cancer

Anthropic CEO repeats what Ballmer said 25 years ago when calling Linux “a cancer”

by

In June 2001, Steve Ballmer, who had barely been CEO of Microsoft for a year and a half, granted an interview to the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. During the course of it, he would make a historic statement by saying that “Linux is a cancer”. The curious thing is that 25 years later the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, made very similar statements when talking about how “Open Source AI is becoming a danger.” Both then and now, the reason that provoked these statements was none other than the fear that the Open Source philosophy would end up triumphing in the world. And if history teaches us anything—and perhaps Amodei should have foreseen it—it is that precisely what Ballmer did was not weaken Linux, but rather make it stronger than ever. That may also be what Dario Amodei ends up achieving. Amodei’s statements They were actually produced three years ago.. He made them in a speech before the US Senate Judiciary Committee in July 2023, but at that time they went somewhat unnoticed because at that time the most advanced AI models in the world were still very limited, and the situation for open models like Llama 3 was even worse. Linux was not dangerous per se. AI models of open weights, neither Three years later things have changed radically. The open models that several Chinese startups and technology companies have managed to develop are already very close to the impressive frontier models of Anthropic, OpenAI or Google, and Amodei’s prediction now becomes much more relevant. But it does so at a time when its Mythos and Fable 5 models have had a lot of problems precisely for being “dangerous.” Mythos Preview first and Mythos 5 now are only available for a small group of entities and companies due to its potential to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities. AND Fables 5which was a “layered” version of Mythos ended up being vetoed by the US government three days after going on the market. only yesterday its deployment was reinstatedbut it has done so with more restrictions to use it: if the model detects any dangerous intention, it is deactivated so that the user switches to using Opus 4.8. And while the US tries to put doors in the field with the excuse of national security, China does not even bat an eyelid. Chinese companies have not stopped launching more and better models of open weights, and We have the last and most splendid example in GLM-5.2the Zhipu.ai (Z.ai) model that is surprising everyone and everyone. Its creators already warned when launching it that its performance in various benchmarks is at the level of Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-5.5. But independent analyzes in the field of cybersecurity they claim that GLM-5.2 is “as dangerous” as Opus 4.8 also in terms of cybersecurity. This points to a disturbing future for the US: that China will have models as powerful as Mythos in the short term. Jie Tang, CEO of Z.ai, agreed with that perspective: Elon Musk anticipated that these models would arrive in the first quarter of 2027, and Tang indicated that “it won’t take that long.” The real problem is not that Chinese companies develop open weight models with capabilities similar to those of Mythos. That will inevitably come, but as happened with Linux and Open Source software, The danger is that these models displace commercial software and threaten the dominant position of Anthropic and OpenAI. That’s what Ballmer feared 25 years ago, but what he seemed to point to with that FUD statement never happened. What happened was precisely what he would never have imagined: that Microsoft ended up “appropriating” Linux and Open Source solutions by integrating them into its cloud infrastructure, Azure. Today Linux virtual machines represent 61.8% of all those in Azure: this operating system has become an even more important option than Windows on that platform. It is no coincidence: the presence of Linux and Open Source platforms in the server market is absolutely dominant (about 90% globally), and the adoption of these solutions by Microsoft has been total. Not only in server environments, be careful: the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) layer of Windows operating systems has been a crucial attraction for users and especially developers for years. The company made its definitive move in that section when he bought GitHub in 2018and he hasn’t looked back since. The analogy with the Anthropic (or OpenAI) situation is inevitable. Linux then threatened Microsoft’s position, and open AI models threaten that of Anthropic or OpenAI. The question here is not whether those AI models developed by Chinese companies can be dangerous: Mythos, Fable 5 and GPT-5.5/5.6 have already shown that they can be. The question is who they are for. For the world… or for the companies trying to become the de facto monopolies of this industry? Linux, after all, wasn’t a cancer. Ballmer was not right. It’s very likely that Amodei doesn’t have it either. Image | World Bank Photo Collection | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | For decades, Linux has earned a reputation as a “shielded” operating system. Until now

