👀 Can this be the cure for cancer? ⋆ 🤖 AI of the week ⋆ 🛰️ Voyager 2's Cosmic Comeback

I understand what these titles look like. But we live in times where potential new breakthroughs happen almost every week.

Thing 1 - Cure for cancer?

A new drug called AOH1996 can block a protein (cancer-associated PCNA  a.k.a. caPCNA) that helps cancer cells grow and repair their DNA. It can kill many types of cancer cells in the lab and in mice without harming normal cells.

If AOH1996 were a movie character, it would be the action hero that takes out the bad guys without harming the innocent bystanders.

It may be a new way to treat cancer in the future.

How it works

While PCNA is usually found in dividing or repairing cells, caPCNA is more stable and active, and it's only found in cancer cells.

The modification of PCNA to caPCNA happens through a process called methylation, which alters its structure and function. This change allows caPCNA to interact with other proteins involved in DNA replication and repair.

Researchers developed AOH1996 to bind to caPCNA, blocking its interaction with other proteins.

Phase 1 trials are now underway.

(source)

Thing 2 - AI of the week

• Great post about the Nvidia GPU bottleneck fueled by AI
  high demand for training and inference of large language models (LLMs)
• Meta is open-sourcing AudioCraft
  the framework that generates realistic audio and music from text inputs. It uses raw audio signals because they are more natural and realistic than symbolic representations.
• HyperWrite publishes a personal AI assistant
  Self-driving mode for your browser
• TaxyAI seems like HyperWrite but (some code) is open source 👀
• Wharton published Practical AI for Teachers and Students series on YouTube

Thing 3 - NASA is back in touch with Voyager 2

In the void of space, >12 billion miles away, Voyager 2 had gone silent due to a misdirected antenna, leaving the spacecraft to sulk in the void. For two tense weeks, NASA's finest grappled with the challenge: how to reestablish contact with one of humanity's most distant explorers.

Using the Deep Space Network, a globe-spanning network of radio antennas 📡, they sent a command on August 4th to redirect Voyager 2's antenna toward Earth.
It took 18 hours to travel through the vast cosmos, and another 18 to confirm success. Voyager 2 wasn't in a hurry to make up. 🙃

46 years into a 5-year mission, Voyager 2, a marvel of human ingenuity, was back on track, continuing data transmission on its remarkable journey.

And all is right with the world again. As far as Voyager 2 can tell.

Cheers, Zvonimir