Nasal sprays available over-the-counter, historically noted for their safety and efficacy in treating seasonal allergies, could be perceived in a new light following clinical trial results released on Tuesday.
The antihistamine azelastine has been observed to have antiviral properties against various respiratory infections, including Influenza, RSV, and viruses responsible for COVID, according to a growing body of research.
Researchers from Saarland University Hospital in Germany conducted a study involving 450 adults, predominantly in their early 30s. One group of 227 participants used a nasal spray three times daily, while the other 223 received a placebo spray under the same regimen.
Throughout nearly two months, all participants underwent COVID rapid testing twice weekly. The results indicated that the incidence of symptomatic infections was 2.2% in the azelastine group, markedly lower than the 6.7% infection rate in the placebo group.
Furthermore, azelastine seemed to diminish the incidence of other symptomatic respiratory infections, as highlighted in a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
While researchers remain uncertain about the exact mechanism by which azelastine limits infections, they hypothesize that it may bind to the virus in the nasal mucosa.
Another possibility is that azelastine interacts with the ACE2 receptor, the primary entry point for COVID viruses into human cells, thereby preventing their attachment.
“Our findings imply that azelastine could serve as a scalable and commercially viable preventive measure against COVID, especially in high-risk scenarios such as crowded indoor events and travel,” the researchers noted.
However, the study had limitations, including that all participants were relatively young and healthy, according to the researchers.
Valz emphasized that azelastine should not replace vaccination and further research is essential before considering it as a standard precautionary measure for the public, particularly for vulnerable groups.
Dr. William Messer, associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University, found the results “rationally convincing” in terms of risk reduction, but pointed out the intensive regimen of daily sprays in the trial.
He questioned whether wearing a mask might be a simpler approach to preventing COVID infection.
“Masks can be inconvenient and bothersome, yet may be easier to adhere to than remembering to use three nasal sprays daily,” Messer remarked.
Nevertheless, he added, “I do not discourage anyone who wishes to try it.”
Other researchers are seeking more data to ascertain the effectiveness of nasal sprays in high-risk populations, such as the elderly and immunocompromised individuals who require additional preventive measures.
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor at UCSF Health specializing in Infectious Diseases, speculated that azelastine could serve as an additional COVID-blocking tool for individuals already using nasal sprays for seasonal allergies, although he believes the evidence is insufficient for broader recommendations.
“While the potential is promising, I believe now is not the appropriate time to recommend it as a COVID preventative,” he stated in an email. “For those over 65, I continue to advocate for vaccination as the primary defense against COVID.”
Nonetheless, Chin-Hong highlighted that the trial results underscore the importance of targeting the nasal mucosa in developing future vaccines against COVID and other respiratory viruses as a more effective means of infection prevention.
“Current COVID vaccines have not proven to be highly effective in preventing infection,” he remarked. “There is a need for more mucosal vaccines for respiratory viruses. While flu vaccines are widely used, ongoing efforts are being made to create mucosal vaccines for coronaviruses, necessitating continued advocacy for federal support and prioritization for these initiatives.”
Depiction of a Neanderthal group engaged in food preparation
Luis Montagna/Marta Montagna/Science Photo Library
Neanderthals likely developed distinct food preparation traditions that varied between groups. Excavations at two caves in what is now northern Israel indicate that these ancient inhabitants had unique methods for processing similar types of prey.
Contrary to popular belief, Homo sapiens were not the first to prepare and cook food. Evidence shows that Neanderthals, who thrived in Europe and Asia until approximately 40,000 years ago, hunted, cooked a diverse array of animals, and employed flint tools to enhance their meals with wild herbs.
For further insights into Neanderthal cuisine, see Analle Jaron from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and her team, who investigated findings at the Amdo and Kebara caves.
Located merely 70 km apart, these sites provide a unique lens through which to examine cultural differences among Neanderthals. The stone tools, remnants of food, and hearths uncovered at both locations suggest that these groups occupied the caves concurrently, possibly during winter months.
As Jaron remarks, “The same animal species were being hunted, set against a similar landscape. The weather conditions were alike, and both Neanderthal groups primarily feasted on gazelles and some fallow deer.”
However, notable differences were also present. For instance, bone evidence indicates that larger prey was favored in the Kebara cave, where more substantial animals were brought in and processed.
Jaron and her colleagues utilized microscopic analysis to study bone remnants from the sediments dated between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, examining cut marks made by stone tools.
They discovered that while the flint tools were similar across both sites, the patterns of cut marks varied. “The cuts in Kebara displayed a greater fluctuation in width and depth, while in Amdo, they were concentrated in large clusters, often overlapping,” Jaron explains.
To determine whether these discrepancies influenced hunting practices, the researchers focused on the long bones of gazelles from both sites, which exhibited similar variations.
“We’re discussing two groups living in close proximity that both butchered the same type of meat, but it appears that at one site, the meat was processed closer to the bones.” says Ceren Kabukcu from the University of Liverpool, UK.
Past studies examining bone cut marks from later human societies indicate that the variations observed in Neanderthal butchery are not merely due to a lack of skills or difference in technique. It’s not a matter of expertise; it’s a difference in approach.
Jaron posits that these contrasts are likely a result of intentional choices regarding butchering methods. She suggests that Neanderthals in Amdo may have preferred to prepare their meat in ways that preserved it, such as drying or hanging before cooking.
“In the context of opportunistic behavior in slaughtering, one would expect the most efficient methods to be employed to maximize utility; nevertheless, it appears that cultural or social factors played a more significant role,” Jaron states. “This might relate to the group’s practices, passed down through learning and generations.”
“The existence of differences and the subtlety in technological usage in daily life isn’t entirely surprising,” notes Kabukcu. “As research deepens, we may uncover more nuances across various Paleolithic sites, even in China.”
It remains uncertain whether the caves were inhabited simultaneously or if different groups intermingled. “They could have been occupied at the same time or separated by hundreds of years. There’s no definitive way to ascertain that,” Jaron adds.
Nonetheless, she points out that the pronounced clustering of cut marks in Amdo is consistent across both the oldest and youngest sediment layers, suggesting that groups returning to the cave may have maintained similar butchering practices over centuries.
the is a small junction in a Norfolk village where a red telephone booth stands on a battlefield at the heart of the struggle between an 89-year-old man and a multi-billion-pound multinational corporation. And in the red phone box, evacuating from the wind, there is Derek Harris. Last month he learned that BT (formerly British News) was threatening to close the phone box in the village of Charrington, where he had lived for 50 years when he saw it on the Parish Council agenda. “I thought, ‘I thought I should do something about this,'” Harris said.
