Cambridge, MA, October 28, 2024 –Insilico Medicine (“Insilico”), a clinical-stage generative artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biotechnology company, announces the appointment of Carol Satler, M.D., PhD, as Vice President for Non-oncology programs Clinical Development. Based in Boston, U.S., Dr. Satler will report directly to Sujata Rao, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Insilico Medicine. In her new role, Dr. Satler will play a pivotal role in the further clinical validation of Insilico’s leading program ISM001-055 — the first-in-class treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis developed with the support of Insilico’s Pharma.AI platform. Additionally, she will be responsible for high-level strategic planning and clinical study protocol design for Insilico's diversified AI-driven portfolio, overseeing the preparation and execution of clinical validation for the company's non-oncology assets.

“Out of meat, how do you get thought? That’s the grandest question.” So said philosopher Patricia Churchland to Robert Lawrence Kuhn, the producer and host of the acclaimed PBS program, Closer to Truth. Now Kuhn, a member of FQxI’s scientific advisory council, has published a taxonomy of proposed solutions to, and theories regarding, the hard problem of consciousness. Kuhn produced the organizing framework for these diverse theories of consciousness in order to explore their impact on “ultimate questions,” such as meaning, purpose and value (if any), AI consciousness, virtual immortality, survival beyond death, and free will. His 175,000-word ‘landscape of consciousness’ was published in the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology in its August 2024 issue.

Lower cooling requirements, longer operating times, lower error rates: Quantum computers based on spin photons and diamond promise significant advantages over competing quantum computing technologies. The consortium of the BMBF project SPINNING coordinated by Fraunhofer IAF has succeeded in decisively advancing the development of spin-photon-based quantum computers. On October 22 and 23, 2024, the partners presented the interim project results at the mid-term meeting of the BMBF funding measure Quantum Computer Demonstration Setups in Berlin.

Researchers are trying to overcome the ephemeral nature of peptides, which might otherwise be powerful medicine. A University of Virginia team has found one approach.

Researchers from Japan developed a new binarized neural network (BNN) scheme using ternary gradients to address the computational challenges of IoT edge devices. They introduced a magnetic RAM-based computing-in-memory architecture, significantly reducing circuit size and power consumption. Their design achieved near-identical accuracy and faster training times compared to traditional BNNs, making it a promising solution for efficient AI implementation in resource-limited devices, such as those used in IoT systems.

A team of researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), led by Professors LEI Jiuhou, ZHU Baoyou, and Associate Professor LIU Feifan, has made significant strides in understanding the mechanisms behind corona discharges at thunderstorm cloud tops, a phenomenon that plays a critical role in the Earth's atmospheric chemistry. Their findings, published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications on August 26, introduce a new conceptual model that could reshape our understanding of these high-altitude electrical discharges.

A recent study has introduced a refined approach to improve predictions of permafrost thaw in High Mountain Asia (HMA). This research, led by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, leverages “constrained projections” to provide more accurate estimates of permafrost loss by reducing overestimations that have plagued the latest climate models.