Connect with us

Technology

Pew Supports 10 Leading Latin American Scientists

Published

on

PHILADELPHIA, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Pew Charitable Trusts today announced the 2026 class of the Pew Latin American Fellows Program in the Biomedical Sciences.

These 10 postdoctoral fellows from seven Latin American countries—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay—will each receive two years of funding to conduct research in laboratories across the United States. They will work under the mentorship of prominent scientists, including alumni of Pew’s biomedical programs.

“For 35 years, Pew has proudly supported talented scientists from Latin America as they pursue cutting-edge research in U.S. labs,” said Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Pew’s senior vice president for Philadelphia and scientific advancement. “This year, we’re excited to support 10 new fellows whose research will accelerate global health and carry on this legacy of impactful biomedical research.”

Pew will provide additional funding to fellows who choose to return to Latin America to launch their own research labs. Nearly 70% of program participants have taken this path, helping to cultivate a robust biomedical research community across the region.

This year’s group will investigate a variety of topics spanning biomedical research. They’ll explore the intricacies of the immune system, work to understand how sleep bolsters memory, look for ways to improve disease prevention and treatment, and more.

“Over the course of more than three decades, Pew Latin American fellows have built a rich scientific network across fields and countries,” said Eva Nogales, Ph.D., distinguished professor in the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and chair of the program’s national advisory committee. “I am thrilled to welcome this exceptionally talented group of fellows into this community, and I look forward to seeing all that they accomplish as scientists during their time in the program and beyond.”

The 2026 Pew Latin American fellows and their U.S. mentors are:

Isabel Barón-Mendoza, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Victoria Abraira, Ph.D., 2019 Pew biomedical scholar
Rutgers University
Isabel Barón-Mendoza, Ph.D., will explore the cellular basis of the touch sensitivity associated with autism spectrum disorder.

Bernabé Battista, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Monica Colaiácovo, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School
Bernabé Battista, Ph.D., will investigate the molecular mechanisms that govern the accurate segregation of chromosomes during egg and sperm development.

Julia Castro, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Renan V.H. de Carvalho, Ph.D.
Scripps Research Institute
Julia Castro, Ph.D., will examine the mechanisms by which vaccines can stimulate the generation of durable antibody responses, primarily maintained by long-lived plasma cells.

Elias Barbosa da Silva-Junior, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Elias Barbosa da Silva-Junior, Ph.D., will study how the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans subverts host cells to propagate infection.

Guilherme de Moraes Nobrega, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Jean K. Lim, Ph.D.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Guilherme de Moraes Nobrega, Ph.D., will examine how the timing of maternal infection and different strains of monkeypox virus affect pregnancy outcomes.

Joaquin Gonzalez, Ph.D.
Laboratories of György Buzsáki, M.D., Ph.D., and Zhe Sage Chen, Ph.D.
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Joaquin Gonzalez, Ph.D., will explore how the brain consolidates memories during sleep.

Santiago López, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Jennifer Doudna, Ph.D.
Innovative Genomics Institute; University of California, Berkeley
Santiago López, Ph.D., will explore the role that bacterial immune systems play in sensing cellular stress or damage.

Sandra Nakandakari-Higa, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Minsoo Kim, Ph.D.
University of Rochester Medical Center
Sandra Nakandakari-Higa, Ph.D., will investigate why the “memory T cells” that live in the lungs become depleted soon after infection.

Montserrat Olivares, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Kristin Baldwin, Ph.D., 2007 Pew biomedical scholar
Columbia University
Montserrat Olivares, Ph.D., will study why boys are more vulnerable than girls to autism spectrum disorders.

Laura Gonzalez Garcia, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Andrew D.L. Nelson, Ph.D.
Boyce Thompson Institute
Laura Gonzalez Garcia, Ph.D., will explore the unique differences in how an RNA modification influences mRNA stability and turnover in plants and humans.

Founded in 1948, The Pew Charitable Trusts uses data to make a difference. Pew addresses the challenges of a changing world by illuminating issues, creating common ground, and advancing ambitious projects that lead to tangible progress.

CONTACT: Erin Davis, edavis@pewtrusts.org

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pew-supports-10-leading-latin-american-scientists-302801807.html

SOURCE The Pew Charitable Trusts

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Ping An Good Doctor Upgrades AI Doctor Service “Ping An AI Doctor”, Expanding Access to Ping An Ecosystem’s 90 Million MAUs

Published

on

By

HONG KONG, June 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited (“Ping An Good Doctor” or the “Company”, Stock Code: 1833.HK) has recently upgraded its AI doctor service — Ping An AI Doctor. The service has been fully integrated into a number of core applications under Ping An Group, including Ping An Jin Guan Jia, Ping An Auto Owner, Ping An Pocket Bank and Ping An Le Health, reaching 90 million monthly active users.

