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Acurion Unveils Rebrand, New Leadership Team, and Series A Fundraising Launch

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LA JOLLA, Calif., April 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Acurion, formerly known as io9, today announced its official rebranding as part of a strategic initiative to align with its evolving mission and future vision. The transformation includes a refreshed brand identity and the appointment of a dynamic leadership team to drive the company’s next phase of growth.

“io9—now Acurion—has a critical mission: to make precision medicine a reality for more cancer patients,” said Scott Lippman MD., medical co-founder and Board member. “My colleagues and I witness the suffering that occurs in oncology every day because the journey from diagnosis to therapeutic selection is costly, time consuming, and confusing, causing life-threatening delays in front-line treatment. Much of the anguish of this uncertainty can be alleviated by providing oncologists with clinically actionable tumor genomic information, to ensure that every patient has access to the right treatment as quickly as possible, so they get the best chance at a positive outcome. There is no question that this approach is the future of precision oncology.”

Featured on CNN‘s Global Innovations series, Acurion’s DeepHRD artificial intelligence platform, OncoGaze™, is a transformative approach to precision oncology that enables rapid identification of the genomic biomarkers used to determine precision therapies, directly from routine tumor biopsy slides. This reduces the time from diagnosis to curative first-line treatment from weeks to mere seconds and makes the approach readily accessible worldwide. “Acurion’s approach is truly paradigm-shifting”, said Web Cavenee, Ph.D., scientific co-founder and Board member. “The promise of precision medicine has been hampered by the tissues and time needed for genomic analysis. Its cost also limits access and is an increasing concern for healthcare payers. OncoGaze addresses each of these issues.”

Not only does OncoGaze deliver insights instantaneously and affordably—it is also proven to be remarkably more accurate than FDA-approved genomic testing, identifying complex molecular patterns hidden in the tissue architecture of tumors, often undetectable even by molecular assays. Acurion’s AI technology is the only one of its kind to have been in the coveted Journal of Clinical Oncology and it has been well received by the oncology community, signaling growing excitement about this approach. Bringing this to market for patient benefit will be in the hands of an experienced and passionate team.

New Leadership Team

Acurion has appointed a world-class team of executives with deep expertise in life sciences, technology, and finance to accelerate its mission of innovation in precision oncology:

Rick Fultz, Chief Executive Officer – A veteran in the life sciences industry, Fultz has spent 15 years guiding companies toward growth allowing them to deliver value to patients and healthcare systems. His strategic vision and business development expertise will be key in guiding Acurion forward.

Feng Cao Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer – An expert in operational management, Cao will oversee the company’s commercial growth as well as regulatory and reimbursement strategy.

Ludmil Alexandrov, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer – A leading figure in cancer genomics, Alexandrov will direct Acurion’s scientific initiatives, advancing precision medicine and oncology research.

Erik Bergstrom Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer – With extensive experience in computational biology and AI, Bergstrom leads platform development at Acurion and led development of OncoGaze as a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Alexandrov’s lab.

Shelly Vandertie, Vice President of Finance – Vandertie brings deep expertise in financial strategy and planning, overseeing Acurion’s financial operations and growth planning.

“I am thrilled to welcome Rick Fultz as CEO,” said Magda Marquet, Ph.D., co-founder and board chair. “Rick is a dynamic, high-energy leader who is deeply committed to advancing patient care. He brings a wealth of experience in commercial operations, business development, and international relations, which will be invaluable to our mission. In a short time, he has assembled an outstanding management team and forged key partnerships in both academia and industry. We are excited for the impact his leadership will have on Acurion’s growth and success.”

“I am honored to lead Acurion during this important stage,” said Rick Fultz, CEO. “I am in awe of our exceptional scientists, clinicians, board members, and staff, and I am truly humbled to work alongside such a dedicated team on this important mission. Many aspects of this opportunity stood out to me, but none more than the chance to work with our inventor, Dr. Ludmil Alexandrov. As one of the most highly cited and influential computational AI biologists in the world, Ludmil is a standout talent even among the many brilliant minds at UCSD. Working with him feels like catching an ascending rocket by the tail. Together with our team and advisors, we are positioned to drive meaningful advancements in precision oncology.”

Series A Fundraising Launch
With its leadership team in place, Acurion is focused on expanding partnerships with academic institutions, patient advocacy groups, molecular profiling and industry leaders. The company will officially launch its Series A fundraising on April 15th to support its continued growth and innovation.

