First Ascent Biomedical and Fight Colorectal Cancer Announce Groundbreaking Study to Advance Precision Oncology for Colorectal Cancer Patients
'Fight CRC is committed to empowering patients through innovation,' said Davis. 'This grant underscores our strategic focus on enhancing care through advanced research, particularly for those with limited treatment options.'
The study, set to begin enrollment in April or May 2025, will focus on 25 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. By integrating functional drug testing, genetic analysis, and artificial intelligence, First Ascent's xDRIVE platform will provide oncologists with detailed tumor profiling data and tailored treatment options, aiming to enhance patient outcomes.
Leading the clinical efforts are Hao Xie, MD, PhD, a gastrointestinal cancer specialist and precision medicine expert, and Dr. Boardman, whose work in cancer genetics and early detection has advanced the field of colorectal cancer care. Noah Berlow, PhD, First Ascent's Chief Technology Officer and the study's principal investigator, brings his expertise in AI-driven cancer research to oversee the project. Together, this team is poised to demonstrate the power of rapid, individualized tumor profiling to better understand each patient's unique cancer.
'This collaboration with Fight Colorectal Cancer is another important step in transforming how we approach cancer treatment,' said Jim Foote, founder and chief executive officer, First Ascent Biomedical. 'We are honored to be part of this effort.'
The study is expected to complete enrollment within nine months and will provide actionable data to oncologists for patients requiring advanced treatment options. Patients interested in participating must be seen in Rochester, MN. Information will soon be available on ClinicalTrials.gov.
CONTACT: Savanna Doud Fight Colorectal Cancer 703.548.1225 savanna@fightcrc.orgSign in to access your portfolio
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Fox News
19 hours ago
- Fox News
Paralyzed man speaks and sings with AI brain-computer interface
When someone loses the ability to speak because of a neurological condition like ALS, the impact goes far beyond words. It touches every part of daily life, from sharing a joke with family to simply asking for help. Now, thanks to a team at the University of California, Davis, there's a new brain-computer interface (BCI) system that's opening up real-time, natural conversation for people who can't speak. This technology isn't just about converting thoughts into text. Instead, it translates the brain signals that would normally control the muscles used for speech, allowing users to "talk" and even "sing" through a computer, almost instantly. Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my The heart of this system is four microelectrode arrays, surgically implanted in the part of the brain responsible for producing speech. These tiny devices pick up the neural activity that happens when someone tries to speak. The signals are then fed into an AI-powered decoding model, which converts them into audible speech in just ten milliseconds. That's so fast, it feels as natural as a regular conversation. What's especially remarkable is that the system can recreate the user's own voice, thanks to a voice cloning algorithm trained on recordings made before the onset of ALS. This means the person's digital voice sounds like them, not a generic computer voice. The system even recognizes when the user is trying to sing and can change the pitch to match simple melodies. It can also pick up on vocal nuances, like asking a question, emphasizing a word, or making interjections such as "aah," "ooh," or "hmm." All of this adds up to a much more expressive and human-sounding conversation than previous technologies could offer. The process starts with the participant attempting to speak sentences shown on a screen. As they try to form each word, the electrodes capture the firing patterns of hundreds of neurons. The AI learns to map these patterns to specific sounds, reconstructing speech in real-time. This approach allows for subtle control over speech rhythm and tone, giving the user the ability to interrupt, emphasize, or ask questions just as anyone else would. One of the most striking outcomes from the UC Davis study was that listeners could understand nearly 60 percent of the synthesized words, compared to just four percent without the BCI. The system also handled new, made-up words that weren't part of its training data, showing its flexibility and adaptability. Being able to communicate in real-time, with one's own voice and personality, is a game-changer for people living with paralysis. The UC Davis team points out that this technology allows users to be more included in conversations. They can interrupt, respond quickly, and express themselves with nuance. This is a big shift from earlier systems that only translated brain signals into text, which often led to slow, stilted exchanges that felt more like texting than talking. As David Brandman, the neurosurgeon involved in the study, put it, our voice is a core part of our identity. Losing it is devastating, but this kind of technology offers real hope for restoring that essential part