Mapping the Human Brain, the next generation of RNA Vaccines and charging your phone in your pocket.
January 16
Welcome to 2025 and another year of discovery. We kick off the year having a look at the Map of the Human Brain that has been created by a range of institutions in Europe. We discover the next step in RNA based vaccines and we investigate the use of AI to better understand how viruses might mutate in the future. We examine a new method of wireless charging batteries and finally we learn how CloudFlare encrypts approximately 10% of the world’s web traffic.
Mapping the Human Brain
The Human Brain Project (HBP) was a 10 year long project, funded by the European Union, that involved 150 institutions and many researchers across 19 countries. The project developed EBrains which now provides researchers with an extensive range of brain data sets, a multilevel brain atlas, modeling and simulation tools, access to high performance computing resources and robotics and neuromorphic platforms.
More than 3 billion people globally are affected by neurological conditions making them one of the leading causes of ill health and disability. The HBP has shed considerable light on the brain’s structure, function and dysfunction.
New applications and technology are being developed as a result. A team at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences have created a device capable of transmitting visual patterns directly into the brain’s visual cortex, paving the way for a future method of restoring vision. A team in Switzerland has developed personalized models for spinal cord stimulation enabling paraplegic patients to stand and walk again.
The Brain Atlas provides maps to more than 200 individual brain areas along with multilevel anatomical reference maps (to the micrometer level). Researchers can zoom in and out and see what areas of the brain are linked. A team at the University of Marseille in France has used this capability to develop personalized brain models to identify the best target areas for epilepsy surgery.
All of the capabilities of the platform including digital tools, services and datasets and the Brain Atlas are being included in a new initiative called EBRAINS 2.0 which will be openly available to the scientific and medical community.
The Next Generation of mRNA Vaccines
Japan has just approved a new type of RNA vaccine for Covid. Not only does the vaccine deliver the instructions for making the virus’ spike protein, it also delivers instruction on how to self replicate. This new capability self amplifies the vaccine. saRNA (self amplifying RNA) vaccines have been underdevelopment since 2020.
saRNA allows for smaller doses of vaccine to be administered for the same effect. Tests in mice showed that the same immunity to influenza could be achieved with 1/64th of the vaccine. It is also expected that saRNA vaccines will provide a more durable immune response. The saRNA keeps copying itself and remains in the body longer than previous vaccines. saRNA can persist for a month versers a day or two for mRNA vaccines.
Smaller doses are expected to lead to less complications from the vaccines. Clinical tests have shown that the saRNA vaccines provide greater levels of antibodies which researchers believe is an indication of increased durability of the vaccine.
Using AI to predict the evolution of viruses
AI appears to be everywhere nowadays however the potential applications are only just starting to be developed. A group of researchers at Stanford University have applied large language models to the study of virus mutations. The goal of the research is to be able to predict how a virus will evolve by just looking at its genetic sequence.
Viruses constantly evolve and mutate, allowing new variants to evade host immune systems. If we could understand how a virus is most likely to evolve prior to it happening it will allow us to design vaccines and treatments ahead of time.
Current AI tools can predict which single mutations in a virus will be the most successful and which variants will ‘win” in the short term. However we are a long way from being able to forecast combinations of mutations or variants that will occur over a longer period of time.
AI protein structure prediction tools such as Alpha-Fold (from Google), ESM-2 and ESMFold (both from Meta or Facebook) have brought new capabilities to the search. Additionally there are now 17 million genetic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) available to help train AI models.
One model, EVEscape, developed by a team at Harvard Medical School has been used to engineer 83 possible versions of the spoke protein which is used by the virus to infect our cells. These models could be used to test the effectiveness of future vaccines. EVEscape can also predict which antibody based therapies would loose their efficiency as a pandemic progressed. The team has also demonstrated that EVEscape can be generalized to other common viruses including HIV and influenza.
The team now makes predictions of new SARS-CoV-2 variants in real time, publishing a biweekly ranking of new variants. The model is also being tested on other viruses, with the potential to cause a pandemic.
Charge your Phone in your Pocket
A team at UNIST in South Korea have announced the creation of an electric resonance based wireless power transfer system (ERWPT) which allows our devices to charge virtually anywhere within a 3D environment e.g. in your pocket. This allows charging without the constraint of precise device positioning. At the moment a wireless charger must be in the correct position to charge.
ERWPT harnesses the monopole characteristic of electric charges. this allows a non radiative power transfer of up to 50 watts and a power transfer efficiency of 46% over a distance of 2 meters.
A key element of this new system is the enhanced physical structure of the transceiver which features an open bifilar coil configuration. This optimizes electric resonance and facilitates effective power transfer by allowing device to be freely positioned within the electric field without compromising efficiency. It also allows wireless transmission over greater distances and the charging of multiple devices at the same time.
Initial uses for the technology is likely to be wireless charging for logistics robots and automation in smart factories. Solutions for our phones will no doubt follow quickly. We always need more power but we will likely require a special type of pocket.
Protecting Web Traffic
One of the issues with encryption is the need for true randomness. Cloudflare uses lava lamps as part of their security protocol. The lava inside the lamps is extremely random, the same shape never appears twice. A wall of lava lamps, monitored by cameras is used to generate random numbers. The individual lava shapes are translated into numbers which are used for encrypting approximately 10% of web traffic globally.
Not everything from the 1970’s has proved to be useless.
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
If you have any questions or comments please comment below.
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