Calum MacRae

The intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and biotechnology holds immense promise for advancing healthcare, from drug discovery and personalized medicine to improving diagnostics and patient care. AI can analyze vast amounts of biological data more quickly and accurately than humans, leading to insights that can accelerate medical breakthroughs. Biotech, on the other hand, provides the tools and techniques to manipulate biological systems, such as gene editing and synthetic biology, which AI can enhance through predictive modeling and optimization. Together, AI and biotech can revolutionize drug development by streamlining the identification of potential drug candidates, predicting their efficacy and safety profiles, and optimizing treatment regimens for individual patients. In diagnostics, AI algorithms can analyze medical images, genetic data, and other biomarkers to improve disease detection and diagnosis accuracy. Additionally, AI-powered wearable devices and remote monitoring systems can provide real-time health insights, enabling early intervention and preventive care. However, this convergence also raises ethical, regulatory, and privacy concerns, particularly regarding the responsible use of patient data, the potential for algorithmic biases, and the implications of gene editing technologies. It's essential for stakeholders in both fields to collaborate closely to ensure that AI-driven biotech innovations prioritize patient safety, equity, and ethical considerations while maximizing their transformative potential in healthcare. #AI #Biotech #drugdevelopment #Data #HIT #predictivemodeling #machinelearning #healthcare #Informatics #ecosystems

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📢New article alert from the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research:   Title: Adverse event costs of systemic therapies for metastatic colorectal cancer previously treated with fluoropyrimidine-, oxaliplatin- and irinotecan-based chemotherapy and biologics in the US   New research from Hernandez et al. compares adverse event management costs for fruquintinib, regorafenib, trifluridine/tipiracil (T/T), and T/T+bevacizumab for metastatic colorectal cancer patients previously treated with at least two prior lines of therapy. The article provides valuable insights for treatment, formulary and pathway decisions.   Authors: Victoria Federico Paly, N. Arvind Dasari, Joleen Hubbard, Tanios Bekaii-Saab, Thihan P. & Luis Hernandez Takeda Oncology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic   #Oncology #HealthEconomics #mCRC #PharmaResearch #OpenAccess   Link in the comments!

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In this new video, Laura Dormer, Editor of The Evidence Base®, speaks with Qianyi Zhang, Senior Research Scientist, Flatiron Health about the poster, “Evaluation of real-world response rate in clinical trial-aligned cohorts of patients with lung, colorectal, and breast cancer using machine learning,” presented at ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research 2024 (May 6–8, 2024; Atlanta, GA, USA). #heor #healtheconomics #outcomesresearch #rwe #rwd #realworldevidence #realworlddata #healthdata #AI #artificialintelligence #machinelearning #lungcancer #breastcancer #colorectalcancer #oncology #clinicaltrials

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New findings on high-risk Epstein-Barr virus lineage associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, a prevalent cancer affecting Southern Chinese. Will be of interest to researchers of oncogenic virus and physicians studying this disease in other endemic populations. "Two genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in South China have revealed different risk loci in EBER region and BALF2 gene of EBV, respectively. More EBV genomes isolated from healthy donors and NPC biopsies are included in this study. The meta-analysis of EBV genomes derived from 279 NPC cases and 227 healthy controls identifies a risk haplotype of EBV comprising of multiple genetic variants having strong linkage disequilibrium with each other. Furthermore, a high risk lineage of EBV characterized by 9 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is found to be enriched in NPC of South China. The risk haplotype of EBV will be useful for downstream studies of disease mechanisms and the high risk EBV lineage may be included in screening protocol for early detection of NPC in the population." #EBV #epsteinbarrvirus #NPC #genomics #genomewideassociation #haplotype #metaanalysis 

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🚀✨ Breakthrough in Cholesterol Management! ✨🚀 Mount Sinai researchers have unveiled a game-changer in the fight against mixed hyperlipidemia! 🧬💉 Introducing zodasiran, an RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapy that significantly lowers cholesterol and triglycerides. 🌟 Know More: https://bit.ly/453WuuA Dr. Robert Rosenson, lead author, highlights the potential of zodasiran: "This investigational drug could transform treatment for patients with persistent high cholesterol, offering more durable results with less frequent dosing compared to conventional therapies."💪❤️ The future of cholesterol management is here. Let's aim for healthier hearts with cutting-edge science! 🌐🧡 Credit: NEJM Catalyst #bloodCholesterol #Cardiology #RNAiTherapy #HeartHealth #Zodasiran #Hyperlipidemia #meded #eMedEvents

