Roy Perlis

Scientists from Rockefeller University and Mount Sinai have unveiled a groundbreaking discovery shedding light on addiction. Their findings reveal a newly identified brain pathway that offers crucial insights into the neural processing of rewards and addictive substances. By delving into the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key region involved in reward processing, the researchers discovered how cocaine and morphine activate specific subsets of neurons, leading to distinct behavioral outcomes compared to natural rewards. Moreover, they identified a molecular pathway involving the Rheb gene and the mTOR pathway, which may explain how addictive substances skew natural urges, such as hunger and thirst, by altering neural communication and memory. This research not only deepens our understanding of addiction but also opens new avenues for developing targeted interventions to restore the brain's natural reward processing mechanisms. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/esC6rVna #AddictionResearch #AnimalResearch #LaboratoryAnimalSciences

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The Footprints of IMD series is an effort to move away from thinking about IMD from the perspective of an established diagnosis, but rather place it where it is normally found, within the differential. In this latest episode, Gabriella Horvath explains when a psychiatric illness might herald a metabolic diagnosis and explains which IMDs frequently have associated psychiatric symptoms. Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e7mGs5kq Or wherever you get your podcasts. #psychiatry #psychiatricpresentations #raredisease

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🌟 Thrilled to Share! 🌟 Our latest research is now published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology under the title "Reassessing Long-Term Cryopreservation Strategies for Improved Quality, Safety, and Clinical Use of Allogeneic Dermal Progenitor Cells." 🧬 You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/erXZvjKD In this study, we conducted an in-depth evaluation of five cryopreservation methods for the long-term storage of clinical-grade FE002 primary progenitor fibroblasts, with a focus on optimising preservation under GMP standards. Notably, our results highlight that DMSO-free cryoprotectants, for instance CryoOx, are a promising alternative that maintain high cell viability over extended periods, offering a safer option for future cell-based therapies without compromising effectiveness. These findings underscore the critical need for secure, standardised cryopreservation techniques to enhance the quality and safety of regenerative medicine. A huge thank you and congratulations to all co-authors and collaborators. Together, we're paving the way for safer and more effective regenerative treatments! Marjorie Flahaut Alexis Laurent Zhanfeng Cui Cathy Ye Corinne Scaletta Nathalie Hirt Burri Lee Ann Applegate Viorica Patrulea This research was a joint effort by CHUV | Lausanne university hospital, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford, University of Zurich and University of Oxford Oxford Suzhou Centre for Advanced Research (OSCAR) #RegenerativeMedicine #Cryopreservation #LongTermStorage #CellTherapy #Research

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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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New research from Mass General Brigham shows an AI-powered approach to identifying long COVID cases within patient health records, helping clinicians with diagnosis and potentially revealing a clearer view of the pandemic’s ongoing impact. This new algorithm—developed by Hossein Estiri, PhD, and colleagues—uses a method called “precision phenotyping” to sift through symptoms over time and exclude alternative explanations, providing a nuanced diagnosis for long COVID. “Physicians are often faced with having to wade through a tangled web of symptoms and medical histories, unsure of which threads to pull, while balancing busy caseloads. Having a tool powered by AI that can methodically do it for them could be a game-changer,” said Alaleh Azhir, MD, the co-lead author on the study. Read more about the study published in Med by Cell Press: https://lnkd.in/gqFu5TQB #longcovid #ai #aiinhealthcare #artificialintelligence

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✨ So happy health equity getting the attention it deserves in the latest Journal of Clinical Oncology-CCI issue featuring our publication! ✨ In "Future of Cancer Treatment Guidelines: Integrating Real-World Insights for Equitable Cancer Care," Gregory Calip, PharmD, MPH, PhD and I explore how real-world data (RWD) can bridge critical gaps in cancer treatment guidelines, especially for underrepresented populations. 🩺📊 Key Takeaways: 1️⃣ Bridging Gaps: RWD holds promise for making guidelines more inclusive and applicable, but it requires rigorous methodology. 2️⃣ Guideline Evolution: Integrating real-world evidence can drive more personalized, equitable care in oncology. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eDkakbhE #HealthEquity #Oncology #RealWorldData