Powered by the Ping An Medical Master® large model, the upgraded Ping An AI Doctor has established a service model centered on “AI responses in seconds + full-process supervision by human doctors”. It is also deeply connected with the platform’s unique “online, in-hospital, in-home, and in-company” healthcare service network. By integrating intelligent medical capabilities with a full-scenario ecosystem, Ping An AI Doctor is expected to promote the scalable, routine and inclusive implementation of premium family doctor services, providing the public with digital solutions for full-cycle health management.

Ping An AI Doctor breaks through the functional limitations of conventional intelligent Q&A tools. By deeply applying AI large models to clinical assistance scenarios, it can standardize professional services such as preliminary symptom screening, condition assessment, medication safety guidance, health risk assessment and personalized plan formulation. The platform supports 24/7 uninterrupted service and intelligent responses within seconds, responding to common daily health consultation needs in as fast as three seconds. This significantly shortens the time required for the public to access basic medical services and lowers the threshold for use.

To ensure medical quality and safety, the platform has established a full-process human doctor review mechanism. All diagnosis and treatment suggestions and health guidance plans generated by AI are reviewed and calibrated by licensed practicing physicians. For difficult conditions, complex chronic diseases or potential risks of serious conditions, the system will also automatically transfer the case to human doctors for follow-up, with specialists providing one-on-one in-depth consultations, thereby achieving “intelligent acceleration and efficiency enhancement, with professional medical support as a safeguard.”

Leveraging Ping An Group’s ecosystem advantages in multi-business collaboration, users do not need to download a separate application or mini-program. Instead, they can access relevant services with one click through high-frequency Ping An ecosystem portals, including insurance, banking and auto owner services. In terms of service system development, Ping An AI Doctor integrates Ping An’s full-scenario medical resources across “online, in-hospital, in-home, and in-company” settings, forming a closed-loop health management service chain. It also offers functions such as health assessments, electronic medical records management, health checkup report interpretation and chronic disease management, covering healthy and sub-healthy populations as well as patients with common chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia.

In medical service scenarios, Ping An AI Doctor connects users with more than 3,500 contracted experts from Grade A tertiary hospitals, over 5,100 partner hospitals and 240,000 branded chain pharmacies, providing one-stop services including precise triage, expert appointment booking, medical accompaniment and hospitalization assistance. Meanwhile, it supports emergency medication delivery in as fast as one hour, as well as in-home services such as home nursing, home-based health and elderly care, and postpartum recovery, further enhancing family health service scenarios.

Ping An Good Doctor will continue to deepen innovation in medical technology, iteratively enhance AI clinical assistance capabilities, and continuously expand high-quality offline medical resources and specialized health and elderly care services. The Company will further enrich full-scenario healthcare services, empower people’s health through technology, safeguard family wellbeing with professional services, and continue contributing to the digital development of Healthy China.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/ping-an-good-doctor-upgrades-ai-doctor-service-ping-an-ai-doctor-expanding-access-to-ping-an-ecosystems-90-million-maus-302802017.html

SOURCE Ping An Healthcare and Technology Company Limited

Continue Reading

Technology

Avochato Brings HIPAA-Compliant AI Texting to Healthcare

Published

on

By

Healthcare organizations can now deploy AI agents on a messaging platform independently certified for security and privacy every year since 2019

MILL VALLEY, Calif., June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Avochato, the AI-powered business messaging platform, today announced HIPAA-compliant AI texting for the healthcare industry, alongside the completion of its seventh consecutive year of SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance certifications by Linford & Company, LLP.

Healthcare teams have been quick to adopt texting because patients read and answer texts far faster than phone calls or emails. But most AI messaging tools were not built to handle protected health information. Avochato closes that gap: hospitals, clinics, healthcare staffing agencies, and home-care providers can now use real-time AI agents, AI-suggested replies, and conversation insights across SMS, RCS, voice, and live chat, all within a platform independently audited for security and privacy seven years running.

“AI is transforming how healthcare organizations communicate, and in this industry trust is the foundation,” said Alex De Simone, Co-founder and CEO of Avochato. “By building on Anthropic’s models with zero data retention, and pairing that with seven consecutive years of SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA compliance, Avochato customers don’t have to choose between moving fast with AI and protecting sensitive data. They can do both.”

AI Built for Regulated Conversations

With Avochato, healthcare teams can:

Fill shifts and confirm appointments faster with automated, personalized outreach at scale, plus AI-suggested responses that keep reply times lowDeploy AI agents that answer common patient and staff questions instantly and hand off seamlessly to a human when a conversation needs oneTrain AI agents on their own content, from intake FAQs to scheduling policies, using custom knowledge basesKeep every conversation visible in a shared, auditable team inbox, so no patient message or shift request slips through the cracksTrack sentiment in real time, with AI-generated ratings, conversation summaries, and suggested next actions for every conversation

“We fill shifts in minutes that used to take hours of phone calls,” said the director of operations at a national healthcare staffing agency with more than 10,000 active clinicians.

Powered by Anthropic’s Claude, with Zero Data Retention

Avochato’s HIPAA-compliant AI capabilities run on Claude, Anthropic’s family of frontier AI models known for safety and reliability in enterprise settings. For healthcare customers, Avochato runs Claude under a zero-data-retention configuration, meaning protected health information processed by the AI is never stored or used for model training. The result is AI that meets the standard healthcare compliance teams actually require, not just the standard the industry markets.

