It’s an early step forward and needs way more testing. But the potential is high. Cancer vaccines aren’t a new idea. They use the same fundamentals that enable vaccines for infectious pathogens like viruses and bacteria: priming our immune system into recognizing and attacking something that’s harmful to our bodies.
Series — Clinical Trials on Alzheimer’s Disease (CTAD) 2022: Part 1 of 14: Dare We Say Consensus Achieved: Lecanemab Slows the Disease Part 2 of 14: Brexpiprazole Eases Agitation in People with AD; So Does Being in a Trial Part 3 of 14: Two New Stabs at Vaccinating People Against Pathologic Tau Part 4 of 14: Cognitive Tests Taken at Home Are on Par with In-Clinic Assessments Part 5 of 14: In Small Trial, Gene Therapy Spurs ApoE2 Production Part 6 of 14: Donanemab Mops Up Plaque Faster Than Aduhelm Part 7 of 14: Gantenerumab Mystery: How Did It Lose Potency in Phase 3? Part 8 of 14: Could Personalizing Multimodal Interventions Give Them Oomph?
If you’ve ever thought your children in elementary school were “smarter” than you, or at least quicker at taking up new skills and knowledge, new research published in the journal Current Biology confirms that you were correct. According to the new study, there are differences in the brain messenger GABA between kids and adults, which may explain why kids often seem to be more capable of learning and retaining new information.
“Our results show that children of elementary school age can learn more items within a given period of time than adults, making learning more efficient in children,” said Takeo Watanabe of Brown University.
According to the study, children experienced a rapid increase in GABA during visual training, which lasted even after the training ended. In contrast, GABA concentrations in adults remained constant during training. These findings suggest that children’s brains are more responsive to training, allowing them to quickly and efficiently consolidate new learning.
Nuclear physicists have found a new way to use the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)—a particle collider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory—to see the shape and details inside atomic nuclei. The method relies on particles of light that surround gold ions as they speed around the collider and a new type of quantum entanglement that’s never been seen before.
Through a series of quantum fluctuations, the particles of light (a.k.a. photons) interact with gluons—gluelike particles that hold quarks together within the protons and neutrons of nuclei. Those interactions produce an intermediate particle that quickly decays into two differently charged “pions” (π). By measuring the velocity and angles at which these π+ and π- particles strike RHIC’s STAR detector, the scientists can backtrack to get crucial information about the photon—and use that to map out the arrangement of gluons within the nucleus with higher precision than ever before.
“This technique is similar to the way doctors use positron emission tomography (PET scans) to see what’s happening inside the brain and other body parts,” said former Brookhaven Lab physicist James Daniel Brandenburg, a member of the STAR collaboration who joined The Ohio State University as an assistant professor in January 2023. “But in this case, we’re talking about mapping out features on the scale of femtometers —quadrillionths of a meter—the size of an individual proton.”
Scientists at Imperial College London, UK have proved that a modern surgical knife dubbed iKnife can “smell tumours”, effectively detecting womb cancer within seconds. The breakthrough could enable thousands of women to get an earlier cancer diagnosis.
“The iKnife reliably diagnosed endometrial cancer in seconds, with a diagnostic accuracy of 89%, minimising the current delays for women whilst awaiting a histopathological diagnosis,” said the researchers in the finding published in the journal Cancers.
Notably, the iKnife is already being used to treat breast and brain cancers, reported the Guardian, and now it can also accurately detect the presence of endometrial cancer.
𝐋𝐚𝐛-𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐲𝐞 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝙍𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢 𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙣𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙨, 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙮, 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 “𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙠𝙚” 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙙𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙮𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨.𝙍𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙜𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢 𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙣𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙗𝙤𝙧𝙨, 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙖 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙮, 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 “𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙠𝙚” 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙪𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙙𝙚𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙮𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨.
Retinal cells grown from stem cells can reach out and connect with neighbors, according to a new study, completing a “handshake” that may show the cells are ready for trials in humans with degenerative eye disorders.
Australian scientists have created the most detailed map ever of the communication links between the hippocampus, the brain’s memory control center, and the rest of the brain, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of human memory.
“We were surprised to find fewer connections between the hippocampus and frontal cortical areas, and more connections with early visual processing areas than we expected to see,” said Dr. Marshall Dalton, a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. “Although, this makes sense considering the hippocampus plays an important role not only in memory but also imagination and our ability to construct mental images in our mind’s eye.”
New research published in the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology on December 7 has identified three genes and their expressed proteins that may be involved in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis.
By comparing information on the genes and proteins expressed in the brains of thousands of individuals with and without multiple sclerosis, investigators discovered different expression levels of the SHMT1, FAM120B, and ICA1L genes (and their proteins) in brain tissues of patients versus controls.
Studying the functions of these genes may uncover new information on the mechanisms involved in the development and progression of multiple sclerosis. “Our findings shed new light on the pathogenesis of MS and prioritized promising targets for future therapy research,” the authors wrote.
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Irina Rish is a world-renowned professor of computer science and operations research at the Université de Montréal and a core member of the prestigious Mila organisation. She is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and the Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Autonomous AI. Irina holds an MSc and PhD in AI from the University of California, Irvine as well as an MSc in Applied Mathematics from the Moscow Gubkin Institute. Her research focuses on machine learning, neural data analysis, and neuroscience-inspired AI. In particular, she is exploring continual lifelong learning, optimization algorithms for deep neural networks, sparse modelling and probabilistic inference, dialog generation, biologically plausible reinforcement learning, and dynamical systems approaches to brain imaging analysis. Prof. Rish holds 64 patents, has published over 80 research papers, several book chapters, three edited books, and a monograph on Sparse Modelling. She has served as a Senior Area Chair for NeurIPS and ICML. Irina’s research is focussed on taking us closer to the holy grail of Artificial General Intelligence. She continues to push the boundaries of machine learning, continually striving to make advancements in neuroscience-inspired AI.
Continue reading “Prof. IRINA RISH — AGI, Complex Systems, Transhumanism #NeurIPS” »
Boltzmann brains are perhaps one of the spookiest ideas in physics. A Boltzmann brain is a single, isolated human brain complete with false memories that spontaneously fluctuates into existence from the void. They’re the kind of thing you’d find in a campfire horror story. The big problem, however, is that a range of plausible cosmological models (including our current cosmology) predict that Boltzmann brains will exist. Even worse, these brains should massively outnumber “ordinary” conscious observers like ourselves. At every moment of your existence, it is more likely that you are an isolated Boltzmann brain, falsely remembering your past, than a human being on a rocky planet in a low-entropy universe.
In this video I explain where the idea of Boltzmann brains originated, and why they haunt modern cosmology.
Continue reading “Boltzmann Brains: A Cosmological Horror Story” »
