Those with positive experiences or conflicts of interest dominate FDA drug advisory meetings

Mass General Brigham researchers found that 43% of public speakers report a conflict of interest, raising questions about whether these testimonies are representative of overall public opinion

Mass General Brigham

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U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committees play a key role in evaluating the efficacy and safety of new drugs. They include open public hearing sessions, whereby patients, clinicians, and advocates share input. To assess the experiences and perspectives of public speakers, Mass General Brigham researchers reviewed minutes and transcripts from 161 FDA Human Drug Advisory Committee meetings held from 2015 to 2023 and found that most public speakers support drug approval — especially patients or family members with personal experience using the drug and those who reported conflicts of interest (COI). Findings are published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The study found 96% of meetings included public speakers. When assessing the 1,481 testimonies from 1,217 unique individuals, researchers discovered patients and family members accounted for the highest percentage of speaker testimonies (48%), followed by clinicians (21%), public health advocates who didn’t come from organizations that represented specific diseases (13%), and patient advocates (10%).

Overall, 82% of the speakers supported drug approval and 43% disclosed a COI, typically that they or the organization they represent have received financial support from a drug manufacturer. The authors note COI reporting is not mandatory and this number may be an underrepresentation. Speakers with a COI were 11% more likely to support the drug than those who did not report a COI. For most speaker types, the majority supported approval; the lone exception was that 72% of testimonies by public health advocates did not support drug approval. Support was highest among patients and family members with personal experience using the drug – often through clinical trials. Of this group, 99% supported approval.

“The voices of patients and advocates are vital, but to ensure more balanced input, the FDA should seek contributions from a broader range of perspectives and strengthen efforts to monitor and mitigate conflicts of interest among public participants ,” said lead author Leah Rand, DPhil, a research scientist in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics in the Mass General Brigham Department of Medicine.

The authors recommended more robust transparency measures, such as mandatory COI disclosures and methods to independently assess potential conflicts, such as through Open Payments platform for clinicians or organizations’ tax filings. They also called on the FDA to consider strategies to solicit input from a broader array of stakeholders.

The study was not designed to determine the degree to which public comments influence committee votes or FDA decisions.

Authorship: In addition to Rand, Mass General Brigham authors include Helen Mooney, Dongzhe Hong, Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, Aaron S. Kesselheim, and Benjamin N. Rome.

Disclosures: Kesselheim reported receiving a grant from Elevance Public Policy Institute; personal fees from Alosa Health outside the submitted work; and serving on the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee from 2015 to 2021. Rome reported receiving grants from Elevance Health Public Policy Institute and personal fees from Alosa Health outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Funding: This work was supported by a Making a Difference Grant from the Greenwall Foundation.

Paper cited: Rand LZ et al. “Characteristics of Speakers at US FDA Advisory Committee Meetings on Drug Approval DOI: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.6107

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About Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.

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Journal

JAMA Internal Medicine

DOI

10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.6107 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Characteristics of Speakers at US FDA Advisory Committee Meetings on Drug Approval

Article Publication Date

24-Nov-2025

COI Statement

Disclosures: Kesselheim reported receiving a grant from Elevance Public Policy Institute; personal fees from Alosa Health outside the submitted work; and serving on the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drugs Advisory Committee from 2015 to 2021. Rome reported receiving grants from Elevance Health Public Policy Institute and personal fees from Alosa Health outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

 

KTU researchers develop a system that helps block illegal timber from entering the EU market

Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Professor Rytis Maskeliūnas and his team propose a solution that could fundamentally transform timber supply-chain management – a blockchain-based tracking and trading system designed to ensure full transparency.

Kaunas University of Technology

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Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Professor Rytis Maskeliūnas

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Credit: KTU

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) strengthened controls in the timber sector to prevent sanctioned raw materials from entering the market from Russia and Belarus. Yet recent studies reveal that a significant amount of this timber still reaches the EU – often through intermediary countries. Estimates suggest that since sanctions were introduced, more than 1.5 billion euros worth of restricted timber may have entered Europe, while nearly half of the tested samples did not match their declared country of origin.

This creates risks not only for the effectiveness of sanctions, but also for the EU’s economy and environmental goals – illegal or irresponsibly harvested timber continues to distort competition and undermine trust in sustainability systems. Even more critically, such trade indirectly supports aggressor states by allowing them to keep earning revenue from exports to Europe.

These challenges highlight a key question: how can consumers be confident that the materials they buy come from sustainable and legal sources? Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Professor Rytis Maskeliūnas and his team propose a solution that could fundamentally transform timber supply-chain management – a blockchain-based tracking and trading system designed to ensure full transparency from forest to final product.

Digital shift in the timber sector

According to Prof. Maskeliūnas, today’s timber supply chain operates in fragmented systems – loggers, transport companies, processors, and traders all use separate platforms, making it difficult to verify where wood truly comes from.

“We want to be certain that the wood we use does not originate from a hostile country, that trees are not cut unnecessarily, that environmental damage is properly compensated, and that the logs are processed using clean energy. To guarantee all this, we need a tracking chain that cannot be altered at any stage – and blockchain technology makes that possible,” says the KTU researcher.

