Latest news with #RadboudUniversity
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blue Earth Therapeutics: SNMMI Presentation of Results from Lutetium (177Lu) rhPSMA-10.1 Injection Phase 1 Clinical Trial
− Results show delivery of high radiation doses to tumours compared with normal organs.− Observed normal organ absorbed dosimetry results may allow administration of a high cumulative radioactivity.− Ongoing Phase 2 study is testing the impact of administering a greater proportion of administered radioactivity during early treatment cycles. OXFORD, United Kingdom, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Earth Therapeutics today announced radiation dosimetry results for its radiohybrid lutetium labelled, PSMA targeted, investigational radioligand therapy at the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) annual meeting. The Phase 1 clinical trial results were presented by Professor James Nagarajah of Radboud University Medical Centre, the Netherlands. Data were evaluated from 34 cycles of treatment across 13 metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer patients in the radiation dosimetry portion of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT05413850) of Lutetium (177Lu) rhPSMA-10.1 Injection. The abstract can be found here: The data presented analysed tumour, kidney, salivary gland, and other healthy organ-absorbed radiation doses, and calculated tumour-to-kidney (T:K) and tumour-to salivary gland (T:S) ratios. These data used a tumour dosimetry methodology in which PET or SPECT scans identified lesions for evaluation that is in line with those reported in the literature for other radioligand therapies. Mean tumour-absorbed dose was 8.87 Gy/GBq Mean kidney-absorbed dose was 0.30 Gy/GBq Mean salivary gland-absorbed dose was 0.13 Gy/GBq The tumour:kidney ratio was 32.09 The tumour:salivary gland ratio was 73.19 An additional "anatomy-based" dosimetry evaluation was also performed, which used tumour volumes defined only on CT scan by a blinded radiologist, thereby capturing all regions of the tumour irrespective of uptake of the drug. In this analysis, the T:K and T:S ratios were 9 and 19, respectively. David Gauden DPhil, CEO of Blue Earth Therapeutics, said, "Numerous studies across various cancer types have shown the therapeutic value of delivering high radiation doses to tumours. At the same time, due to the risk of normal organ toxicity, one cannot simply administer unlimited amounts of radioactivity to patients. The solution is to develop therapeutic agents that improve the tumour:normal organ ratios so that the proportion of injected radioactivity reaching the tumors is scaled up to maximise efficacy. The Phase 1 dosimetry data being presented here at SNMMI is an important validation of the concept that improved agents are possible. We look forward to the clinical efficacy results from the ongoing Phase 2 portion of the trial. In this phase, we may begin to see benefits driven by the unique properties of the rhPSMA molecule. Additionally, the novel dosing regimen, which is designed to deliver higher cumulative doses of radioactivity with front-loading in the early treatment cycles, could provide further therapeutic advantage." About metastatic prostate cancer In 2025 it is estimated that there will be 50,055 new cases of metastatic prostate cancer in the United States (de novo diagnoses plus recurrence from earlier stage diagnoses).1 Five-year survival for newly diagnosed metastatic prostate cancer is low, 36.6%.2 While death rates from prostate cancer have declined over the past three decades2, there is still considerable room to improve patient outcomes. About Radiohybrid Prostate–Specific Membrane Antigen (rhPSMA) rhPSMA compounds are referred to as radiohybrid ("rh"), as each molecule possesses four distinct domains. The first consists of a Prostate–Specific Membrane Antigen–targeted receptor ligand. It is attached to two labelling moieties which may be radiolabeled with diagnostic isotopes such as 18F or 68Ga for PET imaging, or with therapeutic isotopes such as 177Lu or 225Ac for radioligand therapy, all of which are joined together by a modifiable linker which can be used to modulate important pharmacokinetic characteristics. Radiohybrid PSMA offers the potential for targeted treatment for men with prostate cancer and originated at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Blue Earth Diagnostics acquired exclusive worldwide rights to rhPSMA diagnostic imaging technology from Scintomics GmbH in 2018, and therapeutic rights in 2020, and has sublicensed the therapeutic application to its sister company Blue Earth Therapeutics. About Blue Earth Therapeutics Blue Earth Therapeutics is a clinical stage company dedicated to advancing next-generation targeted radiotherapeutics to treat patients who have cancer and has been incubated within the Bracco family of companies. With proven management expertise across the spectrum of radiopharmaceutical and oncology drug development, as well as biotechnology start–up experience, the Company aims to innovate and improve upon current technologies and rapidly advance new targeted therapies for serious diseases. Blue Earth Therapeutics has an emerging pipeline initially focused on prostate cancer. For more information, please visit: About Bracco Imaging Bracco Imaging S.p.A., part of the Bracco Group, is a world–leading diagnostic imaging provider. