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šŸ§¬ AlphaProteo, next big step toward targeted cancer cures?

ALSO: Spotify founder wants to democratize full-body scans, Google and Salcit team up to detect diseases through sound, AI-enabled stethoscope doubles heart failure detection in pregnant women

Hey!

AI is no longer just predicting diseasesā€”itā€™s starting to create treatments. Google DeepMindā€™s just released AlphaProteo , an AI system that designs proteins to fight cancer and prevent COVID-19.

Letā€™s dive in!

Victor

TODAYā€™S MENU

  • AlphaProteo: DeepMindā€™s Next Big Step Toward Targeted Cancer Cures

  • Spotify Founder, Daniel Ek, Wants To Democratize Full-Body Scans

  • Google and Salcit Team Up to Detect Diseases Through Sound

  • Are AI Medical Notes Safe?

  • AI-Enabled Stethoscope Doubles Heart Failure Detection in Pregnant Women

  • Everything Else You Should Know this Week

    ā€Ž

    Read time: under 6 minutes

FUTURE IS NOW

Animated illustration of AlphaProteoā€™s predicted protein binder (blue) interacting with a target protein (yellow), specifically the SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain

Scientists have long struggled with understanding protein folding, a key process for cellular function. While DeepMindā€™s AlphaFold solved the challenge of predicting protein structures, AlphaProteo takes it a step further: this new AI creates entirely new proteins that can bind to specific target molecules, offering potential breakthroughs in drug discovery and cancer research.

Key Insights:

  • AlphaProteo generates protein binders that can attach to target molecules, such as VEGF-A, linked to cancer and diabetes.

  • It outperforms existing methods by 3 to 300 times in binding strength and success rate, significantly reducing the need for experimental optimization.

  • Independent tests showed AlphaProteo-designed proteins could block SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) from infecting cells, potentially reducing years of lab work to just days or weeks.

Why It Matters: Despite challenges with highly complex targets, AlphaProteo brings a fresh perspective to medical research. It offers the potential to block viruses, fight cancer, and enable more targeted treatments with fewer side effects. This breakthrough could dramatically accelerate drug discovery, saving billions in R&D costs and bringing life-saving treatments to patients faster.

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BIOTECH

Credit: Neko Health

Frustrated by inefficiencies in the healthcare system, Spotifyā€™s Daniel Ek turned his focus to preventative health and co-founded Neko Health with Hjalmar Nilsonne. The Swedish startup offers AI-powered full-body scans designed to detect early signs of cardiovascular, metabolic, and skin conditions, aiming to revolutionize disease prevention.

Key Details:

  • For Ā£299, Neko provides a full-body scan using 70 sensors that generate millions of data points to assess cardiovascular, metabolic, and other health risks.

  • In Stockholm, 2,707 patients have been scanned so far, with 14% requiring further medical treatment, and 1% discovering life-threatening conditions they were previously unaware of.

  • The service includes an in-person consultation with a doctor to discuss the findings.

  • Neko Health is expanding to London, marking its first move outside Sweden, with a growing waitlist of 20,000 people.

Why It Matters: By focusing on early detection, Neko Health is shifting healthcare from reactive treatment to proactive prevention. This approach could reduce long-term healthcare costs and improve patient outcomes by identifying issues before they become serious.

AI DIAGNOSIS

Credit: Google

Google is advancing healthcare AI with a novel approach that uses sound signals to detect early signs of diseases, such as tuberculosis.

Key Details:

  • Google trained its AI model, HeAR (Health Acoustic Representations), on 300 million audio samples, including sounds from TB screenings and YouTube videos.

  • Partnering with Salcit Technologies in India, Google aims to bring this tool to smartphones, enabling disease screening in remote areas with limited healthcare access.

  • The AI detects early signs of respiratory issues, including tuberculosis, potentially transforming diagnostics in underserved regions.

Why It Matters: Tuberculosis causes 4,500 deaths daily, with millions of cases going undiagnosed. By using smartphone microphones and AI, Googleā€™s solution could provide early detection and life-saving interventions, especially in high-risk communities.

OPINION

More and more physicians are using AI-powered voice-to-text applications to instantly transform patient conversations into medical records. The process seems simple: record the discussion, let the AI generate the notes, and check if itā€™s ready to be accepted. But what does this mean for patient privacy?

AI is evolving rapidly in healthcare, and while its benefits are clearā€”efficiency, reduced clinician workload, and better record-keepingā€”questions around privacy, consent, and accuracy remain. Should patients be asked for their consent before AI is used in their medical notes? How secure is this data, and who can access it? Can clinicians trust AI-generated summaries, or will over-reliance lead to mistakes?

These are just a few of the important concerns this article exploresā€¦

AI SAVES LIVES

A Mayo Clinic study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress revealed that an AI-powered digital stethoscope helped doctors identify heart failure during pregnancy twice as often compared to traditional care. This condition, peripartum cardiomyopathy, can be life-threatening if untreated.

Key Details:

  • The study, conducted in Nigeria, showed AI tools were 12 times more likely to detect heart failure with an ejection fraction lower than 45%, a key indicator of peripartum cardiomyopathy.

  • Nearly 1,200 participants were screened using either traditional obstetric care or AI-enhanced tools like the digital stethoscope and 12-lead ECG.

  • The AI-based screening identified weak heart function with high accuracy, flagging twice as many cases of heart failure.

Why It Matters: Heart failure during pregnancy is often under-diagnosed, leading to serious health risks. AI-powered tools like this digital stethoscope offer earlier detection and intervention, which could save lives, especially in underserved regions.

Recommended Newsletter

Must-Read AI Healthcare News This Week

Premium AI: OpenAI considers charging up to $2,000 per month for access to its new most advanced models, ā€œStrawberryā€ and ā€œOrionā€.

AI Scientist: Sakana AI raised $100M in Series A funding and announced a collaboration with Nvidia to advance AI research and infrastructure in Japan.

Neurology: The FDA approved Rebrainā€™s OptimMRI software update, which includes a new AI model to help target brain regions for treating Parkinsonā€™s disease.

Pathology: Stanford Medicine develops nuclei.io, a customizable AI tool that helps pathologists identify diseased cells more quickly and accurately, reducing diagnosis time for conditions like cancer and endometritis by over 60%.

Oncology: Researchers have created 3D mini-tumors that mimic human cancers, improving drug testing accuracy and advancing personalized cancer treatments.

Biology: EPFL researchers develop RENAISSANCE, an AI-based tool that simplifies the creation of kinetic models, offering accurate depictions of cellular metabolism and advancing research in health and biotechnology.

AI Diagnosis: WSU develops an AI tool that analyzes hair characteristics for health diagnostics, offering applications in forensics, product testing, and disease detection by assessing hairā€™s condition and composition.

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