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Last week’s bipartisan action by 15 senators in support of Medicare beneficiary access to Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) scans could have a potentially positive impact for accessibility of therapies for neurodegenerative disease, including Alzheimer’s. These technologies are critical for precision diagnosis, preventing patients who don’t qualify based on biology from being exposed to treatment unnecessarily, and ensuring patients who do qualify have access to treatment. This is a very encouraging development an estimated 6.9 million Americans 65+ were living with Alzheimer's in 2024, which is about 1 in 9 in that age group, according to Alzheimer's Association®. https://lnkd.in/e3tQb6es

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🌟 Exciting Announcement 🌟 Don't miss Dr. Judy Lieberman's groundbreaking talk on "Immune Editing: How Tumors Evade Immune Surveillance" at Boston Children's Hospital. Join this interesting talk on April 26th to explore new insights into cancer immunology: During early tumorigenesis tumors edit their gene expression to evade immune surveillance. Because of difficulty capturing early tumors, studies of tumor immunoediting have to date mostly investigated changes in expression of candidate genes involved in activating adaptive immunity, such as those needed for antigen presentation and processing. I will describe a study we did using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) in a genetically engineered mouse model (GEMM) of aggressive breast cancer to identify tumor edited genes without bias. Comparison of early and late tumors identified repressed genes involved in innate immune defense in the tumor, changes in infiltrating immune cells and in tumor-immune cell communication. Genes participating in immune signaling, especially innate immune defenses involving Type I and II interferons (IFN) and interferon stimulated genes (ISG) dominated the genes repressed in the tumor. The data captured the evolution of immune cell exhaustion in early tumorigenesis. Naïve and activated CD8 T cells in early tumors were replaced with CD8 T cells that had reduced expression of activation and effector proteins, chemokines and adhesion molecules and increased expression of multiple checkpoint inhibitors, characteristics of cells that were exhausted or becoming exhausted. Communication between the tumor and infiltrating lymphocytes was strongly reduced in late tumors. Thus, tumor editing during early tumorigenesis focuses on tumor cell immune editing to make the tumor invisible to the immune system, more than on increasing its intrinsic proliferative capacity. Date: April 26 Time: 12:00 PM–1:00 PM Venue: Amphitheater, 1st Floor, J.A.-DeSève Pavilion Open invitation by Dr. Christopher Rudd. All are welcome! #Research #Cancer #TumorImmunology #Science #Seminar

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Dual seropositivity and shared epitopes in RA: friends or foes? Dual seropositivity, RF and/or anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) as well as shared epitope (SE) are known to be associated with poor prognosis and structural damage in RA.

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Hot off the press from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting 🔥 Does non-alcoholic fatty liver disease increase the risk for pancreatic cancer? This study says yes! After propensity score matching for confounding variables, the 5-year risk of developing PC was higher in NAFLD cohort (risk ratio, RR 2.18, 95% CI 1.56-3.03) compared with the control group. Overall, 5-year mortality was higher in the NAFLD cohort (8.2% vs 6.6%, RR 1.25, 95% CI 1.16-1.37). #pancreas #asco24

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What are the most pressing questions in lung cancer? In this video interview from the Oncology Brothers Advancements in Oncology event, moderated by Rahul Gosain, MD, MBA, and Rohit Gosain, MD, lung cancer panelist Rami Manochakian, MD, FASCO, shares his insights on key questions and the research that could answer them. Watch now: https://lnkd.in/g266vGJd #lcsm

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#TBT to this interesting conversation with Rutgers Cancer Institute & RWJBarnabas Health 's Dr. Saum Ghodoussipour and Andrew M. Evens, DO, MBA, MSc about his #OncologyResearch in #kidney sparing surgery as well as radical #cystectomy with urinary diversion.

