Author Archives: Humair
Interesting Facts: Man-made Urea
In the past, organic compounds were restricted to those that could be produced only from living entities. These compounds were thought to contain a “vital force” based on their natural origin. This “vital force” concept was disproved in 1828 by … Continue reading
Posted in Chemistry, Interesting Facts, Organic Chemistry, Science
Tagged Friedrick Wohler, human urine, organic compound, organic molecule, urea
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Disease-causing agents – a potential source of medicine?
We can learn a lot from the world of parasites, which in general also includes bacteria, viruses and fungi. The medical profession has long focused on bacteria and viruses more-so than parasitic protozoa partly due to the fact of how … Continue reading
Posted in BioTech/Pharma, Business
Tagged Ancylostoma duodenale. Necator americanus, blood thinner, Corvas International, herpes virus, hookworm, HSV, inflammation, Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, MediGene, Myxoma virus, oncolytic viruses, parasites, protozoa, storke, Viron Therapeutics, VT-111
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Helping the poorest of the poor fight disease
Imagine living day to day in a place plagued by constant poverty and unimaginable disease. AIDS, African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease), malaria, nodding syndrome, and onchocerciasis (river blindness) are some of the most common diseases the people … Continue reading
Posted in BioTech/Pharma, Business
Tagged African trypanosomiasis, AIDS, Ascaris lumbricoides, dracunculiasis, Ebola, Eflornithine, guinea worm disease, hookworm, malaria, Melarsoprol, nodding syndrome, onchocerciasis, parasites, Pentamidine, river blindness, roundworm, sleeping sickness, Sudan, Suramin, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Carter Center, Trypanosoma brucei, trypanosome, whipworm
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Pharmacogenetics – The future of “Personalized Medicine”
European Americans are ten to forty times more likely than African Americans to get a very aggressive type of skin cancer called Melanoma. People of Asian descent are more likely to have the inability to process alcohol efficiently – exposing … Continue reading
Posted in BioTech/Pharma, Business
Tagged BiDil, Biotech, NitroMed, Personalized Medicine, Pharma, Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacogenetics, Targeted Medicine
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UC Berkeley Java Certification
I just finished up my last class to get the UC Berkeley Java Certificate. The program is offered by UC Berkeley Extension, an arm of UC Berkeley. The program consists of taking and passing three Java programming courses spanning 90 … Continue reading
Pharma Mega-Mergers: When you can’t innovate, merge
In April of 2009, Pfizer agreed to buyout Wyeth for $68 billion; Pfizer’s market cap at that time was just around $100 billion. The following month Merck trumped the Pfizer deal with a $41 billion merger with Schering-Plough. What was … Continue reading
Posted in BioTech/Pharma, Business
Tagged Biotech, Cozaar, Genentech, Lipitor, Mega-Mergers, Merck, Pfizer, Pharma, Pharmaceuticial, Roche, Schering-Plough, Singulair, Wall Street
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Google App Engine goes Java
At a Google Technology User Group meet-up last night, I listened to a presentation by a Google App Engine Engineer, Jeff Scudder. This past Sunday night Google announced the support for Java on there App Engine service. Previously, the only … Continue reading
IPv6 Presentation at Sun Microsystems
On January 31st, 2009, at Sun Microsystems, I gave a presentation on IPv6 and the Hurricane Electric (HE) Tunnelbroker. The speech was given during the SupperHappyDevHouse 30 event and you can download the presentation slides here. The event attracted a … Continue reading
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