Monthly Archives: March 2022

Most of us know someone affected by hearing loss, but we may not fully appreciate the hardships that lack of hearing can bring. Hearing loss can lead to isolation, frustration, and a debilitating ringing in the ears known as tinnitus. It is also closely correlated with dementia.

The biotechnology company Frequency Therapeutics is seeking to reverse hearing loss not with hearing aids or implants, but with a new kind of regenerative therapy. The company uses small molecules to program progenitor cells, a descendant of stem cells in the inner ear, to create the tiny hair cells that allow us to hear.

Hair cells die off when exposed to loud noises or drugs including certain chemotherapies and antibiotics. Frequencys drug candidate is designed to be injected into the ear to regenerate these cells within the cochlea. In clinical trials, the company has already improved peoples hearing as measured by tests of speech perception the ability to understand speech and recognize words.

Speech perception is the No. 1 goal for improving hearing and the No. 1 need we hear from patients, says Frequency co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Chris Loose PhD 07.

In Frequencys first clinical study, the company saw statistically significant improvements in speech perception in some participants after a single injection, with some responses lasting nearly two years.

The company has dosed more than 200 patients to date and has seen clinically meaningful improvements in speech perception in three separate clinical studies. Another study failed to show improvements in hearing compared to the placebo group, but the company attributes that result to flaws in the design of the trial.

Now Frequency is recruiting for a 124-person trial from which preliminary results should be available early next year.

The companys founders, including Loose, MIT Institute Professor Robert Langer, CEO David Lucchino MBA 06, Senior Vice President Will McLean PhD 14, and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology affiliate faculty member Jeff Karp, are already gratified to have been able to help people improve their hearing through the trials. They also believe theyre making important contributions toward solving a problem that impacts more than 40 million people in the U.S. and hundreds of millions more around the world.

Hearing is such an important sense; it connects people to their community and cultivates a sense of identity, says Karp, who is also a professor of anesthesia at Brigham and Womens Hospital. I think the potential to restore hearing will have enormous impact on society.

From the lab to patients

In 2005, Lucchino was an MBA student in the MIT Sloan School of Management and Loose was a PhD candidate in chemical engineering at MIT. Langer introduced the two aspiring entrepreneurs, and they started working on what would become Semprus BioSciences, a medical device company that won the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and later sold at a deal valued at up to $80 million.

MIT has such a wonderful environment of people interested in new ventures that come from different backgrounds, so were able to assemble teams of people with diverse skills quickly, Loose says.

Eight years after playing matchmaker for Lucchino and Loose, Langer began working with Karp to study the lining of the human gut, which regenerates itself almost every day.

With MIT postdoc Xiaolei Yin, who is now a scientific advisor to Frequency, the researchers discovered that the same molecules that control the guts stem cells are also used by a close descendant of stem cells called progenitor cells. Like stem cells, progenitor cells can turn into more specialized cells in the body.

Every time we make an advance, we take a step back and ask how this could be even bigger, Karp says. Its easy to be incremental, but how do we take what we learned and make a massive difference?

Progenitor cells reside in the inner ear and generate hair cells when humans are in utero, but they become dormant before birth and never again turn into more specialized cells such as the hair cells of the cochlea. Humans are born with about 15,000 hair cells in each cochlea. Such cells die over time and never regenerate.

In 2012, the research team was able to use small molecules to turn progenitor cells into thousands of hair cells in the lab. Karp says no one had ever produced such a large number of hair cells before. He still remembers looking at the results while visiting his family, including his father, who wears a hearing aid.

I looked at them and said, I think we have a breakthrough, Karp says. Thats the first and only time Ive used that phrase.

The advance was enough for Langer to play matchmaker again and bring Loose and Lucchino into the fold to start Frequency Therapeutics.

The founders believe their approach injecting small molecules into the inner ear to turn progenitor cells into more specialized cells offers advantages over gene therapies, which may rely on extracting a patients cells, programming them in a lab, and then delivering them to the right area.

Tissues throughout your body contain progenitor cells, so we see a huge range of applications, Loose says. We believe this is the future of regenerative medicine.

Advancing regenerative medicine

Frequencys founders have been thrilled to watch their lab work mature into an impactful drug candidate in clinical trials.

Some of these people [in the trials] couldnt hear for 30 years, and for the first time they said they could go into a crowded restaurant and hear what their children were saying, Langer says. Its so meaningful to them. Obviously more needs to be done, but just the fact that you can help a small group of people is really impressive to me.

Karp believes Frequencys work will advance researchers ability to manipulate progenitor cells and lead to new treatments down the line.