He describes it as a “David and Goliath” campaign. It is, and – as revealed in February, this sun-lit but chewing, no longer. We talk about mortality and compromise, heritage and value. I leave with a new sense of how I can feel my true love for inanimate objects and why it is important to have a mission.
But first, some field mice. Charlington is in a picturesque part of the East Anglia countryside. “We are surrounded by open, rolling, wonderful fields – cultivated, beautiful,” says Harris. [of phone lines]. On the other side of the church just above the road is a telegraph pole, inside which three mice nest. ” His eyes glow. The rodents nibbled through the wires, destroying the villagers’ telephone lines and the internet. He says he knows about the mouse because the engineers at OpenReach, a BT-owned company that cares for the network, told him.
Harris is turning his eyes to OpenReach as he has a green junction box connected to a new fibrous cable just a few meters from the phone box. Harris will not take much time to connect the payphone to fiber formation, and like the entire phone network, he will need to upgrade his phone booth to a digital line before the analog network is turned off in 2027. “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t connect. Anyway, engineers say they come most weeks.”So maintenance.” [of the phone box] There is no problem. It’s cost-effective.”
The UK has 14,000 working phone booths, down from 20,000 three years ago. At its peak in the 1990s there were 100,000. Of these, approximately 3,000 have iconic red designs. It’s probably strange that phone boxes are surviving at all when around 95% of households have mobile phones.
It is owned and operated by BT and costs millions of pounds each year, so it is requested by regulator Ofcom under the mandate of quaintly named Telephony Universal Services. In the year until May 2020, emergency services were made from telephone booths and 25,000 and 20,000 calls were made to Childline and Samaritans, respectively.
“We have a legal responsibility to ensure that phone booths exist to meet the reasonable needs of UK citizens,” says Katie Hanson, senior consumer policy manager at Ofcom, who was part of a review of the new guidance that was published in 2022. The approach we took is that the boxes we think are essential are protected from removal.”
If the last time in the area (more than 400 meters from another phone box), you cannot remove the phone box if one or more of the following conditions apply: If you’re in an area that doesn’t have coverage for all four mobile network providers, or if you’ve made at least 52 calls in the past year, or if you have a large number of places how hobes hobes hobes in how in hocidens how in hocidents, or if you have high social needs, for example, if you have many calls to helplines such as childline or domestic abuse charities. If the phone booth is the last on the site and none of the other terms apply, and BT wants to remove it, you must start a consultation process with the local government.
Crisis Charities Childline and Samaritans receive thousands of calls from phone booths.
Photo: Sally Anscombe/Getty Images
It is one of the 10 North Norfolk District Council area that was assigned to remove less than 10 calls from Sharrington’s public telephone box last year. The village in the reserve features a 13th century church and Jacobian Manor House. Harris believes that the phone booth is a “symbolic heritage property” and that local MP Steph Aquaron wrote in historic England to list it. “K6 models work rarely,” says Harris. Topped with a golden Tudor crown, the K6 (for kiosk number 6) was designed by Ir Gilbert Scott in 1935 to mark George V’s silver jubilee.
Harris has lived in Charlington for half a century. It was just that he and his late wife raised two children. The phone booth was there longer. Both Harris and K6 share their birth year in 1935. This partially explains his affinity. He spent his childhood in Surrey, near Croydon Airport, enjoying the sight of a plane flying overhead.
“It’s very interesting for a little boy,” he says. “It wasn’t a very good place when the war began, as the airport was the target.” The family took shelter to the south coast, but it wasn’t that safe. German fighter bombers attack the area with a “chip and run” attack. When Harris was about eight years old, he survived such an attack while playing with his brother. “We saw a friend injured. Some were killed.” A few years later, as a young man, Harris joined the Army and was injured. “The outdoor surgeon saved my life,” he says, but he was warned that he would need multiple operations in the coming years and not expect long lifespans (he reminds me a few times in “90th year”).
“I faced death in 2016. It’s still here.”… Harris Councillor Andrew Brown (left).
Photo: Joshu Abright/Guardian
Sharrington’s phone booth also fights previous threats to its life. “They tried to remove it in 2016, but we resisted it well,” says Harris. “I have faced death before and passed through it. I faced death in 2016. It’s still here. Something tells me that it’s meant to stay.” Campaigns to keep it, including Harris and local councillor Andrew Brown, were given an extra month to sue their lawsuit.
“It could be a lifeline and a conservation asset,” Brown says. The area is rural and isolated, with some villagers virtually no mobile signals. North Norfolk has the highest proportion of seniors in the UK and Wales, with adults probably not having a mobile phone. And it has one of the highest percentages of the second home in the country. In an emergency, try knocking on the empty villa door without a mobile signal or work payphone.
He made their point in 2016, Harris said: It wasn’t just a museum piece, people used it. “However, he admits, “probably more of them than they are now.”
Many of the village elders who relied on phone boxes for not having a cell phone have been dead since then, but some older people still use it, Harris claims. If the box survives, one of the handfuls of calls that I logged in in 2025 will be created by me. I lift the receiver and the crackling of dial tones and deep ham go back to the teenage phone and the quick garbled call you had to make before the money runs out. This phone box doesn’t take coins and doesn’t charge me. That’s confusing. You will see that there are some phone booths that don’t allow you to take coins or cards and make free calls to your UK landlines and mobile phones.
It rings the only number you remember without looking at your contact list. He won’t pick it up. Because in this era, who answers unknown landline numbers? So I’m whatsapp to say he rings out of the phone box and says it’s me! We are both temporarily excited about novelty and nostalgia.
Harris admits that mobile phones are everywhere, but he points out that in this part of the country, the signals are rough. “We live next to the quiet Graven Valley, perhaps the most beautiful part of Norfolk, where pure chokestream runs. It’s what attracts ramblers, walkers, lots, and everyone works.” Think if there’s an emergency and your mobile network is down. He says it can happen more and more frequently as you experience extreme weather. “If someone said, ‘If you kept up to that job,’ wouldn’t that be awful? “
It is used in emergencies. “What you need to keep in mind is that some phones made were essential and probably saved someone’s life. It wasn’t that long ago, but there was a snowstorm.” The mobile network is down, and the phone someone made from the phone box was “the only way the rescue came to save this driver, whose car was completely covered in snow. It fell from the top of the hedge in his car and he was trapped.” And not too far is the main road known locally as the Charlington Straight, a rare, straight road that Norfolk’s most reckless drivers tend to speed up. Last year, Harris said: It’s a hot spot for accidents. “
He makes his point for just and practical reasons that he needs to keep a phone box, but this is not the whole story, and when we are talking, we find ourselves out of the cold at a nearby cafe.
