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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Cozen

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Cozen

“My Cozen Vinnie” Cozen Definition (verb): to trick, deceive, or wheedle “He cozened money out of his guardian.”; the car salesman is a cozener, he cozens his customers into buying lemons off the lot”; “he cozened his mom into doing the dishes for him”. Pronunciation:...

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Make America Late Again

Make America Late Again

“Better late than never” is an oldie but goodie. If we’ve said that line once, we’ve said it 100 times about lead EpicentRx therapy, AdAPT-001, plus an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI). That’s because AdAPT-001 and the ICI are almost always (unfashionably) late to...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Crassulent

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Crassulent

“The definition of crassulent is elementary.” Crassulent Definition (adjective): grotesquely obese “People, in case you haven't noticed, are a crassulent, beef-witted lot.” Sherlock Holmes, Elementary Pronunciation: kras-u-lehnt Origin: From Latin “crassus” = thick,...

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The Artful Blogger

The Artful Blogger

The Artful Dodger was an expert thief from Charles Dickens’ novel, Oliver Twist.  The Artful Blogger—that’s us, incidentally—is another thief of sorts. What we try to lift, or boost is, not wallets or phones, of course, but morale with hopefully entertaining and...

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Mad, Bad, and Delightful to NO

Mad, Bad, and Delightful to NO

The 19th century Romantic poet, Lord Byron, who died a committed freedom fighter in the Greek War of Independence against the Ottomans, was famously described by his lover, Lady Caroline Lamb, as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”  Following in the footsteps of the...

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Un-typecastable

Un-typecastable

Sometimes by design and sometimes not, certain actors are cast repeatedly in the same role or play the same character based on qualities such as race, gender, accent, individual characteristics, or previous roles. To use Hollywood-speak, they are “typecast” or “typed”...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Swivel-eyed

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Swivel-eyed

“Actor and comedian, Marty Feldman (below), from Young Frankenstein was the definition of swivel-eyed.” Swivel-eyed Definition (adjective) chiefly British slang: having extreme, deranged, or fanatical views “He is a swivel-eyed fanatic”; “They are a bunch of...

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Be Kind, Rewind

Be Kind, Rewind

    One of the slogans of Blockbuster Video, the erstwhile video rental store chain from the 1980s and early 1990s, was “Be kind, rewind”. This slogan reminded customers to pay — and play — it back, not forward, by rewinding their #VHS cassettes. (And if...

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Fort NOx

Fort NOx

The United States Bullion Depository in the state of Kentucky, popularly known as “Fort Knox,” is a symbol the world over of impregnable security and protection.   Another vault-like structure is the dinitroazetidine ring that led EpicentRx small molecule, RRx-001...

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Natural-Born Killer

Natural-Born Killer

  We just watched a behind-the scenes docuseries on Netflix called “Countdown: Paul vs. Tyson” in which the boxer, Mike Tyson, describes himself as a “natural born killer” (NBK) and his opponent, the YouTuber Jake Paul, as a “manufactured killer” (MK). The...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Toothsome

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Toothsome

“Win some, lose some, toothsome.”       Toothsome Definition (adjective): 1) attractive “a toothsome woman” 2) delicious, tasty “a toothsome dish"; “the chocolate cake was toothsome.” Pronunciation: tooth-suhm About the Word: The tooth in toothsome...

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Fascism

Fascism

The latest F-bomb, a one-size fits all insult, is “fascist.” It is dropped with kneejerk and hyperbolic abandon on the news largely as a synonym for “anyone with a dissenting opinion.” Seriously, that’s not too far off. Sometimes the qualifiers “to the core,” “pig,”...

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If You’re Not First, The Response Will Last

If You’re Not First, The Response Will Last

One of our favorite quotes from the gleefully stupid film, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, which good-naturedly pokes fun at NASCAR culture, is, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” The opposite is true for lead EpicentRx therapy, AdAPT-001, whose motto...

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Cancel Culture

Cancel Culture

Sorry Elon Musk, but we unreservedly support cancel culture. Oh yes, we most certainly do. But, keep reading, Elon et al., we’re not talking along any ideological or partisan lines here. The culture in question is the proprietary suspension of cells that we use to...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Psephology

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Psephology

“The word psephology rocks.” -Pebbles from the Flintstones Psephology Definition (noun): The study of elections. Psephological (adjective) Psephologist (noun) “According to some psephologists, people don’t vote for candidates—they vote against them”; “Psephology is an...

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Non-Word Salad City

Non-Word Salad City

We’ve reached peak word salad. 🤞 Much in the news of late, the term, word salad, was originally reserved for the rambling/disordered/incomprehensible speech patterns of those with real medical conditions like schizophrenia, aphasia, or dementia, but now its use has...

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Joker

Joker

The reviews for the much-hyped new movie “Joker Folie à Deux” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga are in and judging from the 34% Rotten Tomatoes score it is insanely unpopular. Or let’s just say, since the Joker is apparently a musical, that not too many reviewers...

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Monster Mash

Monster Mash

In anticipation of Halloween, let’s crank up the volume on the celebrated song “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers about a mad scientist who throws a party for monsters, including Dracula, Dracula’s son, the Wolfman, and Igor.  Tumors are a...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Confute

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Confute

“If confute does not compute read below.” “You may refute or confute an argument, but you cannot refute a person.”         Confute Definition (verb): prove a person or an assertion to be wrong. 1) “He confuted his accuser with facts.” 2) “Read not...

