EMORY UNIVERSITY

A study estimates 24-62% of U.S. depression patients could qualify for psilocybin-assisted therapy if FDA approves, potentially helping millions. Factors influencing eligibility include comorbidities and insurance coverage. The study emphasizes the need for flexible healthcare planning and resource allocation.

Merck announced STRIDE-8 Phase 3 trial results for CAPVAXIVE™, showing robust immune responses in adults, covering 84% of invasive pneumococcal disease cases in adults 50+.

Dr. Ravi V. Bellamkonda, a renowned biomedical engineer and higher education leader, will join Ohio State as executive VP and provost, pending Board of Trustees approval, starting January 14, 2025. He comes from Emory University, where he led initiatives in arts, AI, and student flourishing. Dr. Bellamkonda is also a distinguished researcher in biomedical engineering and a recipient of the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award. His family, including spouse Dr. Lalita Kaligotla and dog CJ, will join him at Ohio State.

Lenacapavir, a long-acting HIV injection given twice yearly, dominated discussions at the fifth HIV Research for Prevention Conference (HIVR4P) in Lima, Peru. The conference also highlighted other studies, including an injectable combining contraception and HIV protection, a three-month vaginal ring, and real-world findings from Zambia's rollout of long-acting injectable cabotegravir. Lenacapavir reduced HIV infections by 96% in a gender-diverse population, according to the PURPOSE 2 trial. Regulatory filings for lenacapavir are expected globally by the end of 2024.

The 39th AAAI Conference features workshops on AI advancements, including AI for public missions, social impact, urban planning, governance, and more. Topics span from AI in education, cybersecurity, music, to quantum computing, focusing on ethical AI, privacy, and societal benefits. Workshops aim to foster collaboration, share insights, and inspire new research directions in AI.

Gilead's twice-yearly PrEP lenacapavir showed nearly perfect efficacy in two pivotal studies, outperforming Truvada. The drug was well-tolerated with few serious adverse events, and reduced HIV infections by 96% compared to background HIV incidence. Gilead plans to use trial data to support global regulatory filings for lenacapavir as PrEP by end of 2024.

Gilead Sciences' lenacapavir, a biannual injection for PrEP, showed a 96% reduction in HIV infections in a study, prompting plans for regulatory approvals by 2024. The drug could transform HIV prevention, though concerns remain about global accessibility and cost.

Gilead announces additional data from Phase 3 PURPOSE 2 trial showing lenacapavir, an injectable HIV-1 capsid inhibitor, reduces HIV infections by 96% compared to background HIV incidence and is superior to daily Truvada for HIV prevention. The trial included diverse participants and spanned multiple countries. Gilead plans to initiate regulatory filings for lenacapavir for PrEP by the end of 2024.

Melissa Davis, PhD, leads SAMBAI project to study health disparities, focusing on breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers among the African diaspora. The project aims to understand how structural racism impacts tumor biology and improve precision in diverse patient cohorts. SAMBAI's multidisciplinary approach includes societal, ancestry, molecular, and biological analyses, aiming to provide a toolkit for researchers worldwide to address health disparities.

The AAAI-24 Workshop Program, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, features a series of workshops focusing on various AI topics. Key workshops include discussions on Large Language Models (LLMs) causality, AI for credible elections, digital human creation, AI in education, finance for social impact, AI in science and engineering, AI-based planning for cyber-physical systems, brain encoding and decoding with AI, cybersecurity, operations research, time series analysis, cognitive and mental health, neuro-symbolic learning, privacy-preserving AI, public sector LLMs, recommendation ecosystems, responsible language models, and scientific document understanding. Each workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners to discuss advancements, challenges, and applications in their respective fields.