingua franca of scientific discovery and knowledge, the edifice on which trust is built. To understand how academic publishing arrived at the structure we know today and think of ways to improve it, we look at the story of scholarly publishing, the technological advances that occurred along the way, and the forces and incentives that shape current behaviors and challenges. PLUS: walks in nature, butterfly chromosomes, smoking & immunity, vegan and ketogenic diets and immunity, and fasting to combat inflammation. #science #health #healthcare #publishing #immunity

Get to know the Players—Who are they? How did they emerge? READ our ongoing Notes on Engineering Health series on the U.S. Healthcare System. 1/ Employer-sponsored Health Insurance - When & how did this benefit become a norm? https://lnkd.in/eD23QAZF 2/ The Payers - A hybrid, multiple-player system https://lnkd.in/e4qR76Uj 3/ Pharmacy Benefit Managers - The middlemen https://lnkd.in/ertGDbK8 Up Next: Providers (think hospitals) followed by Public Programs (think Medicare, Medicaid, & the VA). Please TELL US if there are topics you want to see us to tackle in this series. #healthcare #healthcarecosts #healthcarebusiness

With pets, cardiovascular disease is uncommon, and coronary artery disease (CAD) is almost unheard of. The difference in the prevalence of CAD between dogs and humans is particularly striking when one considers that the dog has been proposed to be a model for human aging and mortality—given the major physiological differences between man and dogs, why are they still considered an appropriate model for study? PLUS: the lifespan of dogs, short-nosed dogs, penguins and a unique sleep strategy, the beautiful and endangered snow leopard, and, yes, our inherent ability as humans to identify happy chickens. #dogs #animalhealth #hearthealth #cardiovasculardisease