Cancer in people under 50 years of age has been growing for decades. A macro study finally points to the big culprit: biological aging

by

The increasing incidence of cancer in young adults is one of the most debated topics in recent oncology. In recent years, exhaustive reviews have warned of an increase in diagnoses in those under 50 years of agealthough medical science had long been searching for the underlying mechanism that connects the dots between modern lifestyle and the early onset of this hated disease. The answer. A new study recently published seems to have found a key piece of the puzzle, which is nothing more than that our cells are aging faster than our ID card. This is the conclusion of research published in the journal Nature that indicates that accelerated biological aging is associated with a greater risk of developing early-onset cancers, especially solid cancers such as lung, stomach and also uterine cancer. Two concepts. To understand the finding, we must first differentiate between chronological age and biological age. The first of these is immovable, since it is nothing more than the years that have passed since our birth. But biological age is flexible, since it is calculated by evaluating the physiological state of a person through blood biomarkers and metabolic profiles. It reflects how “old” our tissues and organs really are. How to measure them. To measure this, Tian’s team used models already consolidated in scientific literaturesuch as PhenoAge and the Klemera-Doubal method. With these tools, they crossed the data of more than 150,000 adults from the UK Biobank and approximately 10,000 program participants. All of Us of the United States. The result shows a dangerous imbalance. This means that those people born in more recent decades had a greater tendency to have a biological age higher than that corresponding to their date of birth. And this time “jump” has direct clinical consequences such as the appearance of cancer. To be more specific, it has been seen that every time we have a person with a biological age higher than their corresponding age, they have an 8% higher risk of having early-onset solid cancer before the age of 50. If we compare the extremes, individuals located in the tertile with the greatest biological aging have a 15% greater risk of developing the disease compared to those in the tertile with the least biological wear and tear. The context. The main thing is not to fall into alarmism, since, although it is true that cancer is increasing in the youngest people in society, it is also increasing in all remaining bands due to multiple factors such as general population aging and better screening methods that allow us to detect cancer earlier. However, the specific data on early onset are undeniable, since large studies point to significant increases in thyroid, breast, colon, kidney and endometrial tumors in the 20 to 49 age group. Colorectal cancer, specifically, is the one that worries the most due to its escalation in young adults. The lifestyle. That we are biologically aging much faster than we should is not magic, but rather it seems to be influenced by different factors related to lifestyle. These include rates of youth obesity, prolonged consumption of diets rich in ultra-processed foods, a sedentary lifestyle, and exposure to environmental toxins. What this new work provides is the quantification of the damage, since these risk factors accelerate the biological clock. We must keep in mind that the human body is exposed to pro-inflammatory factors for more years from early stages of life, which makes it easier for DNA damage to accumulate faster than cellular mechanisms can repair it. In Xataka | Experts agree about the sun and hair: “It is one of the most exposed areas and one of the most forgotten”

