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  • Shift Toward Chemotherapy-Free Approaches Redefines Upfront CLL Treatment Selection

    Shift Toward Chemotherapy-Free Approaches Redefines Upfront CLL Treatment Selection

    Kathleen A. Dorritie, MD

    As upfront treatment approaches in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) become increasingly less reliant on standard chemotherapy agents in favor of BTK inhibitor–based regimens, it is even more crucial to understand and identify the appropriate strategies for patients with newly diagnosed vs relapsed/refractory disease, according to Kathleen A. Dorritie, MD.

    Two studies that have helped move the needle in treatment-naive CLL are the phase 3 AMPLIFY (NCT03836261) and ELEVATE-TN (NCT02475681) trials, Dorritie noted. In the AMPLIFY trial, at a median follow-up of 40.8 months, the estimated 36-month progression-free survival (PFS) was 76.5%, 83.1%, and 66.5% for patients with newly diagnosed CLL treated with acalabrutinib (Calquence) plus venetoclax (Venclexta) vs acalabrutinib plus venetoclax/obinutuzumab (Gazyva) vs chemoimmunotherapy, respectively.1 Respective overall survival rates were 94.1%, 87.7%, and 85.9%.

    In ELEVATE-TN, after 6 years of follow-up, the median PFS was not reached with acalabrutinib/obinutuzumab or acalabrutinib monotherapy; in contrast, the median PFS was 27.8 months in the chlorambucil/obinutuzumab arm (P < .0001).2 The estimated 72-month overall PFS rates in these respective arms were 78.0%, 61.5%, and 17.2%. Notably, acalabrutinib/obinutuzumab improved PFS vs acalabrutinib monotherapy (HR, 0.58; P = .0229).

    “AMPLIFY and ELEVATE-TN both showed that patients who received targeted therapy had improved outcomes compared with those who received standard chemoimmunotherapy,” Dorritie explained during an interview with OncLive®.

    In the interview, Dorritie expanded on 2 case studies of patients with CLL, both of which she presented as chair of a recent State of the Science Summit™ on hematologic malignancies. Dorritie also highlighted differences in treatment strategies for patients with newly diagnosed vs relapsed/refractory CLL, and the shift towards chemotherapy-free regimens in CLL.

    Dorritie is a hematologist/oncologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hillman Cancer Center in Pennsylvania.

    OncLive: What clinical case scenarios were discussed at the Summit?

    Dorritie: In a clinical case scenario,[we have to consider:] what is the optimal approach for newly diagnosed CLL, particularly for young patients. The SOC is changing to the point where it’s almost chemotherapy-free regimens for all. One of the case studies I presented in the newly diagnosed setting was asking whether we are ready for triplet combination therapy or are not quite there yet.

    In the other case study, we focused on an older patient who had had some exposure to prior targeted agents and had relapsed multiple times, and [we identified] what the best option might be in the relapsed/refractory setting.

    How does treatment decision-making differ for patients who are newly diagnosed vs those who have received multiple lines of therapy?

    In the newly diagnosed setting, [the SOC] has really changed with the results from studies like AMPLIFY and ELEVATE-TN, [both of which assessed a] treatment-naive patient population. Evidence from both AMPLIFY and ELEVATE-TN has directed the incorporation of BTK inhibitors and the BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax in the upfront treatment setting. [These are] the new SOC, and there are very few patients for whom we would choose a chemotherapy regimen upfront.

    In the relapsed/refractory setting, we also discussed how we sequence therapies, which comes down to what patients had been previously treated with. How did they respond to those therapies? Were there certain toxicities that they [encountered with] a specific therapy? That helps guide what our next choice is regarding that line of treatment.

    How are chemotherapy-free regimens shifting the CLL treatment paradigm?

