Latest news with #BoLi
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Millions taking one of UK's most common medications could be saved from cancer, study suggests
Taking antidepressants could help the body fight off cancer, a study has suggested. Experts found selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), one of the most common types of the drug, were found to have significantly improved the ability of T cells to fight cancer and suppress tumour growth. T cells are a type of white blood cell that play a major role in helping the immune system identify and kill infections and cancer cells. 'It turns out SSRIs don't just make our brains happier, they also make our T cells happier—even while they're fighting tumours,' said Dr Lili Yang, senior author of the new study at University of California. 'These drugs have been widely and safely used to treat depression for decades, so repurposing them for cancer would be a lot easier than developing an entirely new therapy,' she added. Antidepressants are typically taken for mood disorders as the drug increase levels of serotonin—the brain's 'happiness hormone'—by blocking the activity of a protein called serotonin transporter, or SERT. But the study sought to explore if this process could also influence other parts of the body including digestion, metabolism and immune activity. The researchers, who published their findings in the journal Cell noticed that immune cells isolated from tumours had higher levels of serotonin-regulating molecules. Dr Bo Li, another author of the study explained: 'SERT has one job—to transport serotonin. 'SERT made for an especially attractive target because the drugs that act on it—SSRIs—are widely used with minimal side effects.' The researchers tested SSRIs in mouse and human tumour models representing melanoma, breast, prostate, colon and bladder cancer. In lab tests on tumours the researchers found SSRI treatment reduced average tumour size by over 50 per cent and made the cancer-fighting T cells more effective at killing cancer. 'SSRIs made the killer T cells happier in the otherwise oppressive tumour environment by increasing their access to serotonin signals, reinvigorating them to fight and kill cancer cells,' said Dr Yang. The researchers also found SSRIs boosted the effectiveness of existing cancer therapies. They tested a combination of an SSRI and a treatment called anti-PD-1 antibody in mice with cancer. This antibody therapy works by blocking immune checkpoint molecules that normally suppress immune cell activity, therefore allowing T cells to attack tumours more effectively. By adding SSRIs to this researchers significantly reduced tumour size in all treated mice and even achieved complete remission in some cases. People with depression are thought to have low levels of serotonin, though there is scientific debate over this, and SSRIs combat this by boosting these levels. While the study suggested SSRIs could one day be used to help treat cancer others have linked their long term usage to health problems. Some experts suspect that the drugs could be causing too much serotonin to be released, with negative consequences for people's health. Previous studies have linked their use to health issues including heart problems in young people alongside long-term and even permanent sexual dysfunction. Health service figures show antidepressants are one of the most commonly taken medications in the UK. Official data suggests as 8.7 million people in England were prescribed the medication—about 15 per cent of the total population. In the US an estimated one in eight people are currently taking an antidepressant, according to the Centers for Disease Control. More than 400,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK, according to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Zawya
19-05-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Statement by International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director Bo Li at the Conclusion of a Visit to Mozambique
Mr. Bo Li, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today in Mozambique at the end of his visit from May 15-17, 2025: 'I am pleased to be in Mozambique for my first visit as IMF Deputy Managing Director. I would like to thank President Daniel Chapo, Finance Minister Carla Loveira, and Central Bank Governor Rogerio Zandamela, as well as other senior officials, for their hospitality and constructive discussions. We discussed opportunities to strengthen our continued partnership through regular policy dialogue and technical assistance. The IMF remains a close partner in supporting the country's efforts to lift the living standards of the Mozambican people. 'During my visit, I also met with the Committee of Central Bank Governors of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to advance efforts to improve cross-border payments within the regional bloc. Member countries remain committed to this joint objective and are making good progress. We also discussed opportunities to further strengthen ongoing technical assistance provided jointly by the IMF and the World Bank on cross-border payments. We look forward to continuing the tight and productive collaboration.' Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Virtue AI Raises $30 Million in Seed and Series A Funding to Bridge the Critical AI Security Gap