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Bracco Imaging develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic imaging agents and solutions. It offers a product and solution portfolio for all key diagnostic imaging modalities: X–ray imaging (including Computed Tomography–CT, Interventional Radiology, and Cardiac Catheterization), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS), and Nuclear Medicine through radioactive tracers and novel PET imaging agents to inform clinical management and guide care for cancer patients in areas of unmet medical need. Our continually evolving portfolio is completed by a range of medical devices, advanced administration systems and dose–management software. In 2019 Bracco Imaging enriched its product portfolio by expanding the range of oncology nuclear imaging solutions in the urology segment and other specialties with the acquisition of Blue Earth Diagnostics. In 2021, Bracco Imaging established Blue Earth Therapeutics as a separate, cutting–edge biotechnology vehicle to develop radiopharmaceutical therapies. Visit: Gallichio L et al, JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst (2022) 114(11): djac158 SEER 22 database, Contact: For Blue Earth TherapeuticsRobert Dann, Vice President, Strategy & Planning+1 (617) UKBET-rh-2500018 | June 2025 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Blue Earth Therapeutics LTD Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Which animals can hold their breath underwater the longest?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Getting enough oxygen in the water can be hard work. While fish and many other aquatic animals take air directly from the water through gills, other animals find ingenious ways to drag air bubbles down from the surface or trap air around their bodies. But others do it the hard way and hold their breath to dive, before coming up to the surface for air — and then repeat this process again and again. Some of these animals can stay submerged for staggering lengths of time. But which animal can hold its breath the longest? And what characteristics enable it to do this? Although diving times can reveal how long species typically stay underwater, the duration can vary depending on why they are staying submerged. "There is a difference between surviving under water (how long before they die) and breath holding (how long do they voluntarily stay submerged)," Wilco Verberk, an associate professor of ecology at Radboud University in the Netherlands, told Live Science in an email. For example, some animals could find themselves trapped below water. Some ants were seen to survive for multiple hours when forcibly submerged, but even specialized diving ants would not voluntarily dive for more than a minute, Philip Matthews, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia who studies insect respiration, told Live Science. Secondly, for animals to hold their breath, they need lungs, said John Spicer, a marine zoologist at the University of Plymouth in the U.K. "Holding breath only applies to animals with lungs and even then lunged animals that don't have gills as well (like lungfish) and/or breathe through their skin (like frogs)," Spicer told Live Science in an email. Related: How do marine mammals sleep underwater? The absolute champions for lunged animals staying submerged are certain freshwater turtles, such as the Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii). These reptiles practice brumation — a form of hibernation for reptiles — at the bottom of rivers and lakes during winter and can stay underwater for months at a time, which helps them survive when they are trapped beneath a layer of ice. Turtles are ectothermic, or cold-blooded, so during cold periods, their metabolism slows down, enabling them to conserve more energy and use less oxygen. "Many freshwater turtle species as the environmental temperature decreases switch everything off, and can stay submerged literally for months," Spicer said. "If brumation counts as holding your breath, then the freshwater turtles wipe the (river/lake) floor with everything else." However, these turtles cheat by taking in small amounts of oxygen in the water through their butts — or technically, their cloacae, which are multipurpose openings that are also used for sexual reproduction and egg-laying, as well as expelling waste. Size plays a crucial part in how long an animal can hold its breath, Verberk said. "Body size is a key trait, with larger animals being able to hold their breath for longer," Verberk said. "This is because oxygen stores tend to be larger in larger animals, also in relation to the rate at which they deplete them (larger animals tend to have lower mass specific demands for oxygen)." This means the competition for breath holding is between large mammals and large ectotherms such as crocodiles and sea turtles, he noted. The record dive by a mammal was completed by a Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), which stayed submerged for 222 minutes, or 3.7 hours. Other whales have also put in impressive dives: The record Arnoux's beaked whale dive (Berardius arnuxii) lasted 153 minutes, and a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) managed 138 minutes, according to Verberk, Spicer and team's 2020 study. Whales accomplish this feat thanks to a number of key adaptations. These include slowing down their heart rate and or metabolism; redirecting blood flow away from parts of the body, temporarily shutting down organs such as the liver and kidneys; "and good oxygen storage capacity and release, from and in the large amounts of respiratory proteins in the muscles (myoglobin) and the blood (haemoglobin)," Spicer explained. In addition, these animals can switch to anaerobic metabolism and generate energy without using oxygen, Spicer added. "It is very inefficient in its conversion of food stuffs to energy, it is slow in doing so, and it produces a 'poison' lactic acid — so it's an emergency response for us," Spicer explained. "Diving mammals also resort to anaerobic metabolism and generate lactate but seem to be [a] bit better at putting up with it — and buffering the effect of the acid build up." Elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris and Mirounga leonina) have also recorded impressive dives lasting two hours. However, this is not typical; it happens only when they are near predators, Spicer