    [Historically,] in certain younger patients who were fit, we may still opt for a regimen like fludarabine, cyclophosphamide, and rituximab [Rituxan], for example, or even bendamustine/rituximab [BR]. However, now we have multiple studies [showing that] the outcomes of PFS were better in patients who received the more targeted therapy. [This] includes AMPLIFY, which looked at the combination of acalabrutinib and venetoclax [with or without] obinutuzumab; the ELEVATE-TN study, which looked at acalabrutinib [with or without] obinutuzumab vs chlorambucil [plus] obinutuzumab; and the [phase 3] SEQUOIA study [NCT03336333] which compared zanubrutinib [Brukinsa] vs BR. [Additionally,] we’ve taken chemoimmunotherapy off the table for the vast majority of patients with CLL, which is a great and huge paradigm shift.

    References

    • Brown JR, Seymour JF, Jurczak W, et al. Fixed-duration acalabrutinib combinations in untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia. N Engl J Med. 2025;392(8):748-762. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2409804
    • Sharman JP, Egyed M, Jurczak W, et al. Acalabrutinib-obinutuzumab improves survival vs chemoimmunotherapy in treatment-naive CLL in the 6-year follow-up of ELEVATE-TN. Blood. Published online April 8, 2025. doi:10.1182/blood.2024024476

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  • Jawless Parasite Sheds Light on Thyroid Evolution

    Jawless Parasite Sheds Light on Thyroid Evolution

    The thyroid, a vital endocrine organ in vertebrates, plays a key role in regulating metabolism and supporting growth. The first gland of both the nervous system and endocrine system to mature during an embryo’s development, it initially evolved more than 500 million years ago out of a “primitive” precursor organ in chordates known as the endostyle. Now, using lamprey as a model organism, Caltech researchers have discovered how the evolutionary acquisition of a certain kind of stem cell, called a neural crest cell, facilitated the evolution of the endostyle into the thyroid.

    The research is described in a paper appearing in the journal Science Advances on August 6. The work was conducted primarily in the laboratory of Marianne Bronner , the Edward B. Lewis Professor of Biology and director of Caltech’s Beckman Institute.

    Bronner’s lab has long focused on neural crest cells and their role in vertebrate development and evolution. For example, the team previously examined the role of neural crest cells in forming the bony scales that protect sturgeon and other primitive fish, heart tissue in zebrafish and chickens , and neurons of the peripheral nervous system in lamprey.

    “Neural crest cells seem to promote evolution,” Bronner says. “When Darwin first proposed the theory of evolution, he was looking at the different shapes of beaks of finches on the Galapagos Islands. Beaks, in addition to other parts of the facial skeleton, happen to arise from neural crest cells. These cells seem to be able to change faster in evolutionary time than cells that are more ancient.”

    Vertebrates have neural crest cells, while invertebrates do not, further suggesting that these cells contribute to the evolution of complex body forms. The Bronner lab uses lamprey, slimy parasitic eel-like fish, as a model organism, because modern lamprey share some characteristics with the earliest vertebrates.

    The new work, led by Senior Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate Jan Stundl, examines how neural crest cells contribute to the development of the endostyle in the lamprey. The endostyle is an evolutionary novelty of chordates (animals in the phylum Chordata, which includes vertebrates), and lampreys are the only vertebrates that retain this organ, whose primary function is associated with filter feeding. In lampreys, the larval endostyle, composed of two lobes in a butterfly-like shape, transforms into thyroid follicles during metamorphosis. Stundl and the team traced how neural crest cells give rise to the five different cell types of the endostyle, two of which give rise to the thyroid follicles. Using the gene-editing technology CRISPR, they then genetically deleted genes associated with the neural crest developmental program in lamprey embryos. These modified lampreys failed to develop a fully formed endostyle, exhibiting instead only a primitive lobe resembling the simplified endostyle of invertebrate chordates. The findings suggested that neural crest cells are essential for driving the evolutionary transition from the chordate endostyle to the vertebrate thyroid gland.

    “Mother Nature is ‘smart,’” Stundl says. “Instead of evolving something new, you can rebuild from something already present, like the endostyle. Neural crest cells seem to play an important role in enabling this transition to happen. Without the neural crest, we might still be filter feeders.”

