Kavli Foundation President Cynthia Friend (front row center) and Director of Public Engagement Brooke Smith (second row right) visited UC Berkeley in November to discuss the new Kavli Center with campus researchers. Every day, algorithms select which news stories appear in our social media feeds. Airplanes allow global travel at nearly the speed of sound while emitting greenhouse gases that accelerate the impacts of climate change. And recent advances in DNA sequencing and editing enable us to understand our fundamental genetic programming -- and potentially change it. While it may be challenging to anticipate where science might lead us next, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are taking steps to ensure that the public has a greater say in future scientific advances, and that questions of ethics and social equity take a prominent role in scientific decision-making. UC Berkeley announced today that the campus will be home to a new Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public, which, alongside a second center at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, will connect scientists, ethicists, social scientists, science communicators and the public in necessary and intentional discussions about the potential impacts of scientific discoveries.

Before Amazon's Alexa became known as the e-commerce giant's voice assistant, it was the name of the company's web ranking site. It was established in 1996 and became famous sometime ago for analyzing web traffic and listing the most popular websites around the world. The service also offers paid subscriptions for those who want detailed SEO analytics and insights. Now, Amazon has announced that it's retiring Alexa.com on May 1st, 2022, just a month after it celebrates its 26th anniversary. "Twenty-five years ago, we founded Alexa Internet. After two decades of helping you find, reach, and convert your digital audience, we've made the difficult decision to retire Alexa.com on May 1, 2022. Thank you for making us your go-to resource for content research, competitive analysis, keyword research, and so much more."

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative co-founders and co-CEOs Mark Zuckerberg '06, L.L.D. '17 and Priscilla Chan '07, announced today a gift to establish the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard. The new institute, which will have dedicated space in the recently completed Science and Engineering Complex in Allston (see "A 500-Year Building"), is named after Karen Kempner Zuckerberg, the mother of the Meta CEO and founder (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are Meta Platforms Inc.'s best-known apps) and her parents. According to Jeff MacGregor, vice president of science communications for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the Kempner Institute will receive $500 million in funding during the next 15 years. The gift will support 10 new faculty appointments, new computing infrastructure, and resources for students--from undergraduates to post-doctoral fellows--that will allow them to pursue knowledge in an uninhibited way across labs and disciplines. Zuckerberg and Chan, a pediatrician, will donate an additional $2.9 billion to support biomedical research focused on improving human health, with the aim of ultimately ending all human disease.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced the research use only (RUO) launch of three new automated digital pathology algorithms, uPath Ki-67 (30-9), uPath ER (SP1) and uPath PR (1E2) image analysis for breast cancer, which are important biomarkers for breast cancer patients. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world with an estimated 2.3 million new cases in 2020¹ and is the most common cancer in women globally¹,². These new algorithms complete the Roche digital pathology breast panel of image analysis algorithms. This includes a whole slide analysis workflow with automated pre-computing of the slide image prior to pathologist assessment, and a clear visual overlay highlighting tumour cells with and without nuclear staining. Intended for use with Roche's high medical value assays and slides stained on a BenchMark ULTRA instrument using ultraView DAB detection kit, the uPath Ki-67 (30-9) image analysis, uPath ER (SP1) image analysis and uPath PR (1E2) image analysis algorithms are ready-to-use and integrated within Roche's uPath enterprise software and NAVIFY Digital Pathology, the cloud version of uPath.

The fashion technology outfit co-founded by José Neves plans to use AI to improve made-to-order fashion supply chain. PlatformE, a fashion technology group co-founded by Farfetch's José Neves, is buying start-up Cambridge-based Catalyst AI for an undisclosed sum. According to the announcement, the deal will bring Catalyst AI's machine learning tools for optimizing fashion supply chains to PlatformE's services, which focus on on-demand and made-to-order fashion. "We're delighted to strengthen our capabilities with Catalyst AI's innovative intellectual property, and will benefit immensely from the team's expertise and their network of talent in one of the world's leading data science ecosystems," PlatformE co-founder and chief executive officer Gonçalo Cruz said in a statement. For Catalyst AI co-founder and CEO Raymond Siems, "Gonçalo has an unwavering vision for the future of fashion."

