Denny Luan's guest appearances

Denny Luan

PeerSpectrum | Journeys in Medicine

Idea Machines

Cindy Wu

Warren Buffett

David Zweig

David Sinclair

Stanley McChrystal

Alan Levinovitz

Cal Fussman

Brian Nosek

Anna Goldstein

Alison Gopnik

Matt Clifford

Burton Malkiel

Melody Warnick

Gavin Francis

Robert Montgomery

OwlTail

Cindy Wu and Denny Luan are the founders of experiment.com - a platform that allows anybody to request funding for a science project and anybody to fund them. It's fascinating because it stands completely outside of the grant funding and publication system that drives most science today. In this podcast we discuss how the current system prevents the creating of new fields, why science communication may be even more important that science funding, and new models for company governance.  Key Takeaways  The incentives built into the grant system make it hard for new fields to emerge Arguably, changing how science is communicated might have the biggest impact on our knowledge creation system. The concept of ownership and governance of companies being two separate axes that need to be considered separately  Resources Experiment.com The Science of Science Funding  DIY biohackers trying to see infrared with vitamin A Innocentive Public benefit corporation Purpose Trusts Wellcome Trust/Foundation  Employee Owned Breweries Topics  Consolidation and risk aversion in science Hard to fund research outside of funding buckets Field politics Hard for younger scientists to get funding NIH budget stayed the same, proposals have doubled Government funds what's popular CERN is a consortium of companies doing funding Only real solution is disseminating knowledge DIY biohackers trying to see infrared with vitamin A Digging up dinosaurs No money to prepare dinosaur bones Incentives for science Brewery example of employee owned corporation New models for funding businesses Ownership and Governence Axes Making scientists stakeholders in Danger of masking philanthropy as investment and vice versa Would VCs ever fund something that's not purely for profit New Company structures 

Cindy Wu and Denny Luan are the founders of <a href="http://experiment.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">experiment.com</a> - a platform that allows anybody to request funding for a science project and anybody to fund them. It's fascinating because it stands completely outside of the grant funding and publication system that drives most science today. In this podcast we discuss how the current system prevents the creating of new fields, why science communication may be even more important that science funding, and new models for company governance.  Key Takeaways <ul> <li>The incentives built into the grant system make it hard for new fields to emerge</li> <li>Arguably, changing how science is communicated might have the biggest impact on our knowledge creation system.</li> <li>The concept of ownership and governance of companies being two separate axes that need to be considered separately</li> </ul> Resources <a href="https://experiment.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experiment.com</a> <a href="https://conference.nber.org/conferences/2018/SFIs18/summary.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Science of Science Funding</a> <a href="https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/180284-intrepid-biohacker-gives-himself-infrared-night-vision-but-at-what-price" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> DIY biohackers trying to see infrared with vitamin A</a> <a href="https://www.innocentive.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Innocentive</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-benefit_corporation" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Public benefit corporation</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purpose_trust" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Purpose Trusts</a> <a href="https://wellcome.ac.uk/funding" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Wellcome Trust/Foundation</a> <a href="https://www.schgroup.com/resource/blog-post/employee-owned-companies-gaining-popularity-among-craft-breweries/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> Employee Owned Breweries</a> Topics <ul> <li>Consolidation and risk aversion in science</li> <li>Hard to fund research outside of funding buckets</li> <li>Field politics</li> <li>Hard for younger scientists to get funding</li> <li>NIH budget stayed the same, proposals have doubled</li> <li>Government funds what's popular</li> <li>CERN is a consortium of companies doing funding</li> <li>Only real solution is disseminating knowledge</li> <li>DIY biohackers trying to see infrared with vitamin A</li> <li>Digging up dinosaurs</li> <li>No money to prepare dinosaur bones</li> <li>Incentives for science</li> <li>Brewery example of employee owned corporation</li> <li>New models for funding businesses</li> <li>Ownership and Governence Axes</li> <li>Making scientists stakeholders in</li> <li>Danger of masking philanthropy as investment and vice versa</li> <li>Would VCs ever fund something that's not purely for profit</li> <li>New Company structures</li> </ul>

