The amborella genome: A window into the origins of plant sex and reproduction

HudsonAlpha scientists help create valuable resources for the plant and crop breeding community

HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology

 

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Alex Harkess holds the Amborella plant sequenced in this study in 2013, during his training in Leebens-Mack’s lab at UGA. 

 

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Credit: Alex Harkess

Plant reproduction is a cornerstone of our food system and ecological balance; however, it is a complex process. Plants have fascinating reproductive strategies, some being either male or female, some being hermaphroditic, and still some changing sex over their lifetime. Understanding the mechanisms that determine plant sex is crucial for modern agriculture.  

A groundbreaking study published in Nature Plants has shed new light on the complicated reproductive strategies of flowering plants. The study, led by researchers at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology and the University of Georgia, delved into the genetics of Amborella trichopoda, a species of flowering plants that offers a unique window into the early evolution of flowering plants. With their much-improved assembly of the Amborella genome and sex chromosomes, the researchers have gained valuable insights into the evolution of flowering plants and their reproductive strategies.  

The evolution of the Amborella genome 

Amborella trichopoda is the sole surviving species of a lineage that diverged from all other flowering plants early in their evolutionary history. Its genome provides invaluable insights into the genetic underpinnings of plant diversity.

Eleven years ago, an international team of researchers co-led by Jim Leebens-Mack, PhD, professor of plant biology at the University of Georgia, completed the first Amborella genome. The seminal study, the results of which were published in Science in 2013, has been cited more than 575 times over the last eleven years. 

“The evolutionary lineage leading to Amborella diverged from all other flowering plant lineages approximately 150 million years ago, so our draft genome published in 2013 has been a foundation for comparative analyses of genes tracing back to the origin of flowering plants and earlier,” says Leebens-Mack.

The new insights gained from the improved genome assembly are especially exciting for HudsonAlpha Faculty Investigator Alex Harkess, PhD, who was a PhD student in Leebens-Mack’s lab working on the Amborella genome. Now the leader of his own lab at HudsonAlpha, Harkess and one of his mentees, HudsonAlpha Senior Scientist Sarah Carey, PhD, worked on the new Amborella genome analyses with Leebens-Mack and HudsonAlpha Faculty Investigators Jeremy Schmutz and Jane Grimwood, PhD. 

“Working on the original Amborella genome in Jim’s [Leeben-Mack] lab was transformative because it allowed me as a first-year PhD student to be on the very edge of newly developing technologies and software that was coming out to help handle all of this massive genomic data we were creating,” reflects Harkess. “This genome reveals so much about the evolution of flowers, but also about the evolution of my own research career and the way I, and now my entire laboratory, view reproduction through the lens of diversity.” 

Carey was a postdoctoral fellow in the Harkess lab when the new Amborella genome assembly was completed. She led much of the genome analysis, including the analysis of the Amborella sex chromosomes. 

Advancing technology enabled a more complete Amborella genome

Thanks to advanced sequencing and assembly technology and emerging computational tools, Carey, along with members of the HudsonAlpha Genome Sequencing Center, were able to assemble a much-improved Amborella genome. The new, highly-contiguous genome reference made it easier for Carey to search for the Amborella sex chromosomes, which are Z and W instead of the familiar human X and Y.  

“The first Amborella genome was a mixture of short segments of DNA from different sequencing types and technologies,” says Carey when asked how the improved genome came to be. “Advancements in long-read sequencing and access to other pieces of information, like Hi-C data, allowed us to assemble larger pieces that made it easier to search for the ZW chromosomes than if it were in lots of smaller pieces.” 

In addition to the improved sequencing and assembly tools, Carey also credits staying at the forefront of new and emerging computational tools. The lab developed a pipeline, called cytogenetics-by-sequencing, to help more easily and inexpensively identify and characterize sex chromosomes in plants, successfully using it on nearly 30 dioecious plant and animal species so far. 

Through their analysis of the Amborella sex chromosomes, the team discovered some interesting things about Amborella’s sex-determination system. For starters, the Z and W chromosomes are young, having arisen more than 100 million years after Amborella diverged from all other flowering plant lineages. 

