#5 | Growing Baboon Bladder Tissue From Bone Marrow

Quote of the Week 💬 

A Baboon’s Bladder Tissue Was Grown From Its Own Bone Marrow

⌛ The Seven Second Summary: A team of researchers from Lurie Children’s Research Institute and Northwestern University successfully regenerated fully functional bladder tissue in four different baboons by using stem cells from the animals’ own bone marrow.

🔬 How It Was Done:

• The study lasted for two years and involved baboons whose damaged bladder tissue was regenerated using three different groups of stem cells in each baboon’s body.

• Two groups, each consisting of five baboons, followed traditional methods and used stem cells from various parts of the baboons' stomachs and intestines. The third group, consisting of four baboons, followed a new method and used stem cells from the baboons' bone marrow.

• Each baboon underwent periodic clinical evaluations to monitor and compare their bladder health and recovery progress over time with one another.

🧮 Key Results:

• By the end of the two years, none of the four baboons who received bone marrow stem cells showed complications or signs of bladder dysfunction.

• In contrast, the two groups of baboons who received different stomach and intestinal stem cells each had at least one baboon demonstrate irregularities and fewer signs of recovery.

💡 Why This May Matter: The two-year functional success of the baboons’ regenerated tissues suggests both durability and stability when using bone marrow stem cells for bladder repair. If similar results can be translated to humans, this approach may provide a more effective treatment option for patients, and bring us one step closer to a future of hyper-personalized medical care.

🔎 Elements To Consider: While baboons are more similar to humans than mice and other animals typically used in laboratory environments, we are still different species and our bodies may not respond the same way in human clinical trials.

🧵 Thematic Thread: While it is certainly possible this stem cell method may not be as effective in humans, each step brings us closer to revealing how we can unlock our body’s full regenerative potential.

📚 Learn More: EurekAlert!. PNAS Nexus. 

Stat of the Week 📊 

Phase 3 Trial Reduces Risk Of Death In A Type Of Kidney Cancer

38%

⌛ The Seven Second Summary: Merck recently shared results from the Phase III clinical trial of its therapy for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common type of kidney cancer. The therapy demonstrated improved overall survival compared to a placebo in patients at intermediate-high or high risk of cancer recurrence.

🔬 How It Was Done:

• The study was designed as a randomized, double-blind trial involving 994 patients who underwent kidney removal surgery for cancer treatment.

• Patients were evenly assigned to receive either Merck’s Keytruda therapy or a placebo over the course of the study.

🧮 Key Results:

• The median follow-up for participating patients was 57.2 months. At the time of follow-up, Merck’s Keytruda therapy significantly improved patient overall survival by 38% compared to the placebo.

• Furthermore, the Keytruda therapy reduced the risk of disease recurrence or death in patients by 28% compared to the placebo.

💡 Why This May Matter: According to Dr. Toni Choueiri, the Director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, this is the first time a Phase III trial has improved survival rates for RCC patients at risk of cancer recurrence after kidney surgery. This reinforces existing data suggesting this treatment is a potential breakthrough in RCC cancer care, which is significant because about 9 out of every 10 kidney cancers are RCC.

🔎 Elements To Consider: While no treatment-related deaths occurred during this trial, the Keytruda therapy did result in significantly more severe or life-threatening treatment-related adverse events (18.6%) in patients compared to the placebo (1.2%). However, this was already a known safety risks of the therapy and several countries have already approved Keytruda to treat patients with RCC because of its potential to significantly improve survival rates.

🧵 Thematic Thread: It’s always heartening to see additional evidence from robust studies reveal science has likely achieved a new tool in its arsenal to significantly improve patient outcomes.

📚 Learn More: Merck. Clinical Trials.

AI x Science 🤖

Machine Learning Helps Robot Read Braille Faster Than Humans

Researchers from the University of Cambridge developed a robotic sensor to read Braille at superhuman speeds. The researchers built the device with off-the-shelf sensor and camera equipment, and trained an AI system to perform two machine learning tasks. First, sharpen the focus of blurred images containing Braille characters so the text becomes easy to read. Second, optimize the robot’s computer vision so it can detect and classify each Braille character.

Once these two machine learning models were trained and integrated, the robot was able to read the tactile language by sliding its sensor along rows of Braille characters. When tested, the machine read about 315 words per minute at 87% accuracy, which is twice as fast and about as accurate as a typical human Braille reader.

This device demonstrates how robotic sensory systems can leverage AI to improve their contextual understanding of their environment and the objects they interact with. Check out the video to see it in action! Cambridge. IEEE.

Our Full AI Index

• Research: Cedar-Sinai researchers built a precision medicine and AI model to identify biomarkers and predict pancreatic cancer survival. Cedars-Sinai. Nature. Zenodo.

• Open Source: The Allen Institute for AI has released OLMo a 7 billion parameter open-source large language model. The institute also released the pre-training data, training code and evaluation code they used to build their model. Business Wire. Hugging Face. Github.