said. While whales triumph as the longest-diving mammals and endotherms, or warm-blooded animals, big ectotherms have registered the longest-lasting dives of any species. The freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni) clocked up 402 minutes, or 6.7 hours, underwater when it perceived a threat near the water's surface. But the record holder is the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), with a winning dive of about 610 minutes, or 10.2 hours, according to a 2007 study, while other studies have recorded maximum dive durations of 480 minutes, or eight hours. RELATED MYSTERIES —Can fish and other marine animals drown? —How do animals breathe underwater? —Do fish get thirsty? These ectotherms have many of the same oxygen-saving adaptations as mammals, but they can also save energy by not needing to warm themselves. "Their running costs can be half of a similar sized marine mammal just because they don't use physiological means to keep themselves warm," Spicer said. "It is the effect of temperature on metabolism that makes the main difference. Leatherback turtles [Dermochelys coriacea] I know can dive deeper than most whale species. And in cold waters they can turn down their metabolism pretty dramatically … enough that they can lie on the sea bottom for hours, or rest in underwater caves," he added.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Our Galaxy's Monster Black Hole Is Spinning Almost as Fast as Physics Allows
The colossal black hole lurking at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is spinning almost as fast as its maximum rotation rate. That's just one thing astrophysicists have discovered after developing and applying a new method to tease apart the secrets still hidden in supermassive black hole observations collected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The unprecedented global collaboration spent years working to give us the first direct images of the shadows of black holes, first with M87* in a galaxy 55 million light-years away, then with Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own galaxy. These images are incredible – but also difficult to interpret. So, to figure out what we're looking at, scientists turn to simulations. They build a bunch of virtual characteristics, and figure out which of them most resemble the observational data. This technique has been used a lot with the EHT images, but now it's been kicked up a notch. A team led by astronomer Michael Janssen of Radboud University in the Netherlands and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany used high-throughput computing to develop millions of simulated black holes. Then, they used that data to train a neural network to extract as much information as possible from the data, and identify the properties of the black holes. Their results show, among other things, that Sgr A* is not only spinning at close to its maximum speed, but that its rotational axis is pointed in Earth's direction, and that the glow around it is generated by hot electrons. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the magnetic field in the material around Sgr A* doesn't appear to be behaving in a way that's predicted by theory. M87*, they discovered, is also rotating rapidly, although not as fast as Sgr A*. However, it is rotating in the opposite direction to the material swirling in a disk around it – possibly because of a past merger with another supermassive black hole. "That we are defying the prevailing theory is of course exciting," Janssen says. "However, I see our AI and machine learning approach primarily as a first step. Next, we will improve and extend the associated models and simulations. And when the Africa Millimetre Telescope, which is under construction, joins in with data collection, we will get even better information to validate the general theory of relativity for supermassive compact objects with a high precision." The team has detailed their methodology and findings in three papers published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. They can be found here, here, and here. Did a Passing Star Cause Earth to Warm 56 Million Years Ago? A Game-Changing Telescope Is About to Drop First Pics. Here's How to Watch. Trailblazing Satellite Mission Delivers Its First Artificial Solar Eclipse
RTÉ News
05-06-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Dutch government collapses after far-right leader Wilders quits coalition
The Dutch government collapsed today, most likely ushering in a snap election, after anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders quit the right-wing coalition, accusing other parties of failing to back his tougher immigration policies. But Prime Minister Dick Schoof, an independent, accused the political maverick of irresponsibility, and the other coalition parties denied failing to support Mr Wilders, saying they had been awaiting proposals from his PVV party's own migration minister. PVV ministers will quit the cabinet, leaving the others to continue as a caretaker administration until an election unlikely to be held before October. Frustration with migration and the high cost of living is boosting the far right and widening divisions in Europe, just as it needs unity to deal effectively with a hostile Russia and an unpredictable and combative US president in the form of Donald Trump. "I have told party leaders repeatedly in recent days that the collapse of the cabinet would be unnecessary and irresponsible," Mr Schoof said after an emergency cabinet meeting triggered by Mr Wilders' decision. "We are facing major challenges both nationally and internationally that require decisiveness from us," he added, before handing his resignation to King Willem-Alexander. The prospect of a new election is likely to delay a decision on boosting defence spending and means the Netherlands will have only a caretaker government when it hosts a summit of