the risk of death from cancer does not decrease

by

Over the last few years, the electronic cigarette or ‘vaper‘has been positioned in the collective imagination as ‘the lesser sea’ that has been sold as a transition tool, supposedly cleanerfor those smokers who were looking to get away from tobacco. However, science has been narrowing the gap on the long-term effects of electronic cigarettes for some time. A new study. Here the last blow has been dealt by a study published in Nature that It is considered the largest made to dateand which concludes that the use of electronic cigarettes after giving up traditional tobacco does not have any type of benefit when it comes to reducing the chances of having lung cancer. Unprecedented. To understand the magnitude of the finding, you have to look at the scale, since historically, one of the big problems when investigating vaping has been the lack of temporal perspective due to not having been on the market for too long and, above all, the size of the study population. This has been resolved with this new study that has analyzed data from between 4.3 and 4.5 million people in South Korea, with exhaustive follow-up until December 2021. Many of these might think that changing smoke for steam neutralized the oncological risk, but in the end it is quite the opposite. Your results. When analyzing incidence and mortality rates, researchers found that former smokers who switched to vaping had worse prognoses than those who quit smoking completely. Specifically, the relative risk of suffering from lung cancer increases by 56% compared to those who abandon any type of inhaled product. In addition, the probability of death from lung cancer is double when giving up tobacco and taking an electronic cigarette instead of giving up any type of inhaled consumption. Regarding time. Ex-smokers who had only been smoking for five years and switched to vaping instead of quitting had a 23% higher incidence of cancer and a 71% higher risk of death. But if we talk about established ex-smokers who spent more than five years smoking, their risk of death becomes 2.7 times higher. In the case of ex-smokers who had been smoking for 20 years or more, switching to vaping led to a 65% increase in incidence and multiplied the risk of mortality by 4.5 times. Because. These epidemiological data are not an isolated case, but rather confirm what toxicology has been warning for years in laboratories, since although vaping eliminates the tar and direct combustion of tobacco, the aerosols are far from being harmless. A study published in 2026 pointed out that electronic cigarettes with nicotine are, with a high probability, carcinogenic to humans. And the answer is in the carcinogenic substances such as nitrosnornicotine, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and aldehydes such as formaldehyde. In Xataka | It’s never too late to quit smoking: the lungs have an incredible capacity to regenerate

Pancreatic cancer was almost invincible. A new targeted therapy just doubled survival

by

Pancreatic cancer has been, for decades, one of the biggest challenges of modern oncology. Its diagnosis usually arrives late and therapeutic options in advanced stages have historically been limited, accompanying a mortality very high. But a new experimental drug has hit the table by promising to double survival in patients who have the most severe forms of the disease. The protagonist of this revolution is called daraxonrasib and has come to light together with the data recently presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology congress that has shaken the medical community, confirming that we are facing a possible paradigm shift for a disease that had not received good news for too long. More months. To understand the magnitude of the advance, you have to look at the results of the phase 3 trial, called RASolute 302. This study has focused on patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma who had already received previous treatments without success. Until now, the standard therapy, which is the well-known chemotherapy, in this second line of treatment offered a median overall survival of just 6.7 months. But it has been seen that, when administering daraxonrasibthe median overall survival shot up to 13.2 months. That is, practically double. And there is more. The trial, considered the first large phase three study of a drug of this type in this context, not only demonstrated an improvement in lifespan, but also in disease progression-free survival and in the objective response rate of tumors. The endorsement Although it may seem very promising and fanciful, we are seeing that this therapy is based on a scientific basis that had already been audited and published at the highest level. By this we refer to the published results of the previous phases of this trial that were public in The New England analyzing 168 previously treated patients, and a powerful antitumor activity was seen. But it is not without problems, since the NEJM article detailed that about a third of patients experienced significant adverse effects. However, in the context of metastatic pancreatic cancer, the risk-benefit balance is considered extraordinarily promising. An invincible enemy. The real technical triumph of daraxonrasib is its mechanism of action, since pancreatic cancer is known to be largely driven by mutations in the RAS gene family, and especially KRAS. And for more than 30 years, the scientific community considered that proteins mutated by KRAS were impossible to medicate. But now daraxonrasib is a multi-RAS inhibitor that acts on the mutations of this very specific protein that were the gateway to pancreatic cancer. This makes it the first pancreatic targeted therapy capable of offering sustained responses over time. The Spanish accent. The arrival at phase 3 does not mean that the research ends here, but rather that the scientific community is already looking for a way to enhance this drug with other drugs to prevent the tumor from ‘learning’ to endure it. In this field of preclinical biology, the work of Spanish researchers stands out. The group of the prestigious scientist Mariano Barbacid has already documented work in animal models using a triple combination that includes daraxonrasib along with other drugs that have been on many people’s lips recently. Images | MedinePlus CDC In Xataka | The Chinese company Alibaba has an AI to detect pancreatic cancer. It is so good that the US has accelerated its approval

