Here is our list for the top 10 Greatest Debates in history (feel free to weigh in): 1. Creation vs. Evolution 2. Free Will vs. Destiny 3. Nature vs. Nurture 4. Pen vs. Sword 5. The Chicken vs. the Egg 6. Albert Einstein vs. Niels Bohr 7. Lincoln vs. Douglas 8. Cats...
From time to time in this space, we will apply the phrase “Hot or Not?” to tumors from cases that we know or read about. This is clinically relevant because tumors that are hot or immune-infiltrated tend to respond better to therapies. It is the goal of EpicentRx lead...
Not too long ago, we met Steve Young. Not the Steve Young, mind you, the Hall of Famer who quarterbacked the legendary San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl in 1994, but another Steve Young. Steven Young, to be precise, who, from our perspective, quarterbacks a...
Tax evasion is much in the news of late. Penalties for it are harsh and may include fines or, imprisonment, or both, as several celebrities can attest to. Safe to assume they share - or at least can relate to - the darkly satirical anti-tax sentiment from the famous...
“Don’t turn up your nose at Nosism." Nosism noun NO-siz-em Definition: to refer to oneself as “we,” which royals are known to do. Example sentences: “Nosism is a rare word, but it’s use is not, as exemplified by the EpicentRx blog posts, which are written by one...
At the AACR conference in San Diego, Drs. Tony Reid, CEO of EpicentRx, and Anthony P. Conley, a sarcoma specialist at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), spoke with Biotech TV about lead EpicentRx therapy, AdAPT-001, which is currently under investigation in a Dr....
Here is a cardiopharmaceutical take on the recent eclipse, which started in Mexico and moved northeast from Texas to Maine, and into eastern Canada, set to the tune of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler. Several medical treatments are associated with...
Much ink/many electrons have been spilled to explain the admittedly complex mechanisms of action for the small molecule, RRx-001 (nibrozetone). Applicable words and phrases are “NLRP3 inhibition,” “Nrf2 agonism,” “NO donation,” and “vascular normalization.” A more...
Modern day gladiators, the best mixed martial artists (MMAers) like Khabib Nurmagomedov, Jon Jones, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, and Fedor Emelianenko, shown above, are multidimensional, successfully combining stand up and ground-based combat to submit (“tap...
By: Bryan Oronsky, Ahad Javansalehi “Who wants to live forever?” -Freddie Mercury Introduction A common phrase that adults use with hyperactive children is “act your age!”. However, for hypoactive middle-aged and older adults, the best advice is “don’t act your age”....
“Aesculapian, heal thyself.” The caduceus (left) vs. the Rod of Aesculapius (right) Aesculapian adjective and noun es-kal-ay-pee-an Definition: adj: medical; medicinal. noun: a physician; doctor Example sentence: “In the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the main...
If we were to describe Dr. Tony Reid, CEO, and founder of EpicentRx, whip-smart Professor Emeritus of Gastrointestinal (GI) Oncology at the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), and all-around great, great person, really and truly he is, in a single, solitary...
From the Spy who Loved me, Carly Simon sang what is, bar none, in our humble opinion, the greatest James Bond theme song ever composed, “Nobody Does It Better”. Change the opening stanza from “better” to “TGF-beta” and it describes not 007 but 001, as in AdAPT-001:...
By the time you’ve read this sentence, we imagine that another Fast & Furious sequel starring Vin Diesel as main character, Dominic Toretto, and some super cool muscle cars will have been made. Just kidding. Sort of. We read that 2025 will see the release of Fast...
One of the most earnestly endearing collection of essays ever written is entitled, “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by the Unitarian minister and best-selling author, Robert Fulghum. The book published almost 40 years ago in 1986 but the life...
AdAPT-001 floats into a bar, encased in a cationic liposome, and orders a thimble of whisky, which is about all the alcohol that an adenovirus like AdAPT can tolerate before it disintegrates. Skeptically, the bartender asks, “You sure?” AdAPT-001 replies, “Absolutely...
“What do you call a Panda that betrays its own kind?" "A Quis-Ling Ling”. “What did Beyonce say when she found out Jay Z cheated on her?" "Put a Quisling on it”. “What did the geneticist say to the Quisling on Halloween?” “Trait or treat?” Quisling noun kwiz-ling...