Cambridge startup AdeptID, formed last year to build an AI-backed talent-matching service for companies, announced a seed funding round on Thursday. The eight-person company raised $3.5 million in a deal led by Zeal Capital Partners and including Better Ventures, Boston nonprofit JFF's Employment Technology Fund, and other angel investors. AdeptID's software is designed to help companies find workers who have the proper skills for a job opening even if they lack the seemingly required experience or credentials, such as a college degree. Cofounders Fernando Rodriguez-Villa and Brian DeAngelis met at agriculture tech startup Indigo Ag, which acquired Rodriguez-Villa's previous startup, TellusLabs, in 2018. The pair both "had enough of a screw loose required to go and start something new," Rodriguez-Villa, now CEO of AdeptID, said.

WIRE)--Knightscope, Inc., a developer of advanced physical security technologies focused on enhancing U.S. security operations, today announced the commencement of its offering of up to $40 million of Class A common stock, with shares to be listed immediately following closing on the Nasdaq Global Market ("NASDAQ") under the ticker symbol "KSCP." The offering is for up to 4 million shares priced at $10 per share. BUY SHARES NOW Digital Offering, LLC, will act as the lead managing selling agent and sole bookrunner for the offering. The Offering can be purchased through multiple broker-dealers for a planned selling period of approximately 30 to 45 days, subject to market conditions. Learn how to buy shares in the public listing now at www.knightscope.com. For additional information on Knightscope, the offering and any other related topics, please review the offering circular that can be found here.

According to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the livestock industry accounted for over €20.2 billion of production in the Spanish economy in 2020. Research at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has confirmed that this figure could significantly improve with the use of new technologies and artificial intelligence, and better control of all the procedures required in production. A UOC industrial doctoral degree from the Network and Information Technologies programme has concluded that incorporating artificial intelligence and applying it with devices, such as monitoring sensors, would optimize the livestock industry's restocking and service planning processes, leading to higher profit and reduced costs. "Other more highly industrialized sectors have been benefiting from Industry 4.0 principles and proposals for years, but the livestock industry still suffers from a low degree of digitization," said David Raba, author of the thesis. He conducted the research INSYLO Technologies S.L., a company specializing in the development of volumetric sensors and environmental quality.

Mindtree, a global technology services and digital transformation company, today announced it has earned the AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure advanced specialization, a validation of a services partner's deep knowledge, extensive experience and proven success in enabling customer adoption of AI and implementing Azure solutions for machine learning life cycle and AI-powered apps. Only partners that meet stringent criteria around customer success and staff skilling, as well as pass a third-party audit of their AI and machine learning technical practices, are able to earn the AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure advanced specialization. As the speed of business accelerates, organizations of every type and size are looking for ways to streamline processes and deliver simpler, faster, and smarter resources to help them keep up. Partners with the AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure advanced specialization can give organizations the tools and knowledge to develop AI solutions on their terms, build AI into their mission-critical applications, and put responsible AI into action. "We are excited to be among Microsoft's first service partners to have earned the AI and Machine Learning on Microsoft Azure advanced specialization," said Radhakrishnan Rajagopalan, Global Head, Customer Success, Data and Intelligence, Mindtree.

ISM001-055 demonstrated highly promising results in multiple preclinical studies including in vitro biological studies, pharmacokinetic and safety studies. The compound significantly improved myofibroblast activation which contributes to the development of fibrosis. ISM001-055's novel target is potentially relevant to a broad range of fibrotic indications. "We are very pleased to see Insilico Medicine's first antifibrotic drug candidate entering into the clinic. We believe this is a significant milestone in the history of AI-powered drug discovery because to our knowledge the drug candidate is the first ever AI-discovered novel molecule based on an AI-discovered novel target. We have leveraged our end-to-end AI-powered drug discovery platform, including the usage of generative biology and generative chemistry, to discover novel biological targets and generate novel molecules with drug-like properties. ISM001-055 is the first such compound to enter the clinic, and we expect more to come in the near future," said Feng Ren, Ph.D., CSO of Insilico Medicine.