A new study reveals how they manage to avoid cancer

by

Reaching 100 years old is a statistical feat, but do it while avoiding diseases as serious as cancer or surviving a serious infection is almost a superpower. For decades, science has been asked what makes centenarians biologically special to reach where few reach, and the clearest answer we have right now is that your immune system ages at a completely different rate than the rest of us mortals. The passage of time. As we age, our body deteriorates at a more or less rate depending on how much we have taken care of it with the lifestyle we have wanted to follow. But something that cannot be skipped is the generation of a low-grade chronic inflammation called ‘inflammation‘ which is the perfect breeding ground for cells to deteriorate, cardiovascular problems and tumors to appear. An exception. But as a recent review points out published in Nature With Spanish participation, it has been seen that centenarians have an extremely efficient system for “cleaning” damaged or senescent cells before they cause problems, something that is very efficient in young people, but becomes less so with the passage of time. But in addition, compared to the impoverishment of the intestinal flora common in old age, centenarians preserve a spectacular microbial diversity, also lacking the pro-inflammatory obesity that affects a large part of the population. But not everything is natural genetics, since the habits one follows and the environment in which one has lived shape part of the genetics by activating or deactivating genes, protecting them from accumulated damage. The paradox of cancer. One of the most fascinating data that medical research reveals is the relationship between centenarians and cancer. Although the risk of suffering from tumors increases with age as more genetic errors accumulate, when the 100-year barrier is exceeded, the curve falls sharply. This means that the incidence of cancer in people over the age of one century is less than 4%. And again the question is: why? Here, science suggests that centenarians have very high selective cytotoxicity, that is, cells with problems inside are destroyed before they get worse. Here the protagonists are the immune cells that maintain relentless anti-tumor surveillance, eliminating malignant cells with the efficiency of a young adult, but maintaining a high tolerance towards their own healthy tissues to avoid autoimmune diseases such as the famous rheumatoid arthritis that is quite common in older people. We are moving forward. The study does not remain only in the laboratory, but compiles evidence about the “real world” such as the famous ‘Blue Zones’ of Okinawa (Japan) where great longevity among its inhabitants stands out. Here the autopsies on the corpses indicated that their coronary arteries were obstructed by age but that they had only suffered massive fatal heart attacks. Here the body had found ways to adapt and survive. During the worst waves of COVID, there have also been cases of centenarians in residences who managed to survive the virus even without being vaccinated. This fits with the published data in 2023 by Nature Aging on supercentenarians in Boston, who revealed an “elite” immune system, trained by a lifetime of environmental exposures that formed a profile highly resilient to infections. For the future. Although genetics are important, what we can control much better are lifestyle habits and their effect on how certain genes are expressed. In this way, it is about investigating the people who survive the longest with the aim of ‘copying’ what they do to find the Holy Grail of longevity. Images | freepik In Xataka | The promise of 120 years is dismantled: biology sets a life ceiling that is quite difficult to break

Barbacid’s promising cancer study has been withdrawn. The reason is not science, it is a “hidden” spin-off

