Introduction: discovered the vertical transmission pattern of maternal and infant microbiota; AI detects diarrhea by listening to toilet sounds; Integrative Life Network acquires treatment center Shadow Mountain... Bioexploration will pay attention to the "medicine" smell with you and explore the value of biotechnology!
01 Mother-infant microbiome group
Vertical transmission pattern discovered
Recently, American researchers have discovered a new vertical transmission pattern of mother-infant microbiota, that is, starting before birth and extending to the perinatal period in the first few weeks after birth, microorganisms in the mother's gut share genes with those in the baby's gut. This horizontal gene transfer of to allows maternal microbial strains to influence the function of the infant microbiome without the need for ongoing transmission of the microbial strains themselves.
Ramnik Xavier, a senior researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, said this is the first study to describe the transfer of mobile genetic elements between mother and infant microbiomes. This study represents a unique perspective on the co-evolution of the infant gut microbiome and metabolome under the influence of known maternal and dietary factors.
02 AI detects diarrhea by listening to toilet sounds
Engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology recently proposed a design for a "diarrhea detector" that could alert health officials to outbreaks of diseases such as cholera . In the future, AI could even be used with home smart devices to monitor a person's gut health. The prototype accurately identified diarrhea 98 percent of the time in tests, engineers said at the Acoustical Society of America conference in Nashville. Even with background noise, it was correct 96% of the time.
researchers collected 350 publicly available audio samples of bathroom sounds from YouTube and Soundsnap. Some clips have up to 10 hours of diarrhea noise. The sounds of defecation, urination, gas and diarrhea are converted into spectrogram images. A computer analyzed these images for about 10 hours using " convolutional neural network ". The software taught itself, through trial and error, how to identify subtle similarities between spectrograms of diarrhea and how they differed from other toilet sounds.
researchers have yet to determine how many such devices are needed to reach a community, or where they would ideally be placed.
03 Integrative Life Network Acquires
Treatment Center Shadow Mountain
December 27 Integrative Life Network (ILN), recognized as the nation’s premier group of treatment programs centered on trauma, mental health, substance use and intimacy disorders, is expanding with the new acquisition of treatment center Shadow Mountain in , New Mexico. Shadow Mountain Recovery Programs provides substance use disorder treatment throughout New Mexico, including detox, gender-specific residential programs, intensive outpatient, and outpatient services.
"ILN is committed to providing the best trauma-centered care, and this partnership with Shadow Mountain will allow us to expand our services. With the natural landscape of the Southwest, it is a spiritual healing environment where clients can safely explore patterns that no longer serve them to find lasting recovery," said Christi Cessna, CEO of Integrative Life Network. ”
04 FDA Approves trial of MindRAnk drug candidate
to treat obesity and diabetes
On December 26, Hangzhou AI drug discovery company MindRAnk announced that the FDA has approved the IND application for the company’s investigational new drug MDR-001, an oral small molecule glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist (GLP-1). RA), respectively for the treatment of obesity and 2 diabetes, MindRank expects to initiate a Phase I safety study of
on Mindrank's proprietary artificial intelligence drug discovery platform Molecule. Empowered by Pro™, the company obtained IND approval in just 19 months since the launch of the MDR-001 project.Preclinical candidate compounds were discovered by synthesizing and testing less than 100 compounds.
"By facilitating the design of novel small molecule drugs with desired drug-like properties, we believe our artificial intelligence platform can significantly improve preclinical R&D efficiency. MDR-001's FDA IND approval is a strong validation of the potential of our artificial intelligence platform." commented Niu Zhangming, CEO of MindRank. This heralds MindRank's transition from discovery to clinical-stage artificial intelligence biotech companies.
05 Gilead acquires all remaining rights to GS-1811 from Jounce Therapeutics
On December 27, Gilead and Jounce Therapeutics amended their existing GS-1811 license agreement to enable Gilead to buy out the remaining contingent payments that may be due under the license agreement signed in August 2020. As part of the transaction, certain operational obligations of the parties related to the anti-CCR8 antibody GS-1811 specified in the license agreement have also been terminated. Under the transaction agreement, Gilead will acquire certain relevant intellectual property, including all outstanding rights to GS-1811 from Jounce. GS-1811 is a potentially first-in-class immunotherapy.
"We are pleased to announce this transaction with Gilead, which has a proven track record of developing and successfully commercializing leading brands in biotechnology," said Dr. Richard Murray, CEO and President of Jounce. "This transaction allows us to expand our runway and remain focused on delivering meaningful and durable benefits to cancer patients. Given the challenges faced by biotech companies in the capital markets, it is important for Jounce to strengthen our cash resources at this time."
Jounce will receive $67 million from the transaction, and Gilead will have full responsibility for all further research, development and commercialization of GS-1811 globally.
finishing | Feng Lixiao
typesetting | Feng Lixiao
End