In the system developed by KTU scientists, every unit of timber is given a unique identifier, and all related events are recorded on the blockchain. Each step – from issuing a logging permit to transportation and sale – becomes a verifiable entry that cannot be changed or falsified.

“This allows the system to function without a central authority – data is distributed across many participants, and everyone sees the same information,” adds Prof. Maskeliūnas.

The system also uses smart contracts, which automatically check and validate every action. They confirm permit validity before cutting can begin, update transportation details in real time and ensure that no step is executed unless all required conditions are met. “A smart contract is essentially code running on the blockchain that automatically enforces specific rules,” he explains.

Through these mechanisms, no participant in the supply chain can alter information without the agreement of all others.

Sustainability becomes a competitive advantage

The system stands out because it not only tracks timber but also actively manages the trading process. Using smart contracts, buying and selling orders are automatically matched based on price and sustainability criteria. The two-factor algorithm developed by the researchers prioritises responsibly sourced timber rather than selecting only by the lowest price.

“Our model integrates sustainability directly into the trading process – it encourages market participants to act responsibly, because sustainably harvested or processed timber becomes more competitive,” says the professor.

To evaluate system performance, the team carried out simulation experiments. The system achieved up to 550 transactions per second, while participants with higher sustainability scores reached up to 95 per cent successful trades. These results show that the trading algorithm not only records actions – it actively encourages responsible behaviour across the market.

The system also reduces bureaucracy, lowers the risk of human error and helps prevent illegal logging. Each supply-chain event must be confirmed by all relevant parties, while smart-contract algorithms automatically block any action that violates predefined rules – such as cutting without a valid permit or attempting to add a fictitious supplier.

This creates direct financial benefits for responsible businesses. “In a transparent market, sustainability becomes a competitive advantage – such timber gains value, and companies that follow the rules automatically become more reliable partners,” notes Prof. Maskeliūnas.

Looking ahead, the researcher believes that technologies like this could become a foundation of future forestry. The system’s architecture is designed to remain scalable, efficient and secure as more participants join the network.

“Blockchain will transform sustainable forestry – shifting from passive monitoring to active value creation. Such systems will encourage sustainable production and allow every participant in the chain to contribute meaningfully to environmental protection,” he emphasises.

Article Blockchain-enabled smart contracts for secure and transparent timber traceability can be found here.

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Journal

Journal of Industrial Information Integration

DOI

10.1016/j.jii.2025.100934 

Article Title

Blockchain-enabled smart contracts for secure and transparent timber traceability

 

International cooperation helps advance the frontiers of Earth observation

UH scientist, Italian Space Agency deliver unprecedented view of Antarctica glacier to predict sea-level rise

University of Houston

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Pietro Milillo, University of Houston assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is assisting the Italian Space Agency interpreting space photos of glaciers in Antarctica.

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Credit: University of Houston

A University of Houston scientist has teamed with international partners to examine how Antarctica’s massive glaciers are shifting and how that could predict sea level changes. Their latest collaboration offers the most precise mapping to date in Antarctica of grounding lines, the points where glaciers lift from bedrock and begin to float on the ocean. 

On earth today, only two ice sheets, or continental glaciers, exist – one in Antarctica and the other in Greenland. Over thousands of years of snow compacting and compressing, the ice sheets formed and now cover most of the land in those areas.  

About five years ago, the Italian Space Agency began examining Antarctica’s glaciers during its dedicated COSMO-SkyMed mission, meant to observe the earth using its constellation of four synthetic aperture radar satellites, first launched 17 years ago. 

And now, after transcription and interpretation, these observations reveal tidal movements and retreat rates in Antarctica of up to 700 meters – or about a half mile –per year in some regions, providing an unprecedented view of glacier evolution. 

Antarctica is a significant contributor to global sea level rise, with the potential to substantially increase sea level by the end of this century. 

It seems a simple math problem: If the grounding line is measured as having moved inland, where glacier thickness increases, then more ice is flowing outland – or into the ocean. And the more ice into the ocean, means higher sea levels. And vice versa. 

“Continuous monitoring of Antarctic evolution is important to understand ice sheet dynamics, minimizing uncertainties in sea level rise projections, and develop strategies to mitigate the risks posed by rising sea level,” said Pietro Milillo, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “This dataset provides the most detailed view yet of how Antarctica’s glaciers are interacting with the ocean. For the first time, we can monitor fast-flowing glaciers at a continental scale using high-frequency radar observations.”  Milillo and the Italian Space Agency published their findings in Scientific Data, a Nature publication.  

The paper presents an Antarctic grounding line dataset, manually mapped using Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DInSAR) data. Over the years, various techniques have been developed for mapping grounding lines, but DInSAR stands out for its ability to operate under all weather conditions, and its proven effectiveness in continuously monitoring grounding lines and detecting their rapid migrations. 