by

Last December, the team led by the prestigious researcher Mariano Barbacid filled the headlines of the main media with great news: had found a triple therapy to eliminate pancreatic tumors in animal models. Very relevant news because of how deadly pancreatic cancer is and how it affects our society, but now this euphoria has hit a wall after the decision of the US National Academy of Sciences to remove the item from PNAS magazine. The context. The original article, published on December 2 of last year, was not just another publication, but described the results of administering three drugs in 45 mice who had pancreatic cancer. And although it was a preclinical study that had not been tested in humans and was the expected next step, it generated great expectation. The promise of a cure, even if it was in the animal phase, propelled intense fundraising campaigns to be able to start a clinical trial with humans as soon as possible. In this way, foundations such as CRIS against cancer achieved raise 3.7 million euros in the heat of these advances and thanks to the media showcase that was given to them. And now they withdraw it. The first thing to keep in mind when faced with so many alarmist headlines is that it is not removed from the PNAS magazine because the results have been invented or exaggerated, but rather the reason lies in the omission of important information regarding to conflict of interest. In this case Mariano Barbacid, taking advantage of his status as a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, used a “fast track” of publication that is reserved for academics of this institution. The problem is that this privilege requires scrupulous and impeccable transparency. Data omission. As detailed by El Paísthe alarms went off in February 2026, when the academy received notices about possible conflicts of interest that have now led to the sudden retraction of the article. The problem is that Mariano Barbacid, along with researchers Carmen Guerra and Vasiliki Liaki, are co-owners of Vega Oncotargetsa spin-off which was born in the ecosystem of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) with the aim of developing and marketing therapies against pancreatic cancer like this one. This is why informing the journal that the authors had a direct economic and business interest in the success of the study is a violation of the most basic transparency regulations in scientific publication. It always happens. When a researcher wants to publish the results of his or her research, a lot of data must always be provided, both about the method that has been followed and everything behind it, such as the source of financing or the conflicts behind. For example, if a researcher owns shares of a large pharmaceutical company and studies one of its drugs, logically good results will benefit him because the value of the company will increase. And this is something that should always be reported so that anyone reading the research knows if the researcher may have been influenced by an economic component. And in this particular case, the fact that there is already a company that will commercialize the future therapy that is being investigated is logically something that must always be specified, because if the study goes well, it logically benefits the company enormously. There are already answers. As we say, PNAS sanctions bad practice when it comes to being transparent, but in no case does it indicate that the research is poorly done. Along these lines, Carmen Guerra has already admitted the error, as El País points out, and has confirmed that the team has resubmitted the article with this correction, detailing that they do have participation in Vega Oncatargerts. The problem is that now they are going to have to go through the entire standard review process and the republishing will not be fast. Images | UPV brgfx on Freepik In Xataka | Mice today, hope tomorrow: researchers have managed to attack pancreatic cancer before it forms