About Acurion
Acurion is revolutionizing frontline cancer care by equipping oncologists with critical genomic activity insights to get cancer patients onto the right treatments faster. The company’s mission is to accelerate the translation of its life-saving AI technology into the clinical arena to make a real, immediate and profound difference in therapy for patients worldwide. 

Dedicated to improving patient outcomes, Acurion collaborates with leading research institutions, patient advocacy groups, and industry partners to advance precision oncology. Please visit www.acurionhealth.com to learn more.

Media Contact:
Catherine Eng
Acurion, Inc.
ceng@acurionhealth.com
818-795-7184

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SOURCE Acurion

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JAMS Launches AI for Enterprise Job Scheduling: JAX and JAMS MCP, on the Model You Choose

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A new AI agent and an open-standard connector let IT teams query, diagnose, and manage automation in plain language, on the model they choose, with operational data staying inside their own network

LONDON, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — JAMS Software, an orchestration solution for scheduled and event-driven automation, today announced the general availability of two AI capabilities for enterprise job scheduling: JAX, an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client, and JAMS MCP, a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard that brings JAMS into external AI coding tools. Both capabilities ship at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

Automation environments grow faster than the teams that run them. Jobs multiply across SQL Server, Azure Data Factory, Airflow, SAP, JDE, and Banner, and when one fails, finding the root cause often means searching several consoles at once, frequently outside business hours. At the same time, IT leaders carry pressure to adopt AI while staying accountable for where operational data goes. JAX and JAMS MCP close both gaps together.

Full details on how JAX and JAMS MCP work, including the control model behind every action, are available at jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

JAX is an AI agent that runs inside the JAMS Web Client. It finds jobs, troubleshoots failures, and answers how-to questions in plain language, with each response grounded in the JAMS user guide and checked against a built-in glossary. JAX acts only when a user asks it to. Reads flow freely, and every write action pauses for the user’s explicit approval before it runs. JAX does not learn between sessions, and conversations are not retained on the server.

JAMS MCP is a connector, built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, that brings JAMS into the AI tools engineering teams already use, including Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex. Users query jobs, investigate failures, and manage runs in plain language without leaving their tool.

Both capabilities run inside the customer’s own network and act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions. There is no elevated AI account: whatever a user cannot do in the JAMS interface, JAX and JAMS MCP cannot do on that user’s behalf. Every JAX and MCP operation is recorded in its own dedicated log, and changes made through the JAMS API land in the JAMS audit trail like any other change. Customers choose their own AI model, whether a commercial provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic or a model running entirely on their own hardware, and JAMS never trains on customer data. In the current release, neither feature edits or deletes a job, folder, schedule, or agent definition. For teams that must keep operational data within a defined boundary, JAX runs on a local model entirely inside the customer’s own network, so nothing leaves at all.

“Adopting AI usually means giving something up, most often visibility into where your data goes,” said Pete Hegland, Chief Executive Officer of JAMS Software. “We built JAX and JAMS MCP so that trade does not have to happen. Every action runs as the signed-in user, every change waits for approval, and the model itself can run entirely inside your own network.”

“IT teams across the United Kingdom and EMEA tell us the same thing: they want the benefit of AI without losing sight of where their data goes,” said Greg McLaughlin, Account Executive for EMEA at JAMS Software. “JAX and JAMS MCP let them keep operational data inside their own network and still get answers in plain language. That combination is what makes this practical for the teams I work with.”

JAX and JAMS MCP are available now to all JAMS Web customers across the United Kingdom and EMEA, with no separate licence, SKU, or additional cost. AI-assisted creation of new jobs and workflows from a plain-language description is on the roadmap for a future release, gated by the same approvals and permissions as every other action.

Learn how JAX and JAMS MCP work at https://jamsscheduler.com/product/ai.

Fast facts

JAX is an AI agent built into the JAMS Web Client for job scheduling and workflow automation.JAMS MCP is a connector built on the open Model Context Protocol standard, for Cursor, VS Code with Copilot, Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and Codex.Both act as the signed-in user, with that user’s exact JAMS permissions, and there is no elevated AI account.Customers choose the AI model, including a local model that runs entirely inside their own network.JAMS never trains on customer data.Both are available now at no additional cost as part of JAMS Web.

About JAMS Software

Founded in 1987, JAMS Software is an orchestration solution that helps IT teams centralize, automate, and manage scheduled and event-driven jobs across complex, hybrid environments. Over 850 customers rely on JAMS to run their automated workloads. JAMS Software, LLC is headquartered at 108 Patriot Drive, Suite A, Middletown, DE 19709.

