The MATCHMAKERS team will embark on an ambitious research program to revolutionize TCR-pMHC pair prediction. Central to their approach is the integration of sequence and structure datasets, leveraging the group’s unique experience to merge these approaches into a unified pipeline. The team will curate new sequence and structure datasets scaled for advanced machine learning algorithms, develop novel experimental methods for data acquisition, and devise computational strategies addressing the nuances of TCR-pMHC binding and structure. The international and interdisciplinary group of investigators will combine data collected from natural TCR repertoires, datasets generated through molecular engineering strategies, structural and biochemical analysis, and the latest advances in artificial intelligence-based predictions and machine learning. Learn more
HARTFORD — Hartford HealthCare is launching a new center dedicated to using artificial intelligence in healthcare, which officials said is the first in New England and one of a few in the United States.
The goal of using AI in a hospital system is to create more equitable and affordable healthcare, Jeffrey Flaks, president and chief executive officer of Hartford HealthCare, said at a press conference announcing the launch this week.
"Artificial intelligence is ubiquitous in healthcare," Flaks said. "It has the potential to impact all aspects of our operations, but our focus is to make healthcare more accessible, more affordable, to make it more equitable and to make it better."
Some of the research initiatives using AI include predicting COVID-19 spikes, how long someone might stay at the hospital, how a patient's condition might worsen, if a secondary stroke might happen and the outcomes of different surgeries. It can also be used in scheduling to make the hospital more efficient, officials said.
The Center for AI Innovation in Healthcare comes from a nearly decade-long, ongoing international collaboration between Hartford HealthCare, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Oxford.
"To advance ourselves from being one of the earliest early adapters, to now being a co-developer, inventor and creator, and to be a pioneer in artificial intelligence, gives us the opportunity to truly impact how we deliver healthcare," Flaks said.
Through the collaborations, Hartford HealthCare Innovation developed Holistic Hospital Optimization, nicknamed H2O, which uses AI to help make hospital operations more efficient, including scheduling staff and operating rooms, as well as predicting how long a patient will stay, officials said.
The AI system follows a Holistic AI in Medicine framework, Dimitris Bertsimas, associate dean of analytics at MIT-Sloan, said at the press conference. It analyzes data hospitals collect, such as tabular data and images, which can then be applied "in a real-world environment in high-quality healthcare."
Flaks said that by minimizing administrative tasks, the medical staff can feel supported and have their attention be on patients.
Learn more
BOSTON, MA; Feb.12, 2024 — The award-winning PBS science series, NOVA, a production of GBH, will premiere the one-hour film “A.I. REVOLUTION” Wednesday, March 27 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on PBS. Can we harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems without creating an uncontrollable force that ultimately destroys us? New A.I. tools like ChatGPT can now answer complex questions, write essays, and generate realistic-looking images in a matter of seconds. In “A.I. REVOLUTION,” which will also be available for streaming at pbs.org/nova, NOVA on YouTube, and the PBS App, correspondent Miles O’Brien meets some of the scientists who are at the forefront of A.I. advancement and explores the promise, perils, and possible future of this unprecedented technology taking the world by storm.
Beyond drug discovery and prosthetics, the film explores several other ways that A.I. is transforming science. Computer scientist Regina Barzilay at Massachusetts General Hospital has trained a neural network to detect breast cancer from mammograms years before they are detectable by human eyes with over 85% accuracy. A.I. is also being used to help detect lung cancer. Lives are even being saved from natural disasters, as A.I. is now being deployed in California to detect wildfires early before they rage out of control. Learn more
Jim Collins is one of the leading biomedical engineers in the world. He’s been elected to all 3 National Academies (Engineering, Science, and Medicine) and is one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology. In this conversation, we reviewed the seminal discoveries that he and his colleagues are making at the Antibiotics-AI Project at MIT. Learn more
AI applications for health care should be designed to function well in different settings and across different populations, says Marzyeh Ghassemi, PhD (Video), whose work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) focuses on creating “healthy” machine learning (ML) models that are “robust, private, and fair.” The way AI-generated clinical advice is presented to physicians is also important for reducing harms, according to Ghassemi, who is an assistant professor at MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science. And, she says, developers should be aware that they have a responsibility to clinicians and patients who could one day be affected by their tools. Learn more
What is the likelihood of dying in a plane crash? According to a 2022 report released by the International Air Transport Association, the industry fatality risk is 0.11. In other words, on average, a person would need to take a flight every day for 25,214 years to have a 100 percent chance of experiencing a fatal accident. Long touted as one of the safest modes of transportation, the highly regulated aviation industry has MIT scientists thinking that it may hold the key to regulating artificial intelligence in health care.
Marzyeh Ghassemi, an assistant professor at the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Institute of Medical Engineering Sciences, and Julie Shah, an H.N. Slater Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, share an interest in the challenges of transparency in AI models. After chatting in early 2023, they realized that aviation could serve as a model to ensure that marginalized patients are not harmed by biased AI models. Learn more
Casey is taking his newsletter Platformer off Substack, as criticism over the company’s handling of pro-Nazi content grows. Then, The Wall Street Journal spoke with witnesses who said that Elon Musk had used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, worrying some directors and board members of his companies. And finally, how researchers found a new class of antibiotics with the help of an artificial intelligence algorithm used to win the board game Go.
Today’s guests:
Kirsten Grind, enterprise reporter for The Wall Street Journal
Felix Wong, postdoctoral fellow at M.I.T. and co-founder of Integrated Biosciences
Additional Reading:
Why Platformer is leaving Substack.
Elon Musk has reportedly used illegal drugs, worrying leaders at Tesla and SpaceX.
Researchers have discovered a new class of antibiotics using A.I. Learn more
January 10, 2024, Mt. Laurel, NJ — The Society For Biomaterials (SFB), a multidisciplinary society of academic, healthcare, governmental and business professionals who are dedicated to promoting advancements in all aspects of biomaterials science, education, and professional standards to enhance human health and quality of life, recently announced its slate of 2024 award recipients. Learn more
The use of AI in consumer-facing businesses is on the rise — as is the concern for how best to govern the technology over the long-term. Pressure to better govern AI is only growing with the Biden administration’s recent executive order that mandated new measurement protocols for the development and use of advanced AI systems. Learn more
Why it matters: the world is in urgent need of new ideas and inspiration to address chronic and infectious diseases, climate change, energy demands and other complex and consequential problems.
Here are some of the biggest discoveries and advances of 2023...
AI-assisted discovery: The push to use AI for science notched some advances in 2023 — including solving a famous math problem, finding a new class of antibiotics and predicting the structure of nearly 400,000 possible new materials, which are needed for next-generation batteries, solar cells and computing. Learn more
