More news from DARPA’s Electrical Rx efforts along with GSK’s own advancement.
In the future, doctors won’t treat diseases with drugs. Instead, they’ll use tiny implantable devices that communicate with our body’s electrical language.
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2742
Allen Institute working with Baylor on reconstructing neuronal connections.
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has awarded an $18.7 million contract to the Allen Institute for Brain Science, as part of a larger project with Baylor College of Medicine and Princeton University, to create the largest ever roadmap to understand how the function of networks in the brain’s cortex relates to the underlying connections of its individual neurons.
The project is part of the Machine Intelligence from Cortical Networks (MICrONS) program, which seeks to revolutionize machine learning by reverse-engineering the algorithms of the brain.
“This effort will be the first time that we can physically look at more than a thousand connections between neurons in a single cortical network and understand how those connections might allow the network to perform functions, like process visual information or store memories,” says R. Clay Reid, Ph.D., Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, Principal Investigator on the project.
Another data scientist with pragmatic thinking which is badly needed today. Keeping it real with Una-May O’Reilly.
Mumbai: Una-May O’Reilly, principal research scientist at Anyscale Learning For All (ALFA) group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, has expertise in scalable machine learning, evolutionary algorithms, and frameworks for large-scale, automated knowledge mining, prediction and analytics. O’Reilly is one of the keynote speakers at the two-day EmTech India 2016 event, to be held in New Delhi on 18 March.
In an email interview, she spoke, among other things, about how machine learning underpins data-driven artificial intelligence (AI), giving the ability to predict complex events from predictive cues within streams of data. Edited excerpts:
When you say that the ALFA group aims at solving the most challenging Big Data problems—questions that go beyond the scope of typical analytics—what do you exactly mean?
Welcome to the CRISPR zoo
Posted in biotech/medical, food
Wearables and other connected devices have been available to help treat chronic conditions like asthma and heart disease for a while now. But thus far, the nation’s 30 million diabetics haven’t seen much to help them improve their health or reduce the daily grind of finger pricks and needle pokes.
The $2.5 billion connected-care industry may be off to a late start in diabetes, but it’s making up for lost time. A new breed of connected glucometers, insulin pumps and smartphone apps is hitting the market. They promise to make it easier for diabetics to manage the slow-progressing disease and keep them motivated with feedback and support. In as little as two years, the industry plans to take charge of the entire uncomfortable, time-consuming routine of checking and regulating blood-sugar levels with something called an artificial pancreas. Such systems mimic the functions of a healthy pancreas by blending continuous glucose monitoring, remote-controlled insulin pumps and artificial intelligence to maintain healthy blood-sugar levels automatically.
For Jeroen Tas, CEO of Philips’ Connected Care and Health Informatics unit, diabetes management is also personal: his daughter Kim is diabetic.
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New funding awarded by DARPA on new spinal implants; this should make some commercial pilots that I know happy.
Carmel, IN-based startup Nanovis is no stranger to nabbing research grants. It’s just nabbed one from the National Institutes of Health for preclinical research on the use of its porous Forticore interbody fusion devices in combination with nanotube technology. The combination is expected to result in a surface that mimics nature and encourages regeneration around an implant.
Nanovis has previously gotten 8 competitive peer-reviewed grants from the NIH and other research organizations; this is its second NIH grant. In September 2014, it got FDA clearance for its FortiCore interbody fusion devices and then last October it launched an expanded FortiCore line.
“Gaining the attention and support of the NIH for Nanovis’ technology platforms and research is gratifying,” said Nanovis CEO Matt Hedrick in a statement. “Our deeply porous FortiCore interbody fusion device are increasingly being adopted by leading surgeons and hospital networks driving accelerated company growth. As we progress forward, we continue to invest in the fundamental science at the core of our uniquely differentiated technologies. Grants from the NIH help us continue to discover potential applications to improve the future of healthcare.”
Cool beans.
Using a bionic fingertip, an amputee for the first time has been able to feel rough and smooth textures in real-time, as though the fingertip were naturally connected to his hand.
After Luke Skywalker got his hand cut off during a duel with Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” the young Jedi received an artificial hand that helped him both grip and feel again. Scientists worldwide are seeking to make this vision from science fiction a reality with prosthetic limbs that are wired directly into the nervous systems of their recipients.
Researchers experimented with amputee Dennis Aabo Sørensen from Denmark, who damaged his left hand more than a decade ago while playing with fireworks. Doctors immediately amputated the appendage after Sørensen was brought to a hospital. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies].
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