    The paper is titled “Acquisition of neural crest promoted thyroid evolution from chordate endostyle.” In addition to Stundl and Bronner, Caltech co-authors are postdoctoral scholars Ayyappa Raja Desingu Rajan and Tatiana Solovieva; graduate student Hugo Urrutia; research associate Jana Stundlova; and former postdoctoral scholar Megan Martik now of UC Berkeley. Additional co-authors are Jake Leyhr, Tatjana Haitina, and Sophie Sanchez of Uppsala University; and Zuzana Musilova of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health, the European Union, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, the American Heart Association, the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Marianne Bronner is an affiliated faculty member with the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute for Neuroscience at Caltech .

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  • SNK Speaks on Ken in Fatal Fury, Chun-Li Teases, and Capcom vs SNK

    SNK Speaks on Ken in Fatal Fury, Chun-Li Teases, and Capcom vs SNK

    One of the most exciting games to watch at Evo 2025 was Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. From KojiKOG’s memeworthy and dramatic reaction to his loss in top 8, to the incredible grand finals betwen Go1 and ET, and all of the exciting moments in between. It was a great reminder of how much fun the game can be. While I wasn’t able to talk to anyone from SNK at the actual show itself, Producer Yasuyuki Oda and Animator Masami Obari were kind enough to answer several questions of mine via email relating to the release of Ken in City of the Wolves and a few other topics that I felt would be of great interest to fans of SNK and fighting games in general.

    One of the biggest surprises to me once I got my hands on with Ken is how similar to his SF6 counterpart he is, despite this being a completely different game. Can you talk a little bit about some of the challenges involving taking a beloved character from one series and making them fit under a whole new set of rules and mechanics?
    Yasayuki Oda, Lead Producer on Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves: The biggest initial concern for us was finding how to bring Ken into the Fatal Fury gameplay system and world without compromising his identity as a character. Our development team has so many people that are passionate about the Street Fighter franchise, and I think their love and dedication to the series really shined through in all the little details we worked on for Ken. We slowly worked out over time how to incorporate Ken’s fast speed and flashy flame-based attacks into the system of City of the Wolves, constantly asking ourselves “What was missing?”, “What could we improve on?”, “What were Ken’s strengths and where could we leverage that?” After much repeated trial and error, this version of Ken finally took form.

    Ken is a character that’s always been very strong in Street Fighter 6, thanks to being able to convert most regular hits on block to a Jinrai Kick that forces some risky decision making on defense, a plus on block gap closer in his heavy dragonlash kick, on top of just having really good neutral buttons and a balanced tool kit. Were you ever concerned that some of these elements might make him a bit too strong in Fatal Fury?
    Oda: As you said, bringing Ken over the same way he is in Street Fighter 6 would undoubtedly make him a strong character in City of the Wolves. Of course, we had to make careful adjustments as we adapted him to the game. Integrating mechanics like Braking and REV Accel were challenging, but I think we were able to highlight what makes Ken special while also giving fans a chance to experience a different playstyle within the systems of City of the Wolves. We’re looking forward to seeing what fans think and how they engage with this version of Ken.

    With Terry and Mai appearing in Street Fighter 6, and now Ken, and later Chun-Li coming to Fatal Fury, do you have any interest in working together with Capcom once again for another entry in the Capcom vs SNK series? Or is that a far off dream?

    That would be something, wouldn’t it?

    Oda: That would be something, wouldn’t it? However, there is nothing I can talk about at this moment. We are always happy to receive questions like this because it shows how enthusiastic the fans are for another Capcom vs. SNK. It’s a great source of motivation for us.

    How do you feel overall about guest characters in fighting games? Do you think it’s a healthy trend for the genre, and do you think we might see more in future SNK games, or even in future updates of Fatal Fury?

    Oda: I think it’s a great trend. Of course, it is important to respect the story and world of other games, but the introduction of guest characters has great potential for the future of fighting games to create new “chemical reactions.” That is to say, it can lead to unexpected outcomes and birth something new.

    As for City of the Wolves, there are still characters we need to bring back before we start thinking about more guest characters. Please rest assured that we are putting all of our focus on that right now. Even after Mr. Big releases, there are still many new characters and new aspects of the game we are working on, so please look forward to them!