a proton accelerator against cancer

by

At the Madrid hospital in Fuenlabrada they are building something that, from the outside, doesn’t look like much: a two-story building with three-meter-thick concrete walls, a roof that had to be opened with a crane, and foundations designed to support dozens of tons of machinery. Inside that bunker is kept one of the most valuable assets that Spanish public health has received in decades. That technological jewel that they protect with concrete is the proton accelerator donated by the Amancio Ortega Foundation: one of the ten latest generation machines that the founder of Inditex agreed to surrender to the public health system in October 2021 in a donation valued at 280 million euros. The objective is to install them in seven autonomous communities and transform the cancer treatment in Spain. A custom concrete bunker. Building this type of technology is not like installing a scanner or an X-ray device. The radiation emitted by a proton accelerator requires the construction of a specific building to act as a containment barrier. In Fuenlabrada that has become concrete walls three meters thick. The construction of the bunker began in July 2024 and the regional government has allocated 13 million euros to finance the construction of the new building. According to a statement of the Community of Madrid, the result is a two-story structure with more than 2,000 square meters of total surface area, partially connected to the already existing oncology area. The ground floor, of about 1,300 square meters, will house the diagnosis, treatment and patient preparation areas. The first floor, of 875 square meters, will be used for maintenance, supplies, medical offices and training. The pieces that entered through the roof. The proton therapy equipment is made up of two main elements, and both are already inside the bunker. The first is the Cyclotron, the device that generates and accelerates protons that are then used as “ammunition” against cancer cells. It measures eight meters tall and weighs almost 50 tons. To place it in place, it was necessary to open the roof of the building and use a heavy crane to install it inside the bunker. The second element is the Gantry, the rotating arm that directs the radiation towards the tumor with millimeter precision. This component exceeds 11 meters in height and reaches 75 tons in weight. Its complete rotation capacity is what allows the tumor to be attacked from any angle and reduce damage to healthy surrounding tissues. In this video The installation process of one of these machines in the New York Proton Center is shown, using a process very similar to that used in the Fuenlabrada hospital. Protons change the rules of the game. Proton therapy is not an improved version of conventional radiotherapy, but rather it works with high-energy proton beams capable of concentrating the impact exactly on the tumor and stopping there, without continuing to irradiate the tissues behind. This makes it an especially useful tool for treat hard-to-reach tumorssuch as brain tumors, on neckspinal cord, lung, ocular, sarcomas, etc., and for pediatric patients, where minimize side effects In the long term it is critical. Until now, in Spain there were only two centers with this technology, both private: the Hospital Quirón de Pozuelo de Alarcón and the Clínica Universidad de Navarra. Thanks to the donation from the Amancio Ortega Foundation10 new proton therapy centers will soon be inaugurated in public hospitals distributed throughout the national territory. A nuclear reactor in the basement. The arrival of the two main pieces does not mean that the equipment is ready to use. Only the main elements have been installed in place. Over the next 12 months, engineers will carry out the complete assembly of both components, their calibration and the commissioning of the accelerator. It is a process that involves continuous testing to check and monitor radiation before any patient is approached. In December 2025, the Nuclear Safety Council (CSN) already issued a favorable authorization, with conditions, for the radioactive facility of the hospital: an essential requirement before the unit can operate. It won’t be the first, but it adds up.. The one in Fuenlabrada will not be the first public health device of these characteristics to offer proton therapy treatments. The Galicia center, in Santiago de Compostela, is the most advanced in its installation and already has the Proteus One accelerator. In this case, two bunkers have been necessary (one for treatment and the other for research) and the first patients are expected to be treated at the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027, with capacity for 250 patients per year per room. The Madrid hospital, for its part, aims that its unit will be operational throughout the first quarter of 2027. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives like a neighbor (except for private jets and superyachts) Image | GTRES, New York Proton Center

Pancreatic cancer is a silent killer. A new experimental therapy has managed to “intercept” it before it attacks

by

Pancreatic cancer is classically known as one of the most lethal and feared that exist because of how difficult it can be to treat in some cases and the high mortality rates. But this high mortality rate is not due to its aggressiveness from minute 0, but to its stealthy nature, making it when he shows his face With the first symptoms, the disease is already in a very advanced phase that makes treatment very difficult. It’s where to act. In this way, the objective of the researchers is precisely to try to advance the diagnosis as much as possible, since treatment in the initial phases of the disease can give great results. And this is exactly what a new study that focuses on the ‘cancer interception’ strategy suggests. This is something that researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have focused on, who have achieved a vitally important advance in mouse models. And the fact is that, instead of focusing on attacking the already formed pancreatic tumor of considerable size, they have directed their artillery against the microscopic precursor lesions, known as PanIN. Its foundation. This is something that can be reduced to literally putting out the fire when it is still just a small spark. And as the specialized media report, by removing these microscopic lesions precancerous diseases, researchers manage to stop the advance towards the dreaded pancreatic adenocarcinoma in mice, proposing a total paradigm shift in how we could face this disease. Genetics is key. Something that has been known for a long time is that there are people who have a genetic predisposition to suffer from this disease. Specifically, in more than 90% of cases, the mutation responsible for triggering the disease is found in a gene called KRAS. A gene that for decades was considered “unapproachable” by classical pharmacology and that acted as a great shield against the disease. However, medicine is advancing in leaps and bounds, and this study uses selective inhibitors for this gene with the aim of silencing it precisely in PanIN lesions. In this way, by neutralizing the growth signals that the KRAS gene gives to tumor cells, they cannot take the step to begin to spread throughout the body, which causes the most serious symptoms. Mice today, hope for tomorrow. Logically, we must put our feet on the ground, since we are dealing with a preclinical study. That is, the therapy has proven to be a resounding success in animal models, but there is still a long way to go until this therapy can be used in a human in a hospital, since it must be seen that the effect is similar in our organisms. However, this research fits perfectly with the new medical philosophy against pancreatic cancer. As highlighted by the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO) in his recent communicationsthe future undoubtedly involves knowing the personalized risk and ensuring that those people who are more likely to suffer from pancreatic cancer due to their genetics receive exhaustive screening to detect the disease in time and increase the probability of survival. Images | Bioscience Image Library In Xataka | A Spanish milestone against pancreatic cancer: we are one step closer to eradicating it but there is still a long way to go

