Materials
The Download: mysteries of the immunome, and how to choose a climate tech pioneer
How healthy am I? My immunome knows the score. Made up of 1.8 trillion cells and trillions more proteins, metabolites, mRNA, and other biomolecules, every person's immunome is different, and it is constantly changing. It's shaped by everything we have ever been exposed to physically and emotionally, and powerfully influences everything from our vulnerability to viruses and cancer to how well we age to whether we tolerate certain foods better than others. Yet as critical as the immunome is to each of us, it has remained largely beyond the reach of modern medicine. Now, thanks to a slew of new technologies, understanding this vital and mysterious system is within our grasp, paving the way for powerful new tools and tests to help us better assess, diagnose and treat diseases. On Monday, we published our 2025 edition of Climate Tech Companies to Watch .
Integrating Domain Knowledge into Process Discovery Using Large Language Models
Norouzifar, Ali, Kourani, Humam, Dees, Marcus, van der Aalst, Wil
Process discovery aims to derive process models from event logs, providing insights into operational behavior and forming a foundation for conformance checking and process improvement. However, models derived solely from event data may not accurately reflect the real process, as event logs are often incomplete or affected by noise, and domain knowledge, an important complementary resource, is typically disregarded. As a result, the discovered models may lack reliability for downstream tasks. We propose an interactive framework that incorporates domain knowledge, expressed in natural language, into the process discovery pipeline using Large Language Models (LLMs). Our approach leverages LLMs to extract declarative rules from textual descriptions provided by domain experts. These rules are used to guide the IMr discovery algorithm, which recursively constructs process models by combining insights from both the event log and the extracted rules, helping to avoid problematic process structures that contradict domain knowledge. The framework coordinates interactions among the LLM, domain experts, and a set of backend services. We present a fully implemented tool that supports this workflow and conduct an extensive evaluation of multiple LLMs and prompt engineering strategies. Our empirical study includes a case study based on a real-life event log with the involvement of domain experts, who assessed the usability and effectiveness of the framework.
Tailoring materials into kirigami robots
Babu, Saravana Prashanth Murali, Parvaresh, Aida, Rafsanjani, Ahmad
Kirigami, the traditional paper-cutting craft, holds immense potential for revolutionizing robotics by providing multifunctional, lightweight, and adaptable solutions. Kirigami structures, characterized by their bending-dominated deformation, offer resilience to tensile forces and facilitate shape morphing under small actuation forces. Kirigami components such as actuators, sensors, batteries, controllers, and body structures can be tailored to specific robotic applications by optimizing cut patterns. Actuators based on kirigami principles exhibit complex motions programmable through various energy sources, while kirigami sensors bridge the gap between electrical conductivity and compliance. Kirigami-integrated batteries enable energy storage directly within robot structures, enhancing flexibility and compactness. Kirigami-controlled mechanisms mimic mechanical computations, enabling advanced functionalities such as shape morphing and memory functions. Applications of kirigami-enabled robots include grasping, locomotion, and wearables, showcasing their adaptability to diverse environments and tasks. Despite promising opportunities, challenges remain in the design of cut patterns for a given function and streamlining fabrication techniques.