Ray Kennedy

🚨New report with @homesfornorth calls on the government to adopt a novel approach to affordable housing investment:

Giving Homes England a ‘National Affordable Housing Bank’ role to invest alongside the private sector in funds set up to deliver discounted rent homes.

A 🧵on why this is needed:

Where to start with: Terry Pratchett Ten years on from his death and just before what would have been his 77th birthday, take a deep dive into the funny, fantasy works of one of the most loved British writers

Oof felt good to remember reading some of these classics. Night Watch deservedly recognised - my personal favourite.
Where to start with: Terry Pratchett www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Another fascinating generic repurposing potential use case!

GOOD NEWS! Researchers at the University of Buffalo have developed a nanoparticle-based vaccine candidate for H5N1 avian influenza (clade 2.3.4.4b) that achieved 100% PROTECTION in preclinical trials. The vaccine is under development for potential use in BOTH veterinary AND human medicine. 🧪🧵⬇️

Really lovely story to read and definitely recommend his Substack.

Great piece - but what's this about?
"one of the less glamorous teams in the English Premier League"
Total nonsense that 😉

Worrying if true. Brought this quote to mind for me:
"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."

Fascinating piece.
But will helping women have children later really get rid of the motherhood earnings penalty? Your 40s also seem an important time for career as well...

People born in the late 1960s: one of the measles vaccines in use then generated poor immunity. Check your measles titer – or do what I did today: get a booster shot! @adamratnermd.bsky.social

Sounds like sensible pro growth policy. But I think "lab grown" needs a rebrand. Maybe "cruelty free"?

Killing PEPFAR means killing millions of people All to save 0.08 percent of the budget.

“For people like myself who have long taken pride in PEPFAR, it’s been painful and horrifying to watch this lifesaving work grind to a halt without a justification or even acknowledgment that it’s happening.”

Would you agree that at certain moments of severe economic crisis, aid could prevent/ameliorate a severe recession?

The new GOV.UK login system is the first step in a radical transformation of the British state A British "DOGE" (of sorts) is rearchitecting the government

The new GOV.UK login system is the first step in a radical transformation of the British state (FREE TO READ!)

takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/login-to-a...

IAVI and Biofabri/Zendal Announce First Vaccinations in the IMAGINE Clinical Trial, a Large-scale Safety and Efficacy Trial of the Tuberculosis Vaccine Candidate MTBVAC

So excited to see this trial start!
www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/...

asm.org/articles/201...

A Defense of Weird Research—Asterisk Government-funded scientific research may appear strange or impractical, but it has repeatedly yielded scientific breakthroughs — and continues to pay for itself many times over.

Powerful defence of basic research (with some fascinating examples)
asteriskmag.com/issues/09/a-...

Interesting research. I think diabetes also linked with increased likelihood of drug resistant TB...

Diabetes potentiates the emergence and expansion of antibiotic resistance Diabetic infections are a reservoir for the emergence and proliferation of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗔𝗠𝗥

Staphylococcus aureus evolves antibiotic resistance rapidly in diabetic mice, as hyperglycemia aids the expansion and takeover of resistant mutants

VISA strains have a large fitness defect in control mice but not in diabetic mice

➡️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze Leaves Millions Without HIV Treatment President Trump’s pause on aid, and the gutting of the primary aid agency, could jeopardize the health of more than 20 million people worldwide, including 500,000 children, experts say.

Two weeks into President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, HIV groups abroad have not received any funding, jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children.

Funding Opportunities / RFPs - Cures Within Reach Funding opportunities for clinical trials repurposing research in any unsolved disease.

Research funding opportunities for generic repurposing clinical trials ->
www.cureswithinreach.org/programs/fun...

I’m tired of hearing about bats. Do you want to hear a story about jumping spiders and the town that disappeared?

I think I might be breaking this story – do come be the first to read it.

And of course, really excited to see what CHAI can achieve on sickle cell disease - a really neglected topic!

Cool Things Our Global Health & Wellbeing Grantees Accomplished in 2024 | Open Philanthropy In 2024, grantees in Open Philanthropy’s Global Health and Wellbeing (GHW) portfolio made progress toward developing a next-generation malaria vaccine, successfully advocated for U.K. retailers to ado...

Some exciting grants Open Philanthropy made last year.
Particularly excited for the work on human colostrum - such an important topic! www.openphilanthropy.org/research/coo...

If you are a medical professional, community health partner or stakeholder join me Friday 7 February in Heene at 1:30pm to feed into the national consultation to reform the NHS.
If you would like to attend, please fill in the form here docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI… Places are limited!

Paths to Open Philanthropy: Stories from Our Team | Open Philanthropy From driving pedicabs in Austin to conducting mathematics research in Sydney to practicing law at traditional firms, Open Philanthropy team members have followed diverse paths to their current roles. ...

Interested in Open Philanthropy?
Here's a blog post about the unusual paths many of us took to get here!
www.openphilanthropy.org/research/pat...

Scientists May Have Discovered a Natural Alternative to Ozempic Scientists may have identified a way to naturally regulate blood sugar levels and sugar cravings in a similar fashion to drugs like Ozempic.

www.sciencealert.com/scientists-m...
Research on this probably a great investment...

Sad to hear about President Carter. A great man and inspiration who I was fortunate to meet a couple of times. Generous with his time and his life.

Cures Within Reach clinical trials of repurposed drugs

Running clinical trials of existing drugs against new indications/diseases can turn up happy results. These drugs are often off-patent, so it's an area where public and philanthropic funding can shine.

Nice profile of Cures Within Reach and @raykennedy.bsky.social's grants:

New @cgdev.org policy paper:

*MALARIA VACCINES* are a huge scientific breakthrough. But the world is dragging its feet on rolling them out.

We examine why, and how to go faster.

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