Latest news with #JessicaOwens
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hundreds of homes could soon be built near Gwinnett river, but neighbors worry it could flood
A controversial plan for nearly 200 homes to be built near the Yellow River in Gwinnett County is moving forward, but neighbors say they have major flooding concerns. Concerned neighbors went to the Gwinnett County commissioners meeting on Tuesday to fight back against the plan. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] CKK Development Services wants to rezone the land near the Yellow River to build smaller lots in exchange for preserving 40% of the area as open space. But neighbors say those homes would still be too close to the water and would put them at risk of flooding. 'You would trap all those residents,' neighbor Jessica Owens said. 'The houses that are built on that elevation will not last for the 30-year mortgage term.' Opponents are also worried about added traffic on narrow roads. Developers say they will conduct their own flood study to prove the site is safe. 'There is no intention on my part to build homes in the floodplain,' developer Duncan Corley with CKK Development Services said. TRENDING STORIES: Homeowner accused of shooting mother bear in north GA mountains Atlanta police lieutenant accused of groping rideshare driver South Fulton mayor charged with criminal trespassing He also says that the project meets zoning standards and adds infrastructure like roads and sewer lines at no cost to taxpayers. The plan also includes amenities like pickleball courts, trails and a boat launch. Commissioners ultimately voted four to one to approve the rezoning with added conditions to address safety concerns. 'I would rather take this opportunity to upgrade and enhance the conditions and add some additional restrictions to improve traffic and infrastructure impacts that will benefit the entire community,' Commissioner Kirkland Carden said. The approval allows the developers to move forward with site plans, but they must still meet flood and stormwater regulations before breaking ground. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI is already delivering pharma value — and not just in drug discovery
This story was originally published on PharmaVoice. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily PharmaVoice newsletter. AI-driven drug discovery has gotten much of the glory in pharma. Isomorphic Labs — which is leveraging an AI drug discovery platform based on Nobel Prize-winning AlphaFold software — pulled in the largest biotech investment haul this year to date with a $600 million fundraising round in March. And drug discovery is a prime focus for many of the highest valued AI companies working in pharma. Tempus AI, which has a market cap of about $9 billion, got its start leveraging molecular data for precision cancer care and has since expanded its capabilities to include drug discovery. Its services have been used by almost all of pharma's largest public companies. So far, none of this momentum has resulted in a new drug approval. Insilico Medicine is one of the frontrunners in that race with a candidate it calls the 'first end-to-end generative AI-assisted drug,' that could soon move into phase 3 after garnering positive topline results late last year. But before an AI-discovered drug proves its worth in the clinic, the technology is shining in other areas such as diagnostics and data management, according to Jessica Owens, co-founder of the healthcare-focused venture capital firm Initiate Ventures. 'I think there are going to be winners on the periphery far before we're high-fiving about AI-discovered drugs,' she said. 'What they're doing is not glamorous, but it's super important." Jessica Owens Co-founder, Initiate Ventures These AI-driven advances may fly under the radar despite their impact because the space is currently dominated by small companies with 'baby point solutions,' Owens said. 'They are all picking off one piece of the preclinical value chain,' she said. Startups offering single service-based solutions also don't attract as much buzz on the investment scene. 'Historically, VCs don't like service companies because the margins don't work as well and they're too hard to scale,' Owens said. 