of who we are. While these early results are promising, the researchers are quick to point out that the technology is still in its early stages. So far, it's only been tested with one participant, so more studies are needed to see how well it works for others, including people with different causes of speech loss, like stroke. The BrainGate2 clinical trial at UC Davis Health is continuing to enroll participants to further refine and test the system. Restoring natural, expressive speech to people who have lost their voices is one of the most meaningful advances in brain-computer interface technology. This new system from UC Davis shows that it's possible to bring real-time, personal conversation back into the lives of those affected by paralysis. While there's still work to be done, the progress so far is giving people a chance to reconnect with their loved ones and the world around them in a way that truly feels like their own. As brain-computer interfaces become more advanced, where should we draw the line between enhancing lives and altering the essence of human interaction? Let us know by writing to us at Sign up for my FREE CyberGuy ReportGet my best tech tips, urgent security alerts, and exclusive deals delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, you'll get instant access to my Ultimate Scam Survival Guide - free when you join my Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Vapes Clouds Contain Absolutely Horrifying Chemicals, Scientists Find
If you vape — and especially if it's because you think it's a less harmful alternative to smoking — then we have some really bad news. New research from the University of California, Davis, shows that some popular disposable vapes contain levels of toxic metals so appalling that they exceed traditional cigarettes. And we don't just mean a single cig — we're talking packs of them. The work, published as a study in the journal ACS Central Science, sounds the alarm on the vast amounts of unregulated if not illegal disposable vapes in the US that remain a favorite of teens. "When I first saw the lead concentrations, they were so high I thought our instrument was broken," study coauthor Mark Salazar, a researcher at UC Davis, said in a statement about the work. For their study, the researchers focused on vapes from three popular brands: ELF Bar, Esco Bar, and Flum Pebble. The tests involved activating the vapes and creating between 500 to 1,500 puffs for each one and analyzing the vape clouds. Afterwards, they disassembled the vapes to see where the contaminants were coming from. The findings were immediately alarming. Salazar and his colleagues discovered concentrations of toxic forms of metals like nickel, chromium, and antimony in most of the tested vapes. To quickly sum up what makes these metals bad: the type of nickel the researchers detected can cause lung and nasal cancer; chromium is also considered a carcinogen; and antimony can lead to heart and lung problems when inhaled as a dust and cause vomiting when swallowed. That brings us to lead. Two vapes from Esco Bar were absolutely reeking with it; on average, the devices from this brand emitted more lead in the first 200 puffs than smoking twenty packs of cigarettes. The contamination appears to be caused both by the components of actual vape and the nicotine juice they contain. "We found that these disposable devices have toxins already present in the e-liquid, or they're leaching quite extensively from their components into e-liquids and ultimately transferred to the smoke," Salazar said. Overall, two of the vapes emitted enough nickel and antimony levels to exceed cancer risk limits, the researchers said, while four vapes had nickel and lead emissions severe enough to be considered a risk for causing neurological damage and respiratory diseases. Bear in mind that this is what the researchers found by testing just three of some of the most well-known disposable vape brands. There are hundreds of other brands out there of even murkier origins, most imported from China. And while we're still only beginning to grapple with their health hazards, the findings line up with other research, including a study last year that found elevated uranium and lead levels in the urine of teens who regularly vaped. "Our study highlights the hidden risk of these new and popular disposable electronic cigarettes — with hazardous levels of neurotoxic lead and carcinogenic nickel and antimony — which stresses the need for urgency in enforcement," said senior author Brett Poulin, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Toxicology, in the statement. More on vaping: We Talked to the Inventors of the "Tamagotchi" Vape That Dies If You Stop Puffing

Associated Press
24-06-2025
- Associated Press
Don't let the season go by without making strawberry shortcake
