Gladstone-UCSF research center to focus on brain diseases; plus a mammography-based prediction algorithm, PharmaMar and an intracellular glycoprotein that blocks phagocytosis 

Gladstone, UCSF pair up to tackle brain diseases
Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and University of California San Francisco are launching the Gladstone-UCSF Center for Neurovascular Brain Immunology to develop treatments for neurological indications including Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis. Led by Katerina Akassoglou, the new center is supported by a $2.5 million donation from the Simon Family Trust and will focus on the intersection of the brain, immune and vascular systems.

Computational model to detect breast cancer risk
A deep-learning model, dubbed Mirai, uses mammography images to predict breast cancer risk. In a Science Translational Medicine publication, a team led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists reported that Mirai’s concordance indices with training datasets ranged from 0.76 to 0.81. They also said that the algorithm was superior to two established prediction models when applied to a test dataset: in patients who would develop cancer within five years, Mirai correctly identified 41.5% of them as high risk compared with 36.1% for the Hybrid DL and 22.9% for the Tyrer-Cuzick models...