• Business: Patronus created a leaderboard on Hugging Face to evaluate the performance of language models on real-world enterprise use cases. The leaderboard is intended to track the models that perform the best at various tasks business enterprises need to perform across, Finance, Legal, Creative Writing, Customer Support Dialogue and elsewhere. The models are measured on performance metrics such as accuracy, engagement, toxicity and relevance. Hugging Face.

• Cultural Events: Organizers of Australia’s prestigious Brisbane Portrait Prize stand by their decision to allow AI generated entries to compete in their portrait competition. The Guardian.

• Policy: last but not least, two policy updates revolving around AI ethics, risks and regulation.

  • The ambassadors of the 27 countries of the European Union unanimously approved the world’s first comprehensive rulebook for Artificial Intelligence. Euractiv.

  • The White House issued an executive order declaring AI developers whose models pose risks to national security need to start reporting "vital information," including safety test results, to the Department of Commerce before releasing their models to the public. White House. 

🧵 Thematic Thread: As robotic systems continue to improve their sensory capabilities, the beauty and intricacy of our complex world will gradually be revealed to them.

Other Observations 📰

A Medical Procedure No Longer In Use May Be Linked To Alzheimer’s Disease Transmission 

A team of researchers from UCL and UCLH shared a study where five cases of Alzheimer’s disease are believed to have arisen from a medical treatment they received decades earlier.

In the past, human growth hormone was extracted from corpses and synthesized into a medical treatment for children who were significantly shorter than average for their age. However, in 1985, this treatment option was outlawed in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere due to the contamination risks of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

Recently, the researchers examined eight individuals who received human growth hormone treatment during childhood. Among them, five developed dementia symptoms and received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, despite experiencing these symptoms at the ages of 38 - 55, and with no known genetic mutations to trigger such symptoms. Consequently, the researchers hypothesize this indicates a potential similarity in disease processes between Alzheimer's and CJD.

The researchers clearly emphasize their study “is no suggestion whatsoever that Alzheimer’s disease can be transmitted between individuals during activities of daily life or routine medical care.”

These findings may direct even more attention and resources in the scientific community toward Alzheimer’s research, since there is now a fundamental question question to answer: is Alzheimer’s a prion disease? Wherever the scientific consensus lands, the inventive studies that will be conducted to answer this question could lead to a host of new treatments to ameliorate and cure this disease. UCL. Nature. 

Our Full Science Index

• Markets: According to Altarum research, the U.S. health care industry expanded by 3.9% in 2023, more than 2.5x faster than all other industries. This was also the fastest annual growth rate of the U.S. health care sector since 1991. Altarum.

• Gene Therapy: In 2021, three patients with a hereditary disorder called angioedema participated in a Phase I clinical study of a specific gene therapy. Following a single dose of the gene therapy, the patients experienced a mean reduction of 95% in their symptoms, and no serious or lasting side effects have emerged in the years since the start of the study. A larger Phase III clinical trial is scheduled to begin later this year. Auckland. NEJM.

• Accessibility: A team of researchers from Mass Eye and Ear developed a navigation smartphone app to provide assistance to those who are blind or visually impaired in finding their bus stop. In a study of 24 individuals, the researchers found their app had a 93% success rate. In contrast, Google Maps had 52% success rate. Eye and Ear. ARVO TVST.

• Energy: China announced its installed solar electric power generation capacity rose by 55.2% in 2023, according to data released by the country’s National Energy Agency. Reuters.

• Space: NASA announced it discovered a “super-Earth” exoplanet just 137 light-years away from our planet. NASA.

• FDA: last week the FDA announced several notable approvals and authorizations in their weekly roundup. Our two personal favorites were the following. FDA. 

  • An artificial heart valve that can be implanted through a delivery mechanism that does not require open-heart surgery. Edwards.

  • A device leveraging AI to create, view and screen for images of cervical cancer. Hologic.

• Public Health: last but not least, here are a couple news of progress in the public health domain.

  • Kala-azar is the second deadliest parasitic disease after malaria. In 2008, India had 33,000 cases of the disease. In 2023, there were just 520 cases, and the WHO announced the country is on the verge of eliminating the disease from its borders. DW. 

  • The UN announced 46% of the global population now lives in a country where there are “best practice” policies in place to manage mass-produced trans fats in the nation’s food systems. Just five years ago the global population coverage was only 6%. UN. 

🧵 Thematic Thread: If Alzheimer’s is proven to be a prion disease, it would be quite the revelation. It may re-shape the trajectory of how the disease is studied, treated and managed in specialized care.

Media of the Week 📸 

Four Legged Robot Is Agile, But Safe!

This four legged robot runs with reckless abandon, and yet is organized and demonstrates great spacial awareness and body control. Watch it maneuver past all kinds of obstacles in its way! arXiv. Github.

JWST Captures Images Of 19 Spiral Galaxies

The James Webb Space Telescope delivers again. NASA just released a ensemble of photos the telescope captured of 19 spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared. Which one is your favorite? NASA.

This Week In The Cosmos 🪐

Feb 9: A new moon. The best time to stargaze!

Until Next Time 💭