"Other" Options in Science and Companies with Cindy Wu and Denny Luan [Idea Machines #17]

How do you feel about funding scientific research, particularly medical research? How efficient, effective and fair is the grant system in deploying billions of taxpayer dollars? Are funds targeted towards diseases proportional to their occurrence in patient populations? Are the influences of disease specific non-profit groups helpful or hurtful? Are the interests and activities of biomedical companies aligned with the needs of you, and your patients?Well, if you think there's room for some serious improvement, today's episode is for you.Cindy Wu was a young undergraduate student at the University of Washington, working on a way to modify an enzyme treatment for anthrax, using a videogame. (which, by the way, is a heck of a lot more than I was doing in college) Eager to find funding for her idea, Cindy approached her professor. “Cindy, [he responded] the system doesn’t fund people like you...It only funds tenured professors.” Although he ended up helping her by sharing money from one of his own research grants, Cindy had taken her first glance at the huge world of underfunded, and undiscovered science.Cindy wanted to do something, but she needed help. She discussed the problem with her friend, Denny Luan, a fellow student with a software background. The amazing solution they came up with was pitched to silicon valley investors in 2013, at Y Combinator. That three minute pitch brought in 1.2 million dollars in initial startup funds, and Experiment.com, a unique crowd funding platform for scientific research was born.Like early stage investing, it's easy to see this space as early stage research. Bill Gates has described Experiment as a, "solution [that] helps close the gap for potential and promising, but unfunded projects." Most research in gap can be funded by as little as 5 to 10 thousand dollars!We know what you're thinking. 5-10 grand? Maybe for a university science fair, but certainly not for legitimate medical research. As we're seeing though, technologies such as CRISPR gene editing, 3D printing and artificial intelligence are already lowering the costs and barriers to researchers in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. This will only continue, and companies like Experiment are leading the way into this undiscovered country. With that said, we're happy to bring you the founders of Experiment, Cindy Wu and Denny Luan....

How do you feel about funding scientific research, particularly medical research? How efficient, effective and fair is the grant system in deploying billions of taxpayer dollars? Are funds targeted towards diseases proportional to their occurrence in patient populations? Are the influences of disease specific non-profit groups helpful or hurtful? Are the interests and activities of biomedical companies aligned with the needs of you, and your patients? Well, if you think there's room for some serious improvement, today's episode is for you. Cindy Wu was a young undergraduate student at the University of Washington, working on a way to modify an enzyme treatment for anthrax, using a videogame. (which, by the way, is a heck of a lot more than I was doing in college) Eager to find funding for her idea, Cindy approached her professor. “Cindy, [he responded] the system doesn’t fund people like you...It only funds tenured professors.” Although he ended up helping her by sharing money from one of his own research grants, Cindy had taken her first glance at the huge world of underfunded, and undiscovered science. Cindy wanted to do something, but she needed help. She discussed the problem with her friend, Denny Luan, a fellow student with a software background. The amazing solution they came up with was pitched to silicon valley investors in 2013, at Y Combinator. That three minute pitch brought in 1.2 million dollars in initial startup funds, and <a href="http://Experiment.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Experiment.com</a>, a unique crowd funding platform for scientific research was born. Like early stage investing, it's easy to see this space as early stage research. Bill Gates has described Experiment as a, "solution [that] helps close the gap for potential and promising, but unfunded projects." Most research in gap can be funded by as little as 5 to 10 thousand dollars! We know what you're thinking. 5-10 grand? Maybe for a university science fair, but certainly not for legitimate medical research. As we're seeing though, technologies such as CRISPR gene editing, 3D printing and artificial intelligence are already lowering the costs and barriers to researchers in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. This will only continue, and companies like Experiment are leading the way into this undiscovered country. With that said, we're happy to bring you the founders of Experiment, Cindy Wu and Denny Luan....

Undiscovered Country: Research Funding 2.0 with Cindy Wu & Denny Luan, founders of Experiment