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Boston Globe
16 hours ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
Can Boston's innovation scene get its mojo back? The Globe's 2025 Tech Power Players say yes.
But the local tech scene has more than a chance to regain its buzz. And the road back to prominence goes through what investors say is the only area in technology that matters right now: artificial intelligence. How — and how quickly — the Boston, however, has an advantage, one captured by the Globe' s Tech Power Players, our annual list of the most consequential leaders in the region's innovation economy. In a word, it's diversity — an exceptional combination of academics, entrepreneurs, investors, and industries, ranging from software to clean energy to health care. Advertisement This diversity provides the talent and opportunity to not only advance foundational AI models that learn from vast troves of data, but also to develop applications that spread the benefits of AI to businesses and consumers — in ways that affect lives. Thanks to key leaders in the scene, that development is underway. Advertisement PathAI, a Boston company that has raised more than $250 million in VC funding, has trained AI models to help pathologists diagnose disease and pharmaceutical companies to develop treatments while improving laboratory workflows; the firm is led by physician-scientist-turned-CEO Andy Beck. Familiar Machines & Magic of Woburn, Boston firm Motional's IONIQ 5 robotaxi parked along the Boston Harbor. Motional The state's biggest industries, meanwhile, are looking to AI — and local tech firms — to make them more efficient, effective, and competitive. Boston Medical Center, for example, is experimenting with AI tools to schedule operating rooms, translate medical records into different languages, and take notes during doctor-patient conversations, allowing doctors to focus on care. 'When you put together health care with all the innovation in Boston,' says Joy Brown, BMC's chief digital information officer, 'you have the opportunity to change health care.' When it comes to emerging technologies, the race often goes to the early, not just the swift. The question is whether Boston, which famously missed the personal computer wave and the interactive, social internet known as Web 2.0 (so long, Facebook!), is embracing AI too late. The Advertisement The Bay Area accounted for 33 of the 50 companies on Mikey Shulman, CEO and cofounder of Suno, in the company's Cambridge office. Barry Chin/Globe Staff 'It's time for Boston to reinvent itself,' says Adrian Mendoza, founder and general partner of the Boston VC firm Mendoza Ventures. 'We've got to create an AI hub here.' Mendoza and others in the tech community say the state should support AI on the scale of the vaunted biotech initiative, which was launched in 2008 and solidified Boston and Cambridge as the premier life sciences cluster. Daniela Rus, director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, says the key is creating compelling opportunities for local university graduates to stay here rather than take their smarts, ambitions, and startups to Silicon Valley and other places. One way to attract and keep talent here, she says, would be to provide startups low- or no-cost access to the massive — and expensive — computing power needed to build and train AI models. Most important, Rus says, the state needs to go big. 'The moment is now,' she says, 'not 10 years from now.' Rus is among those who say the Advertisement Sabrina Mansur, executive director of the Massachusetts AI Hub, the Healey administration's AI initiative, says the $100 million will be a catalyst to encourage partnerships between companies, industries, universities, and government. Massachusetts, she adds, can offer more than just money to AI entrepreneurs; the state presents the opportunity to work with industries such as robotics, clean energy, and biotech. 'This is where you come to change the world,' Mansur says. Just look at the region's clean energy and sustainability sectors, which have some of the world's leading companies. Form Energy, cofounded by MIT materials scientist A computer rendering of a commercial-scale fusion power plant that Commonwealth Fusion Systems plans to build in Virginia, not far from Washington D.C. Commonwealth Fusion Systems Is all this enough to change the trajectory of the local tech sector? Employment in Boston-area startups declined more than 4 percent last year, according to San Francisco VC firm SignalFire, while venture investment in local information technology companies fell to the lowest level in six years, according to PitchBook. Advertisement But local techsters say the region still has the key ingredients: talent and money. Universities, teaching hospitals, and growing companies continue to fight to attract the best and the brightest while venture capital remains a robust industry. Only California and New York have bigger VC sectors than Massachusetts, according to the National Venture Capital Association. What Boston needs to become a stronger innovation hub are more successful home-grown companies, along the lines of tech stars HubSpot ($32 billion stock market value), Toast ($25 billion market value), and Klaviyo ($10 billion market value), says Jeff Bussgang, cofounder and general partner of the Boston VC firm Flybridge. What it will take are determined founders, smart investors, and, ultimately, the approach of Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers. 'We just gotta keep swinging hard,' says Bussgang, 'and connect on one or two pitches.' Explore the list by sector Rob Gavin can be reached at
