Category: Volume 2 Issue 1

The 3^rd Global Cell & Gene Therapy (CGT) Summit 2026 successfully brought together a distinguished community of scientists, clinicians, biotechnology and pharmaceutical leaders, investors, regulatory experts, and innovators to discuss the latest advancements and future directions in cell and gene therapy.

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Kenai therapeutics is prosecuting a Ph1b/2a trial in idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) with an induced pluripotent stem cellderived drug asset. The asset is an off-the-shelf, cryopreserved drug product that constitute dopaminergic progenitor cells. Kenai delivers these into the putamen of PD patients with an interest in safety and tolerability. In addition, clinical outcome measures and neuroimaging are readout that are also gathered. In this presentation the background on Kenai’s drug product, preclinical data and trial design will be discussed.

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Plants and their associated microbiomes have co-evolved for 500 million years, developing holobionts (combined host-microbiome system) that provide ecological services such as nutrient utilization, development, and pathogen defense, while also exhibiting emergent metabolic and adaptive traits. This talk presents three case studies on how (1) a kingdom-wide conserved plant defense signal has been co-opted to induce lifestyle changes in soil microbiomes to form beneficial biofilms that benefit plant growth from long distances in the rhizosphere; (2) a universal antioxidant microbial metabolite acts as a sulfur nutritional stress tolerance signal for plants in a trans-kingdom tradeoff for its partitioning between microbiome members and plants, and (3) an ecology-guided framework that integrates natural microbial interaction structure with metabolic complementarity has been successfully used to rationally predict cooperative resource exchange for designing beneficial consortia to improve growth promotion and protection. Examples of use of integration of genomic, metabolomic, machine learning and field trials will be shared to demonstrate the path from discovery to translation.

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The 4^th International Conference on Plant Science Research (Plant-2026) was successfully held during April 27 – 29, 2026 in San Francisco, California, USA. The conference was organized by USG United Scientific Group and brought together researchers, academicians, industry experts, and students from various countries to discuss recent advancements and future directions in plant science research.

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Recent triumphs and future opportunities for computer-assisted connoisseurship of fine art paintings and drawings. Our cultural patrimony of fine art paintings and drawings comprises some of the most important, memorable, and consequential images ever created, and presents numerous problems in art history and the interpretation of “authored” stylized images. While sophisticated imaging (by numerous methods) has long been a mainstay in museum curation and conservation, it is only in the past few years that true image analysis—powered by computer vision, machine learning, computer graphics, and artificial intelligence (AI)—have been applied to fine art images. Fine art paintings differ in numerous ways from the traditional photographs, videos, and medical images that have commanded the attention of most experts up to now: such paintings vary extensively in style, content, non-realistic conventions, and especially intended meaning. Rigorous computer methods have outperformed even seasoned connoisseurs on several tasks in the image understanding of art and have provided new insights and settled deep disputes in art history. Additionally, the classes of problems in art analysis, particularly those centered on inferring meaning from images, are forcing computer experts to develop new algorithms and concepts in AI. This talk, profusely illustrated with fine art images and computer analyses, argues for the new discipline of computer-assisted connoisseurship, a merger of humanist and scientific approaches to image understanding. Such work will continue to be embraced by art scholars and address new grand challenges in AI.

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The 3^rd International Conference on on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIM-2026), organized by USG United Scientific Group, will bring together researchers, academicians, industry experts, and artificial intelligence professionals from around the world on April 27 – 29, 2026, in San Francisco, California, USA.
The three-day scientific program will feature distinguished keynote lectures, invited talks, oral presentations, and poster sessions, highlighting cutting-edge research and innovations in areas including:

• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Algorithms
• Deep Learning and Neural Networks
• Generative Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models
• Explainable and Responsible Artificial Intelligence
• Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision
• Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, Cybersecurity, Robotics, and Industry
• Intelligent Systems and Autonomous Technologies
• Data Science, Big Data Analytics, and Emerging Artificial Intelligence Applications.