an mRNA vaccine that reduced his dog’s cancer

by

Paul Conyngham is not a biologist. He is not a veterinarian either. He is an engineer from Sydney with almost two decades of experience in the field of data science and AI. In 2024, her dog Rosie received a terrible diagnosis: she had mast cell cancer, the most common skin cancer in dogs and practically untreatable with conventional methods. After trying everything, Conyngham decided to take an alternative path: opened ChatGPT and started asking him questions. ChatGPT as a starting point. OpenAI’s AI model acted as Conyngham’s research assistant. It helped him make a plan in a field he knew absolutely nothing about, and it was the chatbot that suggested he explore immunotherapy treatments. He also pointed out the existence of the Ramaciotti Center for Genomics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and there he began a fascinating journey. $3,000 to sequence a tumor. At that Conyngham research center got in touch with Associate Professor Martin Smith, one of its leaders. Conyngham paid $3,000 to sequence the DNA from Rosie’s tumor, which Smith found strange: They typically don’t support sequencing requested by individuals because interpreting the data is extraordinarily difficult. But Conyngham assured him that he had nothing to worry about and told him that he was a data analyst and that he would analyze them with the help of ChatGPT. From ChatGPT to AlphaFold. With that sequencing data in hand, Conyngham used a variety of AI tools—not just ChatGPT—to identify the relevant mutations. Then he went one step further and used AlphaFoldthe Google DeepMind program that predicts the three-dimensional structure of proteins. That allowed him to model which of those mutations could be driving the tumor. From this data he identified candidate drugs to help in the treatment of cancer and presented himself to the UNSW researchers with his homework done. First obstacle: bureaucracy. The research team identified an immunotherapy drug that seemed promising, but its manufacturer refused to supply it for this type of application. It was a hard blow for Conyngham, but then Smith told him about mRNA vaccines and asked him if he wanted to explore that avenue. Of course, said Conyngham. Actually manufacturing the vaccine was only half the problem, because administering it required ethical approval permission, which allows experiments involving living beings. After preparing a 100-page document over the next two months, Conyngham won that approval. Vaccines in two months. A division of UNSW led by Professor Pall Thordarson, manufactured the vaccine from the half-page formula that Conyngham had generated. They just needed to find someone to administer it, and that’s how Conyngham managed to contact Rachel Allavena, a professor of canine immunotherapy at the University of Queensland. He traveled ten hours with Rosie and showed up there for his first injection in December. The tumor reduced by half. Researchers from UNSW and the University of Queensland have confirmed that one of Rosie’s tumors had shrunk by half. Allavena explained how even the shine of her coat had also recovered and the dog seemed happier and healthier. Conyngham confirmed it: her dog was losing energy, but six weeks after treatment they were in a park and Rosie jumped the fence to chase a rabbit she had seen. But. Although the story is extraordinary, there is no total and miraculous cure here (at the moment). One of the tumors responded to the vaccine, but another larger one did not. Additionally there have been no controlled trials or sample size beyond one animal or long-term data. Conyngham himself commented how “I have no illusions that this is a cure, but I do believe that this treatment has bought Rosie significantly more time and quality of life.” And Conyngham is no ordinary. It is also important to note that Conyngham had a very special profile: his 17 years of experience in data science and machine learning (machine learning) were crucial for his research to move forward. His technical knowledge allowed AI to enter a field he didn’t know but could understand, and the chatbot and other tools accelerated the process. But those who finally made it possible were immunologists, RNA engineers and the veterinary oncologists who participated in the process. Does this work for other cases? Smith asked a logical question after this singular success. “Why aren’t we rolling this out for all humans with cancer?” The short answer is clear: clinical trials take years, cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and require clear evidence that in this case is simply null. One of his colleagues, David Thomas, is already working on similar treatments of mRNA for human patients, and believes that there is something revolutionary here: “what is striking is the idea of ​​citizen science where someone from the street with a technical profile can use their skills in the scientific process.” The second vaccine is already underway. What this process has shown is that it is possible to dramatically compress the time between the idea and the experimental treatment. Thordarson noted that what Conyngham did—generating an mRNA formula without biology training—demonstrates that AI is helping to democratize this process. In fact, the work is not over: UNSW is already working on the genetic sequencing of the tumor that did not respond to treatment and the objective is to design a second vaccine aimed precisely at treating said tumor. Image | Ed Oswalt In Xataka | What the AI ​​pioneers awarded today with the Nobel Prize say now about AI and its risks

