In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, a long list of pharmaceutical candidates aimed at improving memory in normal people failed in human trials, says James McGaugh, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Irvine. Virtually all of them were successful in lab animals. In people, almost all caused severe side effects or failed to work as hoped.
To find such molecules, Sidrauski genetically engineered mammalian cells to emit light any time protein production was shut down. An automated robotic assembly line exposed the cells to more than 100,000 different molecules, one at a time; also added to the cells was a brew of chemicals toxic enough to trigger a stress response and stop protein synthesis. Those cells that failed to light up pointed to promising new molecules.
The core testing here selected for toxicity first. I'm not getting hopes up. I doubt anything g00gle plans these days.
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