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A U.K. team has analyzed whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data on 10,478 patients spanning 35 cancer types recruited to the U.K.’s 100,000 Genomes Project. They identified 330 candidate driver genes, including 74 that are new to any cancer. This study, they write, is one of the most comprehensive efforts to date to “…identify cancer driver genes in the real world setting and assess their impact on informing precision oncology.” Their research was published in Nature Genetics, June 19. The first author is Ben Kinnersley, PhD, the University College London Cancer Institute. The growth in the number of drug targetable genes has highlighted the limitations of single-analyte genomic assays in cancer. The now modest incremental cost of adding additional cancer genes to high-throughput sequencing-based panels has, in turn, made the development of drugs targeting increasingly smaller subsets of molecularly defined patients with cancer financially and logistically feasible. The U.K’.s 100,000 Genomes Project (100kGP), aims to deliver precision oncology through WGS to National Health Service (NHS) patients as part of their routine care. #cancer #precisionOncology

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Swap or Cycle? Study OP0081 show after failure to a first TNFi in patients with axSpA, the drug retention rate was higher in the cycle strategy compared to the swap (IL-17i) strategy. No difference in the disease activity between cycle and swap strategy #EULAR2024

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Great study profiling your immune status and response to immune checkpoint inhibition.

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Journal Of Clinical Practice And Medical Case Report  publishes original, uncommon, educationally valuable and challenging case reports in all aspects of clinical medicine. Submission open for upcoming issue Access our journal here: https://lnkd.in/eTEFAUcE Submit Manuscript online: https://lnkd.in/eeS-X_yV #clinicalstudy #clinicalpractice #CardiovascularMedicine #Ophthalmology #Hepatology #openaccess

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An odd 170 institutes coming together to put this paper together; by conducting large trans-ancestry fine-mapping analyses of all currently known CRC risk regions, using GWAS data from 100,204 CRC cases and 154,587 controls of East Asian and European ancestry, to identify independent association signals and their target genes for CRC risk. Impressive data for identifying identified 238 independent association signals either from trans-ancestry or ancestry-specific analysis at 142 regions, involving 136 putative CRC susceptibility genes, including 56 genes that had not been previously reported. What is more important is that approximately 90% of GWAS-identified risk variants for CRC are located in noncoding or intergenic regions. The relative risk of CRC development seems to be more in European population than in Asian. https://lnkd.in/dE7nFDKn #GWAS #CRC #risk #Genes #Mapping #CCVs

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Our latest paper in collaboration with James Kobie and Mark Walter at UAB, and David Ho at Columbia on a broadly and potent neutralizing antibody against all SARS-CoV-2 variants: https://lnkd.in/gZFTHmBe

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Novel loci for blood pressure in African-ancestry populations found. Precision medicine where are we? The overall prevalence of hypertension in the USA according to updated guidelines is 45.4%, corresponding to an estimated 108 million individuals. The prevalence of hypertension is even very high when we look at Non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks (57.1%) than non-Hispanic white (43.6%) or Hispanic (43.7%) adults. Blood pressure traits are highly heritable across world populations about 30% to 55%. Thus, there is a need to study susceptible populations for genetic determinants of blood pressure. Despite these advancements, there is still a paucity of studies focused on individuals of African descent. 21 genome-wide association studies were analyzed. Analysis comprised of 31,968 individuals of African and African Americans to identify genes conferring susceptibility to increased blood pressure. This was validated against an additional 54,395 individuals from multi-ethnic studies. Nine loci with eleven independent variants were identified for either systolic and diastolic blood pressure, hypertension, or for combined traits. Three loci have been identified for blood pressure. Two loci (TARID/TCF21 and LLPH/TMBIM4) were identified using Single-trait analysis and one novel locus (FRMD3) through multiple-trait analysis. At these three loci were associated with variants having alleles common only in African-ancestry populations. These three novel genomic regions associated with blood pressure have not been reported in the literature before. Emerging research data on Africans living in more westernized societies show increasing prevalence of hypertension in their new communities which are now very different from the African communities they originally come from. It is important to study African-ancestry populations so as to identify biological factors contributing to unique nature hypertension affect people of African descent. Genomics-driven drug discovery is very promising. There are benefits of using genetic data to guide drug target validation and used to identify drug targets associated with disease endpoints. Read more about the article here: https://lnkd.in/ebhbNZXZ Follow for more!!!!! #clinicaltrials #representationmatters #precisionmedicine #diversityandinclusion #building #innovation

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