    I know she’s still a bit of a ways off, and we’ve got Joe coming first, but can you share any details about Chun-Li’s appearance in Fatal Fury? Will it be similar to the approach of Ken, in that you’re looking to her iteration in Street Fighter 6 as a primary source of inspiration?

    We have a few surprises and finer details we’re planning to add. We’re looking to make this version of Chun-Li a culmination of her past iterations.

    Oda: We are using her SF6 version as a base, but since many of our staff are fans of the entire Street Fighter series, we have a few surprises and finer details we’re planning to add. We’re looking to make this version of Chun-Li, like Ken, a culmination of all her past iterations, so please look forward to it.

    For Obari-san, what was it like getting to create the animations for such an iconic character that’s outside of the world of SNK, like Ken. Were there any kinds of signature touches you felt like you were able to add, or did you try to keep things as close to the source as possible?

    Masami Obari, Animator on Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves: First of all, I would like to say that it was a great honor to work on this project. I am extremely grateful to Capcom for this opportunity. As for the original elements, I would say the most work went into designing these characters in my style. I’d like to call it Bari-Ken! (Haha). It was extremely fun to draw Ken within the style and animation of the Fatal Fury anime.

    Are there any dream crossovers that you’d like to work on, either within the realm of fighting games or outside of it?

    I would be extremely happy to see a collaboration with a real pro wrestler.

    Obari: I’m a huge pro wrestling fan, so I would be extremely happy to see a collaboration with a real pro wrestler. In terms of fighting games, I would be excited to see a crossover with Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer, a game I was originally in charge of the story and character design!

    And finally, canonically, who do you think would win in a fight between Ken and Terry?

    Obari: To be honest with you, I think Terry would win. I think they are evenly matched in terms of strength, but Terry is carrying a lot on his shoulders, and his will is strong because of that.

    That being said, as a director of the anime, I would prefer not to decide and have the two work together to fight a common enemy.

    Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on twitter @JurassicRabbit


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  • Former Guitar Hero devs fund new rhythm games studio

    Former Guitar Hero devs fund new rhythm games studio

    Former Guitar Hero developers have founded RedOctane Games, a studio dedicated to rhythm games.

    Announced today, the studio (which bears the brand of the original Guitar Hero developer RedOctane) is spearheaded by Simon Ebejer, former production director at Neversoft, where he oversaw production of games like Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for over eight years. He’s since worked as production director at Infinity Ward, chief operating officer at Vicarious Visions, and vice president of operations of the Diablo franchise at Blizzard.

    The new studio is a subsidiary of Embracer-owned operating group Embracer Freemode.

    Ebejer will lead a team of 23 people, which includes industry veterans with experience working in the Guitar Hero series as well as emerging talent embedded in the rhythm game space. The special advisory board includes Charles and Kai Huang—the brothers founded RedOctane in 1999. RedOctane led production and publishing of the first handful of Guitar Hero games alongside developer Harmonix. After Activision acquired RedOctane in 2006, Harmonix went on to make the Rock Band series, while Activision-owned Neversoft was assigned as developer for multiple future titles.

    The announcement says RedOctane Games is focused “solely on advancing the rhythm game genre,” combining the past with the future. The team has been in pre-production over recent months—at least four, according to Ebejer’s LinkedIn profile—and has now entered production on its debut rhythm-based title, which is expected to be announced later this year.

    Related:Roblox introduces ‘sensitive issues’ tag for social, political, and religious experiences

    “Rhythm games are about more than just gameplay they’re about feel, flow, and connection to the music and to each other,” Ebejer said in the announcement. “RedOctane Games is our way of giving back to a genre that means so much to us, while pushing it forward in new and exciting directions.”

    Former RedOctane devs already paved the way for the new studio

    In 2023, Embracer Freemode announced CRKD, a collaborative video game hardware project created with Freemode’s technology incubation lab, which started with a handheld deck for Nintendo Switch. The team at CRKD comprises the majority of former Red Octane hardware designers and producers, and has launched accessories for Fortnite Festival since.

