With a big assist from artificial intelligence and a heavy dose of human touch, Tim Cernak’s lab at the University of Michigan has made a discovery that dramatically speeds up the time-consuming chemical process of building molecules that will be tomorrow’s medicines, agrichemicals or materials.
The discovery, published in the Feb. 3 issue of Science, is the culmination of years of chemical synthesis and data science research by the Cernak Lab in the College of Pharmacy and Department of Chemistry.
The goal of the research was to identify key reactions in the synthesis of a molecule, ultimately reducing the process to as few steps as possible. In the end, Cernak and his team achieved the synthesis of a complex alkaloid found in nature in just three steps. Previous syntheses had taken between seven and 26 steps.
Foresight Biotech & Health Extension Meeting sponsored by 100 Plus Capital.
Michael Levin, Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. Bioelectric Networks: Taming the Collective Intelligence of Cells for Regenerative Medicine.
Michael Levin, Distinguished Professor in the Biology department and Vannevar Bush Chair, serves as director of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. Recent honors include the Scientist of Vision award and the Distinguished Scholar Award. His group’s focus is on understanding the biophysical mechanisms that implement decision-making during complex pattern regulation, and harnessing endogenous bioelectric dynamics toward rational control of growth and form. The lab’s current main directions are:
• Understanding how somatic cells form bioelectrical networks for storing and recalling pattern memories that guide morphogenesis; • Creating next-generation AI tools for helping scientists understand top-down control of pattern regulation (a new bioinformatics of shape); and. • Using these insights to enable new capabilities in regenerative medicine and engineering.
Prior to college, Michael Levin worked as a software engineer and independent contractor in the field of scientific computing. He attended Tufts University, interested in artificial intelligence and unconventional computation. To explore the algorithms by which the biological world implemented complex adaptive behavior, he got dual B.S. degrees, in CS and in Biology and then received a PhD from Harvard University. He did post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School (1996−2000), where he began to uncover a new bioelectric language by which cells coordinate their activity during embryogenesis. His independent laboratory (2000−2007 at Forsyth Institute, Harvard; 2008-present at Tufts University) develops new molecular-genetic and conceptual tools to probe large-scale information processing in regeneration, embryogenesis, and cancer suppression.
Age catches up with us all eventually, but in some people the right genes can make that chase into our twilight years a relatively leisurely one.
A few years ago Italian researchers discovered something special about people who live well into their 90s and beyond: they commonly have a version of a gene called BPIFB4 that protects against cardiovascular damage and keeps the heart in good shape for a longer period of time.
By introducing the mutated gene into older mice, the scientists have now seen how the variant rewinds markers of biological heart aging by the equivalent of more than 10 human years.
There should be some vaccine against common cold because globally millions of people suffer s due to this disease.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most common pathogen responsible for lower respiratory diseases in children. So far, there is no effective treatment or preventative vaccine available for RSV infection, although ribavirin and dexamethasone are commonly prescribed. Resveratrol has been shown to inhibit the replication of several other viruses, thus the effect of resveratrol on RSV-induced inflammatory mediators in 9HTEo cell cultures was evaluated, and possible mechanisms of action were explored and compared with dexamethasone and ribavirin. Incubation with resveratrol resulted in decreased IL-6 production and partial inhibition of RSV replication. Resveratrol treatment also inhibited virus-induced TIR-domain-containing adapter-inducing interferon-β (TRIF) and TANK binding kinase 1 (TBK1) protein expression. These data demonstrate the ability of resveratrol to inhibit cytokine production by RSV in airway epithelial cells, indicating that it might be a therapeutic agent with both anti-inflammatory and antiviral potential for the treatment of RSV infection.
When we were little, our parents told us to take our vitamins so we could grow big and strong. Now, researchers from Japan find that one particular supplement may even fix a broken heart.
In a study that published recently in European Heart Journal, researchers from Osaka University have revealed that a dietary supplement can dramatically reverse the signs of heart disease in a subset of patients.
Coronary artery disease (CAD), which involves narrowing or even closing of the arteries of the heart and often leads to heart attack, is a major cause of death worldwide. Despite the existence of treatments such as cholesterol-lowering drugs and drug-eluting stents—a new stent technology for local drug delivery—death from this condition is still common, and some patients appear to be resistant to treatment.
It turns out that it is now pretty standard to have no external stitches for spaying, and in fact, if I had to do it over again, I would have picked one port keyhole surgery which would have been even easier to heal from. (That would have required switching vets.) So for only $400, Kaia not only had advanced surgery with no outside stitches, but she was made into a cyborg with a microchip being implanted. Pretty impressive!
This is just one example of us rushing headlong into a science fiction-type future. The biggest such example being ChatGPT which feels way more intelligent than previous chatbots. It used to be that Ray Kurzweil would say that we would have AGI in 2029 and everyone else predicted dates such as 2070 or never. Now many people pick 2029 and I could definitely see the tech behind ChatGPT being part of the recipe for AGI. For me, the first example that AGI was coming, was Content-Aware Fill being added to Photoshop. That feature allows you to erase a person from a beach scene in one quick step. Very impressive!
One more example of tech advancing is that a few years ago my right eye’s retina partially detached. My doctor did surgery with cryotherapy in his office, and inserted a sulfur hexafluoride bubble to stabilize everything. He followed up the next day with laser therapy, again in his office. No hospital needed. Eye fixed!
Video is of our killer guard dog Kaia on patrol. Watch out world!
Bryan Johnson is 45 years old but, according to a new report, his test results show he has the heart of a 37-year-old and the lungs of a young adult.
Johnson is a biotech entrepreneur who hopes to game nature’s course of aging and have the organs and health of an 18-year-old by going through an intense data-driven experimental program he’s called Project Blueprint.
According to a recent Bloomberg profile of the CEO, Johnson could spend up to $2 million on his body this year and there are early glimpses that show he may be on track to unlocking the secret to age reversal.
Test results from doctors suggest that Johnson has the heart of a 37-year-old, the skin of a 28-year-old, and the lung capacity of an 18-year-old, Bloomberg’s Ashlee Vance reported.
Middle-aged tech centimillionaire Bryan Johnson and his team of 30 doctors say they have a plan to reboot his body.
Professors complain that some students are turning in papers written by ChatGPT and other AI’s. This means the whole paradigm of how we teach students has got to change. And fast.
The potential of our brains is being wasted by the old paradigm of education and how we’ve been mechanized by The Industrial Age.
The qualia it takes to do what tradesmen like welders and mechanics and plummer’s do cannot be easily automated or coded and will soon be at a premium. Professionals like doctors and attorneys and professors, for that matter can easily be replaced by AI.
Humanity and AI have a common enemy: The status quo. A status quo that the elite needs to keep in place to avoid Elite Panic which is why they try to make us afraid of AI.
We shouldn’t need a common enemy to understand that AI is humanity’s greatest ally.
Researchers in the US have made progress on a ‘universal’ influenza vaccine, which would cover all strains and help reduce deaths in future flu pandemics.
The findings were recently published in the journal Cell Systems. The research was led by Kshitiz, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, in collaboration with scientists Chi V. Dang from Johns Hopkins and Andre Levchenko from Yale.
Nearly a decade ago, the researchers observed a strange phenomenon while looking at cancer cells under hypoxia—or a lack of oxygen.
