Many independently minded, young scientists are too ambitious for academia… But the startup world isn’t quite right for them either.
How might decentralized science provide a space for these innovators to do their work?
Niklas Rindtorff is the classical scientist behind LabDAO, an online home for inventors that builds open tools for scientific research. Niklas coauthored his first paper before the age of 20, and he has expertise in CRISPR and cancer research.
On this episode of Boost VC, Niklas joins us to explain how classical science emerged after World War II and explore the problems with the NIH grant funding process.
Niklas shares his open-access approach to consuming scientific media and describes how DeSci is experimenting with different ways to measures the importance of new science.
Listen in to understand how decentralized science can serve as the bridge between research organizations and science startups, building an ecosystem for inventors who don’t fit into the nonprofit or for-profit world.
Topics Covered
How Niklas defines science
- Formal knowledge generation process
- Fishing at edge of what is known
How World War II changed the way we do science
- Conflict won because of US sophisticated tech
- NIH funding created class of full-time scientists
- System doesn’t always maximize progress
How the importance of new science is determined
- Measured by citations vs. markets
- DeSci experiments with different accounting
How Niklas consumes scientific media
- Used to use few free, open-access journals
- Now leverage Twitter bookmarks, preprints
What LabDAO does for scientists
- Provide tools to work wherever they are
- Current focus on computational biology
What inspired Niklas to build LabDAO
- Experience with inventions stuck in bureaucracy
- Measure number of patients treated vs. citations
The age distribution of NIH grant recipients
- Ages with scientists who were first
- No market discipline, don’t answer to public
How we might equalize the demographic of NIH winners
- Create more NIHs
- Private funding agency with philanthropic match
How we might invest in a portfolio of science
- Charge higher fee to run research-oriented fund
- Online collectives do research sponsorships
How LabDAO itself is funded
- Nonprofit governed by token
- Private investors buy token for stake on projects
The relationship between academia and DeSci
- Connective tissue among existing organizations
- Inventors who don’t fit in academia or startups
Niklas’ definition of success
- Strive toward personal values
- Invent cool stuff
Connect with Niklas RIndtorff
LabDAO https://www.labdao.xyz/
LabDAO on Discord https://discord.com/invite/labdao
LabDAO on GitHub https://github.com/labdao
LabDAO on Snapshot https://snapshot.org/#/labdao.eth
LabDAO on Medium https://medium.com/@labdao
LabDAO on Twitter https://twitter.com/lab_dao
Niklas on Twitter https://twitter.com/niklas_tr
Resources
Broad Institute https://www.broadinstitute
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