In many sex-determination systems (think the tiny human Y chromosome), the sex chromosomes stop swapping genetic material with their chromosome pair partner, a phenomenon known as recombination. The halting of recombination allows for the divergence of the two sex chromosomes through the accumulation of different rearrangements, deletions, and insertions. 

Although the team found evidence of suppressed recombination in Amborella, the Z and W chromosomes look very similar, making the assembly of each sex chromosome more difficult. 

“The Cytogenetics-by-Sequencing pipeline helped us to identify a difficult border on the Amborella sex chromosomes: where they no longer recombine,” explains Carey. “This is an important task because within this region of non-recombination are expected to be the carpel and stamen sterility genes associated with the evolution of separate female and male plants.”

Through the careful analysis of the sex chromosomes, Carey and the team identified two genes hypothesized to be responsible for sex determination in Amborella. 

“The big picture takeaway from this study is that we’re learning another exception for how you can maintain separate sexes in plants,” says Harkess. “That gives us another tool in our toolkit for engineering new ways to do plant breeding, creating separate sexes, preventing plants from self-pollinating, and enforcing outcrossing in a way that is controllable and predictable.” 

The new Amborella genome project was part of the Open Green Genomes Initiative, a Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute Community Science Program. 

“The Open Green Genomes initiative is filling phylogenetic gaps in the availability of reference-quality genomes for land plants,” says Leebens-Mack, lead PI for the OGG initiative. “Our haplotype-resolved chromosomal assembly of the Amborella genome has enabled us to better understand aspects of the ancestral angiosperm genome and the derived characteristics of Amborella’s sex chromosomes.”

Other collaborators on this project include Auburn University, Arizona Genomics Institute, University of Lyon, Missouri Botanical Garden, The Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, University Montpellier, Indiana University, and Florida Museum of Natural History.

Byline: Sarah Sharman, PhD

 

Male Amborella flower. Photo credit: Charlie Scutt

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Journal

Nature Plants

DOI

10.1038/s41477-024-01858-x 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

ZW sex chromosome structure in Amborella trichopoda

Article Publication Date

25-Nov-2024

Novel discovery unveils the gene secret of rice length

Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

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Novel Discovery Unveils the Gene Secret of Rice Length

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Credit: CHENG Weimin

Recently, the research team led by Professor WU Yuejin from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered the RGL2 gene, which influenced rice grain length by regulating cell proliferation, providing new genetic resources for high-yield breeding of rice. 

The related findings were recently published in Physiologia Plantarum.

High yield is one of the primary objectives in rice breeding, and grain type like grain length and width is an important agronomic trait affecting yield. 

The rgl2 mutant obtained in this research exhibited shorter grain length without changes in grain width through physical mutagenesis. 

Cytological analysis revealed that the reduction in grain length was primarily due to a decrease in cell number rather than changes in cell length. Mapping and functional analysis indicated that RGL2 encoded a keratin-associated protein (KAP), which was expressed at a higher level in the young panicle. Overexpression of RGL2 significantly increased grain length and enhanced single-plant yield by promoting cell proliferation in the grain. 

Additionally, OsRGL2 interacted with the RGB1 protein, suggesting that it may positively regulate grain type and yield through the G protein signaling pathway. 

They also found that RGL2 might affect grain length by regulating the cell cycle. In simple terms, RGL2 helped rice grains grow longer by regulating genes related to cell cycle and promoting the growth of more cells.

This discovery not only deepens the understanding of the genetic mechanisms of rice grain type, but also provides new strategies and directions for molecular design breeding aimed at high rice yield. 

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Journal

Physiologia Plantarum

Article Title

Mutation of KAP, which encodes a keratin-associated protein, affects grain size and yield production in rice

Phenotypic analysis of rgl2 mutant

Credit

CHENG Weimin

The next evolution of AI begins with ours

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

In a sense, each of us begins life ready for action. Many animals perform amazing feats soon after they’re born. Spiders spin webs. Whales swim. But where do these innate abilities come from? Obviously, the brain plays a key role as it contains the trillions of neural connections needed to control complex behaviors. However, the genome has space for only a small fraction of that information. This paradox has stumped scientists for decades. Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professors Anthony Zador and Alexei Koulakov have devised a potential solution using artificial intelligence.