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Panos Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD, director of Translational Research in Gynecologic Oncology, is the inaugural incumbent of the Velma Eisenson Chair for Clinical and Translational Research at Dana-Farber. The chair, named in honor of Velma Eisenson, late mother of Institute Trustee Michael Eisenson, who served as chair of the Dana-Farber Campaign, provides critical resources for Konstantinopoulos to continue leading the discovery and development of innovative treatments for BRCA-driven and related malignancies. It will also enhance early detection and interception of BRCA-related cancers and provide ongoing funding for the director of the Mellen and Eisenson Family Center for BRCA and Related Genes. The endowed chair is a gift from Michael and his spouse, Barbara, as part of larger philanthropic support from the Mellen and Eisenson Families for the center’s research priorities and institutional support for Dana-Farber. The gift endows the David Livingston Early Career Investigator Awards, created in 2021 by the Mellen and Eisenson Families, to provide ongoing support for top academic medicine talent at a crucial stage in their careers. "We‘re so grateful to Michael and Barbara Eisenson and the Mellen and Eisenson Families for their unwavering support and the critically important endorsement of our work that this signifies" remarks Konstantinopoulos, who is also an associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and co-leads the Mellen and Eisenson Family Center with Dipanjan Chowdhury, PhD, chief of Radiation and Genome Stability and the Svanberg Family Chair, and Judy Garber, MD, MPH, chief of Cancer Genetics and Prevention and the Susan F. Smith Chair at Dana-Farber. "This tremendous investment in the center will provide critical funding to enable fundamental advances in the detection, prevention, and treatment of patients with BRCA-related tumors and their families. It will also allow us to expand our work to involve more junior investigators and critical equipment, and to expedite our impact on these cancers." Konstantinopoulos is a leading authority in gynecologic oncology, particularly DNA damage and repair and targeted therapies and immunotherapies. He was integral in launching the Center for BRCA and Related Genes in 2020, where he served as the inaugural director. This year, it was renamed the Mellen and Eisenson Family Center for BRCA and Related Genes in recognition of the families’ generosity. Konstantinopoulos’ research has produced valuable data and innovative treatment strategies. He has led important clinical trials that developed biomarkers for therapy response, tackling issues such as drug resistance in gynecologic tumors. He is committed to mentoring students and trainees, particularly those studying gynecologic cancers and coming from underrepresented backgrounds.

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▶️ very reasonable life sciences predictions for 2025 by Mass Gen colleages ⏺️ agreed, beyond the ebbing hype of AI, cell- and gene-based therapies, and therapeutic vaccines we’ll see a lot of incremental developments ⏩️ my favorite therapeutic areas where we’ll see such developments (in this order): 1) Neurosciences, incl Rare/Ultra-Rare 2) Oncology / Hematology 3) Cardiovascular (finally back) 4) Metabolics (tailored GLP-1s etc.) 🆙 this will apply to all interventions with an ongoing shift from drugs to biotech to devices ➡️ yes, difficult to quantify political, or rather policy uncertainty this year, perhaps overrated in anticipation

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“𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙄, 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙙𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙮... 𝙚.𝙜. 𝙞𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚 (𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝘼𝙄) 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙯𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙥𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨, 𝘽𝙐𝙏 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙤 𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙚𝙭𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙥𝙤𝙥𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨 𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨... (𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙚) 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙛𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝 𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙮? 𝙎𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙛𝙪𝙡𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝘼𝙄 𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙗𝙧𝙤𝙖𝙙.” Upon meeting Rob Bart, CMIO at UPMC, I knew how I’d instantly describe him: cerebral and thoughtful. On this week’s episode of The Digital Patient, Dr. Bart made us think really deeply about so many topics: → Why transparency and explainability for AI models is critical - not just for clinical outputs, but administrative, non-clinical outputs as well. E.g. sometimes AI optimization may have unintended impacts on patient access! → The potential for AI to digest the patient record and add way more context to the clinician experience, allowing us to better tackle alert fatigue and for clinical decision support to be more effectively woven into clinical practice → What Dr. Bart learned working at an EHR vendor: making health system <> vendor partnerships more win-win, running in 90 day sprints due to public quarterly earnings, building cross-functional skills across sales, implementation and R&D, and much more. → Converging traditional in-person care with digital care into a single pathway: how should health systems (and especially different clinical areas) think about building the right hybrid approach? → Why the lowest hanging fruit for AI right now is focused on operations and unlocking capacity/efficiency - this is what gets CFOs bought-in. → Why financial ROI isn’t everything, and sometimes health systems “should do it anyways” for healthcare innovation that makes a difference for patients … and much, much more! Link to the episode in the comments below 👇

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A new study into AI technologies in reproductive medicine from Giles Palmer, Omar Paredes, Andrew Drakeley, Alejandro Chavez-Badiola, MD, PhD, Thomas Woolley, Katerina Kaouri, and Jacques Cohen surveyed over 700 ART laboratory professionals around the world to reveal their levels of awareness, adoption and comprehension of AI. As well as directly addressing reproductive scientist’s attitudes towards AI tools, the results also reveal attitudes towards, relationship between AI and women in tech, highlights ongoing debates about data ownership, privacy, and fair compensation in AI, commercial use of data in the field, job security and concepts of data as labor. The results illustrate an interesting milestone in AI within the field, with many respondents poised to implement AI with proper data and training. However, there is also some hesitation at wide-scale enthusiasm while developers provide rigorous proof of enhanced IVF outcomes to justify clinical integration. The full paper is available now as a pre-proof to RBMO subscribers from our in-press articles section now: https://lnkd.in/eUV96Cnm #ReproductionTechnologyAndSociety #IVFLaboratoryStaff #AIEmbryology #Technology #AIethics #AIinTheWorkplace #DataasLabor #WomenandAI