“The closer you get to the end, the more you want to see things live. I don’t want to see it die ‘… Derek Harris. Photo: Joshu Abright/Guardian
“Would you like to see the work K6 that BT holds?” asks Harris. He is a good speaker. He distrusts human rights lawyers and misses the day when people respect the police. But he is not all traditionalists. He worked for much of his career in energy savings. I think he likes purpose and order – he dresses perfectly in pressed jeans and shirts, as well as a traditional, untouched overcoat – that may be why he is not keen on the way red phone boxes are being reused in other villages. When BT adopted the kiosk scheme, the phone booth became the home of the library, or defibrillators. Why can’t Sharrington enjoy a new life as such?
“It wasn’t designed for that,” Harris says. “It was designed for communication. Why should it be changed to something else? It’s a telephone kiosk. It’s not a library of sorts or anything.”
Turn it into something else, and it becomes a quirky relic of British history. Another dial tone is dead. As a functional phone booth, “It’s going to be alive, right? So I feel empathy – I feel empathy for what is alive.”
For Harris, that’s personal. Continuity has comfort, which means saving what is worth saving and making the world a better place, or at least not diminishing it. It includes the iconic red telephone box, which works in the village where he lived for a long time. “It’s fighting for something precious, take good care of it,” he says, the more he gets it. The closer you get to the end, the more you want to see things live. I don’t want to see it die. That’s how you put it. That’s what I’m fighting for. “
If TikTok disappears from the United States, its 170 million American users won’t be the only ones who lose out.
British TikTokers and executives told the Guardian that they would lose a significant portion of their audience after the ban. The video app has become a key entry point into the U.S. for British online video creators who make a living by gaining views and securing sponsored content deals. The ban is scheduled to go into effect on Sunday, leaving a U.S.-sized hole in the global user base.
“In English-speaking markets, many creators have significant U.S. audiences following them,” says Billion Dollar Boy, a UK-based advertising agency that connects creators and influencers with blue-chip advertisers. CEO Thomas Walters said: He added that a ban would be “really sad” for creators who have “built an audience from nothing” on TikTok.
The Guardian spoke to several UK-based creators and one entrepreneur, all of whom said they would be affected by the ban.
Jay Beach, 30, London
Almost half of the users are from the United States. Beech’s 1.7 million viewers On TikTok. He said there were strong relationships between creators and users on both sides of the Atlantic, and that millions of Brits and Americans would miss this kind of digital cultural exchange.
“Seeing that gap in our feeds is going to make a big difference for all of us,” he says.
Beach, who describes her posts as “high energy fashion content”, said sponsored content from brands such as US skincare brand Kiehl’s and Sky TV makes up the bulk of her income. He also has a presence on YouTube Shorts and Instagram, but says he’s noticed that TikTok users “don’t necessarily follow you anywhere else.”
“[A ban] “It’s going to throw people into this diaspora of rediscovering their favorite creators and finding a new home on their platform of choice,” he said.
Fats Timbo, 28, Kent
Fats Timbo is a comedian and podcaster. Photo: Fats Timbo
Fats is a comedian and disability activist who posts comedy, beauty, and lifestyle content. 3 million followers on TikTok. She says the platform’s reach in the U.S. (about a quarter of her followers) is essential to her work.
“TikTok is very important to my career because it allows me to connect with an audience in the United States, where there is a lack of representation for people like me – Black women with dwarfism. “That’s often the case,” she says.
Timbo added that the United States offers creators like her the opportunity to “grow, collaborate, and get noticed on a global stage.”
“It’s not just about the numbers. It’s about the impact I can have and the representation I can give to people who rarely see people like them in the media. Losing that connection is something that I You feel like you’re losing some of your purpose,” she says.
Timbo says the US audience is “key to securing deals, collaborations and global visibility with brands.” Losing TikTok in the US would be a “major setback,” but she is also creating content on Instagram to stay connected with her US followers.
M Wallbank, 25, South Yorkshire
Approximately 40% of Em Wallbank’s audience is from the United States. The South Yorkshire-based creator said it was also thanks to her accent that her comedy skits became a hit across the Atlantic. Wallbank is best known for his posts riffing on Harry Potter characters. TikTok has 1.7 million followers.
“I think part of my popularity is because I’m from the north and my accent is a bit unusual.” [to US users]” she says.
Wallbank, who started posting skits on TikTok in 2022, said the U.S. social media market is a test of the ability for creators like the Kardashians and Nicole Richie to build broad careers.
“People who have careers outside of social media are getting more attention from American audiences,” she says.
Wallbank’s popularity in the US has led her to perform at US fan conventions and create sponsored content with multinational companies such as Disney+ in the UK. She’s concerned about aspiring creators who are using TikTok and its U.S. audience to access creative careers that might otherwise be out of reach.
“Being able to use my background to break into a creative industry is huge,” she says.
Sarah Yuma, 30, London
Uma says her American TikTok audience is essential to the growth of her business, which sells home accessories and hair accessories made from African fabrics.
“It can be difficult to build a business solely relying on a UK audience. It was the US audience that propelled my business during lockdown and took it to the next level.” she says.
Yuma has more than that 3,000 followers on TikToksaid it saw an influx of U.S. customers and followers in 2020 as the Black Lives Matter movement grew in popularity.
Sarah Yuma sells handmade products made from African fabrics from her home in London on Thursday. Photo: Martin Godwin/The Guardian
If TikTok were to disappear from the U.S., “we would be losing a huge part of our community,” Yuma said. “They helped me design it. It’s a really beautiful community I’ve created.”
She added that if TikTok were to be suspended in the U.S., it would have to rethink how it connects with U.S. audiences.
“We need to rethink our strategies on how to keep them in the community and keep them in touch,” she says. “I don’t want to isolate them. They’re really important to my business.”
Sam Cornforth, 29, London
corn force post fitness comedy sketches He has 460,000 followers, about a quarter of them in the United States. He said income from sponsored content would be protected by the fact that it was working with UK-based brands like Argos.
But he said brands could react negatively to creators losing a significant portion of their audience.
“Brands are paying attention to your entire reach. If you potentially cut 20% to 30% of that, would that impact future opportunities with those brands?” he asked.