When Zador first encounters this problem, he puts a new spin on it. “What if the genome’s limited capacity is the very thing that makes us so smart?” he wonders. “What if it’s a feature, not a bug?” In other words, maybe we can act intelligently and learn quickly because the genome’s limits force us to adapt. This is a big, bold idea—tough to demonstrate. After all, we can’t stretch lab experiments across billions of years of evolution. That’s where the idea of the genomic bottleneck algorithm emerges.

In AI, generations don’t span decades. New models are born with the push of a button. Zador, Koulakov, and CSHL postdocs Divyansha Lachi and Sergey Shuvaev set out to develop a computer algorithm that folds heaps of data into a neat package—much like our genome might compress the information needed to form functional brain circuits. They then test this algorithm against AI networks that undergo multiple training rounds. Amazingly, they find the new, untrained algorithm performs tasks like image recognition almost as effectively as state-of-the-art AI. Their algorithm even holds its own in video games like Space Invaders. It’s as if it innately understands how to play.

Does this mean AI will soon replicate our natural abilities? “We haven’t reached that level,” says Koulakov. “The brain’s cortical architecture can fit about 280 terabytes of information—32 years of high-definition video. Our genomes accommodate about one hour. This implies a 400,000-fold compression technology cannot yet match.”

Nevertheless, the algorithm allows for compression levels thus far unseen in AI. That feature could have impressive uses in tech. Shuvaev, the study’s lead author, explains: “For example, if you wanted to run a large language model on a cell phone, one way [the algorithm] could be used is to unfold your model layer by layer on the hardware.”

Such applications could mean more evolved AI with faster runtimes. And to think, it only took 3.5 billion years of evolution to get here. 

 

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2409160121 

AI Safety Institute launched as Korea’s AI Research Hub

Located at the Pangyo Global R&D Center, the AISI begins full operations under the leadership of a director and a three-section system

National Research Council of Science & Technology

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), headed by Minister Yoo Sang-im, held the launch ceremony for the "AI Safety Institute" (AISI) on Wednesday, November 27, at the Pangyo Global R&D Center.

At the "AI Seoul Summit"last May, leaders from 10 countries recognized safety as a key component of responsible AI innovation and emphasized the importance of establishing AI safety institutes and fostering global collaboration for safe AI. President Yoon Suk Yeol also expressed his commitment, stating, "We will work towards establishing an AI safety institute in Korea and actively participate in a global network to enhance AI safety." After thorough preparations regarding the institute's organization, budget, personnel, and functions, the AI Safety Institute has now been officially launched.

The AISI is a dedicated organization established within ETRI to systematically and professionally address various AI risks, including technological limitations, human misuse, and potential loss of control over AI. As Korea's hub for AI safety research, the AISI will facilitate collaborative research and information sharing among industry, academia, and research institutes in the field of AI safety. Furthermore, as a member of the "International Network of AI Safety Institutes" (comprising 10 countries, launched on November 21), the AISI is committed to taking a responsible role in strengthening global collaboration for safe AI. Through these efforts, the AISI aims to develop competitive technologies, nurture skilled professionals in the AI safety sector, and advance AI safety policies, including their development and refinement, based on scientific research data.

The launch ceremony brought togetherkey government officials, including Yoo Sang-im, Minister of Science and ICT; Yeom Jae-ho, Vice Chair of the National AI Committee; and Lee Kyung-woo, Presidential Secretary for AI and Digital. Over 40 prominent figures from the AI industry, academia, and research sectors also attended, such as Bae Kyung-hoon, Chief of LG AI Research; Oh Hye-yeon, Director of the KAIST AI Institute; Lee Eun-ju, Director of the Center for Trustworthy AI at Seoul National University; and Bang Seung-chan, President of the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

At the event, Professor Yoshua Bengio, a globally renowned AI scholar and Global Advisor to the National AI Committee, congratulated the Korean government on establishing the AI Safety Institute in alignment with the Seoul Declaration. He emphasized the Institute's critical roles, including (1) researching and advancing risk assessment methodologies through industry collaboration, (2) supporting the development of AI safety requirements, and (3) fostering international cooperation to harmonize global AI safety standards. Additionally, the directors of AI safety institutes from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan delivered congratulatory speeches, stating, "We have high expectations for Korea’s AI Safety Institute" and emphasizing "the importance of global collaboration in AI safety."