We have been wondering for decades if being vegetarian prevents cancer. We already have a very clear answer

by

There is a endless diets in different parts of the world, conditioned largely by local society and culture, such as in Spain, where the Mediterranean dietwhich is varied. But the focus of the debate is on what is the best diet to maintain good health in the long term. And here the vegetarian diet has a lot to say. Giving answers. For years, we have known that reducing our consumption of processed meat is beneficial for our health, but a new macro study led by the University of Oxford has put compelling data on the table about how dietary choice directly impacts the risk of developing different types of cancer. The work published in the magazine British Journal of Cancer is consolidated as the further analysis performed to date on this topic. And it is no wonder, since researchers have been able to analyze the histories of 1.8 million women and men who participated in nine prospective studies across three continents. A shield. Until now, previous studies they were already pointing that vegetarians had a lower oncological risk, but there was not the necessary statistical power to refine the data and make this categorical statement. But this study has come to change this, since researchers reveal that vegetarians have a significantly lower risk of suffering from five types of cancer compared to people who eat meat regularly. Results. Obviously, there are many other factors that influence this matter such as weight or lifestyle, but even adjusting the data, a clear result has been seen, which is summarized in the following risk reductions: 31% lower risk of suffering from multiple myeloma. 28% lower risk of kidney cancer. 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 12% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 9% lower risk of breast cancer. But the curious thing about these data is that for ten other types of cancer studied, such as lung cancer in non-smokers, science has not found a significant difference. And this opens the door to seeing why this diet is so specific for specific cancers. The small print. Not everything is so positive with this diet, since the study has shown that vegetarians have almost double the risk of developing esophageal cancer compared to people who eat meat in their diet. Because? According to researchers, the benefits of a vegetarian diet in cancer are explained by the greater intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber and the absence of processed meats. But the fact that they have a higher risk of having esophageal cancer is related to the nutritional deficiencies that vegetarians may have. And the lack of certain exclusive or more present nutrients in foods of animal origin could be weakening the natural defenses of this tissue. The rest of the diets. In addition to the war that may exist between meat and vegetables, researchers wanted to go further to look at the rest of the diet. In this case, the pescetarianswho do not consume meat, but do consume fish and seafood, had a lower risk of developing breast, kidney and colon cancer. But when we talk about vegansis where there are certain important nuances, since it has been seen that they have a higher risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. However, the researchers themselves point out that there are still not enough statistical cases to accurately evaluate the impact of veganism on rarer cancers. The recommendations. Given this study, everything that had been done in oncology is maintained, since the norm is to prioritize whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in the diet, limiting the consumption of red and processed meats. Although logically always ensuring that all nutritional needs are met and following medical advice. Images | amin ramezani In Xataka | Having a beer or a wine at 65 seems like a harmless indulgence. We have more and more evidence to the contrary.

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.