AI tool improves prediction of who will respond to cancer immunotherapy drugs

AI tool improves prediction of who will respond to cancer immunotherapy drugs
Fine-tuning strategies based on the pretrained COMPASS model. Credit: Nature Medicine (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04502-7

Cancer immunotherapy drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can be miracle drugs for cancer patients, curing some and turning deadly disease into a manageable chronic condition in others. But these drugs work for only a subset of patients, with few indications why—a knowledge gap that has detrimental effects on patient prognosis, clinical trial recruitment and research that could lead to new therapies.

A new artificial intelligence model called COMPASS, developed by Harvard Medical School researchers and their colleagues, improves prediction of which patients are most likely to respond to ICIs...

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Comet from another star has a composition unlike anything else in our solar system

Astronomers have revealed new details about the makeup and age of a visiting comet that was born around a distant star. They conclude that the composition of 3I/Atlas is strikingly different from any object found in our solar system.

A trio of recently published studies shed light on the origins of this exotic comet. 3I/Atlas appears to have been born in a cold environment, possibly around 12 billion years ago.

The comet is an interstellar object (ISO), meaning an asteroid or comet that originated outside the solar system. It is the third such object found, after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov. It was discovered almost exactly one year ago, traveling inbound on a trajectory that has taken it through the inner solar system and out the other side.

These distant origins make ISOs ...

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Moisture-driven tech can power green batteries—and destroy spy gear

Mystery solved: The physics behind next-generation Janus semiconductors
An image of the Janus formation reaction in which the outermost chalcogen atom in an atomic layer material is replaced by another chalcogen atom with the support of electron accumulation. Credit: Toshiaki Kato

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Rice University have created a nontoxic, stretchable battery that operates by extracting moisture from the ambient environment—even in climates as dry as the desert. The batteries could be useful in Internet of Things (IoT) applications ranging from wearables to advanced surveillance monitors with built-in kill switches. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

Emerging technologies like wearable monitors, miniature robotics and other IoT devices require lightweight, flexible power sources...

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TESS just found a planet in a new way—and more may be hiding in its eight years of data

microlensing
This animation illustrates the concept of gravitational microlensing. When one star in the sky appears to pass nearly in front of another, the light rays of the background source star become bent due to the warped space-time around the foreground star. This star acts like a virtual magnifying glass, amplifying the brightness of the background source star. If the nearer star harbors a planetary system, then those planets can also act as lenses, each one producing a short deviation in the brightness of the source. When astronomers find planets this way, they can measure their mass and orbital distance from their host star. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

For the first time, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission has identified a planet orbiting a ...

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