7 ms·

ARPA-H announces awards to develop novel technologies for precise tumor removal

133 points by melling 2y ago

jauntywundrkind 2y ago
This is the sort of thing I'd love to see NIH have many parallel research tracks on this stuff, given backing & support to make the research happen & to release the work. Precision medicine has so much potential, feels so in line for some really wild breakthroughs, with its ability to make so many exact & small operations. I wonder where the Obama Precision Medicine (2015) work has gotten to so far. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/30/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-precision-medicine-initiative https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/0...
- Onavo 2y ago
  Biden's son died of cancer so this is basically his pet project.
  - melling 2y ago
    He died from a glioblastoma. Car-t therapy is promising for that. https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/clinical-trial-results-show-dramatic-regression-of-glioblastoma-after-next-generation-car-t-therapy https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/clinical-tria...
    - jjtheblunt 2y ago
      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-69006713 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-69006713 Dr Scolyer is super interesting
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- biomcgary 2y ago
  The biggest Obama spend was to create a research cohort (https://allofus.nih.gov/ https://allofus.nih.gov/). So far, it hasn't paid dividends in an appreciable way, but the UK Biobank (on which the US program is partially modeled) started in 2006 and is now contributing immensely to the development of medicine. The US program has the potential to be even more valuable if managed well, but I haven't seen overwhelming indications of reaching that potential yet; however, I think a few more years are needed for a clear evaluation.
  - carbocation 2y ago
    Sadly the All of Us program (of which I am a research subject [and researcher]) hasn't done any sort of imaging or ECG. They did draw blood, so that allowed for genome sequencing. That may also, in principle, allow for assaying new biomarkers (I don't believe anything like that has been funded though).
    - westurner 2y ago
      2009-2010 Meaningful Use criteria required physicians to implement electronic care records. There's now FHIR for sharing records between different vendors' EHR systems. There's a JSONLD representation of FHIR. Which health and exercise apps can generate FHIR for self-reporting? Can participants forward their other EHR/EMR records to the All of Us program? Can participants or Red Cross or other blood donation services forward collected vitals and sample screening data to the All of Us program?
      - carbocation 2y ago
        The imaging reports are being imported, but not the images. The bigger issue is that clinical imaging is done due to medical indications. Medical indications dramatically confound the results. A key element of the UK Biobank's value is that imaging and ECG are being done without any clinical indication.
        westurner 2y ago
- aaronbrethorst 2y ago
  Ostensibly this is part of the ‘cancer moonshot’ started during the Obama White House following the death of Beau Biden, as mentioned by another reply, and continued today by the Biden administration.
_zagj 2y ago
> The agency’s commitment is not expected to exceed $150 million to develop novel technologies that will allow surgeons to remove cancerous tumors with higher accuracy. If successful, these technologies will revolutionize surgeries, dramatically reducing rates of repeat procedures. How does an incremental improvement in surgery (or chemo, or radiotherapy) constitute a cancer "moonshot" in 2024?
- melling 2y ago
  I didn’t see the word moonshot used anywhere. However, I think the “moonshot” concept is improving, and attempting, many different ideas and techniques over the next 25 years. I looked up the original moonshot announcement: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/02/02/fact-sheet-president-biden-reignites-cancer-moonshot-to-end-cancer-as-we-know-it/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...
  - stonerri 2y ago
    While it’s not in the ARPA-H announcement, the broader press coverage is using the moonshot frame. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/us/politics/biden-research-cancer-moonshot.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/us/politics/biden-researc...
    - mikeyouse 2y ago
      It's part of the cancer moonshot announced near the end of the Obama administration and headed by then-VP Biden after his son died of cancer. This is just one small funding part of that broader effort.
- CipherThrowaway 2y ago
  Moonshot or no, these incremental improvements in surgery do translate into cured patients and saved lives. Surgery is the initial intervention in many cancers and the course of disease is highly sensitive to it.
corn13read2 2y ago
Isn’t this just applying the new SAM2 to the tumor bots?
- ramoz 2y ago
  There is no mention of “tumor bots” or any solution that seems primarily powered by an out-of-the-box 2D segmentation capability.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
photochemsyn 2y ago
You know an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure... maybe upsetting the petrochemical pharmaceutical agribusiness industry about exposing so many people to high levels of mutagenic carcinogens should be higher on the priority list - but then a certain proportion of brainwashed zombies would have mental health crises over the fact they'd been lied to all their lives, oh dear. Gotta protect the mental health of the herd, before they're trotted off to the slaughter.
JackFr 2y ago
What is the mandate of ARPA-H as compared to NIH? NIH already hands out $30 billion a year for research. Is the structure of the ARPA-H research different in an appreciable way?
- Koala_ice 2y ago
  https://arpa-h.gov/about/faqs https://arpa-h.gov/about/faqs
- najarvg 2y ago
  ARPA-H, FWIW, is setup within the NIH. But it is structured to focus on more of "breakthrough" type processes, procedures, devices etc. Also the ARPA-H proposals are not driven solely by peer-review scoring unlike most NIH funding mechanisms. Typically ARPA-H tends to me across specific disease areas and more general in nature
- TuringNYC 2y ago
  >> What is the mandate of ARPA-H as compared to NIH? ARPA-H has a much more commercial/translational focus, much like DARPA

133 points by melling 2y ago

This is the sort of thing I'd love to see NIH have many parallel research tracks on this stuff, given backing & support to make the research happen & to release the work. Precision medicine has so much potential, feels so in line for some really wild breakthroughs, with its ability to make so many exact & small operations. I wonder where the Obama Precision Medicine (2015) work has gotten to so far. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/30/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-precision-medicine-initiative https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/0...

