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Elon Musk’s Neuralink raises $600M at $9B valuation
Neuralink did not immediately return requests for comment outside regular business hours.
Semafor’s report corroborates earlier reporting from Bloomberg, which noted in April that the startup was looking to raise $500 million at an $8.5 billion pre-money valuation.
Neuralink last year received “breakthrough device” clearance from the U.S. FDA. Three people have so far received implants made by Neuralink. Earlier this month, a nonverbal patient posted a video about how he uses a Neuralink implant to edit and narrate YouTube videos with just his brain signals.
New biomarker may guide best use of KRAS inhibitors in lung cancer
Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a new biomarker, TTF-1, that was predictive of survival outcomes for patients with advanced KRAS G12C-mutated non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), following treatment with the KRAS targeted therapy sotorasib.
Results from the study, published in Nature Medicine, found patients with lung tumors that express low TTF-1 levels responded poorly to sotorasib—with a median progression free survival (PFS) of 2.8 months and a median overall survival (OS) of 4.5 months—whereas patients with tumors expressing high TTF-1 levels had a median PFS of 8.1 months and a median OS of 16 months.
“Since TTF-1 testing is routinely performed in lung cancer diagnosis, it gives physicians an immediate tool to help identify those patients who may benefit from sotorasib and those who may need an alternative or intensified treatment approach,” said lead author Ferdinandos Skoulidis, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology.
Protective genetic variants against Alzheimer’s disease
Genetic studies can offer powerful insights for the development of disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease. Protective genetic variants that delay the onset of cognitive impairment have been found in people with sporadic Alzheimer’s disease and in carriers of mutations that usually cause autosomal-dominant Alzheimer’s disease in mid-life. The study of families who carry autosomal dominant mutations provides a unique opportunity to uncover genetic modifiers of disease progression, including rare variants in genes such as APOE and RELN.
AI developers should be philosophers as much as technologists
MIT research finds that philosophy is what truly determines AI success.
Scientists test real-time view of brain’s waste removal with new monitoring device
A new device that monitors the waste-removal system of the brain may help to prevent Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases, according to a study published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
In the study, participants were asleep when they wore the device: a head cap embedded with electrodes that measures shifts in fluid within brain tissue, the neural activity from sleep to wakefulness and changes in the brain’s blood vessels.
By measuring these three features, the researchers found they could monitor the brain’s glymphatic system, which acts as a waste-removal and nutrient-delivery system.