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Read full paper in #Med

IGHS' own Mike Reid and collaborators at PEPFAR talk about the road ahead for PEPFAR in the Lancet. 1) Treatment interruptions risk undoing progress. 2) Empowering nurses, leveraging AI, and new treatments like long-acting options are vital for the future. 3) Focus on youth engagement, mother-to-child prevention, and key populations to reduce new infections. PEPFAR's mission is clear: sustain gains, accelerate progress, and ensure long-term sustainability. The economic benefits are undeniable, echoing the success of smallpox eradication. #PEPFAR #HIV #GlobalHealth #Sustainability #UCSF https://lnkd.in/eRZXsMww

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Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have shed valuable light on the nuanced functions and intricate regulatory methods of #RNA editing, a critical mechanism underlying brain development and disease. In a study published June 26 in Nature Communications, the team reported finding major differences between postmortem and living prefrontal cortex brain tissues as they relate to one of the most abundant RNA modifications in the brain, known as adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) editing. This discovery will play a significant role in shaping the development of diagnostics and therapies for brain diseases. “Until now, the investigation of A-to-I editing and its biological significance in the mammalian brain has been restricted to the analysis of postmortem tissues. By using fresh samples from living individuals, we were able to uncover significant differences in RNA editing activity that previous studies, relying only on postmortem samples, may have overlooked,” said Michael Breen, PhD, co-senior author of the study and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, at Icahn Mount Sinai. “We were particularly surprised to find that RNA editing levels were significantly higher in postmortem brain tissue compared to living tissue, which is likely due to postmortem changes such as inflammation and hypoxia that do not occur in living brains. Additionally, we discovered that RNA editing in living tissue tends to involve evolutionarily conserved and functionally important sites that are also dysregulated in human disease, emphasizing the need to study both living and postmortem samples for a comprehensive understanding of brain biology.” Learn more: https://bit.ly/3Y08dce

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Numerous studies conducted by Dana-Farber researchers show promising results for patients with endometrial, lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. The results of these studies, along with dozens of others led by Dana-Farber faculty, were presented at this year’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting last month in California.   Notable research from Dana-Farber researchers included: Novel ADC and Immunotherapy Combo Shows Promise in Endometrial Cancer Subtype  Rebecca Porter, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist in the Gynecological Oncology Program of the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers, presented results of a small, investigator-initiated phase 2 study of a novel combination of an antibody-drug conjugate and an immune checkpoint inhibitor. Blood Test May Identify Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Subtype Who Can Benefit from Combination Therapy  Pasi Jänne, MD, PhD, senior vice president for Translational Medicine, presented an update to his practice-changing FLAURA2 clinical trial published last year, revealing that patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) marked by a mutation in the EGFR gene fared significantly better when treated with the drug osimertinib plus platinum-based chemotherapy than with osimertinib alone. Exercise Program Can Improve Heart Function in Cancer Survivors  Cami Christopher, MPH, a research scientist in the Department of Medical Oncology, Population Sciences, presented findings suggesting that a moderate to vigorous aerobic and resistance exercise program can improve a key aspect of heart function in survivors of breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer. Study Provides First Large-Scale Look at Genetic Architecture of Prostate Cancer in Sub-Saharan Africa  Timothy Rebbeck, PhD, the Vincent L. Gregory Professor of Cancer Prevention, led the first large-scale genomic analysis of prostate cancer in sub-Saharan Africa which revealed that the genetic architecture of the disease – its basic underpinnings in abnormalities in DNA – is unique to Africa and varies across the continent. In addition, the AACR recognized Rebbeck, Christopher D.M. Fletcher, MD, FRCPath, and Gordon J. Freeman, PhD, with 2024 Scientific Achievement Awards during the Annual Meeting.  More: https://lnkd.in/etk8fwUp

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🎙️Prof. Yelena Janjigian's Inspiring Path in GI Oncology | OncoDaily In the latest episode of OncoDaily, Prof. Yelena Janjigian, a distinguished expert in GI oncology from Weill Cornell and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,  joins host Ravi Karra to discuss her remarkable career and pioneering work in esophageal and gastric cancers. https://lnkd.in/e6tPfBBH #OncoDaily #Oncology #Cancer #Health #Medicine #GICancer #OncologyResearch #Immunotherapy #PancreaticCancer

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