Cornforth added that TikTok’s U.S. audience is important in establishing trends that filter down to other platforms. Without that influence, creators may lose the impetus and inspiration for their work.
“This is where the trends come from, which later narrows down to YouTube Shorts and Instagram,” he says.
As readers in the Northern Hemisphere face long, dark nights and cold weather for many weeks to come, what could be better than a fun card game? If you're too strapped for money to play poker and have exhausted the comical possibilities of poker, card against humanity (This state is typically reached after about 10 minutes of play.) If you're interested in scientific research, you may want to consider: Publish or perish.
Created by a social psychologist Max Hui Bye, Publish or perish Simulate the experience of building a career in scientific research. The game is to publish as many papers and collect citations as possible. Even if your paper is crap or you have to sabotage another player's publication. In Bai's words, “players interrupt each other, send vitriolic comments, and compete to publish useless nonsense.”
To publish a paper, players collect cards representing key elements of their research, from ideas and data to references. To speed this up, you can use cards that represent positive actions, such as attending a workshop or forming a collaboration.
But the real fun happens when you play dirty. Some cards allow dangerous activities such as plagiarism and p-hacking (a statistical trick that repeatedly reanalyzes data in different ways until a significant result is found, then independently publishes the results). Masu. For example, you can sabotage someone's “research” by identifying minor citation errors or requesting an audit of their work.
The game includes cards representing papers that can be published, all of which include “Procrastination Patterns Among Academics: My Own Case Study'' (written by Anita Blake, Ph.D. in Psychology) and “Practical Fields''. Guide,” with headlines flanked by insane and honest feedback. Leads to unproductive meetings and wasted organizational time” (by Max Time-Squader, MBA, JD, MD, Ph.D.).
Feedback does not have a copy. However, now that this article has been published, I have a feeling it might just be a matter of time before Mrs Feedback or Feedback Jr receives feedback on our birthdays. However, as (very) former academic researchers, we were aware of the horror and pain of the research experience. I don't know what it would be like for a working researcher to play this game. While there may be catharsis, many buried traumas may also resurface. We recommend having a therapist on-site.
Feedback also leaves us wondering what the game's legacy will be. Famously, Exclusive The game was invented as a biting satire on landlord and renter capitalism, but after being acquired by Parker Brothers it was sold around the world as a fun game about how to get rich. Will there still be feedback 50 years from now? Publish or perish Marketed by the Trump Organization as a fun game about how to discover new knowledge.
A parade of bots
Just when you thought talking to actual loved ones on Facebook and Instagram (rather than advertisers or meme collectors) couldn't be any harder, parent company Meta has decided to make it even harder.
It all started with something article in financial timesIn it, Meta executive Connor Hayes reportedly said the company plans to add a large number of AI profiles to the site. or F.T. “Meta envisions social media filled with AI-generated users.”
Following this, many users realized that there were actually a large number of AI profiles already on the site. According to Jason Kabler (404 Media)these “meta-controlled AI-generated Instagram and Facebook profiles…have been on the platform for over a year.” However, most of them have been deleted, and the few that remained stopped posting in April 2024. This is because “users almost universally ignored it.”
It was a mistake for Meta to not be able to permanently delete the profile as users started experimenting. washington post columnist Karen Attia I chatted with An AI called Livwas introduced as a queer black woman. Attia made Liv say that none of the creators were black and only 1 out of 12 was female (though who knows if that was telling the truth or just a hallucination? I don't know either). Unfortunately, Liv has since been removed.
meanwhile, business insider 's katie notopoulos We pointed out that you can create your own AI chatbot on Facebook Messenger. showed off what she had made: “Ciao! I'm Luigi, your go-to person for all things healthcare disparities and reform… Participating in healthcare advocacy is my passion!”
Meta claims that the next generation AI profile is better. It's not difficult.
The real question is why the company thinks anyone would want this. The whole point of social media is that you can talk to people. That's why social media platforms have put so much effort into cracking down on bots and spammers that pollute the conversation.
Nevertheless, feedback remains optimistic. It's entirely possible that the AI Profiles project will go exactly like Meta's attempt to drag us all into the Metaverse, but it failed because it couldn't create avatars with legs.
Or perhaps AI profiles can combat misinformation. Mark Zuckerberg decided to: Fire all fact checkers.
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Good neighborhoods are defined by the people who reside there. The presence of a helpful individual can enhance the community, while a negative neighbor can detract from its overall quality. The same concept applies to the brain, as revealed in a recent study indicating that brain cells behave like communities. Some cells contribute to a nurturing environment, promoting health and resilience in adjacent cells, while others spread stress and damage like bad neighbors.
Throughout one’s life, the composition of this brain community influences the aging process. Negative relationships can accelerate aging and lead to issues such as memory loss, while a healthy brain community can work collectively to combat aging. Researchers at Stanford University believe that these findings could potentially inform the development of treatments to slow or reverse aging.
Published in the journal Nature, the study identified 17 cells that influence aging positively or negatively. Notably, T cells and neurons were highlighted for their significant impact as bad and good neighbors, respectively. T cells, typically involved in fighting infections, can contribute to inflammation in the brain and hasten aging, while neural stem cells play a vital role in rejuvenation and maintaining a youthful brain.
The researchers conducted gene activity mapping across 2.3 million cells in the mouse brain, constructing a “spatial aging clock” to predict the biological age of individual cells. This innovative approach could lead to new biological discoveries and interventions, such as inhibiting pro-aging factors released by T cells or enhancing the efficacy of neural stem cells.
These findings have implications for understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and potential strategies to strengthen the brain’s natural repair mechanisms and prevent cognitive decline. The research offers hope for uncovering ways to support brain health and combat aging-related challenges.
Elon Musk is currently facing election integrity issues offline, while X owner is advocating for the discovery and reporting of “potential instances of voter fraud or misconduct” through a representative. The community established by Musk is filled with unfounded claims masquerading as evidence of voter fraud.
Despite being absent from a mandatory court appearance in Philadelphia to address a lawsuit challenging his political action committee’s significant donations to voters, Musk has launched an online platform, X (formerly Twitter), dedicated to enabling users to share their voting-related concerns. The Election Integrity Community within this space swiftly began identifying what they perceived as signs of fraud and electoral interference.
Various tweets showcasing torn ballots, ABC News system tests, postal workers in action, and individuals submitting mail-in ballots are being presented as evidence of a compromised presidential election. Some users are even posting videos of people they suspect without substantial evidence, making it challenging for the community to verify these claims.
