SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Sophont, a frontier medical AI startup, announces Holon-S1, a pan-cancer AI model that predicts spatial gene and biological pathway activity from routine hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) pathology slides. By using widely available pathology slides, Holon-S1 aims to broaden access to insights that typically require costly and time-consuming molecular testing, supporting biomarker discovery and personalized treatment research.

“Most AI pathology solutions infer patient risk profiles without showing clinicians and researchers what biology resulted in the prediction,” said Tanishq Mathew Abraham, Ph.D., CEO & Co-Founder of Sophont. “Holon-S1 was designed to uncover the biology behind the answer, showing which genes are active, where in the tumor they are active, and how that is related to whether a patient is likely to respond to treatment. Pathology has historically told us what a tumor looks like. Holon-S1 goes beyond this and tells us what the tumor is doing and where it may be vulnerable.”

In a retrospective osteosarcoma patient case study using publicly shared slides, Holon-S1 recovered several insights originally obtained through months of extensive molecular testing.

Holon-S1 identified a fibroblast-associated program including FAP, the gene targeted by a therapy that the patient responded to. Comparing pretreatment and post-treatment slides, quantified increased immune infiltration and decreased cancer proliferation. The model had not been trained on osteosarcoma, suggesting potential generalization to unseen cancer types and analysis of archived slides without new tissue.

In triple-negative breast cancer, a novel biomarker defined by the spatial organization of predicted EREG activity was associated with response to chemotherapy before surgery in discovery and separate held-out cohorts. EREG has been implicated in chemotherapy sensitivity in other cancers; for the first time, this analysis suggested potential relevance in breast cancer. Details appear in Holon-S1’s technical report.

Sophont evaluated Holon-S1 across 16 organ types, more than 15 scanners, and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded and fresh-frozen tissue. In a controlled comparison, it outperformed two other state-of-the-art models released this year in spatial gene activity prediction and robustness.

Holon-S1 is currently available for research use only. Sophont is designing further retrospective and prospective studies to evaluate potential diagnostic use.

“Biomedical foundation models are advancing at an extraordinary pace, and we are entering an era in which feature extraction and prediction alone may no longer suffice,” said Jorge Reis-Filho, Chief Strategy Officer and Operating Partner at Foresite Labs and Venture Partner at Foresite Capital. “Models that combine high predictive accuracy with biological interpretability could enable new approaches to translational research and help us reimagine disease taxonomy and segmentation, as well as play pivotal roles in patient stratification,” he added. “I look forward to seeing rigorous, independent evaluations of Holon-S1 against other leading foundation models on biologically and clinically relevant benchmarks.”

The company is inviting biopharma and life sciences companies as well as research institutions to collaborate on biomarker discovery, therapeutic target research, and analysis of existing and archived patient cohorts.

Explore Holon-S1: https://sophont.med/holon 

About Sophont
Sophont is a frontier medical AI lab building open, multimodal medical foundation models. Founded in February 2025 by Tanishq Mathew Abraham, Ph.D., and Paul Scotti, Ph.D., Sophont has raised $9.22M to date from Kindred Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Jeff Dean (Discovery Loop), Logan Kilpatrick (Google DeepMind), Clem Delangue (Hugging Face), and others. Sophont’s mission is to build open medical superintelligence: AI that sees the whole patient, and that every clinician and researcher can use, inspect and build on. Its open releases include OpenMidnight, CortexMAE and Medmarks. Learn more: https://sophont.med.

Media Contact
contact@sophont.med

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LAKELAND, Fla., Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Florida Polytechnic University Police Department has become the first law enforcement agency in the nation to integrate an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle into its operations.

The manned aircraft, dubbed Astro in a double nod to science and the dog from the classic Jetsons cartoon, marks Florida Poly’s entry into the rapidly developing field of advanced air mobility (AAM), creating new opportunities to explore how the emerging technology can support public safety.

“Advanced air mobility is a technology on the rise, and we can either choose to be proactive or reactive as it develops,” said Aaron Murray, the University’s police chief. “We want to stay at the forefront of this technology and understand how it can be used to advance public safety and airspace safety altogether.”

Florida Poly is in the final stages of seeking approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use the aerial patrol vehicle in its operations. Murray said Astro can enhance the department’s ability to monitor campus and surrounding acres, reach areas difficult to access by traditional vehicles, assist with post-storm recovery efforts and deliver emergency supplies quickly when needed.

The University Police plans to collaborate with law enforcement agencies throughout the region to deploy Astro in support of emergency response and other public safety operations.

First in the U.S.
Stéphan D’haene, CEO of Jetson, said the California-based company fast-tracked Florida Poly’s order of the Jetson ONE vehicle despite a three-year waiting list because of the University’s STEM focus and the police department’s public safety purpose, both of which reflect Jetson’s goals for the future of safe flight.

“In our business plan and in alignment with our mission, we have always been looking for the use case beyond the recreational intent,” D’haene said. “We believe that this project is so important and aligns so much with what we want to do that we made it a priority.”

A new educational horizon
Beyond its public safety applications, Astro will become a hands-on learning and research tool for Florida Poly students and faculty. The University launched its new aerospace engineering degree this fall, providing students an immediate opportunity to study emerging flight technology in a real-world setting.