the transatlantic NATO alliance this month. Election may be months away Mr Wilders said he had no option but to quit the coalition. "I proposed a plan to close the borders for asylum seekers, to send them away, to shut asylum shelters. I demanded coalition partners sign up to that, which they didn't. That left me no choice but to withdraw my support for this government," he told reporters. "I signed up for the strictest asylum policies, not for the demise of the Netherlands." He said he would lead the PVV into a new election and hoped to be the next prime minister. An election is now likely at the end of October or in November, said political scientist Joep van Lit at Radboud University in Nijmegen. Even then, the fractured political landscape means formation of a new government may take months. It remains to be seen whether right-wing voters will see the turn of events as Mr Wilders' failure to turn his proposals into reality, or rather decide that he needs a bigger mandate to get his way, Mr van Lit said. Simon Otjes, assistant professor in Dutch politics at Leiden University, said the PVV must have calculated that the next election would be seen as a referendum on immigration policy, "because they know they would win that". Amsterdam resident Michelle ten Berge hoped that "with the new election we will choose ... a government that's more moderate". But florist Ron van den Hoogenband, in The Hague, said he expected Mr Wilders to emerge the winner and take control of parliament "so he can do like Trump is doing and other European countries where the extreme right is taking over". Immigration a divisive issue Mr Wilders won the last election in November 2023 with an unexpectedly high 23% of the vote. Opinion polls put his party at around 20% now, roughly on a par with the Labour/Green combination that is currently the second-largest grouping in parliament. Mr Wilders had last week demanded immediate support for a 10-point plan that included closing the borders to asylum seekers, sending back refugees from Syria and shutting down asylum shelters. He also proposed expelling migrants convicted of serious crimes and boosting border controls. Migration has been a divisive issue in Dutch politics for years. The previous government, led by current NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, also collapsed after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration. Mr Wilders, a provocative politician who was convicted of discrimination against Moroccans in 2016, was not part of the latest government himself. He only managed to strike a coalition deal with three other conservative parties last year after agreeing not to become prime minister.
Sky News
04-06-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Meta found 'covertly tracking' Android users through Instagram and Facebook
Meta and search engine company Yandex have been "covertly tracking" Android users in the background of their devices, according to experts. Academics at the Radboud University in the Netherlands and IMDEA Networks said they discovered Meta and Yandex have been tracking Android users' browser activity without their consent and then using the data in their apps. Meta said it was looking into the issue, while Yandex denied collecting any sensitive data. Gunes Acar, assistant professor at Radboud University, said the "covert" data collection was spotted in January. He said he discovered Meta's apps, including Facebook and Instagram, and Yandex's apps, such as Yandex Maps, were sitting in the background of Android devices and loading a script that sent data locally back to apps on users' phones. The scripts bypassed Android's security measures and meant that Meta and Yandex could track what users were doing on web browsers, without the user consenting or even knowing, according to the expert. "They are bridging these two worlds that we think are separate; web browsing and mobile app activities," Dr Acar told Sky News. "That's very shocking." The apps were able to track users' browser data on all major Android browsers, even if the user was in incognito mode, the academics said. "It's really concerning because it negates every privacy control that you have in modern browsers and also in modern mobile platforms like Android," said Narseo Vallina-Rodriguez, associate professor at IMDEA Networks, to Sky News. Google, which owns the Android operating system, confirmed the covert activity to Sky News. It said Meta and Yandex used Android's capabilities "in unintended ways that blatantly violate our security and privacy principles". What have Meta and Yandex said? Meta told Sky News it was quickly looking into the issue. "We are in discussions with Google to address a potential miscommunication regarding the application of their policies," said a Meta spokesperson. "Upon becoming aware of the concerns, we decided to pause the feature while we work with Google to resolve the issue." Yandex said it "strictly complies with data protection standards", adding: "The feature in question does not collect any sensitive information and is solely intended to improve personalisation within our apps." Meta appeared to have been doing the data tracking for around eight months, while Yandex had since 2017, the academics said. "We found that Facebook was doing it on roughly 16,000 websites when visited from the EU, [...] Yandex was doing this on 1,300 websites," said Tim Vlummens, a PHD student at KU Leuven who worked on the research. Google told Sky News it had already "implemented changes to mitigate these invasive techniques and have opened our own investigation and are directly in touch with the parties". The tech giant did not respond when asked what repercussions Meta and Yandex were facing for their conduct. Firefox, Microsoft Edge and DuckDuckGo browsers were also affected, with Firefox owner Mozilla and DuckDuckGo engineers taking action to stop any future covert tracking.
