4 ms·

> seems particularly challenging to synthesize My reading of the situation was that they have been making this stuff for quite a while (years!), but haven't ha

> seems particularly challenging to synthesize My reading of the situation was that they have been making this stuff for quite a while (years!), but haven't had the funding or manufacturing expertise to start scaling up and properly improving the process. They are a tiny research lab. The suggestion seems to be that one newer (now former) member of the lab just thought F-this we need to publish, get it out there and start moving forward. If it is real, the level of investment in finding ways to make this stuff is going to explode. It may be hard to make, but that won't stop us from finding a way to make it on a large scale if it truly is revolutionary. Further to that, from other groups studying it we will potentially find better and easer to make alternatives.

jiggawatts 3y ago
> quite a while (years!) Katalin Karikó was working on mRNA vaccine technology for decades on a relatively tiny budget, and was turned down by many larger groups based on the supposed impossibility of the concept. You have to wonder how many future technologies are languishing right now in some basement lab where a couple of frustrated scientists are making do with a shoestring budget and are desperate to get their research published.
N-Krause 3y ago
Where did you get that "(years!)" from? Is it just a conclusion you came to or are those actual facts. If so, I would love to see a source or a direction to where to look for it.
- fallingknife 3y ago
  The 99 in lk99 means 1999
- conception 3y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99 It’s called LK-99 as it was discovered in 1999.
- samwillis 3y ago
  They first submitted a (rejected) paper to Nature about LK-99 in 2020, 3 years ago - that we know. The 99 in the name comes from the date the lab was formed, 1999. Some sources suggest that they have been studying this exact material since 1999, although I don't think that is confirmed. I think it's safe to assume that they would have been making it for at least 1-2 years before the rejected Nature paper, although potentially significantly longer than that. So they have been making it somewhere between 4 and 24 years... Looking at how small the fragments are that other lambs are creating, I assume it's taken them years to get to the point that they can make larger lumps of the stuff that have any sort of uniform structure. They seem to have been trying to perfect it before publishing.
  - gitfan86 3y ago
    It is like playing the lottery or slot machine. You just keep trying one more time to see if you can hit the jackpot.
  - n2d4 3y ago
    According to Wikipedia, Q Centre was founded in 2008. LK-99 is called LK-99 because it was discovered in 1999, but they stopped working on it for the bigger chunk of the 21st century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99#Compound_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99#Compound_name
    - samwillis 3y ago
      Ah, my mistake. A 1999 discovery while plausible seems like a long time ago. I wander if it really is exactly the compound as they found back then.
      - neom 3y ago
        The Korean press seems to indicate that's when their mentor professor passed away and asked them to continue research on a theory he had, they've been slogging away on it since.
        3y ago

jiggawatts 3y ago

> quite a while (years!) Katalin Karikó was working on mRNA vaccine technology for decades on a relatively tiny budget, and was turned down by many larger groups based on the supposed impossibility of the concept. You have to wonder how many future technologies are languishing right now in some basement lab where a couple of frustrated scientists are making do with a shoestring budget and are desperate to get their research published.

N-Krause 3y ago

Where did you get that "(years!)" from? Is it just a conclusion you came to or are those actual facts. If so, I would love to see a source or a direction to where to look for it.

fallingknife 3y ago
The 99 in lk99 means 1999
conception 3y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99 It’s called LK-99 as it was discovered in 1999.
samwillis 3y ago
They first submitted a (rejected) paper to Nature about LK-99 in 2020, 3 years ago - that we know. The 99 in the name comes from the date the lab was formed, 1999. Some sources suggest that they have been studying this exact material since 1999, although I don't think that is confirmed. I think it's safe to assume that they would have been making it for at least 1-2 years before the rejected Nature paper, although potentially significantly longer than that. So they have been making it somewhere between 4 and 24 years... Looking at how small the fragments are that other lambs are creating, I assume it's taken them years to get to the point that they can make larger lumps of the stuff that have any sort of uniform structure. They seem to have been trying to perfect it before publishing.
- gitfan86 3y ago
  It is like playing the lottery or slot machine. You just keep trying one more time to see if you can hit the jackpot.
- n2d4 3y ago
  According to Wikipedia, Q Centre was founded in 2008. LK-99 is called LK-99 because it was discovered in 1999, but they stopped working on it for the bigger chunk of the 21st century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99#Compound_name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LK-99#Compound_name
  - samwillis 3y ago
    Ah, my mistake. A 1999 discovery while plausible seems like a long time ago. I wander if it really is exactly the compound as they found back then.
    - neom 3y ago
      The Korean press seems to indicate that's when their mentor professor passed away and asked them to continue research on a theory he had, they've been slogging away on it since.
      - 3y ago