Gamifying Research: One Worm at a Time with Pump.Science

Capitalising on the meme coin trend popularised by pump.fun, pump.science is brining similar gamification to longetivity research by allowing investors to purchase show their support for various drugs that increase life.

Pump Science, launched by Paul Kohlhaas the CEO of Molecule.dao and Bio.xyz, is a protocol that aims to discover, finance, research, and develop drugs that alter positively the life of a person or an organism, without compromising physical and cognitive functions. So far the valuation of the two coins ($RIF, $URO) launched under the pump.science has ballooned by over 111% and doesn’t seem to stop.

With support coming from Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum and CZ, the ex-CEO and founder of Binance, there is a fresh focus towards decentralized science (DeSci) in the current crypto bull cycle. Currently DeSci projects are equal in market dominance to DeFi.

Drug developers (drug devs) can quickly fundraise for experiments, and secure the rights to the discoveries. The aim of the Pump.science experiment is to let users invest in what they believe is a better chemical or drug to aid longevity. The plan is to first test these chemicals or drug combinations on worms followed by fruit flies or drosophila and then lab rats. The chemical tokens don’t allow any governance rights but rather rights to purchase the drug from the drug manufacturer.

Using Pump.Science for Drug Testing

• Drug developers or Researchers can submit interventions for testing longetivity and paying (with Solana) for launching the token ($drug)
• Token is launched on pump.fun, and the initial investment is used to buy the first tokens ($drug)
• If the market cap reaches certain thresholds, tokens are automatically sold publicly to fund the experiment
• The interventions are tested in worms (C elegans) at Ora Biomedical on the Wormbot, or in flies at Tracked Biotechnologies in the FlyBox, with more experiments to come
• Data is streamed at regular time intervals to users, who can assess the value of the interventions
• Chemical suppliers can purchase the rights to the interventions from the token holders

With one out of a 1000 drugs not making beyond this test stage, it is doubtful if most investors will make any money beyond the initial test phase. While the potential of gamifying drug testing is great, it is uncertain what pump.science will be used for beyond longetivity focused single drug testing. Perhaps it could move on to drug cocktail, antibody and vaccine testing.

Know more about Pump.science here.