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Category: biotech/medical – Page 346

Team teaches AI models to spot misleading scientific reporting

Artificial intelligence isn’t always a reliable source of information: large language models (LLMs) like Llama and ChatGPT can be prone to “hallucinating” and inventing bogus facts. But what if AI could be used to detect mistaken or distorted claims, and help people find their way more confidently through a sea of potential distortions online and elsewhere?

As presented at a workshop at the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology present an AI architecture designed to do just that, using open-source LLMs and free versions of commercial LLMs to identify potential misleading narratives in reports on .

“Inaccurate information is a big deal, especially when it comes to scientific content—we hear all the time from doctors who worry about their patients reading things online that aren’t accurate, for instance,” said K.P. Subbalakshmi, the paper’s co-author and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stevens.

Taking the bite out of Lyme disease

In two new studies led by bacteriologist Brandon L. Jutras, Northwestern scientists have identified an antibiotic that cures Lyme disease at a fraction of the dosage of the current “gold standard” treatment and discovered what may cause a treated infection to mimic chronic illness in patients. The studies were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

New studies offer insight into disease’s treatment, lingering symptoms.

Northwestern scientists have identified an antibiotic that cures Lyme disease at a fraction of the dosage of the current “gold standard” treatment and discovered what may cause a treated infection to mimic chronic illness in patients.

Muscle and Muscle-like Autoantigen Expression in Myasthenia Gravis Thymus: Possible Molecular Hint for Autosensitization

The thymus is widely recognized as an immunological niche where autoimmunity against the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) develops in myasthenia gravis (MG) patients, who mostly present thymic hyperplasia and thymoma. Thymoma-associated MG is frequently characterized by autoantibodies to the muscular ryanodine receptor 1 (RYR1) and titin (TTN), along with anti-AChR antibodies. By real-time PCR, we analyzed muscle—CHRNA1, RYR1, and TTN—and muscle-like—NEFM, RYR3 and HSP60—autoantigen gene expression in MG thymuses with hyperplasia and thymoma, normal thymuses and non-MG thymomas, to check for molecular changes potentially leading to an altered antigen presentation and autoreactivity.

Customizable chips mimic real-life blood vessel structures for disease research

Blood vessels are like big-city highways; full of curves, branches, merges, and congestion. Yet for years, lab models replicated vessels like straight, simple roads.

To better capture the complex architecture of real human , researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University have developed a customizable vessel-chip method, enabling more accurate vascular disease research and a drug discovery platform.

Vessel-chips are engineered microfluidic devices that mimic human vasculature on a microscopic scale. These chips can be patient-specific and provide a non-animal method for pharmaceutical testing and studying . Jennifer Lee, a biomedical engineering master’s student, joined Dr. Abhishek Jain’s lab and designed an advanced vessel-chip that could replicate real variations in vascular structure.

Machine learning algorithm brings long-read sequencing to the clinic

Long-read sequencing technologies analyze long, continuous stretches of DNA. These methods have the potential to improve researchers’ ability to detect complex genetic alterations in cancer genomes. However, the complex structure of cancer genomes means that standard analysis tools, including existing methods specifically developed to analyze long-read sequencing data, often fall short, leading to false-positive results and unreliable interpretations of the data.

These misleading results can compromise our understanding of how tumors evolve, respond to treatment, and ultimately how patients are diagnosed and treated.

To address this challenge, researchers developed SAVANA, a new algorithm which they describe in the journal Nature Methods.

T cells take up residence in the healthy brain via a gut-fat-brain axis

The brain is a unique place. It is shielded from much of the body by the blood-brain barrier, meaning it’s protected from pathogens and potentially dangerous substances that might be in our blood. And historically, many scientists believed that separation extended to the immune system as well: the brain has its own specialized immune cells called microglia, but immune cells present in the rest of the body were long thought to steer clear of the brain unless there was a disease or other problem requiring their presence.

Now, a team of scientists from Yale School of Medicine (YSM) has shown that known as T cells reside in the healthy brains of mice and humans, trafficked there from the gut and fat. This is the first time T cells have been shown to inhabit the brain under normal, non-diseased conditions.

The findings are published in Nature.

AI tool enables automated evaluation of facial palsy, reports study

A “fine-tuned” artificial intelligence (AI) tool shows promise for objective evaluation of patients with facial palsy, reports an experimental study in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

“We believe that our research offers valuable insights into the realm of facial palsy evaluation and presents a significant advancement in leveraging AI for clinical applications,” comments lead author Takeichiro Kimura, MD, of Kyorin University, Mitaka, Tokyo.

Patients with facial palsy have paralysis or partial loss of movement of the face, caused by nerve injury due to tumors, surgery, trauma, or other causes. Detailed assessment is essential for evaluating , such as nerve transfer surgery, but poses difficult challenges.

Laser qubits in the sky over Long Island — scientists test quantum communication in the air

American scientists plan to implement a project to test quantum communication in free space. Using lasers, they want to launch qubits over the Long Island Sound.

It is noted, that three laser beams from the telescope on top of the Kline Tower on the Yale University campus will be directed across the Long Island Sound at a distance of nearly 43.5 km and captured on the opposite side by a similar telescope on the roof of the University Hospital Stony Brook.

The goal of the Quantum Laser Across the Sound project is to expand the ability to send and receive quantum information and demonstrating the potential for possible future quantum computing infrastructures. The telescope on top of the Kline Tower will send entangled photons 43.4 km across the Long Island Sound.

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