61–70 of 95 posts
McMaster University ... sounds like a joke but according to Wikipedia established in 1887.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/headlines/5-big-mcma...
Here is the original study published in nature microbiology. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-025-02142-0 Wanted to share what I thought the interesting parts. From the university press release. "To date, AI has been leveraged as a tool for predicting which molecules might have therapeutic potential, but this study used it to describe what researchers call “mechanism of action” (MOA) — or how drugs attack disea…
Is DiffDock a large language model? Because that is what the general public believes AI means, and Open AI say they are building thinking machines with it, and this headline says ”predicted”.
Is it well-established that IBD is caused by E Colli? Is it like a sensitivity to E Colli?
We don't know. It's probably a combo of genetic factors and bacteria. It's at the very least complicated and multifaceted, because you can't just take a culture or biopsy of inflamed skin and say "A ha! This is clearly different!" All the most effective treatments try to turn off parts of the immune system, and even though have minor success with some patients going through multiple different immunosuppressants to fi…
Rather, the gut of some people, especially people with IBD and people who have received broad spectrum antibiotics, can be colonized by enterobacter species. These are bacteria (including some kinds of E. Coli) that are resistant to broad spectrum antibiotics, and this overgrowth is not good for gut health. The researchers have discovered a compound that appears to fight these enterobacter species without destroying the larger gut microbiome. This could help people (especially people with IBD) whose gut has been taken over by this kind of bacteria get back to a more normal gut microbiome, although only mouse studies have been done so far.
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> Indeed, after his lab’s discovery of the new antibiotic, Stokes connected with colleagues at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) to see if any of their emerging machine learning platforms could help fast-track his upcoming MOA studies. It must be so cool to work at a university. You can just walk across campus to meet with experts and learn about or apply the cutting edge of any given fie…
That's only if there are experts there. The average college is not really what you're thinking it is.
I rankly speculate: for the set of low-effort comments on HN, there are more Reverse Gell-Manns than there are Gell-Manns.
To be clear, what the researchers & AI here have discovered is not a treatment for IBD per se. Rather, the gut of some people, especially people with IBD and people who have received broad spectrum antibiotics, can be colonized by enterobacter species. These are bacteria (including some kinds of E. Coli) that are resistant to broad spectrum antibiotics, and this overgrowth is not good for gut health. The researchers…
“This new drug is a really promising treatment candidate for the millions of patients living with IBD... We currently have no cure for these conditions, so developing something that might meaningfully alleviate symptoms could help people experience a much higher quality of life.”
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That's only if there are experts there. The average college is not really what you're thinking it is.
You can email them and they are usually quite happy to talk. Of course not when they get a media storm like these people. But I regularly correspond with experts in adjacent fields who have interesting papers put out.
I don't remember the paper subject neither the researcher name (more than 20yr ago) but I remember that she was an ornitologist, the subject was quite niche and the response I received to my questions was longer than the article that prompted me to asks them.
Here is the original study published in nature microbiology. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-025-02142-0 Wanted to share what I thought the interesting parts. From the university press release. "To date, AI has been leveraged as a tool for predicting which molecules might have therapeutic potential, but this study used it to describe what researchers call “mechanism of action” (MOA) — or how drugs attack disea…
> Indeed, after his lab’s discovery of the new antibiotic, Stokes connected with colleagues at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) to see if any of their emerging machine learning platforms could help fast-track his upcoming MOA studies. It must be so cool to work at a university. You can just walk across campus to meet with experts and learn about or apply the cutting edge of any given fie…
Even when you work in administration, learning opportunities abound and are easy to seize.
I’m too shy to just walk into a random lab and ask questions, but three times a year, my boss likes to organize a tour of a different research facility and I really appreciate that.
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Doctors are the only people I’ve encountered who are ready to inform you of their poorly supported contradictory conclusions with full confidence, and are fully ready to meet any pushback with gaslighting or the dreaded “difficult patient” label. They approach the phenomenon of dropping trust and respect for their profession in much the same way. It’s really frustrating. I don’t get why they feel entitled to acting t…
My favorite is the "bless your heart" head tilt that strongly implies you're just too damn stupid to follow what they're saying, when it's obvious on its face that they're contradicting themselves. "I was correctly diagnosed with it before." "Correct." "I do not have it now." "Correct." "It is not 'in remission.' I just do not have the disease." "Correect." "But it isn't curable." "Correct." "So if it wasn't 'cured,'…
Sometimes it angers them but then it's a clear signal that you must see someone else ASAP. When we grilled my wife first oncologist on his protocol, he broke down and said that he was not up to date on the latest research. We requested someone else, he was a much better fit and most importantly she is still alive, her metastasis disappeared and the latest scans and bloodworks results are still NED (no evidence of disease).
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Not the person you're replying to, but my own IBD went away completely after I did keto for an extended period. This was a decade ago and it hasn't come back even as my diet returned to normal. In my n=1 experience, it seems maybe significant dietary changes can perturb the gut ecosystem out of whatever state corresponds to IBD.
I had a similar experience, i.e. strict keto for 9 months and fully came off meds with no signs of UC or asthma. UC came back after around 2 years and I don't remember how long before I had to start asthma meds again. I can no longer do keto though, each time I try I get palpitations now after around a week.