Kim Myung-joo, the inaugural Director of the AISI, outlined the Institute's vision and operational plans during the ceremony. In his presentation, he stated, "The AISI will focus on evaluating potential risks that may arise from AI utilization, developingand disseminating policies and technologies to prevent and minimize these risks, and strengthening collaboration both domestically and internationally." Director Kim emphasized, "The AISI is not a regulatory body but a collaborative organization dedicated to supporting Korean AI companies by reducing risk factors that hinder their global competitiveness."

At the signing ceremony for the "Korea AI Safety Consortium" (hereinafter referred to as the "Consortium"), 24leading Korean organizations from industry, academia, and research sectors signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote mutual cooperation in AI safety policy research, evaluation, and R&D. The AISI and Consortium member organizations will jointly focus on key initiatives, including the research, development, and validation of an AI safety framework (risk identification, evaluation, and mitigation), policy research to align with international AI safety norms, and technological collaboration on AI safety. Moving forward, they plan to refine the Consortium's detailed research topics and operational strategies. The member organizations also presented their expertise in AI safety research and outlined their plans for Consortium activities, affirming their strong commitment to active collaboration with the AISI.

< Participating Organizations in the "AI Safety Consortium" >

Industry	▪ Naver (Future AI Center), KT (Responsible AI Center), Kakao (AI Safety), LG AI Research, SKT (AI Governance Task Force), Samsung Electronics, Konan Technology, Wrtn Technologies, ESTsoft, 42Maru, Crowdworks AI, Twelve Labs, Liner
Academia	▪Seoul National University (Center for Trustworthy AI), KAIST (AI Fairness Research Center), Korea University (School of Cybersecurity), Sungkyunkwan University (AI Reliability Research Center), Soongsil University (AI Safety Center), Yonsei University (AI Impact Research Center)
Research Institutes	▪Korea AISI, TTA (Center for Trustworthy AI), NIA (Department of AI Policy), KISDI (Department of Digital Society Strategy Research), IITP (AI텱igital Convergence Division), SPRi (AI Policy Research Lab)

 

Minister Yoo Sang-im of the MSIT emphasized, "AI safety is a prerequisite for sustainable AI development and one of the greatest challenges that all of us in the AI field must tackle together." He noted, "In the short span of just one year since the AI Safety Summit in November 2023 and the AI Seoul Summit in May 2024, major countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Canada have established AI safety institutes, creating an unprecedentedly swift and systematic framework for international AI safety cooperation." Minister Yoo further emphasized, "By bringing together the research capabilities of industry, academia, and research institutes through the AISI, we will rapidly secure the technological and policy expertise needed to take a leading role in the global AI safety alliance. We will actively support the AISI's growth into a research hub representing the Asia-Pacific region in AI safety."

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About Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)

ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research institute. Since its foundation in 1976, ETRI, a global ICT research institute, has been making its immense effort to provide Korea a remarkable growth in the field of ICT industry. ETRI delivers Korea as one of the top ICT nations in the World, by unceasingly developing world’s first and best technologies.

New guidance for ensuring AI safety in clinical care published in JAMA by UTHealth Houston, Baylor College of Medicine researchers

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

 

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Dean Sittig, PhD

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Credit: UTHealth Houston

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prevalent in health care, organizations and clinicians must take steps to ensure its safe implementation and use in real-world clinical settings, according to an article co-written by Dean Sittig, PhD, professor with McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston and Hardeep Singh, MD, MPH, professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

The guidance was published today, Nov. 27, 2024, in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“We often hear about the need for AI to be built safely, but not about how to use it safely in health care settings,” Sittig said. “It is a tool that has the potential to revolutionize medical care, but without safeguards in place, AI could generate false or misleading outputs that could potentially harm patients if left unchecked.” 

Drawing from expert opinion, literature reviews, and experiences with health IT use and safety assessment, Sittig and Singh developed a pragmatic approach for health care organizations and clinicians to monitor and manage AI systems.