I wouldn't be surprised if in 10 or 15 years, because of the resources being put into this space and the incredible science being done, we can get to the point where [reversing hearing loss] would be similar to Lasik surgery, where you're in and out in an hour or two and you can completely restore your vision, Karp says. I think we'll see the same thing for hearing loss.

The company is also developing a drug for multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin in the brain and central nervous system. Progenitor cells already turn into the myelin-producing cells in the brain, but not fast enough to keep up with losses sustained by MS patients. Most MS therapies focus on suppressing the immune system rather than generating myelin.

Early versions of that drug candidate have shown dramatic increases in myelin in mouse studies. The company expects to file an investigational new drug application for MS with the FDA next year.

When we were conceiving of this project, we meant for it to be a platform that could be broadly applicable to multiple tissues. Now were moving into the remyelination work, and to me its the tip of the iceberg in terms of what can be done by taking small molecules and controlling local biology, Karp says.

For now, Karp is already thrilled with Frequencys progress, which hit home the last time he was in Frequencys office and met a speaker who shared her experience with hearing loss.

You always hope your work will have an impact, but it can take a long time for that to happen, Karp says. Its been an incredible experience working with the team to bring this forward. There are already people in the trials whose hearing has been dramatically improved and their lives have been changed. That impacts interactions with family and friends. Its wonderful to be a part of.

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Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT News

Nucleus Research recognizes One Network as a Leader in its Supply Chain Planning Technology Value Matrix 2022.

With supply and labor shortages, geopolitical disruptions and demand fluctuations still challenging global supply chains, the Nucleus Research report once again positions One Network Enterprises as a technology leader. The report credits One Network's enhancements to its NEO platform and AI predictive capabilities with implementation of new supply chain planning (SCP) and execution functions called "NEO Intelligent Agents". The new features improve the automation and prescriptive capabilities of fulfillment (global demand-supply matching), transportation and last-mile delivery. ONE's ongoing improvements to global inbound and last mile capabilities, allow products and materials to be tracked with automated serial numbers to establish accountability at every stage of their journey (and precisely targeted for recall if necessary).

"One Network Enterprises is once again a leader in our 2022 Supply Chain Planning Technology Value Matrix, helping organizations prepare for unforeseen supply chain disruptions, drive efficiencies and impart greater resilience. The investments and developments One Network continues to make to their NEO platform, ML decision-making and multi-tier supplier networks are enabling organizations globally to adapt and stay competitive and profitable in spite of market disruptions," said Isaac Gould, lead analyst of this report at Nucleus Research. "Given their investment and R&D in their unique network-based intelligent agent technology, we expect them to continue leading in supply chain planning technology."

"We are proud to once again be recognized by Nucleus Research as a leader in the 2022 Supply Chain Planning Technology report," said Mark Brady, CEO of One Network Enterprises. "As Nucleus Research has highlighted, the ongoing improvements we are making to supply chain planning functionality is having a major impact on the resiliency of global supply chains. In today's volatile business environment, quickly resolving supply chain disruptions is of critical importance. Our enhanced NEO intelligent agents better predict and resolve issues, to further improve supply chain resilience with autonomous decision-making and control."

About One Network Enterprises One Network is the leader in supply chain control towers and provider of the Digital Supply Chain Network. It is the only solution that gives supply chain managers and executives end-to-end visibility and control with one data model and one truth, from raw material to last mile delivery. Powered by NEO, One Network's machine learning and intelligent agent technology, it enables seamless planning and execution, across inbound supply, outbound order fulfillment, and logistics, matching demand with available supply in real-time. Lead your industry by providing the highest service levels and product quality at the lowest possible cost. Visit: http://www.onenetwork.com.

Contact: Michelle Gaubert One Network Enterprises+1 510 316 0590[emailprotected]

SOURCE One Network Enterprises

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One Network Enterprises Named Leader in Nucleus Research's Supply Chain Planning Technology Value Matrix 2022 for the 3rd consecutive year - PR...

Technology in The Immortal Mayor is essentially a feature where you can unlock new buildings, materials, items, and many more by spending a certain number of Soulstones to do research. Since there is so much technology that you can research, you may wander into what branch you want to spend your soulstones on. This is the complete guide and some tips to help you pick what technology to research first for beginners in The Immortal Mayor.