    This year, CRKD announced a collaboration with Gibson to build a new Les Paul guitar controller compatible with not just Fortnite Festival but existing Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, as well as community-driven projects like Clone Hero. Early this week, the CRKD teased today’s announcement on socials as well, with fans theorizing about the flame in the logo, which references the original RedOctane.

    Related:Unity lauds AI-powered ad platform after Q2 results exceed expectations

    CRKD is joining a slow but steady number of teams working on modern hardware for rhythm games, including 2024’s Riffmaster by PDP for Rock Band 4 and Fortnite Festival and the recently announced Drakong InfinaKore Telecaster. 

    As of present, RedOctane Games has yet to share details about how its debut rhythm game will work. When it comes to hardware, however, it seems the team will be covered.


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  • UK launching new rocket engine test lab on picturesque peninsula immortalized by Paul McCartney song

    UK launching new rocket engine test lab on picturesque peninsula immortalized by Paul McCartney song

    A picturesque Scottish peninsula immortalized in a hit Paul McCartney song from the 1970s will host a new U.K. rocket development hub as the country works toward its goal of becoming a major player in European space launch.

    The Mull of Kintyre peninsula in southwestern Scotland once offered refuge to the famous ex-Beatle, who lived there on a farm in the aftermath of the legendary band’s acrimonious split. The peninsula’s misty coastline and rolling hills inspired the namesake Wings tune that became the U.K.’s best-selling hit of the 1970s. Now, that wild landscape will become the backdrop for a different kind of history-making.

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  • Pakistan — between Beijing and Washington

    Pakistan — between Beijing and Washington

    Listen to article

    Something unexpected happened after Indian Operation Sindoor and Pakistan’s agile response through Operation Bunyan Marsus. The four-day skirmish left India red-faced despite its massive media onslaught, projecting the outcome as victory. President Trump took credit for the ceasefire, duly acknowledged by Pakistan, while an egotistic India still refuses to accept foreign interlocution. Then, on August 1, 2025, President Trump slapped a punitive 25% tariffs on India, letting Pakistan off with a relatively benign 19%. Earlier Trump had feted out Field Marshal Asim in the White House. He announced a massive trade deal with Pakistan on July 30.

    Cumulatively, the cited developments bring Pakistan back into relevance, and business with the West Plus, re-hyphenate it with India, debunk the massive Indian propaganda to paint Pakistan as ‘Terroristan’, and open new vistas for Islamabad. However, this closeness with the US again, to some analysts, is at the cost of Pak-China friendship.

    First Islamabad and Beijing. Two statements on August 1 — one from Foreign Office and the other from ISPR — clearly articulated the special nature of Pak-China friendship in context. Foreign Office spokesperson emphatically highlighted the decades-old strategic partnership with Beijing, notwithstanding Islamabad’s relations with other countries. And perhaps for the first time, GHQ celebrated the 98th founding anniversary of China’s People’s Liberation Army on August 1 with a dignified ceremony attended by high-ranking Chinese officials. Chinese Ambassador Jiang Zaidong was the chief guest.

    The Middle Kingdom conducts its foreign relations in a very matured, measured and deliberate manner. One remembers being part of a delegation led by the Chairman Joint Chief of Staff Committee, wherein bilateral exercise between both air forces was being discussed. When Pakistan had to remove the US-supplied F-16s from the planned manoeuvres at some later hours, the Chinese Defence Minister, Mr Lee Quang Li was extremely conciliatory to address the embarrassment. Chinese relations do not come with geo-strategic caveats. They ostensibly believe in ‘harmony’ and are sensitive to other nations’ imperatives and compulsions. So, any closeness with the US is not, will not and should not come at the cost of Pak-China bilateralism, brotherhood and benevolence.

    Second, the conduct of the Pak-US relations. Since partnership against communism in the US-led SEATO, CENTO, GWOT, Islamabad has traditionally remained closer to the US, providing back-channel support to the 1971 Sino-US détente. Pakistan’s military benefited particularly from the US hardware, doctrine and training. Our cantonments in Kharian, Multan and Gujranwala got infrastructure support from Washington. However, from geo-strategic partnership, Pakistan was later relegated to relative obscurity by Trump 1.0 and Biden Administrations, thanks partly to the pervasive Indian influence traditionally on the US policy apparatus.

