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Category: robotics/AI – Page 2,097

New tool could help researchers design better cancer vaccines

A computational model could improve the selection of tumor antigens for personalized cancer vaccines that are now in early-stage clinical trials.

Every cell in the is coated with fragments of proteins called antigens that tell the what’s inside the cell. Antigens presented on that are infected by foreign invaders or have become rogue cancers prompt an immune attack. Such antigens are often used in vaccines to spur immune responses against, for example, viruses like the flu. But to make vaccines that effectively stimulate attack against cancer, researchers need to predict exactly which tumor-specific antigens will be displayed on and hence would be the best ones to put in a cancer vaccine.

Now, scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital have developed a new computational tool that could help with this task. The researchers turned to machine learning to analyze a diverse set of more than 185,000 human antigens that they discovered, and generated a new set of rules that predict which antigens are presented on the surface of a person’s cells. The findings, published today in Nature Biotechnology, could aid in the development of new treatments that stimulate the immune system to attack cancer as well as viruses and bacteria.

Bosch develops A.I. system in cars to detect distracted, tired drivers

As the cars we drive become increasingly sophisticated, the technology that underpins them poses a unique set of challenges.

“Currently, technology is more likely to create distractions in vehicles than it is to combat it,” Alain Dunoyer, SBD Automotive’s head of autonomous research and consulting, said in a statement sent to CNBC via email earlier this month.

“These days, cars have a shopping list of features which has led to tasks that were historically quite simple becoming drastically more complicated and distracting,” he added.

Watch the First Commercial Self-Flying Helicopter Take Off

Rather than representing an entirely different take on the flying car, the helicopter’s new brains are more equivalent to the “self-driving” features you see in contemporary cars — an effort to make vehicles safer and more accessible than ever before.

“Today, we design our lives around traffic and make decisions about where we live and work based on how hard it is to get there,” Mark Groden, Skyryse CEO and founder, said in a statement. “To get there, we need to make urban flying as safe as riding an elevator and as accessible and affordable as riding a bus.”

The technology behind the feat called “Flight Stack” allows for either full or partial autonomous flight — think of it like cruise control on a car.

Discovery reveals tractionless motion is possible

In an article published in Physical Review Letters, Bristol scientists have answered the fundamental question: “Is it possible to move without exerting force on the environment?”, by describing the tractionless self-propulsion of active matter.

Understanding how cells move autonomously is a fundamental question for both biologists and physicists.

Experiments on are commonly done by looking at the motion of a cell on a glass slide under a microscope.

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