Misinformation is spreading within X and other platforms, with right-wing influencers amplifying false accusations of ballot stuffing and voter suppression. Such baseless claims are contributing to the harassment of innocent individuals, including postal workers, as seen in a viral video from Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
Experts note that this community, consisting of over 50,000 members, is employing tactics reminiscent of past online forums to propagate claims of a stolen election. These tactics were previously utilized in the aftermath of the 2020 election by groups like “Stop the Steal” on platforms such as Facebook, Telegram, and Parler.
In their attempt to bolster the narrative of a “stolen election,” these groups disseminate unverified stories to a large audience, which are then leveraged by influencers to fuel suspicions of electoral malpractice. The Election Integrity Partnership has compiled a report highlighting the dangers posed by such disinformation campaigns.
Lenny DiResta, an associate professor at Georgetown University, warns of the real-world consequences of unfounded rumors being weaponized by propaganda outlets. Ordinary individuals are inadvertently caught up in these campaigns, facing unwarranted scrutiny and harassment.
The Election Integrity Community provides insight into a nationwide echo chamber where beliefs of election rigging against Trump are widespread. While distinct from the main X feed, Musk occasionally shares concerns from this community on his page.
One prevalent conspiracy theory within the community revolves around Elon Musk, who has falsely insinuated that the Biden administration is orchestrating voter fraud through undocumented immigrants. Additionally, a Musk-backed Superpac has been implicated in disseminating misleading information about Kamala Harris with the “Project 2028” campaign.
'I I remember visiting Ghostface Killah. [of the Wu-Tang Clan] “He was mad at us!” recalls Darryl Anselmo, a former EA employee and art director on 2004's groundbreaking hip-hop fusion fighting game Def Jam: Fight for NY. “Ghost Face was holding four pounds of solid gold. eagle bracelet And he claimed that his character's signature move would be for the bird to come to life and peck the other rappers out of their eyes. But the limitations of the PlayStation 2's technology and its violence restrictions meant that it couldn't happen. It wasn't possible.”
“When Ghost Face first asked about the eagle, Lauren… [Wirtzer Seawood, another one of the game’s producers] He told me to just nod and smile, and when I met him again at the studio for the sequel, I apologized. [for misleading him] He quickly moved on to recording extended insults for his character for the new game, one of which I remember: “Go home and cry to your mother. And tell her you're hungry!”
Whether or not Ghostface Killah transforms into a giant killer eagle, the resulting game, Def Jam: Fight for NY, celebrates its 20th anniversary this month and remains one of the fighting game genre's most vibrant spins. It's the rare '00s game that's still dominating social media conversation despite never being remade or re-released. The 67 characters include rap legends like Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Ice-T, Scarface, Ludacris, Flavor Flav, Slick Rick, Warren G, and Mobb Deep, and it's an improvement over the slower-paced gameplay of its predecessor, Def Jam: Vendetta, in every respect.
Vendetta was essentially publisher EA's best take on an engine made for a defunct WCW wrestling game that was mired in development hell and causing executives to lose their heads. At one stage, in their desperation, they even suggested that it could be salvaged and remade into an intergalactic wrestling game full of alien characters. But because Holmes and Anselmo had helmed the 2001 success NBA Street (which added a faster, cartoony, hip-hop aesthetic to basketball multiplayer and far outsold that year's bigger-budget (and much more boring) NBA Live 2002), they were deemed the perfect duo to turn what began as a vague boardroom idea (what if rappers wrestled each other?) into a fleshed-out, retail game.
“It was a controversial concept”…Def Jam battles in NYC. Photo: EA
This meant traveling back and forth to Japan to work with development company AKI Corporation, while also touring the US to meet with rappers signed or affiliated with legendary label Def Jam, and ultimately winning their trust. They shaped the character's mannerisms, from moves to taunts. “It's been a dream life, to be honest,” Holmes adds. “I grew up obsessed with hip-hop. As a teenager, I worked in a music store and sold a bass guitar to Flavor Flav when Public Enemy played in Vancouver. Flavor actually remembered me! It was an amazing time. Who would have thought I'd end up recording with my idols and going to Snoop Dogg's family home?”
But he acknowledges that the core concept behind Def Jam: Vendetta and its sequel, Def Jam: Fight for NY, wasn't easily embraced: “Execs had a hard time understanding the concept of a fighting game about rappers. It was a controversial concept,” says the producer, who went on to work on Halo 4 at Microsoft and 343 Industries.
“Once I explained to them that to be the best lyricist in hip-hop, it's all about arguing, dissing, and competing for the throne, they finally got it,” Anselmo reveals. “Hip-hop is full of vibrant, competitive personalities, so the character roster could have a Street Fighter II or Tekken 3 vibe.”
Def Jam: Fight for NY's concept of rappers punching each other was a huge success, and critics loved it, too, with a score of 83 on Metacritic. “We rushed to make Vendetta, but it still sold well,” says Holmes. “That success gave us the opportunity to expand on the gameplay with Fight for NY and take our time to get it right.” AKI Corporation took the ever-changing, momentum-based combat from the legendary WWF: No Mercy game, released on Nintendo 64 in 2000, and sped everything up with hyper-active Blazin' Moves (my personal favorite is Busta's backbreaker, which is more destructive than Batman's spine-crushing Bane).
The art design is somewhere between The Wire and a comic book, with an ambitious range of dynamic fighting styles (kickboxing, street fighting, martial arts, wrestling, submission). There's a storyline, with Snoop Dogg playing the cunning vampire villain The Crow, who'll hit you with a cane and cleverly taunt you with, “Do you have dental insurance?” You can wear Roc-A-Wear or Ecko tracksuits, getting increasingly better dressed as you rise through the ranks of your boss D-Mob's underground fighting syndicate, slowly earning you respect. It's as if Fight Club had been directed by glossy rap music vid…
Rappers Joe Budden vs. Sticky Fingaz compete in Def Jam's New York Battle. Photo: EA
The key mission was to choose either 128-bit's Lil' Kim or Carmen Electra as his new girlfriend, and the next day Method Man would call and ask if they'd slept together. The latter was one part of the game that Anselmo now regrets: “Lil' Kim could beat any of the male MCs, but… [reduced to that]”In 2004,” he admits, “all of the rap music videos were about objectifying women, which in retrospect is a real shame. The reality is that there was a push to make the game more sex appealing and more culturally relevant.”