Technology is differentiated into four main branches according to their main focus, which is Cultivation, Agriculture, Artisan, and Commerce. There is also a tier system where you can only research topics according to your God level, where at the start all tier 1 will already be unlocked. Below are the further explanation and the complete list of technology present in every branch in the Immortal Mayor

The branch focuses on gathering resources and knowledge. The list starting from the lowest tier are:

The branch focuses on farming, fishing, hunting, and security. The list starting from the lowest tier are:

The branch focuses on decoration, manufacturing, repair, mining, and many others. The list starting from the lowest tier are:

The branch focuses on business, entertainment, better living conditions, and many more. The list starting from the lowest tier are:

Of course, a lot of technology from all branches in tiers 1 and 2 are some of the most essential buildings and materials that you will need. So you need to research them first. You can then spend some Soulstones focusing on speeding up devotion in the Cultivation branch.

However, after that, if youre playing on peaceful (monster off), then you will need to focus on making your villagers not die of other causes such as hunger and illness. The lack of clothing and tools tends to be a problem, so make sure to research the Tailor Shop and Smithy in the Artisan branch. After that, you can research the Commerce branch to construct entertainment buildings for your villagers. And then you research farming and fishing to diversify the food.

Did you find our The Immortal Mayor Technology Guidehelpful? Which Technology did you start researching first while playing the Immortal Mayor? Do let us know in thecomments below!

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The Immortal Mayor: The complete Technology Guide and Tips - GamingonPhone

VP of Engineering Nahi Ojeil and VP of Product Naveed Makhani Bring Deep Experience to Meet High Customer Demand

SAN FRANCISCO, March 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CaptivateIQ, the leader in sales commission software, appointed Nahi Ojeil as vice president of engineering and Naveed Makhani as vice president of product. These additions to the leadership team bolster CaptivateIQ's ability to deliver a world-class platform to automate and scale sales commissions, a process that is painfully manual today. In their new roles, Ojeil and Makhani will advance CaptivateIQ's mission to make the commission process flexible and scalable, empowering revenue teams to tailor plans, workflows, and outcomes to meet the needs of their unique business.

"Nahi and Naveed bring strong technical and product chops to our growing technology team as we continue to enhance our software and deliver a best-in-class experience to our expanding roster of customers," said Hubert Wong, chief technology officer and co-founder of CaptivateIQ. "Nahi's platform approach at Dropbox brings great insights into scaling and securing enterprise-grade platforms used by the world's largest companies. And, from scaling Okta during a period of rapid growth, Naveed has a wealth of experience leading a product team in high-stakes software deployments."

As vice president of engineering, Ojeil will lead the CaptivateIQ engineering team in building a unique product based on the real experiences of CaptivateIQ's customers. Ojeil joins CaptivateIQ from Commure, a developer platform for healthcare, where he served as vice president of engineering. Previously, Ojeil led a 150-member engineering team at Dropbox, focusing on machine learning, data and platforms, as well as product iteration and experimentation via platformization efforts.

"I am excited to join the team and look forward to continuing to build the CaptivateIQ platform that helps companies solve extremely complex sales commission processes through automation," said Ojeil. "Now is the time. The market is growing rapidly and we want to continue delivering a sophisticated, streamlined platform that brings a higher quality of life to dynamic teams who deal with commissions and incentive plans."

As vice president of product, Makhani will lead product management, design, and documentation teams. He will work closely with engineering and sales to continually evolve CaptivateIQ's product offerings to meet the needs of a dynamic market and customers' most essential challenges. Prior to joining CaptivateIQ, Makhani led Core Identity Products for Okta, where he worked to develop products for end users, admins, and developers. To learn more about Makhani, check out the CaptivateIQ blog here.

CaptivateIQ is accelerating its core product innovations while delivering solutions that empower all teams in the commission process. The engineering, product and design (EPD) team is advancing CaptivateIQ's automated platform by looking for efficiency gains across the entire commission process and streamlining frequently-executed manual tasks. The EPD team is also delivering delightful rep experiences by offering enhanced performance, payout statement, and earnings visibility. CaptivateIQ provides enterprise-grade support through its focus on scalability and performance, improved workflow automation, and enhanced permissions and controls for added security and compliance.

About CaptivateIQCaptivateIQ, the new standard in commission management, enables companies to reclaim the power of incentives with a platform built for revenue teams. Leading companies like Intercom and Gong rely on CaptivateIQ to transform their data, build any commission plan, and simplify their workflows to maximize productivity and achieve revenue goals. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company is backed by tier-one investors including Sequoia, Accel, ICONIQ Growth, Sapphire, Bessemer, Foundation Capital, Workday Ventures and Y Combinator. To learn more, visit http://www.captivateiq.comand follow @captivateiq.

Media ContactTom HanniganBateman Agency for CaptivateIQ[emailprotected]

SOURCE CaptivateIQ

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CaptivateIQ Bolsters Executive Team to Extend Product and Technology Leadership - PR Newswire