Building Safe Biotech Supply Chains
Building Safe Biotech Supply Chains
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
TL;DR
This week, we take a look at the emerging challenge of building safe biotech supply chains, motivated by the US placing WuXi AppTec on its unverified list of exporters and ongoing geopolitical issues in Ukraine. We end by discussing DeepMind’s latest achievements in reinforcement learning for fusion plasma control.
WuXi is Designated an Unverified Exporter
The US has designed WuXi AppTec an unverified exporter (source). WuXi AppTec is a hidden giant in the biotech industry, used widely as a contract research organization. Companies routinely outsource experiments to WuXi, which conducts the work and relays results back to customers. The US’s recent designation indicates that WuXi may be importing and using products that are on a US export control list.
Working with suppliers based in China has become increasingly risky with rising geopolitical tensions between the US and China. The potential for a Russian invasion of Ukraine has also raised concerns that supplier Enamine may not be able to meet orders. Given the rising tide of geopolitical tensions, biotech companies may need to ensure that suppliers are in geopolitically friendly zones and not prone to delays. Historically, biotech companies have not viewed themselves as geopolitical actors, but the importance of Covid vaccines among other forces means that biotechs are increasingly forced to reckon with broader safety concerns.
DeepMind Makes Headway in Fusion Plasma Control with Reinforcement Learning
DeepMind has achieved a powerful milestone by using reinforcement learning to control fusion plasmas in a Tokamak reactor at the Swiss Plasma Center at EPFL (source). DeepMind has made a remarkable streak of advances recently, ranging from the breakthrough AlphaFold2 system, to programming AI AlphaCode, and now to fusion. DeepMind’s work is particularly compelling since it has successfully started to apply its AI advances to compelling real-world science challenges.
Weekly News Roundup
https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete: A chilling story about patients’ bionic eyes going unsupported after the medical device startup that installed them getting acquired.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-overcomes-stumbling-block-on-brain-inspired-hardware-20220217/: Neuromorphic chips slowly continue to improve
https://www.quantamagazine.org/deepmind-machine-learning-becomes-a-mathematical-collaborator-20220215/: A nice write-up of DeepMind’s recent progress in deep learning powered theorem solving
https://spectrum.ieee.org/dells-bold-idea-a-laptop-you-can-actually-repair: Repairable laptops may be on the horizon as concerns about e-waste grow.
https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2022/02/08/perfectly-packing-a-square-by-squares-of-nearly-harmonic-sidelength/: Terry Tao making progress on solving an old problem of square packing
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Credits
Author: Bharath Ramsundar, Ph.D.
Editor: Sandya Subramanian, Ph.D.