    Trump 2.0 is more transactional, upending the traditional US geo-strategic construct and hence the punitive tariffs on India, and favour with Pakistan. Pakistan has, reportedly, the fourth largest hydrocarbon reserves along its coast. It must have been the size of these reserves that sparked President Trump’s comment on X/Truth Social — “We are in the process of choosing the oil company that will lead this Partnership. Who knows, maybe they’ll [Pakistan] be selling Oil to India one day.”

    This is an unsettling discovery for Pakistan/region and good business for the US energy giant ExxonMobil that ‘might’ bid for and undertake offshore drilling. Any US company doing exploration would automatically ensure security of the operation. The growing Pak-US counterterrorism cooperation and mutual alignment over Afghanistan are also likely to cement bilateral ties, with China benefitting from a secure regional environment. Under the last PTI government, ExxonMobil, then undertaking offshore exploration, was not allowed access to an additional area in Kekra field. Pakistan ‘expects’ ExxonMobil to come back as negotiations move forward.

    More recently, Pakistan also inked an agreement to import US crude with first shipment expected in October. While earlier, Washington had refused to export LNG to Pakistan, given joint ventures between the US and Indian companies, implying Islamabad to go through New Delhi. Today the US Exim Bank is interested in providing capital to the stalled Reko Diq copper and gold mining project. American companies are mulling joint ventures with Pakistani firms to tap Pakistan’s mineral sector, with an estimated potential of $ 8trillion. And GB, KP and Balochistan have substantial deposits of rare earths. Additionally, Pakistan’s bitcoin policy also interests Trump personally. All this fits his economic outlook.

    Third, Pakistan’s delicate diplomatic balancing. In a meeting with the Afghan acting Ambassador in Islamabad last year, Ambassador Sardar Ahmed Shakeeb mentioned that IEA leadership was very impressed with the way Pakistan handled its relations with America. As per an Indian analyst, Biswanath Bhattacharya, Islamabad has perfected ‘balancing contradictions so deftly that even gravity seems to look on in admiration’. Despite being tethered economically and strategically to China, Islamabad is able to carve an advantage from a transactional, mercurial and unpredictable Trump White House, under the overall environment of Sino-US hostility. From being a vanguard nation in the Chinese BRI through CPEC, Pakistan not only secured a deal for American oil investment, but it also earned public endorsement from President Trump.

    In the last fiscal year, Pakistan’s exports to the US stood at $6 billion, against $2.4 billion worth of imports. The ensuing surplus of $3.7 billion was worrying for President Trump. However, Pakistan under the new 19% tariff is still at relative advantage, compared to India’s 25%, Bangladesh’s 20%, Iraq’s 35%, Vietnam’s 20% and 19% for Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Pakistan, in trade negotiations, secured duty-free access to over 4,100 American products.

    Avoiding bloc politics, Pakistan’s diplomatic work endears it today to the world powers — China, the US and Russia — increasingly through its geo-strategic relevance, and gutsy and matured dealings with a bellicose and arrogant India. Islamabad’s foreign service understands that ‘survival and prosperity depend on cultivating relationships with all major players’. It has been able to balance the dictates of BRI/CPEC through increasing cooperation with the US on Afghanistan, counterterrorism, and now, potentially on minerals, oil and gas. The oil deal marks a watershed in exploiting Pakistan’s untapped hydrocarbons with American money and technology. These “fourth largest” reserves would catapult Pakistan from energy import to export, rewriting the region’s geo-economics.

    Mr Bhattacharya admires “Pakistan’s astonishing ability to dance on the diplomatic tightrope — undaunted, unbowed, and, for now, undefeated”.

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  • ‘Astonishingly rare’ The Hobbit book sells for ‘record-breaking’ sum

    ‘Astonishingly rare’ The Hobbit book sells for ‘record-breaking’ sum

    Clara Bullock

    BBC News, Somerset

    Chloe Harcombe

    BBC News, West of England

    Book found during clear-out fetches £43,000 at auction

    An “astonishingly rare” first edition of The Hobbit has sold for a “record-breaking” £43,000 at auction.