As I recalled after recently replaying my dusty GameCube copy, Fight for NY is still exhilaratingly challenging. The boss fight featuring Fat Joe's crack Zangief-esque character had me hurling my WaveBird controller against the wall as a teenager. You can't beat your opponent unless you take the time to figure out how to counter their attacks, and while this process can be brutal at times, it makes it all that much more satisfying when you finally triumph.
“This game is designed in such a way that you have to sweat and really learn something new to win!” Anselmo says with a smile. “AKI's Hiro Abe (programmer) and Hiroya Tamura (artist) were geniuses. To get good at Def Jam: Fight for NY, you had to master the gameplay and get used to losing. In modern games, fighting games are just too easy. I think that's why so many people still play our game over and over.”
“Fighting games are too easy in today's gaming world”…Def Jam Fight for NY. Photo: EA
And there are still a lot of people playing Fight for NY. Not a week goes by without someone playing. Nostalgic post A gameplay video that went viral on TikTok has gone viral to the point where people can't believe it even exists. Even rappers (Including Ice TThe actor who played the character in the game(?) is still responding to tweets from fans begging for an updated version.
A$AP Rocky has labelled modern rap the “new wrestling” due to the commercialisation of petty infighting and mainstream MCs treating rap personas like WWE bad-mouthing tough guys. Holmes agrees with my theory that Def Jam: Fight for NY, with its constant depictions of MCs embroiled in diss tracks and gang politics, now feels like a documentary, especially considering how much more public conflict there has become in rap. “Rap is becoming more and more dramatic,” he agrees. “You see a lot of social media videos of rappers fighting each other, and it's interesting that the violence of the game doesn't seem so ridiculous today.”
Some will argue that a game that trivializes the conflict in hip-hop is wrong and deserves more criticism, especially with so many rappers losing their lives to violence every year. Anselmo counters: “I get that, and I don't think we could make the game right now because of drill, the environment is too tough. But Def Jam: Fight for NY was just meant to be a fantasy, escapist experience. It was like a gangsta rap version of The Warriors. It was just a little fun. We trusted that the audience would know that in real life, throwing someone through a window is not cool. We were really trying to res…tement is too tough. But Def Jam: Fight for NY was just meant to be a fantasy, escapist experience. It was like a gangsta rap version of The Warriors. It was just a little fun. We trusted that the audience would know that in real life, throwing someone through a window is not cool. We were really trying to respect the culture of hip-hop.”
The original Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube discs of Def Jam: Fight for NY are highly sought-after and command high prices on the second-hand market. But there hasn't been a Def Jam game released since 2007's disappointing Def Jam: Icon, and there hasn't been a remaster of Fight for NY. Why?
The sequel may be one of the most expensive games ever made…Def Jam Fight for NY. Photo: EA
Lauren Wurtzer Seawood, former vice president of marketing for the Def Jam label, played a pivotal role in the development of the first two games, serving as the liaison introducing the timid development team to the feisty MCs, and working hard to sort out complex licensing agreements ranging from image rights to music to in-game brand partnerships.
She says this complicated business mechanic is a big reason why it's highly unlikely the franchise will ever be revived. Def Jam: Fight for NY cost about $15 million to make, but with both hip-hop and video games now multi-billion dollar businesses worldwide, licensing fees would be astronomical. “If this game was re-released today, many
“We’re facing a jungle – the noise, the smell, the risk of disease,” stated Penny Reynolds, who resides across the street from the land designated for the Bainbridge facility.
Safer Human Medicine has reassured residents that they take all necessary precautions to ensure that all waste remains on-site and is sent to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, and that most of the noise is contained on-site with no detectable odors.
Greg Westergaard, the CEO of monkey breeder Alpha Genesis, mentioned that establishing a monkey facility entails significant effort.
“It would involve extensive training and infrastructure,” he explained. “There will be unpleasant odors and wastewater from cleaning.”
Residents of Bainbridge point to the backgrounds of several executives at Safer Human Medicine, two of whom previously held leadership roles at companies that were under investigation, as a reason to be skeptical of their efforts.
CEO of Safer Human Medicines, Jim Harkness, is the chief operating officer of Envigo. He recently pleaded guilty. Thousands of dogs were abandoned, leading to a $35 million fine. Former Chief Operating Officer Kurt Derfler has left Charles River Laboratories. The Department of Justice issued a subpoena The probe was part of an inquiry into the potential smuggling of wild monkeys from Cambodia, and Charles River Laboratories stated at the time that any concerns about its involvement were “unwarranted.”
Neither Mr. Harkness nor Mr. Derfler faced individual charges related to those incidents.
Safer Human Medicine declined an interview request. “Envigo was functioning under unprecedented circumstances brought on by the pandemic,” they said in an email. They also stated that “we have been committed to operating responsibly and ethically in this field for decades and will continue to do so.”
Long-tailed macaques, also known as crab-eating macaques, are climbing the pillar in Indonesia in 2023.Chaidir Mahyudin/AFP via Getty Images file
Safer Human Medicine has stated that they do not use wild-caught macaques. Herpes BThe macaques will be sourced from Asia, but the specific location has not been disclosed.
Community activism in Bainbridge has made an impact. What was initially promoted as a “significant investment” is now overseen by Rick McCaskill, executive director of the Bainbridge and Decatur County Development Authority. Approximately $400 million and 260 jobs Things took a turn quickly. Following pushback from the community, Bainbridge leaders decided in February to Withdraw support for the Safer Human Medicine Project.
“The division and fear within the community seemed to outweigh the benefits of the project,” McCaskill remarked.
Monkeys used for research are housed at seven national primate research centers, each with its own breeding colonies, as well as other facilities across the country. While the national primate research centers mostly utilize rhesus macaques, pharmaceutical companies tend to prefer long-tailed macaques, which Safer Human Medicine intends to use.
Animal testing for drug development was formerly mandatory in the United States, but President Joe Biden will lift the ban in 2022. FDA Modernization Act 2.0 Signed into LawAllow non-animal options where possible. Several members of Congress voted this year to The bill was submitted. We advocate for a shift away from animal testing.
“There are various alternatives available today, such as AI, computer models, and organs on chips,” stated Jim Newman, spokesperson for the American Association for Medical Progress, a group that supports animal testing when necessary, “but current options can only reduce the number of animals to a certain extent.”
An artist’s rendering of a monkey enclosure proposed for Bainbridge, Georgia.Safer Human Medicines
Currently, researchers still rely on monkeys for certain tests, and some animal researchers cite a U.S. Shortage of long-tailed macaques — Imports reportedly dropped by over 20% in 2020 due to China halting exports, leading to a surge in prices of long-tailed macaques.
