Welcome back. Today, we take a look at a new AI platform that can act as a virtual patient for people with a deadly type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. For now, it will allow drug companies and academic medical centers to conduct drug experiments in a simulated world. Eventually, doctors could use the platform to treat patients. AI company GNS Healthcare developed the platform with a vast dataset and a technique known as causal AI. One expert says the technology could shave years off the time it takes to get drugs to market.

AI virtual patient platform could improve treatment of people with deadly blood cancer. GNS Healthcare launched an AI platform called Gemini that creates virtual models of patients, allowing drugmakers and academic centers to experiment with drugs in the virtual world before treating patients in clinical trials, WSJ’s Sara Castellanos reports. Eventually, doctors could use the Cambridge, Mass.-based company’s platform to treat patients.

The platform was made to simulate individuals with a deadly type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. About 32,270 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with the disease in 2020, according to the American Cancer Society. Gemini is expected to be used in designing clinical trials for the disease, for example to determine which patients to recruit and to discover new drugs.

GNS employs causal AI. Gemini uses causal AI to reconstruct an individual patient and to stimulate how the disease progresses through each patient’s body. It can help assess which types of therapies might treat the disease. Causal AI goes beyond finding correlations and patterns in patient data, and determines how specific molecular components are connected to other genes and molecules in the body.

Vast dataset feeds the technology. Several different data streams were used to develop Gemini, including a patient registry that has information from more than 1,100 people. The vast dataset underlying Gemini could help drugmakers better understand the target population for specific drugs, said Michael Andreini, chief operating officer of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation. The effort could cut the time it takes to get drugs to market by years, he said.

“[Gemini] is going to help drug manufacturers be able to tailor their overall clinical development plan in a much more efficient way,” Mr. Andreini said.

Circadia gets FDA nod for AI-powered respiratory monitor. Startup Circadia Technologies Ltd. has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for a bedside device that remotely monitors breathing using artificial intelligence. It has been shown to help detect Covid-19 symptoms such as breathlessness, WSJ Pro Venture Capital's Tomio Geron reports.

Circadia’s device uses radar and sound to monitor a person’s breathing and chest movement. Algorithms detect changes in a patient’s condition whether they’re sleep or awake, prompting alerts to caregivers. It’s designed for use in skilled nursing facilities as well as post-acute care, and it can work from as far as 8 feet away.

U.S. lawmakers propose facial recognition ban. A group of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bill that would prohibit federal government officials from using federal funds to acquire facial recognition systems, VentureBeat reports. The bill, dubbed the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2020, would also withhold federal funding from state and local governments that use the technology.

Waymo, Volvo team up on driverless cars. Waymo and Volvo Cars Group will work together to make an autonomous electric vehicle for ride hailing use, Reuters reports. Waymo, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, will concentrate on the AI, according to the report. Volvo will make the vehicles.

Texas paused reopening plans as new virus cases and hospitalizations increased in many states and a new estimate showed millions more Americans may have contracted the virus than initially thought. (WSJ)

The Trump administration has discussed a range of strategies to counter Huawei’s growth and put more American muscle into the competition against the Chinese telecom giant, including by prodding large U.S. technology companies to acquire Ericsson or Nokia. (WSJ)

Write to Enterprise Technology Editor Steven Rosenbush and Pro AI Deputy Editor John McCormick.

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