Must reads

• A June WBUR (NPR Boston) article reported on the latest advancements and challenges in neuroscience. According to the article, "Making sense of that cacophonous complexity, she says, will be a lot harder than JFK’s moon shot…They’re not trying to solve philosophical questions. They’re responding to the growing realization that brain disorders — from autism to mental illness to dementia — are a worldwide scourge, affecting at least a billion people…Neuroscientists have been studying the brain for more than a century, and better treatments for brain diseases have been desperately needed for a lot longer than that. What’s different now is that for the first time, researchers say, we’re beginning to get a handle on the workings of the brain’s billions of neurons and trillions of connections. We’re starting to understand how groups of neurons interact, in smaller circuits or bigger networks — and that scale, out of reach even just a few years ago, is what we need if we ever hope to understand how we have a thought, or a memory, or a mental illness."
• A June 11, 2014 Wall Street Journal article profiled PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel's efforts to invest in early-stage medical startups focused on hard-to-tackle diseases like Alzheimer's. According to the article, "Founded in late 2011, Breakout Labs has quietly backed 19 “hard science” startups to date, according to Executive Director Lindy M. Fishburne, co-founder of the firm with Mr. Thiel. Its portfolio companies are ambitious in their plans to advance human health, and dramatically improve life on earth with concepts seemingly lifted from science fiction. The firm’s most recent funding recipients are working on ways to accurately diagnose, prevent or even cure troubling epidemics and debilitating injuries like broken bones (epiBONE), Alzheimer’s (Cortexyme) and gastrointestinal disorders (G-Tech Medical)." Also reported on by Fierce Biotech.