To measure tiny movements in the ice, the team analyzed 794 images from over 74 glaciers in East Antarctica, West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula between July 2020 and March 2022. 

“Our collaboration with NASA and the University of Houston highlights how international cooperation can advance the frontiers of Earth observation,” said Luigi Dini of the Italian Space Agency, coauthor of the study. “The COSMO-SkyMed system’s radar technology gives scientists a powerful lens to observe Antarctica’s evolution in near real time.” 

The dataset fills major data gaps left by previous missions which struggled to map fast-flowing glaciers and is freely available to the scientific community. 

“By partnering with the Italian Space Agency and funding by NASA, we’ve made these data publicly available so scientists worldwide can better understand and model how Antarctic glaciers are evolving and contributing to sea-level rise,” said Milillo. 

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Journal

Scientific Data

Article Title

Antarctic grounding line delineation from the Italian Space Agency COSMO-SkyMed DInSAR data

Article Publication Date

23-Nov-2025

UAlbany researcher developing radio frequency interference solutions for U.S. weather satellites

University at Albany, SUNY

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UAlbany's Mustafa Aksoy is leading the development of machine-learning algorithms that can detect and remove radio frequency interference that impairs the accuracy of U.S. satellite measurements.

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Credit: UAlbany

ALBANY, N.Y. (Nov. 20, 2025) — As the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration prepares to launch the next generation of satellites responsible for U.S. weather forecasting and climate monitoring, it’s asking researchers for help ensuring accurate measurements in the face of growing radio frequency interference from wireless technologies.

Mustafa Aksoy, an associate professor in the University at Albany’s College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering, is part of a large research team that was awarded a two-year, $1.1 million grant to develop radio frequency interference detection and mitigation strategies for future NOAA satellites. Other collaborators on the project include NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Ohio State University and Noctua Technologies.

Aksoy, who joined UAlbany’s Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering in 2017 and directs the Microwave Remote Sensing Laboratory, is leading the development of machine-learning algorithms for NOAA that can detect and remove radio frequency interference from its satellite measurements, improving the accuracy of weather forecasts and climate monitoring.

“When you think of big weather events like hurricanes, drought, flooding, when you think of climate change, these events cannot be understood if you don’t have reliable atmospheric measurements,” Aksoy said. “And one of the biggest threats to reliable measurements right now is radio frequency interference. Even the smallest interference can bias your measurements, giving you a completely different estimation that may cost billions of dollars.”

Radio Frequency Interference

Weather and climate modelers rely on the radio frequency spectrum to make and communicate sensitive observations about Earth’s atmosphere, oceans and surface. Satellites and other wireless communication technologies transmit this data over radio waves, an invisible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with the longest wavelengths and lowest frequencies, ranging from 3 kilohertz to 300 gigahertz.

Because this portion of the spectrum is finite, only so many users can operate on a specific frequency at a specific time. And because radio waves are foundational to wireless communications, which have experienced exponential growth in recent decades, a growing number of users are now competing for a limited number of radio frequencies.

This has led to a rise in radio frequency interference, or RFI, which occurs when unwanted radio signals disrupt the normal operation of other technologies using the spectrum. Unwanted signals may come from cell phones, power lines, GPS and vehicle radar, as well as natural sources like lightning, solar flares and auroras. This interference can lead to disruptions in service, and can degrade or even block data from being collected by weather satellites and radars.

“There are plenty of interference sources, and they change from country to country and region to region because different countries may give different licenses to different users at different frequencies,” Aksoy said.

Governments and regulatory bodies tasked with managing the radio frequency spectrum attempt to prevent RFI by licensing who can use the spectrum and when, but unwanted signals continue to occur as the spectrum becomes increasingly crowded and complex.

Commercial users who can profit from their technologies are also crowding out scientific use of the spectrum, which is not immediately profitable but critical for delivering accurate and life-saving weather forecasts and climate tracking.

Detecting and Removing RFI

Aksoy was tapped by NOAA to develop advanced strategies for detecting and mitigating RFI using sophisticated machine-learning algorithms.

“We are applying machine learning algorithms because we realized traditional algorithms we used in previous studies are not efficient enough in this very crowded radio spectrum,” he said. “It’s getting more crowded and more complicated. So traditional algorithms are not enough anymore.”

Aksoy’s work in this area dates back to his time as a PhD student at The Ohio State University, where he worked on research to assist NASA satellites with accurately assessing moisture levels in Earth’s soil, a critical measurement for understanding Earth’s climate.

Under this new project, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing atmospheric models that can simulate what atmospheric radiation would look like without interference. Aksoy, in turn, is training algorithms on these interference-free models so that they are able to detect and correct for when an anomaly occurs.

“So our algorithm will know what radiation should be without interference, and when there is interference, it will deviate from that expectation and the algorithm will detect it as an anomaly,” he said.

Grant funding for the first phase of the research lasts through February 2027. The next phase will likely involve hardware development, Aksoy said.

“Right now we are building the algorithms,” he said. “But our next step is the hardware, so that eventually these algorithms are built right into future satellites.”