Renowned AI security experts from Stanford, Berkeley, and Illinois unite to solve enterprise AI deployment challenges SAN FRANCISCO, April 15, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virtue AI, founded by world-leading experts in AI safety and security, today announced $30 million in Seed and Series A funding by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Walden Catalyst Ventures, and joined by Prosperity7 and other existing investors including Factory, Osage University Partners, Lip-Bu Tan, Amarjit Gill and Chris Re. The funding will accelerate Virtue AI's mission to eliminate the traditional tradeoff between AI innovation and security, enabling enterprises to confidently deploy generative AI without worrying about security, safety, and compliance. Virtue AI was born from a critical insight shared by its founding team of AI pioneers—Bo Li, Dawn Song, Carlos Guestrin, and Sanmi Koyejo. After contributing more than 80 combined years to foundational research in AI safety and security, they witnessed firsthand how enterprises were forced to choose between moving quickly with increased risk or implementing cumbersome safety measures that dramatically slowed innovation. The multi-billion dollar AI security market opportunity is expected to expand as agentic deployments proliferate in the enterprise. However, traditional computing security is insufficient for artificial intelligence use cases. As AI transforms industries, organizations face significant deployment risks—from data poisoning and hallucinations to prompt injections and jailbreaking attempts. These vulnerabilities expose companies to cyberattacks while creating regulatory and compliance challenges. "We saw companies struggling with the same challenges repeatedly—subpar evaluation methods, inefficient guardrails, and manual processes that created bottlenecks in AI deployment pipelines," said Bo Li, co-founder and CEO of Virtue AI. "Our team has dedicated decades to solving these exact problems. Virtue AI transforms that expertise into practical solutions that eliminate the false choice between innovation and safety." Virtue AI's comprehensive platform offers integrated solutions that outperform existing alternatives by orders of magnitude, including: VirtueRed: An algorithmic—rather than human-based—red teaming platform that covers over 320 regulation-based and use case based risk categories, such as hallucination, privacy leakage, jailbreaks, and prompt injections, providing reliable, comprehensive risk assessment while significantly reducing testing costs. VirtueGuard: Guardrail models that are over 30 times faster than alternatives while delivering 40-50% better performance across text, image, audio, video, and code in over 90 languages. VirtueAgent: Security agent that automatically interprets both internal company security requirements, policies, and regulatory requirements, eliminating tedious manual processes. The company's technology builds directly on groundbreaking research recognized by the National Security Agency (NSA), including a seminal, award-winning paper by co-founders that addresses multiple vulnerabilities in foundation models. This technical superiority has driven remarkable customer adoption. In just months since its launch, Virtue AI has secured top-tier enterprise customers. Customer Accolades "Uber leverages Generative AI to deliver magical experiences for our end users. We've been collaborating closely with Virtue AI to implement robust content safety guardrails for our Gen AI applications, ensuring they are safe, responsible, and aligned with our community standards," said Kai Wang, the Group product manager on AI Platform, Uber. "At Glean, we're committed to building AI that organizations can trust - secure, reliable, and enterprise-ready. Every company has unique security requirements, and we strongly believe in providing the flexibility to choose the approach that best aligns with those needs. Our collaboration with Virtue AI helps us stay ahead of emerging threats and deliver on our promise to keep users in control and their data protected," said Arvind Jain, Founder and CEO of Glean. Redefining Industry Standards "Virtue AI is shaping the future of GenAI security," said Lip-Bu Tan, Founding Managing Partner of Walden Catalyst Ventures. "Combining foundational research with advanced algorithms, Virtue AI is tackling the most critical vulnerabilities in AI systems head-on. Their disruptive technology and impressive market traction demonstrate the potential to redefine how organizations across the globe approach AI safety and security." "Built on the fundamental AI safety research of its cofounders, Virtue AI has quickly established a leadership position atop the fast-growing AI red-teaming and guardrails category," said Guru Chahal and James Alcorn, Partners at Lightspeed Venture Partners. "We are thrilled to partner with the team to help them capitalize on a crucial industry inflection moment, as enterprises demand increasingly robust and sophisticated safety solutions for production LLM deployments." With this new funding, Virtue AI will expand its platform capabilities, strengthen its market presence, and continue attracting world-class AI safety talent committed to enabling responsible AI deployment worldwide. For more information about Virtue AI and its safe and secure AI platform, visit About Virtue AI Virtue AI is a leader in safe and secure AI, providing organizations with the tools to red team AI applications, train safe models, and deploy advanced guardrail solutions. Its Virtue AI Platform offers a comprehensive approach to assessing, developing, and maintaining safe, secure, and privacy-preserving AI systems, empowering businesses to harness the full potential of AI with confidence. About Lightspeed Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, Health, and Fintech sectors. Over the past 25 years, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 500 companies globally including Abridge, Affirm, Anthropic, Cato Networks, Epic Games, Glean, Mistral, Moveworks, Navan, Netskope, Rubrik, Snap, Wiz, and more. Lightspeed and its global team currently manage $30B in AUM across the Lightspeed platform, with investment professionals and advisors in the U.S., Europe, India, Israel, and Southeast Asia. About Walden Catalyst Ventures Walden Catalyst is a venture capital firm helping early-stage companies in the U.S., Europe, and Israel build the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep-tech. The firm is led by Young Sohn and Lip-Bu Tan, deep-tech industry pioneers who between them have invested in more than 600 startups across the globe, of which 138 have gone on to IPO. Walden Catalyst is focused on deep- tech investments and their team of innovators and entrepreneurs are passionate about disruptive technologies and committed to excellence. This translates into unparalleled access to operational expertise, global reach, and a network of industry captains eager to help build and scale the companies of the future. 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Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Lotus Robotics and HERE Technologies collaborate on Highway Navigation Pilot for Automated Driving