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Immune checkpoint blockers (ICBs) have revolutionized the treatment of multiple malignancies. However, <20% of patients currently benefit from these therapies. Similarly, CAR-T cells have revolutionized the treatment of hematological malignancies but have not been effective against solid tumors. We have demonstrated that this limited efficacy is due to abnormal tumor microenvironment (TME). The dysfunctional tumor vessels not only inhibit infiltration of immune cells (nascent, reactivated with ICBs, or adoptively transferred, such as CAR-T cells) into tumors, but also create a hypoxic and acidic microenvironment that suppresses the function of immune cells after they accrue in tumors. In 2001, I proposed that judicious use of anti-angiogenic agents – that were originally developed to starve tumors – can “normalize” tumor vessels and improve the delivery and efficacy of concurrent therapies. Our preclinical finding that vascular normalization can improve immunotherapy was confirmed by others in phase III trials on combining antiangiogenic therapy with ICBs for lung, kidney, liver, and endometrial, led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals of seven such combinations for these cancers, and formed the foundation of novel bifunctional antibodies that target both VEGF and PD1/L1. Additionally, we discovered that anti-hypertensive drugs capable of “normalizing” the tumor matrix and stromal cells can reprogram the TME to an immunostimulatory milieu and improve the delivery and efficacy of cancer therapies. A phase II trial led by my clinical collaborators provided evidence in support of this concept for improving the treatment outcome for patients with pancreatic ductal.

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The cyclical occurrence of abundance of nurses followed by severe shortage of nurses is not new to the practice arm of the nursing profession. The strategies used to staff during shortage years are promptly dropped when shortage is reduced. Lessons learned for long-term sustained supply of nurses are dropped as soon as the shortage has taken a recess. With respect to the education arm of the nursing profession, when the university’s budget is reduced for any reason, the first- place administration looks to cut is the School of Nursing as being the most expensive department to educate a nurse because of the clinical component of nursing education that requires one faculty to 6 – 8 nursing students. During nursing shortage season, nursing service spends millions of dollars to hire registry and travel to staff the units. The school of nursing on the other hand reduces enrollment to abide by accreditation requirements of teacher-student ratio for safe clinical supervision. When we look at the situation simultaneously, we realize that the other arm of the profession has the answer to our problem. When two directors took the risk and the courage to take this bold step, a $15 million dollar 10-year partnership was created, which then continued for 23 years. The service arm provided the following: $10 million dollars in funds and in in-kind contribution; In-kind included 7.5 full-time equivalent faculty of clinicians, state-of-the art-sim lab, clinical placements for all our students except psych nursing. The School of Nursing provided the following: $5 million dollars in in-kind contribution by doubling the enrollment to 72 students/year; added a new cohort of 54 trimester (Tri) Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students who graduated with their BSN degrees in 18 months, trained all hospital Master of Science in Nursing prepared clinicians into faculty roles, and taught all the theory courses for the Tri program. Results at the end of 10 years: 1560 BSN nurses graduated; of these 836 were still working after 10 years at the hospital, BSN concentration went from 19% to 60%, hospital received magnet recognition, and dollars spent was reduced from $33,350,893/year in 2004 to $686,004 in 2013.

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The 10^th International Conference on Nursing Science & Practice brought together healthcare professionals, researchers, educators, clinicians, and innovators from around the world in Boston, MA, USA (April 13 – 16, 2026). The event included both in-person and virtual sessions, creating an engaging experience for all participants.
Key Themes
• Innovation meets practice: Sessions explored the transformative role of artificial intelligence, virtual nursing, and simulation-based education—highlighting how technology is reshaping patient care and nursing workflows.
• Bridging education and clinical excellence: Speakers emphasized the importance of partnerships between academic institutions and healthcare systems to build a competent, future-ready nursing workforce.
• Mental health and well-being: With growing recognition of burnout and emotional resilience, multiple presentations focused on preventive mental health, self-care in education, and supporting both patients and providers.
• Leadership, policy and workforce development: Panel discussions and sessions addressed urgent challenges like nursing shortages, leadership retention, and the responsibility of practice settings in shaping education.
• Global perspectives in care delivery: From pediatric trauma care to cancer survivorship and maternal health, the conference showcased diverse international research addressing real-world clinical challenges.

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Untangling plastics: Reaching the post-plastic age for sustainability plastics are made from fossil fuels, and in every step in a piece of plastic’s lifecycle, from creation to destruction, it negatively impacts our Earth. And yet, more and more plastics are being produced every day, even as we scrounge for ways to reduce carbon emissions. We can no longer afford to ignore the connection between plastic and climate change. Untangling plastics is a comprehensive investigation of the manufacturing, use, and disposal of plastics and their impact on the health of the environment and human beings. Bob Gedert pulls from current research and his forty-five-year career in the recycling industry to reveal how our current methods for addressing the issue of plastics have been insufficient and instead supplies real solutions for how we can adopt greener ways of living. With step-by-step plans to phase plastics out of society, Bob provides actionable strategies and resources so individuals can change their consumer practices to slow the effects of environmental destruction. Our planet has already been irreversibly damaged by the impact of plastics, and we will never successfully limit climate change if we can’t untangle ourselves from the creeping web of plastics.

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