Associated Press
25-04-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Precision for Medicine and PathAI Announce Strategic Collaboration to Advance AI-Powered Clinical Trial Services and Biospecimen Products
Collaboration will deliver innovative AI-powered pathology tools and quality control enhancements to accelerate clinical trials and biomarker discovery BOSTON and FREDERICK, Md., April 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Precision for Medicine, a leading provider of next generation drug development research and services, and PathAI, a global leader in digital pathology, today announced a strategic collaboration to partner on developing novel AI-based technologies and to integrate PathAI's advanced digital pathology and analysis capabilities across Precision for Medicine's clinical trial and biospecimen operations. This collaboration includes use of several PathAI technologies and establishes an agreement to offer novel tools and analytical services that address emerging needs in biomarker discovery, spatial biology, and tissue-based clinical research. Through this collaboration PathAI's tools and services will help augment Precision for Medicine's proprietary pipeline providing biopharma clients with access to imaging workflows offered through Precision for Medicine's integrated laboratory and clinical trial services. 'Together, we're deploying tools that add critical quality control steps to tumor biopsy workflows and apply machine-based learning and unsupervised algorithms early in the development cycle to help identify which biomarkers are most relevant for clinical efficacy,' said Darren Davis, PhD, Senior Vice President Global Digital Pathology, Genomics and Liquid Biopsy Solutions. 'Precision for Medicine's CLIA compliant laboratory enables precise patient stratification and accelerate decision-making in clinical trials, ultimately supporting success in areas of high unmet need.' As part of the agreement, Precision for Medicine will deploy select tools from PathAI, including AISight®, a digital pathology image management system, and other AI-powered algorithms to enhance biospecimen and clinical trial services. These tools will enable the application of validated, algorithm-based quality control steps to biospecimen analysis, improving consistency and data reliability. The collaboration will also support the use of PathAI's leading AI capabilities leveraging best in class machine learning based models to enhance Precision for Medicine multi-modal datasets. The technology reduces large, complex biomarker panels to scalable, and actionable, biomarkers to help interpret complex tissue biology to complement translational research programs. Additionally, the companies will work together to analyze complex tissue biology empowering biopharma clients to understand and identify the right patients for the right therapies, faster. 'At PathAI, our mission is to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy, depth, and efficiency of pathology-driven insights,' said Andy Beck, MD, PhD, Co-founder and CEO of PathAI. 'We are thrilled to collaborate with Precision for Medicine to help advance our mission and deliver differentiated value to our mutual customers.' Precision's collaboration with PathAI brings unique value to biopharma clients by combining these AI tools with proprietary wet lab infrastructure, centralized clinical trial operations, and scientific oversight. The innovative tools generated through this collaboration will only be available through Precision for Medicine's services, providing a level of integration and customization not offered elsewhere in the industry. 'This collaboration enhances how we're using our biospecimen business by enabling deeper, more informative analyses of the tissue samples we provide to our clients,' said Cullen Taylor, MD, Medical Director at Precision for Medicine. 'We're adding an entirely new layer of cellular-level insight on top of already well-annotated sequenced samples, going far beyond what traditional pathology assessments can offer. It's a meaningful step forward in how we support biomarker discovery, enhancing datasets for diagnostic validation and therapeutic development.' About Precision for Medicine Precision for Medicine is the first biomarker-driven clinical research and development services organization supporting life sciences companies in the use of biomarkers essential to targeting patient treatments more precisely and effectively. Precision applies a transformational approach to clinical research that integrates clinical trial design and execution with deep scientific knowledge, laboratory expertise, data sciences and advanced manufacturing solutions. This convergence is driving faster clinical development and approval. Precision for Medicine is part of Precision Medicine Group, with 3,500 people in 40 locations globally across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. For more information, visit Contact Andie Lunkenheimer [email protected] About PathAI PathAI is a leading provider of integrated AI and digital pathology solutions dedicated to transforming diagnostic accuracy and operational efficiency in pathology labs worldwide. Through innovative technologies and strategic partnerships, PathAI aims to enhance patient outcomes and drive the future of medical diagnostics. For more information, please visit Contact Owen Blaschak [email protected] Footnote 1AISight is for Research Use Only in the US; AISight Dx is CE-IVDR in Europe and UKCA in UK View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE PRECISION FOR MEDICINE