“Health care delivery organizations will need to implement robust governance systems and testing processes locally to ensure safe AI and safe use of AI so that ultimately AI can be used to improve the safety of health care and patient outcomes,” Singh said. “All health care delivery organizations should check out these recommendations and start proactively preparing for AI now.”

Some of the recommended actions for health care organizations are listed below:

·       Review guidance published in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals and conduct rigorous real-world testing to confirm AI’s safety and effectiveness.

·       Establish dedicated committees with multidisciplinary experts to oversee AI system deployment and ensure adherence to safety protocols. Committee members should meet regularly to review requests for new AI applications, consider their safety and effectiveness before implementing them, and develop processes to monitor their performance.

·       Formally train clinicians on AI usage and risk, but also be transparent with patients when AI is part of their care decisions. This transparency is key to building trust and confidence in AI’s role in health care. 

·       Maintain a detailed inventory of AI systems and regularly evaluate them to identify and mitigate any risks.

·       Develop procedures to turn off AI systems should they malfunction, ensuring smooth transitions back to manual processes.

“Implementing AI into clinical settings should be a shared responsibility among health care providers, AI developers, and electronic health record vendors to protect patients,” Sittig said. “By working together, we can build trust and promote the safe adoption of AI in health care.”

Also providing input to the article were Robert Murphy, MD, associate professor and associate dean, and Debora Simmons, PhD, RN, assistant professor, both from the Department of Clinical and Health Informatics at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics; and Trisha Flanagan, RN, MSN.

 

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Journal

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jama.2024.24598 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Recommendations to Ensure Safety of AI in Real-World Clinical Care

Article Publication Date

27-Nov-2024

Mount Sinai opens the Hamilton and Amabel James Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Health to transform health care by spearheading the AI revolution

New state-of-the-art facility is among the first of its kind at a U.S. medical school

The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

 

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Mount Sinai CEO Brendan G. Carr, Amabel James and Hamilton Evans "Tony" James, and Eric J. Nestler at a recent ribbon-cutting for the Hamilton and Amabel James Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Health of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

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Credit: Sami Rauf on behalf of the Mount Sinai Health System

See accompanying video here:  https://youtu.be/o-opCV6oe3o

New York, NY [November 25, 2024]—Today, the Mount Sinai Health System, one of New York City’s largest academic medical systems, announced the opening of the Hamilton and Amabel James Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Health, which is dedicated to enhancing health care delivery through the research, development, and application of innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies.

The state-of-the-art research center solidifies Mount Sinai Health System’s leadership in delivering patient care through groundbreaking innovation and technology. As one example, Mount Sinai was among the first academic medical centers in the United States to build and operate a supercomputer, named "Minerva," which went into service in 2013.

The interdisciplinary center will combine artificial intelligence with data science and genomics in a location at the center of the campus of The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. The facility will initially house approximately 40 Principal Investigators, alongside 250 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, computer scientists, and support staff.

Supported by a generous gift from Hamilton Evans "Tony" James, Executive Vice Chairman of the Manhattan-based investment firm Blackstone, and his wife, Amabel, the 12-story, 65,000-square-foot facility will be housed in a repurposed Mount Sinai building at 3 East 101st Street.

“By integrating AI technology across genomics, imaging, pathology, electronic health records, and beyond, Mount Sinai is revolutionizing doctors’ capacity to diagnose and treat patients, reshaping the future of health care. Mount Sinai has been at the forefront of AI research and development in health care, and now we stand as one of the first medical schools to establish a dedicated AI research center,” says Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Director of the Friedman Brain Institute, Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs and Nash Family Professor in the Nash Family Department of Neuroscience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Scientific Officer at Mount Sinai Health System. “As AI technology is evolving rapidly, this moment is critical for maintaining leadership in digital health. The Hamilton and Amabel James Center for Artificial Intelligence and Human Health will cultivate an optimal environment for researchers to deepen their understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of human diseases—including the most debilitating—and to advance overall health and well-being.”

“If we want to use artificial intelligence for the greater good and make significant progress in health care, investing in AI research and development within academic institutions is essential,” says Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean at Icahn Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs of the Mount Sinai Health System. “While large tech companies possess substantial funding and resources to access high-performance equipment, they lack access to a health care system, limiting their progress in the field. This new AI research center at Icahn Mount Sinai will yield transformative discoveries in human health by the integration of research and data, fostering collaboration across multiple programs under one roof.”