    The copy of JRR Tolkien’s novel is one of only 1,500 copies that were printed in 1937. It was discovered without a dustcover on a bookcase during a home clearance in Bristol.

    It was sold to a private collector in the UK through an online auction at Auctioneum in Bath, Somerset, earlier.

    Caitlin Riley, the book specialist from the auction house, said: “It’s the quintessential auction story. Everyone dreams of finding a rare item hidden in plain sight, and here we are.”

    The book, which was only expected to fetch between £10,000-£12,000 at auction, attracted hundreds of bidders from all over the world.

    Ms Riley said the book is in “absolutely beautiful condition” and she believed it sold for a record price for a first edition without a dustcover.

    “House clearances can be tricky, stressful and troublesome… this could have so easily been sent to landfill, or disposed of by someone who didn’t realise it was there,” she added.

    Caitlin Riley is standing in front of a book case holding up the first edition of The Hobbit. It is a green book with a drawing of a dragon on the front. Caitlin is wearing a blue dress and has long, brown hair.

    The book was found at a property in Bristol

    The book came from the family library of Hubert Priestley who was a famous botanist in the 1930s and brother to the Antarctic explorer and geologist, Sir Raymond Edward Priestley.

    Priestley had strong connections to the University of Oxford where Tolkien stood as Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College.

    Both men knew fellow author C.S. Lewis and it is likely that they knew each other.

    “It’s the connection to Tolkien and the important provenance that makes this book so special. It’s not just any first edition; it belonged to someone who very likely called Tolkien an acquaintance,” Ms Riley said.

    She added it was astonishingly rare to find a first edition in such good condition.

    “Being a children’s book, most of them have seen children’s hands, children’s colouring pens in some cases, so to have one that appears to be completely unread and never enjoyed is really, really astonishingly rare,” she said.

    Auctioneum A copy of The Hobbit book. It is green with black text and an illustration at the bottom of the cover.Auctioneum

    Only 1,500 copies of the book were printed in 1937

    The Hobbit is one of the most successful children’s novels, with more than 100 million copies sold.

    The story is set in the fantasy world Middle-earth and follows the hobbit Bilbo Baggins on a quest to find treasure.

    The rare edition that was sold also includes rare drawings by Tolkien himself.

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  • The Grantchester Cast on Their Hopes for Season 11

    The Grantchester Cast on Their Hopes for Season 11

    “We’ve ended Season 10 with Alphy knocking on the door to his mother’s [home]. I hope that [moment] is a positive, good thing [for] him. I hope that if it is his mother behind the door, that she’s happy to see him and happy to be reunited. … I guess it could go two ways—it could be really nice for him, or it could all end in tears.”

    Read Nair’s fun and illuminating answers to fan questions sent to MASTERPIECE during Season 10.

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  • UK NHS Hacks Could Lead to Further Cyberattacks, Researchers Say

    UK NHS Hacks Could Lead to Further Cyberattacks, Researchers Say

    Hackers have stolen login credentials from thousands of people working with the UK’s National Health Service, putting the organization at risk of further cyberattacks, according to researchers.

    The data theft is linked to a kind of malicious software known as an infostealer, which infects targeted computers and covertly gathers login credentials that hackers can then use to gain access to an organization’s internal systems.

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  • Moran researcher helps create first AI tool for eye care – @theU

    Moran researcher helps create first AI tool for eye care – @theU

    This article originally appeared on the Moran Eye Center blog. 

    John A. Moran Eye Center researcher Adam Dubis, PhD, is part of a big leap forward for the use of artificial intelligence in eye care.

    Cofounded by Dubis, German-based health tech company deepeye Medical GmbH has gained European regulatory approval for an AI algorithm that assists ophthalmologists treating so-called “wet” or neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD).

    The company’s Treatment Planning Support (deepeye® TPS) product is the first predictive AI tool for ophthalmology therapy management approved for clinical use in the Western world.

    “This is an exciting milestone in the collective global effort to ethically source and provide physicians with data in a way that can advise treatment and improve care,” says Dubis, who is applying to have deepeye TPS tested at Moran Eye Center clinics later this year as a step toward FDA approval.