Safer Human Medicine believes that their proposed facility can address the monkey shortage, intending to start with 500 to 1,000 monkeys and then expand. They stated that the facility would be funded by industry and private donors in the US, without specifying them.
The extent of opposition from local residents to the facility remains unclear. Some local politicians who opposed the facility lost recent elections, but it is uncertain if their defeat was linked to their stance.
Nevertheless, Faircloth asserted that her group has no intention of backing down.
“If we don’t stand up for our rights, they will walk all over us,” she declared. “And we can’t allow that to happen.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is providing millions of dollars to help traditionally underserved coastal communities combat climate change. This funding includes a significant stretch of 12,000 square miles of land spanning from North Carolina to Florida, known as the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Designated by Congress in 2006, this land increases the wealth of the Gullah-Geechee by allowing communities along the corridor to utilize federal funds for programs and projects and receive technical and financial assistance from the National Park Service, all in an effort to protect and preserve their history and culture.
In April 2023, NOAA also announced over $265 million in funding for 38 new projects aimed at strengthening the climate resilience of coastal ecosystems and communities. These projects include initiatives in South Carolina to accelerate living shoreline projects in underserved communities, as well as collaborations with the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor to create living shoreline projects in these communities. Additionally, the funding includes $6.2 million for programs supporting the Regional Ambassador Program for Coastlines.
NOAA-recommended projects involve hiring new staff to assist restoration organizations in building relationships with the Gullah-Geechee community, identifying resiliency priorities for community members, and establishing local relationships to support future restoration efforts. Moreover, $536,000 has been allocated to form an advisory committee.
A Gullah woman weaves a sweetgrass basket, circa 1930. H. Armstrong Roberts/Classic Stock/Getty Images
Tia Clark operates Casual Club with Tia in Charleston, South Carolina, focusing on catching blue crabs, a staple in Gullah-Geechee cuisine. She participates in a conservation effort to build oyster reefs and create habitat for marine life to thrive, as rising temperatures are endangering crab habitats. With blue crab populations at an all-time low in South Carolina in 2023, Clark emphasizes the need to protect these resources from further decline.
Clark collaborates with state agencies and local schools to educate students about the importance of preserving water resources for future generations, emphasizing the impacts of climate change on the environment and wildlife.
Numerous federal programs support the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, emphasizing the importance of combatting climate change to protect the land, water, and way of life cherished by those living along the corridor.
“We are dedicated to ensuring the survival and continuation of our traditions as native Gullah Geechee,” said Queen Couette. “We are committed to preserving our heritage for generations to come.”
A group of investigators devoted to finding errors in scientific research has shocked some of the world’s most prestigious research institutions and the scientific community as a whole.
The highly publicized case of alleged image manipulation in a paper co-authored by a former Stanford University president and a leader at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has garnered national media attention, prompting speculation from top scientific leaders that this may only be the beginning.
“At this pace, we’re going to see another paper published every few weeks,” said Holden, the editor-in-chief of Science, one of the world’s two most influential journals. Mr. Thorpe said on site.
Investigators argue that their work is necessary to rectify the scientific record and prevent generations of researchers from pursuing futile avenues due to flawed papers. Some scientists are calling for universities and academic publishers to reform their approach to addressing flawed research.
“I understand why the investigators who discovered these issues are so furious,” said Michael, a biologist and former editor of the journal eLife, as well as a prominent advocate for reform in scientific publishing. “Authors, journals, institutions, everyone is incentivized to downplay their significance,” Eisen said.
For approximately a decade, investigators identified widespread problems with scientific images in published papers and voiced their concerns online, but received little attention. Last summer, neuroscientist and then-Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne resigned amid scrutiny over allegations of image manipulation in a study he co-authored and a report criticizing his lab culture. Since then, there has been a noticeable shift. While Tessier-Lavigne himself has not been found to have engaged in any misconduct, members of his lab appear to have manipulated images in questionable ways. Thereport from the scientific panelhired to investigate the allegations stated.
In January, a blogger’s scathing post exposed questionable research by top leaders at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which subsequently retracted six papers and requested corrections to dozens more.
In hisresignation statement, Tessier-Lavigne stated that the committee could not find any evidence that he was aware of any misconduct, and that he had never submitted documents that appeared to be inaccurate. In a statement from its research integrity officer, Dana-Farber stated that it had taken decisive action to correct the scientific record and that discrepancies in the images were not necessarily evidence that the authors were attempting to deceive.
“We are experiencing a moment of public awareness that really turned a corner when the Mark Tessier-Lavigne scandal unfolded, and since then the Dana-Farber scandal has been the most recent and continuous,” Thorpe said.
This long-standing issue is now receiving national attention, with the emergence of new artificial intelligence tools that are helping address problems ranging from longstanding errors and sloppy science to unethically manipulated images in photo-editing software, making it easier to spot various issues.
This increased scrutiny is prompting changes in how some publishers operate. Universities, journals, and researchers are being urged to consider new technologies, the potential backlog of undiscovered errors, and methods for enhancing transparency when problems are identified.
This comes at a challenging time in academic circles. Venture capitalist Bill Ackman, in apost last month on X, discussed the use of artificial intelligence to identify plagiarism by leaders of top universities with ideological differences, and raised questions about political motivations in plagiarism investigations. More broadly, public trust in scientists and science has steadily declined in recent years, according to thePew Research Center.
Eisen stated that he does not believe investigators’ concerns about scientific images veer into “McCarthyist” territory. “I think they’re honing in on a specific type of problem in the literature, and they’re right. That’s bad,” Eisen said.
Scientific publishing is the primary means by which scientists establish a foundation of understanding in their fields and share new discoveries with their colleagues. Before publication, scientific journals review submissions and solicit feedback from researchers outside the field to identify errors or faulty inferences, a process known as peer review. Journal editors evaluate research findings for plagiarism and conduct copy editing prior to publication. While this system is not perfect, it still relies on the good faith efforts of researchers to avoid manipulating research results.
Over the past 15 years, scientists have become increasingly concerned that some researchers are digitally altering images in papers to distort or enhance their results. The field of image integrity screening has expanded significantly since Yana Christopher, a scientific imaging expert with the European Federation of Biochemical Societies and its journals, began working in the field nearly 15 years ago. At the time, “no one was doing this, and people were in denial about research misconduct,” Christopher stated. “The prevailing belief was that it was very rare and that instances of manipulating results were few and far between.”
