health tech
Can these companies really use AI to conjure drugs from scratch?

Photo illustration: Christine Kao/STAT; Photo: Adobe
For years, a small group of protein engineers and drug developers have dreamed of being able to fashion new antibody drugs from scratch on a computer. Recently, a cohort of protein AI startups have hinted that they may be on the verge of such a breakthrough. A couple, most notably Absci and Generate Biomedicines, have said that they have this capability today, a premise that has helped them raise hundreds of millions of dollars and strike lucrative partnerships.
But others in the industry have pushed back, and a STAT examination of company documents and expert interviews reveals that AI-powered biotechs like Absci and competitor Generate routinely aggrandize their AI abilities.
Read more in the investigation by STAT's Brittany Trang.
infectious disease
More evidence re: bird flu transmissibility
Genetic analysis of H5N1 bird flu viruses recently detected in dairy cows in Nevada shows at least some developed a mutation that has been seen in some human cases of H5N1 and is associated with adaptation of the virus to spread in mammals, the USDA reported Friday. That change hasn't been seen in the version of the virus responsible for the large outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows, which has been ongoing for the past year. Citing an unnamed source, CNN reported on Saturday that a Nevada dairy worker tested positive for the virus, though that test needs to be confirmed by the CDC.
The new Nevada herds were infected with a different version of the virus, one labeled genotype D1.1. (The one responsible for the main outbreak is B3.13.) Florian Krammer, a flu virologist at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine, said it's likely there will be more spillovers. "The first seemed like a black swan event. But if it happens twice, I am sure it happens more often." Krammer said it will be important to study the transmissibility and severity of this version of the virus in ferrets, the best animal model for flu in humans. — Helen Branswell
LGBTQIA+ health
U.S. DOJ switches position on trans Supreme Court case
In December, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, which challenges Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth. Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Justice argued that the ban constituted sex discrimination and asked the justices to send it back to a lower court to be assessed with a higher level of judicial scrutiny. On Friday, the DOJ, now under the Trump administration, sent a letter to the Supreme Court reversing its position.
While Trump's DOJ has determined the ban is not sex discrimination, it is not asking for the case to be dismissed, deputy solicitor general Curtis E. Gannon writes. Rather, the court should decide the case, in part because the ruling could have an effect on other, similar cases currently in lower courts.
The court is set to decide on the case later this spring. Before the arguments, I wrote about the implications the ruling could have, not just on access to gender-affirming care for trans people, but on how states are able to regulate health care more broadly. Read that story here.
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