No per-APS about it. EpicentRx is a definite for the American Physiology Summit (APS) from April 4-7 in Long Beach, California where the UCSD bioengineering lab of Dr. Pedro Cabrales will present 3 posters on its lead small molecule, RRx-001 (nibrozetone). The titles...
RRx-001 is a very versatile small molecule. Clinically, it is used as an anticancer, anti-mucositis, and anti-endometriosis agent. Preclinically, it has also been used to treat a whole host of other diseases and conditions, among them, stroke, myocardial infarction,...
“To Protect and to Serve” was the former motto of the Los Angeles Police Department. “To Protect and Swerve” is the motto of tumor-associated immune cells like macrophages, neutrophils, and T-lymphocytes that have deviated or swerved from their sworn oath to defend...
Pop. This is the sound of bubbles bursting throughout history. Tulipmania (1634-1638) in Holland. Pop. The Bull Market of the Roaring Twenties (1924-1929) prior to the Wall Street crash. Pop. The Japanese Bubble Economy (1984-1989). Pop. The Dotcom Bubble (2000). Pop....
“Below is a hopefully not incomplete definition of the term, forme fruste”. Forme Fruste noun fawm froost plural formes frustes fawm froost Definition: The incomplete expression of a condition that almost but does not quite meet the usual diagnostic criteria. Example...
The other day someone jokingly called EpicentRx a two-faced company - because we have 2 lead therapeutic candidates, RRx-001 (nibrozetone) and AdAPT-001, each with 2 main mechanisms of action. Point taken, but that comment prompted us to calculate the ‘actual’ face...
Pharmaceutical companies frequently boast about the “crown jewel(s)”, which refers to their most prized and precious assets. The crown jewels in the EpicentRx portfolio are RRx-001 (nibrozetone) and AdAPT-001. Figuratively speaking, we consider RRx-001...
Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Literally, everyone, especially when the Big Bad Wolf symbolizes treatment-related toxicities. Two of the most feared treatment related toxicities are severe oral mucositis (SOM) during the treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC) with...
In case, like us, you happened to wake up one morning and randomly wonder who or what the timeless rant, “Should I Stay, or Should I Go?”, by the English rock band, The Clash, was about, here is the explanation, courtesy of Google, from the former lead guitarist, Mick...
As the COVID-19 threat seemingly fades, a new and much more insidious pandemic has arisen to take its place: Zoom-itis aka the Zoomdemic aka Zoomaggedon. Rapidly contagious though it is, N95 masks are wholly ineffective and unnecessary against #Zoomitis - sorry Dr....
Anfractuous adjective an-FRACK-choo-uhss Definition : twisty, winding, bendy, convoluted, tortuous. Example sentences: “Axl Rose’s anfractuous snake dance”. An anfractuous road” “An anfractuous plot”. “The anfractuous sayings of Yogi Berra include “It gets late early...
Not to be pedantic or a “boar”, but in these weekly blog posts we practice nosism aka “we-ism”, which is the use of the “royal we” to speak about oneself. Nosism comes from Latin “nos” we + English -ism. Not to be confused with noseism, prejudice against large noses,...
On a recent team-wide Zoom call, Meaghan Stirn, VP of Special Projects, which is a nefariously mysterious title, if there ever was one, dared us to write a blog post on Hollywood Squares. This dare came after Jeannie Williams, Director of Clinical Operations,...
1. Knock, knock Who’s there? W.H.O. Who’s W.H.O? The World Health Organization. 2. Knock, knock Who’s there? Who. Who’s Who? A compilation of brief biographical sketches of prominent persons in a particular field. 3. Knock, knock Who’s there? Doctor....
In the wake of #KateGate, #Katespiracy, #FakeKate, and #WhereIsKate, owing to the mysterious monthslong disappearance of Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, and a recent photoshopped family picture plus a possible doctored car photo with Kate’s barely visible face...
As any true fan of the Brad Pitt and Edward Norton movie based on the Chuck Palahniuk novel of the same name knows - and endlessly references and repeats, “The first rule of Fight Club is… you don’t talk about Fight Club.” The same was - emphasis on was - true of the...
