Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia@qoto.org

'Using a version of OpenAI’s GPT-4 program through Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, the researchers found that a tailored generative AI application was able to quickly comb through patient notes within electronic medical records and accurately identify those with heart failure who met the criteria for a study.'
https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/study-shows-generative-ai-can-speed-clinical-trial-enrollment-pennies-patient

“Everything for Germany” was the slogan once engraved on the knives of Nazi storm troopers. By reviving such phrases, Mr. Höcke’s opponents say, he has sought to make fascist ideas more acceptable in a society where such expressions are not only taboo, but illegal'

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/23/world/europe/germany-extremism-hocke-afd-nazi.html

'A scene from “The Tales of Hoffmann,” a Powell-Pressburger collaboration.
Credit: Rialto Pictures/Studiocanal'
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/movies/powell-pressburger-moma.html

On promotional language AKA hype & grant writing:
"A recent study showed that from 1985 to 2020, the use of promotional language steeply rose in accepted NIH grants (25). In 1985, there were approximately 6,000 promotional words per million words in funded NIH proposals. By 2020, that number had more than doubled to 13,000 promotional words per million words."
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2320066121

"In a meta-analysis of nutritional impacts of deworming, we find that in areas where the WHO recommends mass drug administration (>20% prevalence), multiple-dose deworming leads to statistically significant, positive increases in child weight, mid-upper arm circumference, and height. We then conduct a cost effectiveness analysis and find that MDA is many times more cost-effective than widely implemented school-feeding programs."

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2308733121#sec-2

The FDA seems to have drawn the wrong lesson from the aduhelm debacle:
"So it appears that the agency (and especially its commissioner, Robert Califf) has heard these criticisms. And they have apparently decided that the way to deal with them is (drum roll). . .to hold fewer advisory committee votes."
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/those-darn-fda-advisory-committees

CART cells & Lupus

'But the prize money may help make future relapses less likely. Radic plans to use it to figure out how an interaction between cells called trogocytosis affects CAR-T therapy success, according to a press release about the award. Meanwhile, Schett will use his reward to analyze the extent of B cell depletion in the lymph nodes of people with lupus who were treated with CAR-T, a step towards optimizing disease management.'
#Immunology #Immunotherapy #Autoimmunity #Lupus

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/research/insight-prize-winners-researchers

'You know Dalton Trumbo? He wrote Johnny Got His Gun. He was one of the blacklisted writers. Spent time in prison. Lost everything. Got everything back. Wonderful fellow. The last thing he said to me was “Don’t forget to be happy.”

https://jacobin.com/2024/06/donald-sutherland-actor-hollywood-obituary

'LinkedIn users no longer just boasted about professional achievements, but also shared low points and human frailties. It’s a shift, Shani Orgad, professor of media and communications at London School of Economics, calls the “vulnerability turn”. A common theme is the “snap”, where a professional reaches breaking point.'

https://www.ft.com/content/21949d13-3167-4313-a99a-e0fd4c09657b

"Here, we provide evidence for a new metabolic mechanism of ECM regulation driven by the upload of CAF-secreted lactate. Lactate-induced α-KG is exploited by P4H collagen prolyl-hydroxylase, impacting on collagen deposition. Moreover, we identified a type I collagen/DDR1/STAT3 axis as a signaling node required to promote a collagen-dependent achievement of pro-metastatic features in stromal lactate-reprogrammed PCa cells."
Ippolito et al @emboreports
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1038/s44319-024-00180-z

If you thought what the climate crisis needs is more a**hole, this one's for you

"Greek authorities arrested 13 people on Saturday after fireworks launched from a yacht set off a forest fire on an island near Athens as the country confronts a new season of deadly summer fires."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/22/thirteen-arrested-after-fireworks-spark-forest-fire-on-greek-island