I used to think this way, but after about 30 years in the field (including ML, MD, sequence alignment, homology modelling, drug discovery, and more) I've concluded grandiose visions like this have little to no chance of actually making any sort of impactful difference, either academically or industrially.
Don't get me wrong- I think many of the analogies are accurate, but thinking about it that way doesn't help you design an experiment that answers any clear question. If you want to pursue the idea of building better tools for interrogating life, have at it- make sure you read all the stuff George Church has published about DNA recorders and similar systems.
I don't know why you would want to focus on Raman spectroscopy. That's a useful analytic tool, but it's certainly not going to move the needle on any interesting biological processes. You would have a lot more luck using optical microscopy- it's one of the most mature and powerful readouts, highly flexible, and can be used with sequencing.
I can't really see a case for funding here. You need a well-defined, biomedically based argument and a technology that people think will actually work. You will get 3-5 years of runway and then have to meet some important milestone.
Reversing Biological Life as Closed Code
From the author of skype reversing and skype-open-source blog
Cells execute molecular programs in real time, but biology mostly studies them by breaking them apart.
This series proposes a different lens:
- DNA as self-executing code
- The cell as a black-box runtime
- Raman spectroscopy as a potential read-only probe
- Spectral decomposition as binary analysis
It’s a computational systems view of cell biology.
Treating DNA as executable code:
- The genome as a self-executing binary
- Molecular pathways as distributed computation
- Reverse-engineering methods applied to living systems
Early will includes discussion of using Raman spectroscopy as a potential non-invasive runtime probe.
Would love technical feedback. And looking for investors.
I used to think this way, but after about 30 years in the field (including ML, MD, sequence alignment, homology modelling, drug discovery, and more) I've concluded grandiose visions like this have little to no chance of actually making any sort of impactful difference, either academically or industrially.
Don't get me wrong- I think many of the analogies are accurate, but thinking about it that way doesn't help you design an experiment that answers any clear question. If you want to pursue the idea of building better tools for interrogating life, have at it- make sure you read all the stuff George Church has published about DNA recorders and similar systems.
I don't know why you would want to focus on Raman spectroscopy. That's a useful analytic tool, but it's certainly not going to move the needle on any interesting biological processes. You would have a lot more luck using optical microscopy- it's one of the most mature and powerful readouts, highly flexible, and can be used with sequencing.
I can't really see a case for funding here. You need a well-defined, biomedically based argument and a technology that people think will actually work. You will get 3-5 years of runway and then have to meet some important milestone.
Reversing Biological Life as Closed Code From the author of skype reversing and skype-open-source blog
Cells execute molecular programs in real time, but biology mostly studies them by breaking them apart.
This series proposes a different lens:
- DNA as self-executing code - The cell as a black-box runtime - Raman spectroscopy as a potential read-only probe - Spectral decomposition as binary analysis
It’s a computational systems view of cell biology.
Treating DNA as executable code:
- The genome as a self-executing binary - Molecular pathways as distributed computation - Reverse-engineering methods applied to living systems
Early will includes discussion of using Raman spectroscopy as a potential non-invasive runtime probe.
Would love technical feedback. And looking for investors.
Curious what HN thinks.
No.