    Working to personalize AMD treatments

    AMD is a leading cause of blindness among people age 55 and older, and patients with the neovascular form experience abnormal growth of blood vessels in the eye that can leak and rupture. Specialists treat neovascular or “wet” AMD with injections of medication aimed to prevent this growth and use retinal imaging to evaluate progress.

    But not all patients respond to the same treatment regimen equally; treatment must be personalized. If appointments are scheduled too far apart, or if patients feel they are coming in too frequently and miss some appointments or even drop out of treatment, they could lose vision.

    To create deepeye® TPS, Dubis and colleagues used tens of thousands of 3D scans of the retina combined with medical records to analyze the progression of nAMD in correlation with treatment regimens. The resulting algorithm, he says, helps physicians make two decisions, acting like a second expert reader of the scans.

    • Does the person need to receive the next treatment sooner than the last one, or can the time between appointments be extended?
    • How many treatments will the patient need over the next 12 months?

    “The idea is that it will allow patients to keep their vision as long as possible and ensure they are only spending time going to a clinic when they need to,” says Dubis. “For physicians, it optimizes clinic flow, provides reassurance for the treatment course, and possibly helps in patient education or justifying therapy switching.”

    To gain approval in Europe, deepeye® TPS was tested with an international group of over 300 patients (more than 2,000 visits). The physicians decided treatment plans independently based on scans, then consulted with deepeye® TPS after the fact to determine if their decisions aligned and if not, why.

    When ophthalmologists participating in the study at Ludwig Maximilian University Eye Clinic in Munich recommended a treatment different from deepeye® TPS, they agreed with the recommended changes 56% of the time.

    Moran Eye Center retina specialist and researcher Eileen Hwang, MD, PhD, is a highly trained vitreoretinal surgeon who regularly treats wet AMD patients. She says there is “definite potential” for improved accuracy as ophthalmologists must experiment to identify the optimal time interval between injections for each patient.

    “Most physicians treating wet AMD are trying to personalize medicine by testing and seeing what works, but if we have some predictors, that could help us get there more quickly or more safely,” she says.

    Hwang cautioned against viewing AI as a panacea.

    “Nothing is going to be 100 percent,” she says. “We need to keep our minds open that even AI is a prediction that could be wrong, just like when a physician makes a decision to inject or not to inject a patient on a given day.”

    Additional AI initiatives

    The new deepeye® TPS is one of several AI-related projects for Dubis, who joined the Moran Eye Center in 2024 as a renowned expert in image and health data analysis who broadly consults across the image analysis and biopharmaceutical space. Dubis works with several international bodies on the evolution of policy and health technology regulation.

    At the Moran Eye Center, his lab has created the Moran Phenotyping, Imaging and Advanced Technologies (PHIAT) database. This anonymized AI database can be queried by researchers to study myriad questions related to ophthalmology. For example, a researcher might query the database to predict which patients with diabetes are most at risk of getting diabetic eye disease, or to create an algorithm that helps doctors identify when one drug isn’t working and it’s time to try another.

    Dubis emphasizes the gathering of ethically sourced data. In PHIAT, individual health records are de-identified, and the confidentiality of the data is strictly protected. Dubis explains that PHIAT is unique among academic medical centers.

    “While other universities have limited databases open to research access, the data is preconfigured, whereas PHIAT is not,” says Dubis. “This allows for a much broader range of inquiry and investigation.”

    Moran Eye Center CEO and Distinguished Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology Randall J Olson, MD, says the institution is excited to push the field forward in the areas of data and AI. Huntsman Cancer Center is already home to the Utah Population Database, one of the world’s richest sources of information on more than 11 million individuals that supports research on genetics, epidemiology, demography, and public health.

    “Ophthalmology in particular is a field where we rely heavily on imaging of the eye, which has seen tremendous advances in the past decade,” explains Olson. “AI can assist with correlating these images to disease progression and to find those patterns that will better inform our treatment plans. Simply put, this is the future, and we are investing in it.”

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