Scientific journals now employ entire teams dedicated to processing images and ensuring their accuracy. The number of retractions of published papers has increased significantly in recent years, with records indicating that over 10,000 papers were retracted last year, according to aNature analysis. A loose collective of scientific investigators applies external pressure, often identifying and flagging errors and potential manipulation on the online forum PubPeer. Many of these investigators receive little or no compensation or public recognition for their work.
“There’s a certain level of urgency,” Eisen stated. Ananalysis of comments on over 24,000 articles posted on PubPeer revealed that over 62% of PubPeer comments were related to image manipulation. For years, investigators relied on keen observation, pattern recognition, and a grasp of photo manipulation tools. In recent years, artificial intelligence tools capable of scanning documents for anomalies have been rapidly developed and improved.
Scientific journals are now utilizing similar technology to detect errors prior to publication. In January, Science announced that it is using an artificial intelligence tool called Proofig to scan papers undergoing editing and peer review for publication.Science editor-in-chief Thorpe stated that the family of six journals quietly incorporated the tool into their workflows approximately six months prior to the January announcement. The journal previously relied on visual inspection to identify these types of issues. During the editing process, Proofig flagged papers that had not yet been published, citing “logical explanations” for problematic images that were difficult to justify, or issues that the authors had addressed prior to publication. “Less than 1% of errors are significant enough to prevent a paper from being published,” Thorpe stated.
Chris Graff, director of research integrity at publisher Springer Nature, stated that the company is developing and testing “in-house AI image integrity software” to identify duplicate images. Graff’s research integrity department currently uses Proofig to assess papers in case concerns arise post-publication. The testing process varies among journals, but some Springer Nature publications use Adobe Photoshop tools to manually identify image manipulation and conduct experiments to visualize cellular components or general discrepancies in raw scientific experimental data.
“Although AI-based tools can facilitate and scale investigations, we still believe the human element is important in all investigations,” Graff stated, emphasizing that image recognition software is not infallible and that human expertise is necessary to guard against false positives and negatives. No tool can detect all mistakes and fraud.
“There are many facets to that process. You can never catch them all,” Thorpe remarked. “As journals, institutions, and authors, we need to do a better job of addressing this when it occurs.”
Many forensic scientists have grown frustrated that their concerns have been disregarded, or that investigations have progressed slowly with little public resolution. Sholto-David, who publicly voiced his concerns about the Dana-Farber study in a blog post, stated that the response from journal editors was so unsatisfactory that he nearly “gave up” on writing a letter to journal editors regarding the errors he had discovered. Elizabeth Bick, a microbiologist and longtime image investigator, said that if she reports image issues frequently, “nothing happens.”
While public comments on PubPeer questioning research data can stimulate discussion surrounding questionable research, authors and institutions often do not directly respond to online criticism. Although journals can issue corrections or retractions, it is generally the responsibility of research institutions or universities to investigate incidents. If the incident pertains to federally funded biomedical research, the federal Office of Research Integrity may conduct an investigation.
Thorpe stated that agencies need to assume responsibility when errors are discovered and act more swiftly to openly and candidly address what occurred to regain public trust. He stated, “The university has been very sluggish in responding, very slow in instituting the process, and the longer this goes on, the greater the damage will be. I don’t know what would have happened if Stanford had said these papers are flawed, instead of initiating this investigation.”
Some scientists are concerned that the problem of image manipulation is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of scientific integrity. Detecting issues with images is much simpler than spotting simple data errors in spreadsheets. While it is crucial to crack down on problematic papers and hold individuals accountable, some scientists believe that these measures address a larger problem: rewarding career advancement for those who publish the most exciting results rather than enduring results. “Scientific culture itself doesn’t say we care about getting it right. It says we care about getting papers that make a splash,” Eisen said.
A team at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a new statistical method, BridgePRS, to improve predictions of disease in non-European populations, particularly people of African descent. This method addresses the limitations of current polygenic risk scores, which are less accurate for non-European ancestry, and represents an important step toward personalized medicine and reducing healthcare disparities. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Statistical methods enhance prediction of genetic diseases in non-European populations and address health care equity.
A team of scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed BridgePRS, a groundbreaking statistical method to better predict disease in people of non-European descent, particularly people of African descent. This development represents an important step towards reducing healthcare disparities and a future of more personalized and precise medical interventions based on genetic information. Details of their research can be found today (December 20, 2023). natural genetics.
Addressing healthcare inequalities with enhanced polygenic risk scores
Current polygenic risk scores (PRS) are essential tools for predicting disease risk; DNA, based on genetic data from individuals of primarily European descent. This bias makes statistics less accurate for people of African and Asian descent and exacerbates health care inequalities between different ethnic groups.
The researchers undertook this study to improve disease prediction from genetics in non-European populations. Although the main goal of personalized medicine is disease prevention, the current PRS is a weak predictor, especially in non-European populations.
BridgePRS improves prediction for individuals of African descent in the New York BioMe cohort.Credit: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Closing the gap in genetic disease prediction
“More genetic data from diverse ancestry is needed, but our method can help combine existing data to maximize disease prediction for all people,” says Genetics and Genome Sciences. Dr. Clive Hoggart, assistant professor and lead author of the paper, explained. “This progress is possible because the biology that causes disease is strikingly similar across ancestry.”
“We hope our method opens the door to scientific investigation of disease risk in diverse populations around the world,” said lead author Dr. Paul O’Reilly, associate professor of genetics and genomic sciences. “The prevalence of diseases and the importance of different biological pathways vary globally. Understanding these differences is critical to advancing disease prediction and treatment.”
The field of optimizing disease prediction using PRS is highly competitive and is driving rapid progress. Dr O’Reilly said: “Our BridgePRS method is particularly promising for predicting disease in people of African descent, a population with rich genetic diversity that can provide new insights into human disease. ” states.
While recognizing the potential of genetics and DNA in predicting future disease and the role of PRS in precision medicine, it is important to understand that the biology that causes disease does not differ significantly by ancestry group or race. It is important.
Reference: “BridgePRS exploits shared genetic effects between ancestors to improve portability of polygenic risk scores,” December 20, 2023, Nature Genetics. DOI: 10.1038/s41588-023-01583-9
All remaining authors are Icahn Mount Sinai and Dr. Shing Wan Choi, except where noted. (Regeneron Genetics Center), Judit García-González, Ph.D., Tade Souaiaia, Ph.D. (Suny Downstate Health Sciences), and Michael Prouss, Ph.D.
This research was funded by grant number R01MH122866 from the National Institute of Mental Health and grant number R01HG012773 from the National Human Genome Research Institute.
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