To construct the new AI center, Mount Sinai modernized an existing building to meet contemporary standards, including updating the facade to align with the aesthetic of other campus buildings. Within the 12 floors of the center, eight will be dedicated to Mount Sinai’s AI initiatives. These core facilities include:

• The Windreich Department of AI and Human Health, which focuses on creating an “AI Fabric” that will integrate machine learning and AI-driven decision-making throughout the Health System’s eight hospitals.
• The Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai (HPI•MS), formed in 2019 through a collaboration with the Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering in Germany, which aims to enhance capabilities in data science, biomedical and digital engineering, machine learning, AI, and wearable technology. In 2024, the Hasso Plattner Foundation renewed its generous support of HPI•MS for the next five years.
• The Institute for Genomic Health and Division of Medical Genetics, which leads the effort to harness the power of genomic discovery to develop new ways to prevent and treat diseases, including cancers, heart problems, and genetic disorders.
• The Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Institute, focused on the use of multimodality imaging for brain, heart, and cancer research, along with research in nanomedicine for precision imaging and drug delivery.
• The Institute for Personalized Medicine, which launched the human genome sequencing research project called the Mount Sinai Million Health Discoveries Program, which aims to enroll 1 million racially and ethnically diverse patients, advance precision medicine research, and improve patient care.

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About Mount Sinai's Windreich Department of AI and Human Health

Mount Sinai's Windreich Department of AI and Human Health, the first such department in a U.S. medical school, is committed to advancing and optimizing artificial intelligence and human health. The department is dedicated to harnessing the power of leading-edge tools to revolutionize scientific research and discovery. This commitment is realized through the creation of an "intelligent fabric," seamlessly integrating machine learning and AI-driven decision-making throughout Mount Sinai’s entire health system. It includes the distinguished Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, serving as a central hub for innovative learning. This integration facilitates robust partnerships spanning all research institutes, academic departments, hospitals, and outpatient centers. Through this strategic approach, the Department is accelerating progress in disease prevention, treating severe illnesses, and enhancing the overall quality of life for all.

In 2024, the Department's innovative NutriScan AI application, designed to facilitate faster identification and treatment of malnutrition in hospitalized patients, earned Mount Sinai Health System the prestigious Hearst Health Prize. This machine learning tool improves malnutrition diagnosis rates and resource utilization, demonstrating the impactful application of AI in health care. For more information, visit ai.mssm.edu.

 

About the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai 

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is internationally renowned for its outstanding research, educational, and clinical care programs. It is the sole academic partner for the eight- member hospitals* of the Mount Sinai Health System, one of the largest academic health systems in the United States, providing care to a large and diverse patient population.   

Ranked 11th nationwide in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and among the 99th percentile in research dollars per investigator according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, Icahn Mount Sinai has a talented, productive, and successful faculty. More than 4,560 full-time scientists, educators, and clinicians work within and across 45 academic departments and 38 multidisciplinary institutes, a structure that facilitates tremendous collaboration and synergy. Our emphasis on translational research and therapeutics is evident in such diverse areas as genomics/big data, virology, neuroscience, cardiology, geriatrics, as well as gastrointestinal and liver diseases. 

Icahn Mount Sinai offers highly competitive MD, PhD, and Master’s degree programs, with current enrollment of more than 1,200 students. It has the largest graduate medical education program in the country, with more than 2,685 clinical residents and fellows training throughout the Health System. In addition, more than 560 postdoctoral research fellows are in training within the Health System. 

A culture of innovation and discovery permeates every Icahn Mount Sinai program. Mount Sinai’s technology transfer office, one of the largest in the country, partners with faculty and trainees to pursue optimal commercialization of intellectual property to ensure that Mount Sinai discoveries and innovations translate into healthcare products and services that benefit the public.  

Icahn Mount Sinai’s commitment to breakthrough science and clinical care is enhanced by academic affiliations that supplement and complement the School’s programs.  

Through the Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP), the Health System facilitates the real-world application and commercialization of medical breakthroughs made at Mount Sinai. Additionally, MSIP develops research partnerships with industry leaders such as Merck & Co., AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, and others.  