Avochato signs Business Associate Agreements with healthcare customers that choose the HIPAA plan. Healthcare organizations can learn more and start a free trial at www.avochato.com/signup.

Security That’s Verified

Avochato’s seventh consecutive SOC 2 Type II and HIPAA certifications reflect safeguards built into every layer of the platform:

Encryption of all data in transit and at restSingle Sign On with Okta, Microsoft Azure, Salesforce, and GoogleMulti-factor authentication restricts access to verified usersRole-based access controls so administrators can define exactly who sees whatContent obfuscation for sensitive information, including media attachments

About Avochato

Avochato helps teams manage calls, texts, and chats in one secure inbox. Trusted by thousands of businesses across healthcare, professional services, logistics, and more than a dozen other industries, Avochato supports two-way communication through SMS, MMS, RCS, phone calls, and live chat, with integrations for Okta, Salesforce, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and more. Learn more at www.avochato.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/avochato-brings-hipaa-compliant-ai-texting-to-healthcare-302802020.html

SOURCE Avochato

Continue Reading

Technology

BluIP and Oracle Hospitality Implement New Platform for Loews Hotels & Co.

Published

on

By

LAS VEGAS, June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — BluIP completed a new project for the guest engagement center at Loews Hotels & Co. This was a collaboration between Loews Customer Engagement Center and the team at BluIP with support and partnership from Oracle Hospitality OPERA Cloud. The cloud-based solution consists of communication solutions, tightly integrated with Loews’ Central Reservations and PMS platforms.

Loews had a goal to unify channels, integrate with Oracle OPERA Cloud, and provide team members with guest details the instant an interaction begins. BluIP stepped in to architect and deliver the solution.

BluIP deployed the voice, chat, messaging, analytics, and workforce management, and layered on hospitality-specific integrations that BluIP is known for in the industry. As guest inquiries arrive, the system now pulls reservation details, guest profile data, and past interactions from OPERA Cloud and presents them directly inside the agent’s guest engagement center interface. If the guest begins on chat using BluIP AIVA® — asking about pet policies or requesting to change a reservation — context follows the interaction if it’s escalated to a live agent. No one repeats confirmation numbers or dates.

“Loews set a clear bar: make every interaction feel personal and effortless,” said Armen Martirosyan, CEO at BluIP. “By pairing Loews guest engagement center platform with Oracle OPERA Cloud PMS integration and BluIP’s technical, hospitality industry, and operational expertise, we gave agents the context they need the instant they say hello, and we delivered the complete solution in five months.”

Team Members also gained an enterprise-wide, custom routing directory created by BluIP and directly integrated into Loews guest engagement center platform. With it, a call can be transferred to a hotel property, department, or individual extension with a few keystrokes—whether it’s the front desk in Coronado or a chef in Kansas City.

“Our guests should have a seamless and well executed stay,” said Heather Girolami, a Senior Vice President with Loews Hotels & Co. “Team Members now see the reservation, the dates, and the request the moment a chat or call lands. We’re taking care of our guests with less friction.”

BluIP and Oracle Hospitality completed the full deployment and integration in just five months, beginning January 1, 2025, going live in May of that year and now handling over 1.1 million interactions per month. 

“Oracle Hospitality is committed to enabling our customers to deliver exceptional, personalized guest experiences at every touchpoint,” said Tanya Pratt, global vice president, strategy and product management, Oracle Hospitality. “The Loews project demonstrates the power of Oracle OPERA Cloud’s open architecture when paired with the right partner. Loews is now delivering context-aware service across every channel via more than 1.1 million interactions per month, anchored by the guest data that lives in Oracle OPERA Cloud.”

For BluIP, this project further proves the thesis: connect platforms properly and deeply, and the interaction model changes. Hotels stop opening conversations by collecting data and can continue their focus on servicing guests. 

About BluIP
BluIP is a global carrier and leader in AI-powered communications for hospitality, healthcare, and enterprise. Its AIVA Connect platform delivers conversational AI, omni-channel engagement, analytics, and 2,800+ integrations, including 35+ PMS systems, powering more than 600,000 guest rooms worldwide. Visit bluip.com.

About Oracle Hospitality
Oracle technology serves independent hoteliers, global hotel chains, casinos, and cruise lines in over 230 countries and territories. Our cloud-native solutions connect the entire business from the front desk to the dining room and back office, and our customers use intuitive tools and AI insights to fuel frictionless guest experiences, maximize profitability, and encourage long-term loyalty. To learn more, please visit www.oracle.com/hospitality.

MEDIA CONTACT
Beth McClure
Head of Marketing, BluIP
(866) 443-6494
info@bluip.com

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bluip-and-oracle-hospitality-implement-new-platform-for-loews-hotels–co-302802025.html

SOURCE BluIP, Inc.

Continue Reading

Trending