HERE and Lotus Robotics New Highway Navigation Pilot from Lotus Robotics delivers L2+ automated driving capabilities, leveraging high-precision data from HERE HD Live Map. Solution targeted for European homologation in 2025, launching in upcoming Lotus vehicles and available for integration by OEM partners. Amsterdam/Frankfurt am Main – Lotus Robotics, the intelligent driving arm of Lotus Technology, and HERE Technologies, the leading location data and technology company have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop an advanced Highway Navigation Pilot solution that delivers Level 2+ (L2+) automated driving functions. The collaboration is focused on delivering a best-in-class L2+ ADAS solution integrating an advanced sensor perception stack and a high-precision map for advanced driving and safety functions including hands-off driving in certain situations. The solution is set for homologation in Europe in 2025. It will be utilized in upcoming Lotus vehicles and jointly offered to automakers across Europe. Automated Highway Driving Powered by Lotus and HERELotus Robotics will engineer the L2+ solution, powered by the HERE HD Live Map. The Lotus Highway Navigation Pilot is a full stack hardware and software solution for Level 2+ automated driving functions, including automated lane changes, highway transitions and passing automated driving systems, the HERE HD Live Map delivers safety-enhancing data for functions like localization, prediction, and path planning, working seamlessly with various vehicle sensors. The HD map expands a vehicle's ability to "see" and "plan" in scenarios where sensors alone may be limited. The HERE HD Live Map improves the overall situational awareness by providing precise, forward-looking information about road network features and local regulations, anticipating potential issues ahead and giving drivers an improved sense of on a Proven PartnershipIn 2022, Lotus and HERE combined forces to bring a customized advanced navigation solution based on HERE Navigation to the groundbreaking fully electric hyper-SUV Lotus Eletre and hyper-GT Lotus Emeya. Building on this collaboration, Lotus Robotics and HERE are now expanding their partnership to develop the Highway Navigation Pilot, advancing automated driving capabilities for both Lotus vehicles and other OEMs.'We see a huge potential need for L2+ ADAS and NOA (Navigation on Autopilot) in highway scenarios for the global market in the near future. Lotus Robotics is dedicated to building an open ecosystem together with our strategic partners including HD map services provided by HERE Technologies as a key element of our technical stack of automated driving. We are expecting a rapid rollout of this product portfolio combining Lotus Robotics Software and HERE Map data across the globe,' said Dr. Bo Li, Chief Executive Officer at Lotus Robotics.'We are excited to collaborate and co-innovate with Lotus Robotics in the field of automated driving. Fresh and accurate location data and technology are a critical cornerstone for any safe and efficient automated driving system. Together with Lotus Robotics, we look forward to paving the way for the future of autonomous vehicles,' said Jason Jameson, Chief Customer Officer at HERE AI-powered Mapmaking for Automated Driving HERE's unified mapping architecture, powered by the latest in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), delivers unmatched accuracy and detail to its high-quality mapping solutions. By leveraging the latest in AI and ML techniques, HERE automates, updates, and enhances its IoT sensor data-derived mapmaking that processes hundreds of millions of kilometers of vehicle probe and sensor data every hour. The company's commitment to innovation has made it a longtime, trusted industry partner. HERE location data and software services are used in more than 222 million vehicles globally, and today more than 54 million vehicles rely on maps from HERE for advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving Contacts Ms. Weizhou Wu+86-159 1071 Sebastian Kurme +49 173 515 3549 About Lotus RoboticsLotus Robotics is committed to empowering the era of robotics. We are aiming to build a universal AI technology platform and materialize AI through robotics. The company is willing to provide a new focal point of development to the human world that generates economic Robotics is setting a new standard for transportation by making it safer, more accessible, and efficient. The company offers end-to-end autonomous driving services including the software for autonomous driving, autonomous testing capabilities and a simulation tool chain on the cloud for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and automated/autonomous Robotics was founded in 2021 and is working with multiple leading automakers to accelerate the transition to autonomous driving HERE Technologies HERE has been a pioneer in mapping and location technology for 40 years. Today, the HERE location platform is recognized as the most complete in the industry, powering location-based products, services and custom maps for organizations and enterprises across the globe. From autonomous driving and seamless logistics to new mobility experiences, HERE allows its partners and customers to innovate while retaining control over their data and safeguarding privacy. Find out how HERE is moving the world forward at Attachment HERE and Lotus RoboticsSign in to access your portfolio