'With those business models, it's hard to get that hockey stick kind of growth.' But that isn't to say these startups aren't offering strong ROI. Here's where the technology is delivering breakthroughs throughout pharma. While shaving time off of drug discovery for a single asset can be a boon for one company, Owens sees wider value in AI technologies that offer to streamline development for the entire industry — especially in clinical trials. In particular, Owens pointed to Axiom Bio, a startup taking aim at predicting liver toxicities, which it says are linked to 20% to 25% of clinical drug failures. Using what it describes as the 'world's largest primary human liver dataset,' Axiom tested its AI model against assays used by Pfizer and AstraZeneca that demonstrated it was just as effective at a much lower cost. Ultimately, Axiom is positioning the technology to help phase out animal modeling and plans to extend its use to other organ systems including the heart and brain. AI solutions are also making an impact for ICON, a large research, development and commercialization firm based in Ireland. The company has implemented several AI tools, some of the proprietary, that tackle onerous aspects of clinical trial work including document storage, endpoint strategies and resource forecasting. In one case, ICON's site selection tool, One Search, helped a sponsor bounce back from enrollment challenges by quickly identifying 'high-performing sites' and reversing 'enrollment shortfalls,' said Gerard Quinn, ICON's vice president of IT innovation and informatics, in an email. Across the clinical trials industry, AI companies are working to develop solutions that automate patient enrollment and recruitment, and 'match patients to trials in minutes rather than months,' Owens said. Initiate's portfolio is also giving rise to several biotechs. The VC is currently building a startup called Tensor Bio that's developed an AI-powered blood test for MASH that will create personalized treatment plans. Pinpointing effectiveness will be critical as new and high-profile MASH therapies come into play. 'This is big,' Owens said. 'The first drug for MASH was recently approved, but there was a graveyard of drugs that failed before that. Some GLP-1s [could get] label expansions but none are silver bullets, so we are moving towards a combo treatment approach.' Another Initiate-backed company, Cornerstone AI, has developed a solution for a major behind-the-scenes problem in healthcare — cleaning large amounts of 'messy' real-world data. 'What they're doing is not glamorous, but it's super important,' Owens said. Cornerstone has worked with a wide swath of companies, including biopharmas and large healthcare systems, to leverage an AI assistant that Owens said works like a 'spellcheck for data' by identifying and correcting errors. 'What would take four data scientists four months to do, can now be [done] in a week with one data scientist,' Owens said. AI capabilities aren't quite ready to steal the spotlight in every area of R&D. Like many industry leaders, Owens argued that pharma still has a long way to go before animal modeling can be replaced by alternative testing methods based on AI, partially because the technology can't yet replicate the intricacies of biology. 'There's a lot [that] AI can't predict with respect to biology. It's just too complex,' Owens said. 'But we'll get there.' And although pharma's AI space has already been flooded with scores of companies, there are still lingering gaps in the market. For example, there could be an opportunity for a company pulling multiple solutions under one roof and providing more end-to-end drug development services based on AI. 'We are interested in companies linking these solutions together,' Owens said. And as the AI market continues to develop, the companies that ultimately succeed will also likely have a platform based on proprietary — rather than public — data. 'The way I would predict who the winners are going to be is by … looking at companies that were built on proprietary data,' Owens said. 'Those are the companies that will create value over time.' Recommended Reading The year's biggest biotech haul shows investors are still chasing the AI dream Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Yahoo
Woman found hiding in chest during SWAT standoff, drug investigation; 2 in custody
Two people were arrested during a drug-related investigation in a Dayton neighborhood Thursday morning. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Officers with the Tactical Crime Suppression Unit and Kettering police's VICE unit searched a home in the 600 block of Krebs Avenue. The search was part of an investigation into drug trafficking, according to a Kettering police spokesperson. Due to suspects having a weapon history, officers used a SWAT team to enter the home. TRENDING STORIES: Local sushi restaurant closes location after 10 years Woman, minor shot at point-blank range near Springfield store, restaurant 'I don't even feel like it's real;' Owner devastated after fire destroys Miami County business Police said one person refused to leave the home, prompting a standoff. SWAT ultimately located the woman hiding in a chest in the basement, according to Kettering police. Police said Jessica Owens, 40, and Junichi Naito, 75, were taken into custody. Officers found a firearm and suspect meth and fentanyl in the home. Police notified a nearby school of the standoff and stopped all traffic until SWAT was able to clear the home. Information about those arrested is not available at this time. We will continue to follow this story. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]