“At Florida Poly, we want our students working with emerging technologies before they become commonplace,” said Dr. Brad Thiessen, Florida Poly’s provost. “Astro gives our students and faculty a living laboratory where they can analyze real-world data, tackle new engineering challenges and help shape the future of advanced air mobility.”

Faculty and students are already coordinating efforts to use real-time operational data from Astro for academic research and senior capstone design projects.

“Connecting an educational component to this technology is a big deal,” Murray said. “We are a technology university, and this aerial vehicle delivers more opportunities to learn, build partnerships and explore ways to keep our airspace safe, while connecting the work of our police department directly with our students.”

Technology takes flight
The introduction of the Astro flying police vehicle is the latest example of Florida Poly putting emerging technology into practice across campus. The University recently added a drone unit for its police department and a student-powered Security Operations Center for cybersecurity.

“There are a lot of things that people once looked at as recreational vehicles that are incredible tools in our profession now,” Murray said. “People used to think that bicycles, motorcycles and drones were all just toys or hobbies, but look at the huge impact they have made on our law enforcement profession.”

Astro’s arrival also comes as AAM gains momentum across the state, particularly in Central Florida.

Florida was recently selected to participate in the Federal Aviation Administration’s eVTOL and Advanced Air Mobility Integration Pilot Program, designed to safely integrate next-generation aircraft into the national airspace. The SunTrax facility in Auburndale, Florida, located only four miles away from Florida Poly, is home to the nation’s first dedicated AAM aerial test track, with eVTOL testing expected to begin by the end of 2026.

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Two new billboards along Loop 610 and U.S. 290 introduce Houston drivers to We Fight Giants, the personal injury division of Thiessen Law Firm.

HOUSTON, Oct. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Two new billboards are now up across Houston, one on the 610 Loop and one on U.S. 290, introducing drivers to We Fight Giants, the personal injury division of Thiessen Law Firm. The message is short. The billboards read “We Fight Giants” and feature founder Mark Thiessen alongside trial attorney Taly Thiessen.

The campaign is the public introduction of a division that launched in 2024 and has quickly built a reputation for taking on insurance companies and corporate defendants in the courtroom. Rather than the typical injury-firm billboard, the design leaves out the slogans and settlement promises. It puts the attorneys who will actually try the case front and center.

That choice is intentional. Thiessen Law Firm has spent 15 years fighting for Houstonians when they need it most, taking more than 220 cases to a jury and building a formidable trial practice along the way. We Fight Giants brings that same courtroom experience to injured Texans. The firm describes itself as a high-quality boutique practice made up of trial attorneys who handle far more than car accidents, and who are prepared to take a case to a jury when an insurance company will not pay what a client is owed. From what they’ve experienced, the Thiessen name alone can make insurance companies come to the negotiating table.

“Most people see a billboard and assume they know exactly what kind of lawyer is behind it. We wanted to break that mold,” said Mark Thiessen, Founder and Trial Attorney at Thiessen Law Firm. “We’re not money-hungry lawyers looking for a quick check. We’re not a glorified shell corporation with 200 lawyers working for us. We’re a hometown firm. We try these cases with our heart and soul, and we treat every client like a member of our own family who was injured. We’re the ones who pick up the phone, the ones who will take your case to trial, and the ones who make the insurance companies nervous.”

Taly Thiessen, trial attorney at Thiessen Law Firm, said the goal is for potential clients to feel they already know who will be fighting for them. “When someone is hurt and dealing with an insurance company, they’re usually understandably scared,” she said. “We work with a lot of people that have had bad experiences with attorneys. They just need to know that someone is working for their best interests — a real person who is on their side, a person they know and trust. Hopefully when people see the billboard they’ll feel like they know us a little better.”

The billboards have already started conversations, though not all of them the firm expected. “Well, we keep getting asked if we are the local newscasters,” Thiessen said. “We are not. We are just a group of trial attorneys with a sincere message: we’re here to level the playing field for Texans by fighting the giants, and we’re here to get people what they deserve.”

ABOUT THIESSEN LAW FIRM

Thiessen Law Firm is a Houston-based trial law firm founded in 2009 by 14-time Texas Super Lawyer Mark Thiessen. The firm’s We Fight Giants personal injury division, launched in 2024, applies aggressive trial advocacy to fighting insurance companies and corporate defendants on behalf of injured Texans. Thiessen Law Firm’s 160+ Not Guilty verdicts and thousands of cases dismissed established it as one of the nation’s elite criminal defense practices.

For more information, visit https://www.thetexastrialattorney.com/.

Note to Editors:

For additional information regarding Thiessen Law Firm’s results or interview requests with Mark Thiessen, please contact Daniel Ebbs at the provided contact information below.

Disclaimer:

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. The case results described here are illustrative of matters handled by Thiessen Law Firm and do not constitute a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of any future legal matter. Every case is different and must be evaluated on its own facts, applicable law, and circumstances.

Media Contact

Daniel Ebbs, Thiessen Law Firm, 1 (832) 236-2854, ebbs@thetexastrialattorney.com, https://www.thetexastrialattorney.com/

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