# Key Points from #hplusroadmap IRC Discussion

• A self-experimenter identified as "Steve Perry" claimed to be "patient zero for exogenous GDF11 supplementation," having conducted 1.5 years of self-experimentation with growth differentiation factor 11 injections despite not being a biologist or physician, justifying this risk by arguing that aging itself poses significant risks.

• Participants discussed the limitations of individual experimentation (N=1 studies) versus institutional research, noting the lack of formal human trials for GDF11 compared to whole blood transfusion studies, with mention that Stanford is conducting Alzheimer's research using blood from younger people.

• A CDC report was shared about a Q Fever outbreak among travelers to Germany who received "live cell therapy" involving injections of processed cells from non-human animals, alongside a WHO document on xenotransplantation clinical trials mentioning patients receiving intramuscular injections of fetal sheep cells.

• A research paper titled "Skip-thought vectors" (http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.06726) was shared, likely related to natural language processing or AI research.

• Sam Altman's startup playbook (http://playbook.samaltman.com/) was discussed as a collection of startup essays similar to Paul Graham's work.

• Participants expressed interest in creating better knowledge repositories for nootropics and plant-based compounds with cognitive enhancement properties, with a French participant seeking collaborators for developing a website and app for this purpose.

• The group noted the lack of speculation and theorizing in scientific papers compared to their IRC discussions, emphasizing the importance of iterating through multiple models to find what best fits available data.