Milan Dordevic MBA, PMP is a certified project management expert, author, speaker, business and technology mentor for high-tech. Artificial intelligence (AI) is reimagining the business world, boosting innovation and productivity, and helping organizations think bigger. Organizations can use AI to improve their products, processes and decision-making. Using the technology available today, organizations should be able to achieve organizational agility powered by AI. Organizational leaders need to continuously drive change and evaluate which areas, and at what complexity, AI should be utilized to support company goals and further growth.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disease usually diagnosed in young boys, gradually weakens muscles across the body until the heart or lungs fail. Symptoms often show up by age 5; as the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to walk around age 12. Today, the average life expectancy for DMD patients hovers around 26. It was big news, then, when Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sarepta Therapeutics announced in 2019 a breakthrough drug that directly targets the mutated gene responsible for DMD. The therapy uses antisense phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMO), a large synthetic molecule that permeates the cell nucleus in order to modify the dystrophin gene, allowing for production of a key protein that is normally missing in DMD patients. It's not very good at entering cells," says Carly Schissel, a PhD candidate in MIT's Department of Chemistry. To boost delivery to the nucleus, researchers can affix cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) to the drug, thereby helping it cross the cell and nuclear membranes to reach its target. Which peptide sequence is best for the job, however, has remained a looming question. MIT researchers have now developed a systematic approach to solving this problem by combining experimental chemistry with artificial intelligence to discover nontoxic, highly-active peptides that can be attached to PMO to aid delivery. By developing these novel sequences, they hope to rapidly accelerate the development of gene therapies for DMD and other diseases. Results of their study have now been published in the journal Nature Chemistry in a paper led by Schissel and Somesh Mohapatra, a PhD student in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who are the lead authors. Rafael Gomez-Bombarelli, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and Bradley Pentelute, professor of chemistry, are the paper's senior authors. Other authors include Justin Wolfe, Colin Fadzen, Kamela Bellovoda, Chia-Ling Wu, Jenna Wood, Annika Malmberg, and Andrei Loas. "Proposing new peptides with a computer is not very hard.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disease usually diagnosed in young boys, gradually weakens muscles across the body until the heart or lungs fail. Symptoms often show up by age 5; as the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to walk around age 12. Today, the average life expectancy for DMD patients hovers around 26. It was big news, then, when Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sarepta Therapeutics announced in 2016 a breakthrough drug that directly targets the mutated gene responsible for DMD. The therapy uses antisense phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMO), a large synthetic molecule that permeates the cell nucleus in order to modify the dystrophin gene, allowing for production of a key protein that is normally missing in DMD patients. It's not very good at entering cells," says Carly Schissel, a PhD candidate in MIT's Department of Chemistry. To boost delivery to the nucleus, researchers can affix cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) to the drug, thereby helping it cross the cell and nuclear membranes to reach its target. Which peptide sequence is best for the job, however, has remained a looming question. MIT researchers have now developed a systematic approach to solving this problem by combining experimental chemistry with artificial intelligence to discover nontoxic, highly-active peptides that can be attached to PMO to aid delivery. By developing these novel sequences, they hope to rapidly accelerate the development of gene therapies for DMD and other diseases. Results of their study have now been published in the journal Nature Chemistry in a paper led by Schissel and Somesh Mohapatra, a PhD student in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who are the lead authors. Rafael Gomez-Bombarelli, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and Bradley Pentelute, professor of chemistry, are the paper's senior authors. Other authors include Justin Wolfe, Colin Fadzen, Kamela Bellovoda, Chia-Ling Wu, Jenna Wood, Annika Malmberg, and Andrei Loas. "Proposing new peptides with a computer is not very hard.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare genetic disease usually diagnosed in young boys, gradually weakens muscles across the body until the heart or lungs fail. Symptoms often show up by age 5; as the disease progresses, patients lose the ability to walk around age 12. Today, the average life expectancy for DMD patients hovers around 26. It was big news, then, when Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Sarepta Therapeutics announced in 2019 a breakthrough drug that directly targets the mutated gene responsible for DMD. The therapy uses antisense phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMO), a large synthetic molecule that permeates the cell nucleus in order to modify the dystrophin gene, allowing for production of a key protein that is normally missing in DMD patients. It's not very good at entering cells," says Carly Schissel, a Ph.D. candidate in MIT's Department of Chemistry. To boost delivery to the nucleus, researchers can affix cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) to the drug, thereby helping it cross the cell and nuclear membranes to reach its target. Which peptide sequence is best for the job, however, has remained a looming question. MIT researchers have now developed a systematic approach to solving this problem by combining experimental chemistry with artificial intelligence to discover nontoxic, highly-active peptides that can be attached to PMO to aid delivery. By developing these novel sequences, they hope to rapidly accelerate the development of gene therapies for DMD and other diseases. Results of their study have now been published in the journal Nature Chemistry in a paper led by Schissel and Somesh Mohapatra, a Ph.D. student in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering, who are the lead authors. Rafael Gomez-Bombarelli, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and Bradley Pentelute, professor of chemistry, are the paper's senior authors. Other authors include Justin Wolfe, Colin Fadzen, Kamela Bellovoda, Chia-Ling Wu, Jenna Wood, Annika Malmberg, and Andrei Loas. "Proposing new peptides with a computer is not very hard.

Each year we produce a new Inside PMO Report. The aim is to tackle themes that are tricky or a challenge for the PMO (see previous reports here). With the latest report, we choose a theme which is perhaps not a challenge for PMOs – mainly because it doesn't appear on the critical to-do pile. . . . Artificial intelligence is one of those subject areas that are easy to dismiss as a pipedream – or something that is way out there in the'future'. Yet, some PMOs are already starting to experiment with the possibilities that AI – and the many different associated technologies – can bring.

The digital revolution is changing every aspect of the workplace, but few jobs will be reshaped as fundamentally as those in the project management office (PMO). Gartner predicts that by 2030, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies will perform as much as 80% of the PMO's traditional day-to-day work, such as data collection, tracking and reporting. That sounds ominous, but it's a positive development for PMO professionals who embrace the new responsibility of helping teams outside the IT department implement agile methodologies. Organizations are striving to become more agile in order to deliver value to their customers on a recurring, faster timeline. They are focusing more on products vs. projects, measuring progress based on outcomes vs. deadlines, and empowering teams by holding them accountable for a goal vs. telling them what tasks to undertake.