As new coronavirus variants emerge and quickly spread around the globe, both the public and policymakers are faced with a quandary: maintaining a semblance of normality, while also minimizing infections. While digital contact tracing apps offered promise, the adoption rate has been low, due in part to privacy concerns.

Viruses are the largest known group of biological agents. Now, an international team of scientists with the participation of the Institute for Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMCP), a joint centre of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has taken an important step towards understanding their diversity.

In a potential game changer for COVID-19 pandemic control efforts, a new cell phone app and lab kit have transformed a smartphone into a COVID-19 / flu detection system. The detection system is among the most rapid, sensitive, affordable and scalable tests known - and can be readily adapted for other pathogens with pandemic potential including deadly variants of COVID and flu. It also provides a platform for inexpensive home-based testing.

Computer engineers and radiologists at Duke University have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to analyze potentially cancerous lesions in mammography scans to determine if a patient should receive an invasive biopsy. But unlike its many predecessors, this algorithm is interpretable, meaning it shows physicians exactly how it came to its conclusions.

A Case Western Reserve University-led team of scientists has used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify which patients with certain head and neck cancers would benefit from reducing the intensity of treatments such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

This year, three computer scientists from Saarbrücken were awarded an "ERC Starting Grant" by the European Research Council. This award, endowed with 1.5 million euros each, is among the most prestigious research grants worldwide. It is intended to support particularly promising research of young scientists. The awarded projects are in the fields of artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

Treatment options for rheumatoid arthritis have often relied on trial and error. Now Mayo Clinic researchers are exploring the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and pharmacogenomics to predict how patients will respond to treatments, and to personalize care. Findings were published in Arthritis Care & Research.