The MIT Quant, and head of AlphaSimplex Group proposes a fund to invest in biotechnology cures for cancer.

The source article is here and Mr. Lo's proposal is here.

Born in Hong Kong and raised in New York City, Lo lost his mother last year to lung cancer. He, like many people, also has watched friends and colleagues struggle with the disease in its various forms.

As an economist, he said, “I felt pretty helpless.’’

So he decided to focus on an area where he could have an impact: funding sources for cancer research.

In his Nature Biotechnology paper, Lo calls the current business model for drug research and development flawed, noting that the number of drug applications per dollar of spending is declining, and pharmaceutical stocks as a group have fared poorly over the past decade.

Under Lo’s proposal, the oncology fund could pour money into more speculative, early-stage research in exchange for a percentage of future royalties or proceeds from sales of intellectual property. A successful cancer drug can generate $2 billion a year in revenue, he said.

Here at HedgeRoll, we have followed the "Twitter Hedge Fund" from Derwent Capital Markets since its launch.

However it seems to have shut down, and is now offering its signals to day traders.

Previous HedgeRoll articles:
Twitter Hedge Fund Manager Interview
Twitter Hedge Fund: Overwhelming Demand
Hedge Fund to trade based on Twitter Signals

The most recent employment data became available earlier this week.  The Economist did a great job illustrating the biggest changes in employment among the 50 largest U.S. cities. 

Examining the change from 2009, The Big Apple experienced the largest job growth since June 2009.  Outside of New York’s gain, not a lot of growth occurred in the Northeast during that time.  Texas, represented by Houston and Dallas, rounded out the top three with Austin not far behind in seventh place.

Overall, the sunbelt produced the most jobs the past three years.  Stretching the data back further to end of 2007, the top five cities with the largest positive change in employment were south of the Mason Dixon Line.  More precisely, 80% were in Texas, with Washington D.C. rounding out fifth place.  The sun can’t be the main reason behind the growth.  Pittsburgh experienced lively job growth the past five years, and we have more rain than Seattle. 

To further point out it’s not all fun in the sun, LA, Miami, Phoenix, and Las Vegas were among the cities with the greatest number of jobs leaving their cities since 2007.  Add Chicago and Detroit to the bottom five and the trend shows jobs are escaping extreme climates. 

The past year, from February to February, NYC again had the largest gain in employment but not to be unrepresented, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta follow behind New York.  The only major cities during the past year to experience negative employment change were Providence Rhode Island and Sacramento California. 

Certainly the boom in energy related fields, especially through shale exploration, accounts for the Texas and sunbelt growth.  It is interesting to see the shift away from the Northeast and into the middle of the country as workers follow jobs.