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Blog – Page 3620

This is the latest episode of the free DDW narrated podcast, “The impact of technology on drug discovery”. It covers two articles written for Volume 23, Issue 2 – Spring 2022 of DDW. They are called “Talking Tech” and “Rejuvenation biotech: Can this company make age a thing of the past?”

With Covid-19 taking so much of the drug discovery and development’s focus over the last two years, it has been easy to overlook other areas within the sector that deserve our attention. So in the first article, Lu Rahman highlights the technology that will play a valuable role in the industry.

Kizoo Technology Capital has a clear aim – to develop drugs that abate or cure age-related diseases. In the second article, Lu Rahman spoke to owner, Michael Greve, to find out more about this exciting work that aims to make age-related therapies affordable for everyone.

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“There are patients with localized prostate cancer who undergo prostatectomy or radiation therapy in an attempt to cure their disease, but, unfortunately, some patients will develop BCR,” said Neal Shore, M.D., F.A.C.S., U.S. Chief Medical Officer of Urology and Surgical Oncology, GenesisCare, Director, Carolina Urologic Research Center, and Primary Investigator for the EMBARK study. “Importantly, some patients with BCR are at very high risk for developing metastatic disease, which can lead to a cascade of therapeutic interventions. The clinical goal of BCR therapy is to delay cancer progression and avoid metastatic disease. The MFS results from the EMBARK study demonstrate that this intervention with XTANDI plus leuprolide was statistically significant for patients with high-risk BCR.”

“The EMBARK study is a Phase 3 trial exploring the potential of enzalutamide in patients with non-metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer with high-risk BCR,” said Stephen J. Freedland, M.D., Director of the Center for Integrated Research in Cancer and Lifestyle and the Warschaw Robertson Law Families Chair in Prostate Cancer at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and Co-Principal Investigator of the Clinical Trial. “If approved, we hope to bring a new option to men earlier in the course of their disease.”

Consistent with the study’s primary endpoint, statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements were also observed in the trial’s key secondary endpoints in both the XTANDI combination and monotherapy arms. Specifically, the XTANDI monotherapy arm demonstrated that treatment with XTANDI reduced the risk of metastasis or death by 37% versus leuprolide plus placebo (HR: 0.63; 95% CI, 0.46–0.87; P=0.0049), meeting its MFS endpoint. Treatment with XTANDI plus leuprolide and XTANDI monotherapy reduced the risk of PSA progression by 93% (HR: 0.07; 95% CI, 0.03–0.14; P0.0001) and 67% (HR: 0.33; 95% CI, 0.23–0.49; P0.0001), respectively, versus placebo plus leuprolide. The progression risk in starting a new antineoplastic therapy was reduced by 64% in those treated with XTANDI plus leuprolide (HR: 0.36; 95% CI, 0.26–0.49; P0.0001) and 46% in those treated with XTANDI monotherapy (HR: 0.54; 95% CI, 0.41–0.71; P0.0001) versus placebo plus leuprolide.

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Geoffrey Hinton, who has been called the ‘Godfather of AI,’ confirmed Monday that he left his role at Google last week to speak out about the “dangers” of the technology he helped to develop.

Hinton’s pioneering work on neural networks shaped artificial intelligence systems powering many of today’s products. He worked part-time at Google for a decade on the tech giant’s AI development efforts, but he has since come to have concerns about the technology and his role in advancing it.

“I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have,” Hinton told the New York Times, which was first to report his decision.

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Defining computational neuroscience The evolution of computational neuroscience Computational neuroscience in the twenty-first century Some examples of computational neuroscience The SpiNNaker supercomputer Frontiers in computational neuroscience References Further reading

The human brain is a complex and unfathomable supercomputer. How it works is one of the ultimate mysteries of our time. Scientists working in the exciting field of computational neuroscience seek to unravel this mystery and, in the process, help solve problems in diverse research fields, from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to psychiatry.

Computational neuroscience is a highly interdisciplinary and thriving branch of neuroscience that uses computational simulations and mathematical models to develop our understanding of the brain. Here we look at: what computational neuroscience is, how it has grown over the last thirty years, what its applications are, and where it is going.

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A study in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology suggested that using a cannabinoid receptor type 2 (CB2) agonist called lenabasum may lessen the discomfort caused by amyopathic dermatomyositis. Dermatomyositis is a rare systemic autoimmune disease with distinctive cutaneous features frequently accompanied by muscle inflammation, interstitial lung disease, and malignancy. This phase 2 trial examined the potential benefits of activating the endocannabinoid system to reduce the inflammation causing the symptoms.

Study participants included twenty-two adults diagnosed with moderate to severe skin disease caused by dermatomyositis. They received 20 mg daily of lenabasum or a placebo for 28 days, then 20 mg twice daily for 56 days. Their Cutaneous Dermatomyositis Disease Area and Severity Index (CDASI) levels were evaluated relative to baseline as well as secondary outcomes such as quality of life (measured with the Skindex-29) and specific biomarkers.

More than 40% of the patients taking lenabasum demonstrated significant improvements. The study showed that the CB2 agonist lenabasum improved the skin of amyopathic dermatomyositis patients. The researchers noted that lenabasum was well-tolerated and effective. More than 40% of the patients in the study taking lenabasum demonstrated significant improvements on the CDASI, a validated disease-severity scale. Results showed a trend for the change from baseline CDASI to be greater in lenabasum versus placebo starting at Day 43, two weeks after a dose increase. On Day 113 there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups. The researchers noted that the drug was well tolerated.

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This is according to a press release by the institutions published on Thursday.

“We’ve come up with an unprecedented principle. Yes, the wood transistor is slow and bulky, but it does work, and has huge development potential,” said Isak Engquist, senior associate professor at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics at Linköping University.

This isn’t the first time scientists have attempted to produce wooden transistors but previous trials resulted in versions that could regulate ion transport only. Making matters worse was the fact that when the ions ran out, the transistor stopped functioning.

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