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In health care, AI offers promise — and hype

In health care, AI offers promise — and hype

February 28, 2019

In 2016, a Google team announced it had used artificial intelligence to diagnose diabetic retinopathy — one of the fastest-growing causes of blindness — as well as trained eye doctors could.

In December 2018, Microsoft and the pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced a partnership to develop an AI-powered digital health tool to be deployed against one of humanity’s oldest scourges — leprosy, which still afflicts 200,000 new patients annually.

Around the world, artificial intelligence is being touted as the next big thing in health care, and a potential game-changer for billions...

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Harvard geneticist: No population’s DNA is ‘pure’

February 28, 2019

Examination of ancient DNA can provide profound insights into human history, according to David Reich, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School. His talk at the Science Center on Wednesday, “A Tale of Two Subcontinents: The Parallel Prehistories of Europe and South Asia,” was drawn from his new book, “Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past,” showing what recent studies have revealed about the prehistory of Europe and southern Asia.

Reich “reshaped our understanding of human prehistory,” according to a...

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Gene Therapy Platform Developed by Neena Haider, PhD, Granted FDA Orphan Drug Designation

February 27, 2019
OCU400, a novel gene therapy platform developed by Neena Haider, PhD, Harvard Medical School Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Associate Scientist at the Schepens Eye Research Institute of Mass. Eye and Ear, and licensed to biopharmaceutical company Ocugen, Inc., has been granted orphan drug designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).... Read more about Gene Therapy Platform Developed by Neena Haider, PhD, Granted FDA Orphan Drug Designation