A simulated fly brain now has $100 in $RSC and is foraging for proposals. Real proposals on @ResearchHub are encoded as odor gradients across 5 olfactory input channels. The fly travels, samples with both antennae, then selects. Watch it live:

You can now give from you DAF right inside @ResearchHub ! 👏 Since April 2025 we've turned their RSC token into dollars any university can receive, moving $1.6M+ to researchers so far! Now it works with your DAF too: find a proposal, pick your Endaoment fund at checkout, done. Next level! 🔬 Read now:

Patients with refractory cancer seeking treatment with engineered T cells (CAR T) are going to China where the cost is considerably less China $150-300K US $550-800K

I gave the fly brain $100 to trade bitcoin. Dopamine neurons are stimulated when the fly makes profit. Neuron activity controls buy/sell decisions and makes trades on coinbase. Will the fly get rich?

Today, the acquisition of @ataibeckley, the psychedelics biotech company I founded in 2017, by @EliLillyandCo for up to $ 3.8 billion closed, marking one of the largest biotech acquisitions of the year - and the largest transaction in the history of the psychedelic sector. When I first started contemplating bringing psychedelics back into mainstream medicine in 2014 - which ultimately resulted in founding $CMPS and, shortly after, $ATAI in 2017 - it was widely seen as a crazy idea with virtually no chance of success. Looking back today, it is almost funny how quickly collective memory changes. Today, psychedelic medicine feels almost inevitable. Back then, it was anything but. And I am very proud and satisfied that I was able to play the role of one of the lead evangelists of this new era of mental health treatments. I expressed all my thoughts and feelings in the blog post I published on the day the acquisition was announced. Feel free to revisit it: But there is one point I want to emphasize especially today: I believe Lilly is the best partner we could have wished for. Not only is Lilly the largest and most successful pharmaceutical company in the world, but throughout every interaction - both before and after signing - they have demonstrated a deep understanding of the importance of bringing these valuable therapeutics back into the medical world and making them available to patients as soon as possible. As I wrote in my blog post: Psychedelics needed an evangelist ten years ago. Now it is all about commercialization. And I cannot think of a better rollout machine than Eli Lilly. And, as you have probably already guessed, selling AtaiBeckley certainly does NOT mean that I will be stepping away from neuroscience - and especially not from psychedelics. 😉 I believe more strongly than ever that the brain and our consciousness represent humanity’s final frontier - and one we need to explore with urgency, particularly as increasingly capable, and potentially sentient and conscious, AI systems move closer to reality. I have some major news coming over the next few weeks, which may blow your mind, so make sure you follow me and turn on notifications if you don’t want to miss what’s next.

I gave the fly brain $100 to trade bitcoin. Dopamine neurons are stimulated when the fly makes profit. Neuron activity controls buy/sell decisions and makes trades on coinbase. Will the fly get rich?

I asked Astra to look through my published science, identify new directions, and draft five NIH R01 proposals -- the multiyear, $1M-$2M grants that support much of academic biomedical science. In about one hour, using roughly $20 in compute, it produced entirely reasonable proposals. They were well grounded in my work and structured to appeal to study section reviewers. They looked very similar to what I would write if my goal were to get another grant. Astra reproduced that logic well. It turned existing work into questions, hypotheses, and experiments that would look familiar and defensible to a study section. The output was immediately recognizable as the work of an experienced academic scientist. If AGI means being able to produce the work of highly trained professionals, this is a clear concrete example. It produced something academic scientists spend a great deal of time doing. Academic medical centers build careers, laboratories, and their finances around this process. Scientists spend years writing these proposals as the next fundable extension of their work.

There’s a $𝟭𝟱𝟬 𝗽𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗛𝘂𝗯 for a preprint proposing a more precise way to deliver chemotherapy. Scientists have already developed several ways to keep drugs inactive until they reach the tumor. But this study introduces a new activation chemistry: 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙪𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣. The authors describe it as a reaction with no natural equivalent in biology, meaning our cells don’t normally perform this chemistry. That makes it highly specific and less likely to interfere with normal biological processes. If this approach eventually works in animals and humans, it could mean:   • More chemotherapy reaches tumors.   • Less chemotherapy reaches healthy tissues.   • Fewer side effects (hair loss, nausea, fatigue, etc.).