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The Prototype: King Tut's Curse Might Kill Leukemia
In this week's edition of The Prototype, we look at cancer-killing fungi, robots that perform surgery on your eyeballs, genetically modified bacteria that turn plastic into Tylenol and more. You can sign up to get The Prototype in your inbox here .
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W hen I was a kid, I was obsessed with King Tut's tomb–and the legends of the curse put upon the team that discovered it. Of course, the stories were false and many of the tomb's discoverers lived long lives after finding it. But King Tut may have claimed at least one victim, Lord Carnarvon, thanks to a toxic fungus called aspergillus that had lain dormant for centuries.
Now that 'curse' may be hitting a different target–leukemia. A new study published this week found that chemical compounds in aspergillus, when purified, show anti-cancer properties. And if a fatty molecule is added to the purified fungus the resulting compound demonstrates cancer-fighting activity similar to that of drugs currently used to treat leukemia.
Next up, the scientists plan to take the most promising chemical candidates and test them on cancer in animals. If successful there, the chemicals could one day be used to treat human cancer patients.
Forsight Robotics
C ataract surgery is one of the world's most common medical procedures, with more than 4 million of them done each year in the United States alone, but there simply aren't enough doctors available to meet the demand for everyone who needs the surgery. An Israeli startup is betting that robots can someday easy that demand by doing the procedure better and cheaper than human doctors.
ForSight Robotics on Tuesday said it had raised $125 million led by Eclipse Ventures to expand Oryom, its robotic surgery platform for cataracts and other eye diseases . The funding is the second-largest Series B investment in a surgical robotics startup, and brings ForSight's total investment to $195 million. The new money values the company at an estimated $500 million—a substantial increase since it last raised funds in 2022 at a $162 million valuation, according to VC database PitchBook. Additional investors include Fred Moll, the cofounder of Intuitive Surgical and pioneer of robotic surgery, who has joined the company's strategic advisory board.
ForSight has been testing its robot on pig eyes, and plans to complete its first full robotic surgery on a human patient later this year. It's targeting the U.S. market and is in early conversations with the FDA. While ForSight's robots would be the first for cataracts, robotic surgery has become increasingly commonplace since $185 billion (market cap) Intuitive Surgical received FDA approval for its Da Vinci robots, which enable precision procedures, 25 years ago.
'At first people were intimidated by robotics' advancement,' Dr. Joseph Nathan, ForSight's cofounder, president and chief medical officer, told Forbes. 'Now they are seeing robotics as the thing that will get them the best outcomes.'
Read the whole story at Forbes DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK: TURNING PLASTIC INTO PAINKILLERS
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have genetically engineered a bacteria that can take waste plastic and turn it into an ingredient used in acetaminophen (aka Tylenol). To make this work, they chemically broke down PET, a common plastic used in food packaging, into a simpler molecule and added it to a cell culture. The bacteria then produced special enzymes that interacted with the plastic molecule, transforming it into the painkiller ingredient. The researchers found that over 90% of the plastic was transformed into the drug, and the process used less energy than the conventional way to produce it from crude oil. The team's next step is to develop a way to scale the process to provide a more sustainable way to manufacture acetaminophen, with the backing of pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca. FINAL FRONTIER: FIRST PHOTOS FROM VERA RUBIN OBSERVATORY
The Vera C. Rubin observatory, a giant telescope built in the mountains of Chile, released its first images of space this week. The observatory used a $168 million car-size digital camera tag of –paired with a unique three-mirror telescope to not only capture the unprecedentedly high-resolution images of a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo, but also monitor changes in that part of the sky thanks to its ability to record time-lapsed videos. WHAT ELSE I WROTE THIS WEEK
In my other newsletter, InnovationRx, Amy Feldman and I looked at health insurance companies promising to improve the prior authorization process (again), how Bell Labs plans to commercialize its massive IP portfolio, American attitudes towards vaccinating kids, and more. SCIENCE AND TECH TIDBITS
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first planet outside the solar system. About the size of Saturn, the new world is circling a red dwarf star about 111 light-years away.
Self-driving taxi company Waymo has begun operating in Atlanta, marking the fifth major U.S. city its services are available in.
The Trump administration has terminated millions of dollars of government subscriptions to the Springer Nature group, which publishes major scientific journals such as Nature .
After months of delays, SpaceX launched its fourth mission with Axiom Space, sending four astronauts to the International Space Station where they will conduct a wide variety of scientific experiments for Axiom's customers. PRO SCIENCE TIP: MAKE YOUR BUSINESS MORE PROFITABLE WITH AN IPO
A new study of the brains of mice suggests that one of the best ways to learn a new task is to devote time to not learning it. The researchers found that mice learned more quickly when they were allowed to explore new environments without focusing on any particular task. Evidently areas of the brain developed during unstructured activities can help expedite the completion of specific tasks. If that holds true in humans, it may be a good idea to stay productive by making sure you take the time to be unproductive. WHAT'S ENTERTAINING ME THIS WEEK
I recently finished the novel The Book Censor's Library by Bothayna Al-Essa. It's set in a dystopian future where censorship is the norm. The story follows the titular censor, who in his ambition to be good in his new job finds himself falling in love with reading. That leads him to a resistance movement, where he struggles to protect both books and his own daughter, who displays far more imagination than society will allow. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes Elon Musk Has Fired One Of His Top Tesla Lieutenants By Alan Ohnsman Forbes Why The U.S. Should Copy Canada To Fix Its Broken Air Traffic Control System By Jeremy Bogaisky Forbes The 36 Colleges Most At Risk From Pell Grant Cuts By Fiona Riley