Media Contact
Bobby Schmidt, Vice President of Marketing
press@jamssoftware.com
800.261.4267

 

 

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Video: CNPC offers green chemical answer

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BEIJING, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — A news report from chinadaily.com.cn:

Located on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Tarim 1.2 MTA Phase II Ethylene Project and its supporting green and low-carbon demonstration facility of PetroChina Dushanzi Petrochemical Company, a subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, are offering a new example of China’s low-carbon industrial transformation.

Watch the video to discover how CNPC is exploring a cleaner and more circular future for the industry.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/video-cnpc-offers-green-chemical-answer-302834036.html

SOURCE chinadaily.com.cn

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Shanghai Electric showcases embodied intelligence robot matrix and AI-native smart factory solutions at WAIC 2026

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Featuring humanoid robots with 41 degrees of freedom, pipe‑inspection robots with ±1mm positioning accuracy, and 51 industrial‑grade AI agents

SHANGHAI, July 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Operations in high-end equipment manufacturing often involve confined spaces, complex objects, and fine manipulation tasks that demand sustained and stable precision. At the recent 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance (WAIC 2026), Shanghai Electric (SEHK: 02727, SSE: 601727) showcased its comprehensive portfolio of embodied intelligence solutions tailored to a range of industrial scenarios.

Themed “AI for All: Smart Squad, Shining Without Limits,” Shanghai Electric highlighted its capabilities across embodied AI robots, robot core components, and AI-native smart factory solutions, demonstrating end-to-end capabilities spanning complete robot systems, critical parts, industrial software, and smart factory architecture.

“The true value of embodied intelligence lies in understanding real industrial tasks: combining the strength, precision, and stability of machines with human experience and judgment to drive a genuine paradigm of ‘machine-assisted, human-machine collaboration,'” said Wang Chunlei, deputy general manager of the Robotics Business Unit at Shanghai Electric Automation Group.

Shanghai Electric’s robotics portfolio covers five key industrial scenarios: connector insertion, electrical operations, flexible sorting, intelligent assembly, and pipe processing. Highlights include:

“SUYUAN” bipedal humanoid robot: With 41 degrees of freedom for enhanced mobility, it is equipped with a multimodal visual sensing system on the head and torso, along with a dual-battery hot-swap system. It is well-suited for inspection, material handling, and assembly tasks.”TUOYUAN” industrial wheeled humanoid robot: Powered by an embodied intelligence foundation model and force-position hybrid control, it is capable of multi-spec connector insertion, material sorting, and loading/unloading of automotive sheet metal parts.”Mermaid” bionic wheeled humanoid robot: Capable of autonomously identifying buttons, knobs, and air switches, it generates real-time operation paths.Autonomous pipe inner-wall chamfering robot: Designed for confined spaces, it can position and process thousands of hole edges with accuracy within 1 millimeter while transmitting data in real time.

Shanghai Electric also showcased its portfolio of core components ranging from power-output to end effectors. Among them, the planetary roller screw offers more than three times the load capacity of traditional ball screws, while the DexHand dexterous hand is designed to meet diverse gripping and manipulation requirements.

Shanghai Electric launched 51 AI models and agents under its “StarCloud Intelligent Manufacturing” series across three domains: R&D and design, production and manufacturing, and operations and maintenance—covering critical equipment processes such as process optimization and wind power facility maintenance.

These industrial agents are embedded in robotic decision-making systems and the operational logic of AI-native smart factories, transforming industrial expertise into digitized, reusable capabilities. They support production-line scheduling, quality inspection, and predictive maintenance, driving the evolution of manufacturing systems from experience-driven to data-driven operations.

Shanghai Electric also released the “AI-Native Smart Factory Technology White Paper,” proposing an active evolution architecture that enables real‑time, closed‑loop optimization of production data, giving the factory self‑perception, self‑decision, and self‑execution capabilities. Built on First Principles, the AI‑native smart factory vertically integrates process flows, industrial software, agents, and smart equipment to dismantle traditional hierarchies while horizontally bridging data silos. The architecture features three core layers: the AI factory brain as the “control center,” industrial agents and embodied robots as the “execution network,” and the physical twin as the “digital mirror.”

Leveraging its deep industrial expertise and comprehensive solution capabilities, Shanghai Electric will continue to drive the implementation of AI in industrial settings, tackle technical challenges facing embodied intelligence in complex scenarios, accelerate the large‑scale deployment of AI‑native smart factories, and deliver replicable solutions across diverse manufacturing environments.

SOURCE Shanghai Electric

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