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(Don’t) Cut It Out

(Don’t) Cut It Out

According to singer Sheryl Crow (and Cat Stevens), the first cut is the deepest. However, according to EpicentRx CEO and oncovirologist, Dr. Tony Reid, the first cut isn’t deep or, for that matter, even a cut at all — but rather a needle stick. This is the essence of...

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Who’s Your MDADI?

Who’s Your MDADI?

Survival from localized head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is better than for many cancers. Five-year survival rates range from around 50 to 80%. This puts the quality of life (QOL) of these patients at the forefront.  One of the most common and significant...

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#Shenanigate

#Shenanigate

Another job title to add to Meaghan Stirn’s already fulsome resume: Chief Shenanigator. (For the record, we mention that as Vice President (VP) of Finance Meaghan is also the Chief Finagler).  Urban Dictionary defines a “Shenanigator” as one who shenanigizes, that is,...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Cromulent

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Cromulent

“This definition of cromulent is perfectly cromulent.”         Cromulent Definition (adjective): acceptable, fine, or legitimate. “Cromulent is a perfectly cromulent word.” Pronunciation: kraa-myuh-luhnt About the Word: Cromulent is a nonsense word...

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Methane to the Madness

Methane to the Madness

We often write figuratively about climate change since lead EpicentRx therapies, RRx-001 (nibrozetone) and AdAPT-001, “heat up” “cold”, non-immunogenic tumors, that is, they make them more immunogenic and treatment sensitive. However, methane (CH4), a contributor to...

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Ozem-pics

Ozem-pics

Ozempic butt. Ozempic tongue. Ozempic fingers. Ozempic burps. Ozempic dreams. Ozempic diarrhea. Ozempic hair. The list of side effects from glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists Ozempic/Wegovy, and Mounjaro/Zepbound seems to expand over time in inverse proportion...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Transduce

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Transduce

“Your introduction to transduction below”           Transduce Definition (verb): 1) To transfer genetic material, to cause to undergo transduction “AdAPT-001 transduces cancer cells with its TGFβ trap”  2) To convert from one form to another...

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Friday Funnies: Earoma

Friday Funnies: Earoma

“Earoma” When you smell something while driving and feel the need to turn down the radio to smell it better.  

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Dark Matter AdAPT-001

Dark Matter AdAPT-001

As we wrote in a previous (and longer) post about RRx-001 (nibrozetone), we idly wondered, after having binge watched the trippy Apple TV sci-fi-thriller, Dark Matter, about the multiverse and the “what-ifs” in life, where our lead therapy, AdAPT-001, would have ended...

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Dark Matter: RRx-001 (nibrozetone)

Dark Matter: RRx-001 (nibrozetone)

The intriguing premise of a new Apple TV sci-fi-thriller, Dark Matter, based on a best-selling novel of the same name is that myriad parallel universes or multiverses constantly arise from all possible choices, or decisions, which are made or not made. The show’s...

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No BroZone

No BroZone

The United States Adopted Names (USAN) Council and the World Health Organization (WHO) INN Programme gave RRx-001 the generic name, nibrozetone, as we have written about before here in this blog post entitled, “Coppertone or Nibrozetone”, since nibrozetone sounds like...

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Put a SOC in It

Put a SOC in It

Cisplatin/70 Gy IMRT confirmed as standard of care (SOC) for nonsmoking HPV+ oropharyngeal cancer, which is the treatment used in the Phase 2/3 clinical trial, KEVLARx, that features the EpicentRx lead small molecule, RRx-001 (nibrozetone). According to the results of...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Traduce

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Traduce

“Do not ever traduce the good name of Words of the Week.” “Mrs. Robinson, are you trying to traduce me?” Traduce Definition (verb): 1) Slander, malign, badmouth “So traduced was the congressman by reports of sexual misconduct that he was forced to resign”; “The...

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A Second Meeting of the Minds

A Second Meeting of the Minds

The first meeting of the minds occurred on Saturday, September 28th from 1:30-2:30 pm EST at the 2024 International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders (MDS) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During a one-hour platform presentation, Associate Professor...

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A Solace of Quantum

A Solace of Quantum

The era of quantum computing is here.  But what is quantum computing and how does quantum differ from “classical” digital computing? Well, we’re certainly no experts, but from our limited understanding, conventional computers use transistors that only store...

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IP, IP, Hurray

IP, IP, Hurray

Two patents entitled “Methods and Compositions Utilizing RRx-001 for Radioprotection” and “Cytokine Receptor Fusion Proteins (TGF-beta trap) and Virus Expressing Them” were recently issued in several countries, which is always a cause for celebration.  The purpose of...

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Pseudoprogression

Pseudoprogression

Seeing is believing, right? Not always in the case of lead EpicentRx therapy, AdAPT-001. In a recent manuscript published in the prestigious journal, Journal of Immunotherapy in Cancer (JITC), entitled “AdAPT-001 and pseudoprogression – when seeing is not necessarily...

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EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Valence

EpicentRx Word of the Week (WOW): Valence

“What was the emotional valence of the actor, Jack Palance?” Valence Definition (noun): 1) the combining power of an element in chemistry 2) tone, slant, meaning, judgement. “in retrospect, these comments take on a more negative valence”; “death and illness have a...

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