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is located in New York City on the border between the Upper East Side and East Harlem, and classroom teaching takes place on a campus facing Central Park. Icahn Mount Sinai’s location offers many opportunities to interact with and care for diverse communities. Learning extends well beyond the borders of our physical campus, to the eight hospitals of the Mount Sinai Health System, our academic affiliates, and globally.  

------------------------------------------------------- 

* Mount Sinai Health System member hospitals: The Mount Sinai Hospital; Mount Sinai Beth Israel; Mount Sinai Brooklyn; Mount Sinai Morningside; Mount Sinai Queens; Mount Sinai South Nassau; Mount Sinai West; and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.  

 

COI Statement

Dr Singh reported receiving grants from the Houston Veterans Administration (VA) Health Services Research and Development (HSR&D) Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety (CIN13–413), the VA National Center for Patient Safety, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R01HS028595 and R18HS029347) and receiving personal fees from Informatics-Review LLC and Leapfrog Group. Dr Sittig reported receiving grants from the National Library of Medicine and the VA HSR&D Center and receiving personal fees from Informatics-Review LLC.

 

Music by homegrown artists much less likely to feature in Australian Top 100 charts since arrival of digital streaming

Global streaming services make it harder for people to find and enjoy music from their native culture, new study finds Berlin

De Gruyter

Music by local artists has appeared far less often in the Australian charts since worldwide streaming services began, a new study, published in De Gruyter’s International Journal of Music Research, finds. The study, which looked at local and international artist representation in the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Top 100 singles and albums charts over the past two decades, also found that North American music now dominates. 

The study analyzed Australian artist representation, indigenous artist representation and the nationalities of artists in the ARIA charts for each year from 2000 to 2023, a period that saw Wi-Fi and high-speed broadband replace dial-up modems, the rise and fall of early peer-to-peer audio file sharer Napster, and the birth of modern streaming behemoths such as iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music.

Study author Tim Kelly from the University of Technology, Sydney, Australia wanted to see whether artists from a place physically less well connected than the Global North benefited from the arrival of digital streaming which should, in theory, have opened up new markets around the world, democratized choice and allowed both emerging and established artists creating niche sounds to compete fairly via the democracy of the Internet.

However, the data suggested that, following the maturity of streaming in the Australian market, both Australian and non-Anglo (that is, other non-UK and non-North American) artist representation in the ARIA charts has declined in favor of artists from the US, Canada and the UK. 

For indigenous music from Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), the singles chart share declined from 16.6% in the pre-streaming era 2000–2016 to 10.5% in 2017–2023, then to just 2.5% in 2023.

The annual albums charts also demonstrated these trends, with the ANZ artist chart share declining from 29% in 2000–2016 to 18% in 2017–2023 to just 4% in 2023. Furthermore, in 2023, only one new Australian artist release single (by Dean Lewis) and one new release album (by Spacey Jane) qualified for the best-selling charts.

“None of the study’s findings revealed an increase in diversity," said Kelly. “This is not good for local artists, consumers or, in the longer term, the industry itself.”

Adding that it’s important the findings are used for positive change, Kelly said: “This isn’t about hand-wringing or binary positions on the good/bad of Spotify. The intent is to contribute to a nuanced debate on how a complex industry can pivot its structural framework to support new music and diverse offerings: this research suggests the current environment is not supporting these outcomes.”

He cites other studies that have evidenced the benefits of streaming for local artists, albeit those with the advantage of a distinct local language. For example, a paper by Will Page and Chris Dalla-River on musical ‘glocalization’ showed that in European markets with distinct languages, such as Germany and Poland, chart representation of local artists has increased. Glocalized music distribution, they argue, has created a ‘flywheel effect’ stimulating further investment to the benefit of local artists – an effect that seems to have missed Australasia.

"Local operatives for labels and streaming platforms are supportive of new Australian music," Kelly said, “but individually they are unable to override the dominance of wider, more powerful commercial and marketing influences."

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Journal

International Journal of Music Business Research

DOI

10.2478/ijmbr-2024-0008 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Down, and Under Pressure: The Decline of Local and Non-Anglo Best-Selling Recording Artists in Australia 2000–2023

Article Publication Date

24-Sep-2024