In honor of International Women’s Day, which occurred last Friday March 8th, we recognize and applaud the women we work closely with, none of them named Kim, incidentally, who head up EpicentRx Team Possible and who make Remission Possible, the tagline that is...
A remake of the 1989 unapologetically over-the-top cult classic, “Road House”, is set to drop on Amazon in late March. To which we say, “awesome!” and “seriously can’t wait!”. The original Road House, a modern-day Western, has it all: a hellhole bar named the Double...
“A real brew-haha”. Q: “I’ve been having trouble getting to sleep this week and getting up for work in the morning. What can I do?” -Sleepless in San Diego A: We have a diagnosis: Daylight Saving Time itis (DST-itis), which we have blogged about here. DST-itis occurs...
“Struwweleinstein”. Strewwelpeter noun STROO-uhl-pee-tuhr Definition: : tousle-head Example sentences: “Einstein ... presented as a Struwwelpeter character, smiling from an aureole of almost electrified hair.” -Ronald Clark; Einstein: The Life and Times; Bloomsbury;...
Hello, dear reader. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to check out our new website design in which we prominently feature the tagline, “Remission Possible”. Here is a teaser below. If you fail to complete this mission, we promise not to disavow any...
Get ready to spring forward - one day later. This year Daylight Saving Time (DST) returns on March 10th instead of March 9th, because of the extra day that leap year adds to the end of the shortest month, February. The name, Daylight Saving Time (frequently and...
The year was 1979. Jimmy Carter was president. Tensions ran high. Gasoline was in short supply. Cars waited for hours to get it, and fisticuffs broke out in the long gas lines, some of which stretched on for miles because of strict rationing that limited fueling to...
An advocacy organization that we spoke to last month characterized themselves as “neither fish nor fowl”, meaning that they do not fit into any one specific category. It struck us immediately that this was a great way to describe our lead small molecule, RRx-001...
“It is never banausic to read the Word of the Week”. Banausic adjective buh-naw-sik Definition: : common, functional, mechanical, mundane, uncultured, unrefined, and lacking creativity or imagination Example sentences: “Drug development is not really a banausic...
Not to brag but what an absolutely meta-tastic title this is! Also a metastatic one because of the number of times we used the word “blog”. Last week we wrote a post entitled, “A Blog About a Blog”—because, well, we had nothing “meta” to do, it being very early in the...
For tumors, unfortunately, to not only survive but also thrive is often as easy as p.i.e.—those letters are an acronym for the three steps of persuasion, invasion, and evasion. Step 1 for tumor cells is to persuade—they must coerce stromal or non-cancerous cells to...
February 2024 is a leap year, meaning that an extra day is tacked on to the end of the shortest month to account for the fact that the Earth’s orbit around the Sun takes approximately 365.25 days; hence a leap year, with exceptions, falls every 4 years (0.25 x 4) to...
Our by-the-numbers PR firm, MCS, has provided us with up-to-date analytics on the EpicentRx website. As of February 2024, the top 3 blog posts with the “mosts” in terms of views are: EpicentRx Word of the Week: Uliginous, which means swampy, slimy, or slippery. The...
We met someone the other day who asked us to rate how enthusiastic we are about lead EpicentRx therapies, AdAPT-001 and RRx-001 (nibrozetone), on a scale of 1 to 10. Had a couch been available at the time we would have jumped up and down on it, Tom Cruise-style, with...
“Chthonic rhymes with demonic, which is a sort of synonym”. Chthonic adjective thon-ik Definition: : related to the underworld Example sentences: “Chthonic darkness". “Chthonic religions". “The dark basement was creepy and chthonic”. “They went on a chthonic journey...
Chuckle. What a meta (self-referential) title—and image. So, this morning, having woken up way too early for no good reason at all—TGIF after a night like that! —we decided to peruse the company website. And peruse it we did even while waiting for Starbucks to open...
Inevitably, at some point during their progression, small cell lung cancer (SCLC) tumors learn to dodge the bullets of treatment, no matter how rapidly they are fired, as effortlessly as Keanu Reeves’ character, Neo, dodges bullets from the Agents in the Matrix, shown...