Onavo 2y ago
Biden's son died of cancer so this is basically his pet project.
- melling 2y ago
  He died from a glioblastoma. Car-t therapy is promising for that. https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/clinical-trial-results-show-dramatic-regression-of-glioblastoma-after-next-generation-car-t-therapy https://www.massgeneral.org/news/press-release/clinical-tria...
  - jjtheblunt 2y ago
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-69006713 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-69006713 Dr Scolyer is super interesting
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
biomcgary 2y ago
The biggest Obama spend was to create a research cohort (https://allofus.nih.gov/ https://allofus.nih.gov/). So far, it hasn't paid dividends in an appreciable way, but the UK Biobank (on which the US program is partially modeled) started in 2006 and is now contributing immensely to the development of medicine. The US program has the potential to be even more valuable if managed well, but I haven't seen overwhelming indications of reaching that potential yet; however, I think a few more years are needed for a clear evaluation.
- carbocation 2y ago
  Sadly the All of Us program (of which I am a research subject [and researcher]) hasn't done any sort of imaging or ECG. They did draw blood, so that allowed for genome sequencing. That may also, in principle, allow for assaying new biomarkers (I don't believe anything like that has been funded though).
  - westurner 2y ago
    2009-2010 Meaningful Use criteria required physicians to implement electronic care records. There's now FHIR for sharing records between different vendors' EHR systems. There's a JSONLD representation of FHIR. Which health and exercise apps can generate FHIR for self-reporting? Can participants forward their other EHR/EMR records to the All of Us program? Can participants or Red Cross or other blood donation services forward collected vitals and sample screening data to the All of Us program?
    - carbocation 2y ago
      The imaging reports are being imported, but not the images. The bigger issue is that clinical imaging is done due to medical indications. Medical indications dramatically confound the results. A key element of the UK Biobank's value is that imaging and ECG are being done without any clinical indication.
      - westurner 2y ago
aaronbrethorst 2y ago
Ostensibly this is part of the ‘cancer moonshot’ started during the Obama White House following the death of Beau Biden, as mentioned by another reply, and continued today by the Biden administration.

_zagj 2y ago

> The agency’s commitment is not expected to exceed $150 million to develop novel technologies that will allow surgeons to remove cancerous tumors with higher accuracy. If successful, these technologies will revolutionize surgeries, dramatically reducing rates of repeat procedures. How does an incremental improvement in surgery (or chemo, or radiotherapy) constitute a cancer "moonshot" in 2024?

melling 2y ago
I didn’t see the word moonshot used anywhere. However, I think the “moonshot” concept is improving, and attempting, many different ideas and techniques over the next 25 years. I looked up the original moonshot announcement: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/02/02/fact-sheet-president-biden-reignites-cancer-moonshot-to-end-cancer-as-we-know-it/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...
- stonerri 2y ago
  While it’s not in the ARPA-H announcement, the broader press coverage is using the moonshot frame. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/us/politics/biden-research-cancer-moonshot.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/us/politics/biden-researc...
  - mikeyouse 2y ago
    It's part of the cancer moonshot announced near the end of the Obama administration and headed by then-VP Biden after his son died of cancer. This is just one small funding part of that broader effort.
CipherThrowaway 2y ago
Moonshot or no, these incremental improvements in surgery do translate into cured patients and saved lives. Surgery is the initial intervention in many cancers and the course of disease is highly sensitive to it.

corn13read2 2y ago

Isn’t this just applying the new SAM2 to the tumor bots?

ramoz 2y ago
There is no mention of “tumor bots” or any solution that seems primarily powered by an out-of-the-box 2D segmentation capability.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

photochemsyn 2y ago

You know an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure... maybe upsetting the petrochemical pharmaceutical agribusiness industry about exposing so many people to high levels of mutagenic carcinogens should be higher on the priority list - but then a certain proportion of brainwashed zombies would have mental health crises over the fact they'd been lied to all their lives, oh dear. Gotta protect the mental health of the herd, before they're trotted off to the slaughter.

JackFr 2y ago

What is the mandate of ARPA-H as compared to NIH? NIH already hands out $30 billion a year for research. Is the structure of the ARPA-H research different in an appreciable way?

Koala_ice 2y ago
https://arpa-h.gov/about/faqs https://arpa-h.gov/about/faqs
najarvg 2y ago
ARPA-H, FWIW, is setup within the NIH. But it is structured to focus on more of "breakthrough" type processes, procedures, devices etc. Also the ARPA-H proposals are not driven solely by peer-review scoring unlike most NIH funding mechanisms. Typically ARPA-H tends to me across specific disease areas and more general in nature
TuringNYC 2y ago
>> What is the mandate of ARPA-H as compared to NIH? ARPA-H has a much more commercial/translational focus, much like DARPA