On a recent visit to see my son at the University of California, Davis, I wandered into a lab at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science … as one does. A bunch of students were preparing for a tasting to evaluate some of the strawberry breeds they have been developing. My food nerd heart swelled, and for the first time in decades, I missed school. When strawberries are in season, it is incumbent upon us to make the most of those fleeting weeks. And I can't think of a better way to put them to use than in a classic strawberry shortcake. If you can find wild strawberries, or at least really flavorful ones from a farmers market (or if you are getting your PhD in food studies with a concentration in strawberries in California), this treat is nothing short of heavenly. There is nothing difficult about strawberry shortcake. A few components come together in a gorgeous stack of sweetness. First, the biscuitsI like my shortcake biscuits slightly sweet, but not overly sugary. The natural sweetness in the sliced strawberries will be augmented with a bit of sugar to amp up those ruby red juices. Plus there's the whipped cream, which can be as sweet or restrained as you like. Cut out the biscuits as close together as you can, with as little dough left behind on the cutting board as possible. Yes, you can roll the scraps up and cut out another couple of circles, but the more you handle the dough the less tender it becomes. The tops of the biscuits are brushed with a bit of half-and-half or milk and sprinkled with sugar before they go into the oven, resulting in a beautifully browned and slightly crunchy top. Make biscuits with some height to them, as you will be cutting them horizontally and then filling them with the strawberries and cream. The layersI like a double-decker strawberry shortcake, which definitely requires a knife and fork. To assemble: The bottom half of the biscuit goes first, then some whipped cream, then strawberries. Then the top half of the biscuit. And then, yes, more whipped cream and more strawberries. The addition of sour cream to the whipped cream is a pastry chef hack that I learned over the years. It adds more richness, stability and body to the whipped cream, and gives the whole shebang a whole other layer of lushness. Strawberry ShortcakeServes 6 Ingredients:2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, sifted 6 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided 4 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon kosher salt Finely grated zest of 1 lemon ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes ¾ cup half-and-half or whole milk 2 tablespoons melted butter 2 pints (4 cups) fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced For the Whipped Cream: 1 cup heavy cream, chilled 2 tablespoons sour cream, crème fraiche or mascarpone (optional) 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Directions:1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Very lightly flour a clean counter or work surface. 2. Combine the flour with 2 tablespoons of the granulated sugar, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and lemon zest in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or use your fingers to rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Or, pulse the butter into the flour mixture in a food processor. 3. Add the ¾ cup half-and-half or milk and stir until just barely combined. Turn the mixture onto the lightly floured surface. Use your hands to lightly mix the dough until it barely holds together. Pat it out into a circle or a rectangle 1/2-inch thick. 4. Use a 3-inch round biscuit or cookie cutter to cut out the shortcakes, keeping them as close together as possible to minimize extra dough. Use a sharp biscuit cutter rather than a glass, and press down and pull straight up, without twisting; twisting will hinder their rising as they bake. If you dip the biscuit cutter in flour between each biscuit cutting, it will help prevent sticking. Collect the scraps and re-pat them out into a ½-inch disk, and cut out another 2 or 4 circles when you are done. Try to handle the dough as little as possible. 5. Butter a baking sheet or spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer half the biscuits to the sheet. Brush the tops with a bit of the melted butter. Top the butter-brushed dough with the remaining cut-out biscuits. Brush the tops with a bit of milk or half-and-half. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over the shortcakes. 6. Bake for about 15 minutes, until light golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 7. Meanwhile, put the berries in a medium bowl and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, or to taste. Toss with a fork, and lightly crush some of the berries so you have some different textures going on and some of the juices are released. Let the berries sit for at least 15 minutes. 8. Once the berries are macerating, make the whipped cream. Place the heavy cream, sour cream, confectioners' sugar and vanilla in a clean bowl (if you chill it first, the cream will whip up faster.) 9. Use a whisk or a handheld electric mixer on high speed to beat the cream until it starts to form stiff peaks. Refrigerate until ready to use. 10. Just before serving, cut each biscuit crosswise. Place the bottom halves on plates, layer on some strawberries, then some whipped cream. Replace the top of the shortcake, then spoon over some more strawberries and whipped cream. Serve immediately. ___ Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, 'Dinner Solved!' and 'The Mom 100 Cookbook.' She blogs at She can be reached at [email protected]. ___ For more AP food stories, go to