forever_erratic

My brother had pretty debilitating social anxiety disorder. After a bunch of failed attempts at fixing it, he found a cognitive behavioral therapist, who, within a year, worked with my brother to the point where he was able to give a presentation in front of a group of people (this was a huge deal for him and totally impossible before).

Have you considered CBT?

Hey neighbor! I live in Minneapolis.

My favorite haunted house, the only one that ever scared me, was one that didn't use actors. It was just an almost pitch black, muffled feel- your- way with great use of occasional sound, cold air, and props. It was either in the dells or Branson 25 years ago. It only let a small trickle of people through, so groups never met, and a group was two people max. I've never found a similar one since.

I imagine actors don't scare you either. Where do you go for scares? Know of any haunted houses with no actors around?

I have a bunch of disposable cameras ranging from 1995 to 2005. What are the chances there is anything left on the film?

So, where does your anus lead? Is it just a short, closed-off shaft?

Sounds like an important goal! I'm a microbial ecologist; my questions are mostly about exceptions.

1) a quick scan of the lit seems like FAM89A is upregulated during immune response to bacterial presence, hence your using it as a bacterial signature. But what if immune response is depressed? Have you addressed the interaction between immune system quality and false negatives? A similar question could be asked about the viral marker.

2) RNA is notoriously difficult to keep from degrading. Presumably your tests are pretty controlled; how well do you think practitioners are going to be able to adhere to RNA working standards in real scenarios?

3) Are these genes conserved enough so that your tool (qPCR I assume? Er, no, looks like microarray) will detect all of humanity's transcripts?

4) Presumably you don't intend to sell microarrays as diagnostic tools, but won't cost be an important factor here?

5) Sometimes time is of the essence, and I wonder about the balance of reducing antibiotic usage vs. overtreating but dealing more quickly with critical clinical situations. Abx resistance is super important, I agree, but I wonder if other avenues are more important for reduced usage (e.g. agriculture).

Really cool stuff, thanks!