combo kew retweeted
A 3D-printed windpipe built from living stem cells is growing its own blood vessels inside a patient.
Surgeons at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in South Korea gave a woman in her 50s a new section of windpipe that came out of a 3D printer.
She had lost part of her trachea during surgery to remove thyroid cancer. The team printed a custom tube shaped to fit her airway, using a biodegradable plastic scaffold layered with a bio-ink of living nasal stem cells and cartilage cells.
Once implanted, the tube is designed to be taken over by the body's own tissue as the scaffold slowly breaks down.
Six months after the operation, the new windpipe was healing well, new blood vessels were growing into it, and the patient didn't need any immune-suppressing drugs, which transplant patients normally take for life to stop rejection. Earlier lab-grown windpipes famously failed, so this is a big step for printing replacement body parts. It is a single patient, the cells came from donors rather than the patient herself, and the results were still awaiting peer review when first reported.
source: Science Focus. Woman given a new 3D-printed windpipe in a world-first. BBC Science Focus Magazine.
combo kew retweeted
Soon we will do the same with every disease
OpenAI used thousands of AI agents to investigate a Parkinson like neurodegenerative disease, compressing months of scientific research into just 32 minutes.
The agents analyzed data from millions of brain cells, explored hundreds of scientific references, and uncovered a potential connection between a specific gene, cholesterol regulation, and neurodegeneration.
Human experts preferred the multi-agent research reports 75% of the time over those produced by a single AI agent.
combo kew retweeted
Today, in collaboration with Anthropic, we’re excited to share rapid initial progress towards an antibody treatment for food allergy, which affects over 200 million people worldwide, discovered with the help of Claude.
At Divergence Labs, we believe that AI can unlock the next generation of antibody therapeutics with more effective mechanisms than before. Such mechanisms are urgently needed in food allergy, which involve overcoming one of the tightest affinity protein pairs in immunology, IgE and its receptor FcεRI, on mast cells.
Treatment with Xolair—the only approved antibody for food allergy—sequesters circulating IgE, but mast cells remain sensitized for weeks to months due to the extraordinarily slow dissociation of IgE from FcεRI.
We envision a treatment that actively pulls IgE off of FcεRI, without waiting for natural dissociation. Like picking a lock, this requires the right combination of geometry and force.
Our research team, working with Claude, ideated on mechanisms to accomplish this disruption, and converged on an antibody format with two arms with different functions and epitopes. Within one month, we designed, synthesized, and experimentally confirmed the biophysical function of the two arms, which we are now assembling into full therapeutic formats.
combo kew retweeted
BREAKING: Anthropic reveals it is developing its own experimental drugs using Claude, targeting rare childhood diseases & various cancers.
combo kew retweeted
Superintelligence is making progress in curing diseases every day now.
This is a much better treatment for food allergies.
Today, in collaboration with Anthropic, we’re excited to share rapid initial progress towards an antibody treatment for food allergy, which affects over 200 million people worldwide, discovered with the help of Claude.
At Divergence Labs, we believe that AI can unlock the next generation of antibody therapeutics with more effective mechanisms than before. Such mechanisms are urgently needed in food allergy, which involve overcoming one of the tightest affinity protein pairs in immunology, IgE and its receptor FcεRI, on mast cells.
Treatment with Xolair—the only approved antibody for food allergy—sequesters circulating IgE, but mast cells remain sensitized for weeks to months due to the extraordinarily slow dissociation of IgE from FcεRI.
We envision a treatment that actively pulls IgE off of FcεRI, without waiting for natural dissociation. Like picking a lock, this requires the right combination of geometry and force.
Our research team, working with Claude, ideated on mechanisms to accomplish this disruption, and converged on an antibody format with two arms with different functions and epitopes. Within one month, we designed, synthesized, and experimentally confirmed the biophysical function of the two arms, which we are now assembling into full therapeutic formats.
combo kew retweeted
In 2024, the EU generated 765 million tonnes of waste, excluding major mineral waste from mining, quarrying, construction and demolition.🗑️🧱
Highest in:
🇪🇪Estonia (4 703 kg per capita)
🇧🇪Belgium (3 157)
Lowest:
🇲🇹Malta (1 092 kg)
🇮🇪Ireland (1 199)
👉link.europa.eu/hwKtHY
ALT Map showing Waste generation, 2024 (kg per capita; waste excluding major mineral waste) in EU countries, EFTA and candidate countries with available data.
combo kew retweeted
Good morning Galway! Our top story today - A failed bidder for Galway Airport is demanding full disclosure from its local authority owners on why they rejected six potential buyers advertiser.ie/galway/article…
combo kew retweeted
PLANS APPLIED 📝
In #Galway, permission is being sought for the #construction of a 92 unit #Residential Development consisting of one, two and three bedroom units in 8 blocks.
Details here: app.buildinginfo.com/p-OTdnd…
#buildinginfo #housing #housingmarket #jobs #galwayjobs
combo kew retweeted
This is why AI in medicine is going to change everything.
Many of the worst diseases we fight today, from Parkinson’s to Alzheimer’s to cancer, all share one root cause. Proteins in our bodies folding the wrong way. Johns Hopkins just secured up to $52M from @ARPA_H to lead a team of 7 institutions building an AI that can predict exactly how those proteins misfold.
Once we can see the shape, we can design drugs that target only the bad versions and leave the healthy ones alone. In the first phase, they’re analyzing 1 billion protein structures and testing 100 million drug candidates.
This is American medicine leaping into the future.
“If we can predict the [protein's] shape, we can design a drug that recognizes the harmful form and leaves the healthy one alone.”
A Hopkins-led team backed by up to $52M from @ARPA_H will build an AI model to decode how proteins misfold in Parkinson’s, cancer, and other diseases. bit.ly/4zMyCdb
combo kew retweeted
Bravo to the smaller countries in Europe for moving fastest!
