In today’s column, I am continuing my ongoing series about the impact of generative AI in the health and medical realm.
You can use generative AI to analyze your sleeping dreams, but do so with caution and a keen eye. This close up look tells you how to best proceed.
A collaborative study by the UTokyo-KI LINK program, headed by Camilla Björkegren from Karolinska Institutet, Kristian Jeppsson and Katsuhiko Shirahige from The University of Tokyo shows that a protein complex named Smc5/6 binds DNA structures called positive supercoils. These form when the chromosomal DNA double helix folds onto itself due to overtwisting caused by transcription, which is the first step in gene expression.
The study presents in vivo data indicating that Smc5/6 binds to the base of chromosome loops in regions that contain high levels of transcription-induced positive supercoils. The complex is also shown to control the three-dimensional (3D) organization of these regions.
Computational machine learning provides additional results supporting that transcription-induced positive supercoils determine the chromosomal binding pattern of Smc5/6. Finally, in vitro single molecule analysis, performed by the team of Dr. Eugene Kim at Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt, provides direct evidence that Smc5/6 preferentially binds positive DNA supercoils.
“Soilless biofortification of vegetables has opened the door to the potential for adapting vegetable production to specific dietary requirements,” said Dr. Massimiliano Renna.
Can microgreen be customized based on dietary and medical needs? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture hopes to address as a collaborative team of Italian researchers investigated the potential for customizing microgreens via soilless growing methods designed to suit specific dietary needs based on medical concerns. This study holds the potential to help scientists and patients better understand the available nutritional options, specifically for medical reasons.
“Propelled by an ever-growing awareness of the importance of following dietary recommendations, interest in personalized nutrition is on the rise. Soilless biofortification of vegetables has opened the door to the potential for adapting vegetable production to specific dietary requirements,” said Dr. Massimiliano Renna, who is a professor of agricultural and environmental science at the University of Bari Aldo Moro and a co-author on the study.
Continue reading “Customized Microgreens: A Breakthrough in Personalized Nutrition” »
Not all software is perfect—many apps, programs, and websites are released despite bugs. But the software behind critical systems like cryptographic protocols, medical devices, and space shuttles must be error-free, and ensuring the absence of bugs requires going beyond code reviews and testing. It requires formal verification.
Formal verification involves writing a mathematical proof of your code and is “one of the hardest but also most powerful ways of making sure your code is correct,” says Yuriy Brun, a professorat the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
To make formal verification easier, Brun and his colleagues devised a new AI-powered method called Baldur to automatically generate proofs. The accompanying paper, presented in December 2023 at the ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering in San Francisco, won a Distinguished Paper award. The team includes Emily First, who completed the study as part of her doctoral dissertation at UMass Amherst; Markus Rabe, a former researcher at Google, where the study was conducted; and Talia Ringer, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), will be joined by policymakers and members of the health industry to consider how to prepare for the emergence of an unknown pathogen.
Michel Demaré, chair of the board of pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, Brazilian health minister Nisia Trindade Lima and two other executives will also be on the panel, as will Shyam Bishen, a New York-based healthcare executive and member of the WEF’s executive committee.
He told CNBC on Monday that the forum had calculated that preparing the global health system for another pandemic would require “close to a trillion dollars,” describing the topic as a “big question.”
Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed lighter, safer artificial muscles that outshine their predecessors. These advanced actuators boast a unique shell structure and utilize high-permittivity ferroelectric material, storing significant electrical energy.
Operating at lower voltages, the new design offers enhanced safety, waterproofing, and durability. The team claims that the innovation marks a leap forward by enabling safer, more versatile artificial muscles that herald a new era in robotics and prosthetics.
Continue reading “Experts craft waterproof, low-voltage artificial muscles for bot motion” »
Deloitte’s Global Generative AI Innovation Leader Nitin Mittal and Tomorrow CEO Mike Walsh explore the Fifth Industrial Revolution in which the catalyst for societal transformation is the augmentation and expansion of human intelligence.
Given the recency of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it might be a surprise that we are on the verge of an entirely new one. Rapid progress in computation, connectivity, and artificial intelligence (AI)—accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic—has brought forward the timeline for transformation. While prior industrial revolutions were premised on gains in operational efficiency, the next revolution will be powered by minds, not just machines—where the catalyst for societal transformation is the augmentation and expansion of human intelligence.
The US is dealing with an “out-of-control” epidemic of sexually transmitted infections, according to the National Coalition of STD Directors.
The warning comes after the release of an annual data report on STIs by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The exasperation of public health officials can be felt in the very first sentence of the online announcement.
With transformer #AI protein #design and major advances in #DNA #synthesis, how do we deal with #biosecurity concerns?
The organoids are the size of grain of sand and a special robot is used to screen which treatment kills off the tumour more effectively.
It helps take the guesswork out of treating advanced bowel cancer which can be difficult to beat.
“Each time you give a patient an ineffective treatment, you lose two to three months on something that won’t work,” Gibbs said.
