Change Is Constant; The Biotech Wave

I've started and stopped a blog post for a while now, and there is nothing more boring than recapping a blogging gap, so I'll jump right into the present. 

I'm preparing for an international move (with my family) and could not be happier about it. I won't go into details but personally and professionally it's a dream, really. There are plenty of details to figure out; that's the price of admission. 

We are a family, or we try to be a family, that thrives on change. I've heard people say there's nothing worse than moving. I don't know. Routine sometimes bugs me. The inability to seek and find and enjoy change also bothers. The only constant is change as they say. 

Last year when it became apparent that the pandemic was not going away quickly, we decided to move from an apartment to a house -- for the space, the yard, all that. We've been in the house for a year, and yes it feels like home. It felt like home after month. It feels like we've lived here for at least 2 years. 

The human capacity to absorb and adapt to change is incredible, really. 

We're all living through a global pandemic after all. If someone would've told you about all that would happen in 2020, you would have considered it insane and it was rather insane but it wasn't TOO insane after all. We absorbed and adapted. 

Maybe I'm understating the turmoil of change but the reality is that things can change at any time, personally or globally, for better or worse. In the end life is one big curve ball and hardly any of the circumstances are under our control. What I'm continuing to learn (it's taken 45 years and counting) is that my response (perception, self-regulation, perspective, reaction, reasoning, action) IS they key. 

What else do we have?

I like the journey and figuring out my part in it. 

Speaking of huge changes that don't seem possible until they are ... 

I like to invest in cutting edge biotech. For a while now I've held stock in companies that focus on mRNA and companies that focus on Crispr gene editing. I'm not a scientist; it was my weakest subject in school. I can't really explain why these companies fascinate me. They just do. It's fascinating to me that we humans are a combination of organic matter and genetic information and despite thousands of years of being ourselves, we still don't entirely understand how we work. 

Anyway, I invested in Moderna (MRNA) in back in 2009 and little did I know that it would become the poster child of a new class of vaccines. I sold some shares because success was uncertain. I will not be selling any more shares. This could be one of the most important biotech companies in the world. 

Unless Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA) becomes the most important biotech company in the world. 

NTLA is one of a handful of companies that is trying to use natural processes to actually edit one's genetic code to eliminate disease. Over the weekend they presented data that showed they could inactivate a disease-causing gene within the body with a single, systemic infusion. One procedure and done. 

Yes, I've seen Gattaca. There are a whole host of ethical questions around gene editing. I don't have answers. I guess my view is that genes are changing and adapting all the time in response to billions of factors, so if we can reverse bad genetic luck with some human ingenuity, we should not dismiss it. If a human can eat a bad apple and incur a death sentence, why throw out better apples? If you are unlucky enough to have a disease that will result in certain pain and death, and gene editing can cure you, you might be pretty excited about these results. And sure, as an investor, I'm excited too.  

[Note: there have been several podcasts and a book written by Jennifer Doudna, who won the nobel prize for discovering Crispr techniques, and she is up front about the ethical questions.]

Change is not an interruption to the way of things, it IS the way of things. I enjoy absorbing and adapting and being curious and investing in change. This is not the opposite of peace and stability. Life is like a wave. Trying to swim against a wave is exhausting and pointless. Riding it actually takes less effort and can even be fun.