University of Illinois At Urbana–Champaign

A new study reveals how large language models (LLMs) respond to different motivational states. In their evaluation of three LLM-based generative conversational agents (GAs)--ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Llama 2, scientists found that while GAs are able to identify users' motivation states and provide relevant information when individuals have established goals, they are less likely to provide guidance when the users are hesitant or ambivalent about changing their behavior. A new study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) reveals how large language models (LLMs) respond to different motivational states. In their evaluation of three LLM-based generative conversational agents (GAs) -- ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Llama 2, PhD student Michelle Bak and Assistant Professor Jessie Chin of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that while GAs are able to identify users' motivation states and provide relevant information when individuals have established goals, they are less likely to provide guidance when the users are hesitant or ambivalent about changing their behavior. Bak provides the example of an individual with diabetes who is resistant to changing their sedentary lifestyle. "If they were advised by a doctor that exercising would be necessary to manage their diabetes, it would be important to provide information through GAs that helps them increase an awareness about healthy behaviors, become emotionally engaged with the changes, and realize how their unhealthy habits might affect people around them. This kind of information can help them take the next steps toward making positive changes," said Bak. Current GAs lack specific information about these processes, which puts the individual at a health disadvantage. Conversely, for individuals who are committed to changing their physical activity levels (e.g., have joined personal fitness training to manage chronic depression), GAs are able to provide relevant information and support. "This major gap of LLMs in responding to certain states of motivation suggests future directions of LLMs research for health promotion," said Chin. Bak's research goal is to develop a digital health solution based on using natural language processing and psychological theories to promote preventive health behaviors. She earned her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of California Los Angeles. Chin's research aims to translate social and behavioral sciences theories to design technologies and interactive experiences to promote health communication and behavior across the lifespan. She leads the Adaptive Cognition and Interaction Design (ACTION) Lab at the University of Illinois. Chin holds a BS in psychology from National Taiwan University, an MS in human factors, and a PhD in educational psychology with a focus on cognitive science in teaching and learning from the University of Illinois.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Odyssey Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company pioneering next-generation precision immunomodulators and oncology medicines, today announced the appointment of Julie Clauss, MBA, as chief operating officer and Christopher Butler, Ph.D., as senior vice president (SVP), head of Chemistry. Together, these individuals bring more than 40 years of leadership experience and scientific expertise within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries to Odyssey. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: Julie Clauss, chief operating officer (Photo: Business Wire) “As we take extraordinary leaps to improve patient outcomes, we continue to recruit the best and brightest to join our team,” said Gary D. Glick, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Odyssey Therapeutics. “Ms. Clauss and Dr. Butler have proven track records of successfully leading teams to achieve strategic business and research goals. With their backgrounds, we will continue to push new frontiers in drug discovery and development for patients living with serious diseases.” Ms. Clauss will oversee Odyssey’s business, administrative and clinical operations, providing cross-functional leadership to each of these critical functions. She will work closely with the executive team to drive operational excellence and support the realization of Odyssey’s vision of delivering transformative medicines to advance the standard of care for patients living with immune diseases and cancer. Previously, Ms. Clauss served as the vice president and lead for the Gene Therapy Platform at Ultragenyx, aligning functions across programs and driving operational efficiency, as well as the vice president and head of Research and Development (R&D) Operations at Ipsen Bioscience, establishing the strategic portfolio management group and developing data-driven global R&D strategies. Her career also includes leadership positions at Sanofi Pasteur and Sanofi. Ms. Clauss received a Master of Business Administration through the Sloan Fellows program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a Master of Engineering degree from Ecole Centrale Mediterranee and a Master of Science degree in Chemistry and Physical Sciences from Joseph Fourier University. “At Odyssey, I aim to leverage my leadership experience to help drive innovation, align functions and enhance operational efficiency to achieve meaningful, patient-centric solutions,” said Ms. Clauss. “Odyssey is advancing a pipeline of medicines with exceptional potential, and I look forward to collaborating with passionate colleagues to help realize the company’s mission.” As SVP and head of Chemistry, Dr. Butler will play a pivotal role in shaping the strategic direction of the company's research efforts, driving innovation and fostering a culture of excellence within the chemistry department. Prior to joining Odyssey, he held various leadership positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer. Dr. Butler earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and has published numerous papers and received several awards for his research efforts related to synthetic and medicinal chemistry. “I was drawn to Odyssey because of the breadth and depth of its talented scientists and leadership, as well as its relentless investment in data sciences, chemistry and research,” said Dr. Butler. “As expert drug hunters, they are at the forefront of scientific discovery, working to stay ahead of inflammatory diseases and cancer, and solve problems to get medicines to patients faster.” About Odyssey Therapeutics Odyssey Therapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing the next generation of immunomodulators and oncology medicines. Composed of an expert team of drug hunters, scientists and industry leaders in foundational biology, chemistry and data sciences, Odyssey is transforming drug discovery to accelerate and drive the creation and efficient delivery of life-enhancing precision medicines to patients. For more information, please visit odysseytx.com and follow Odyssey Therapeutics on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.

A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes. A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration -- which includes scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) -- has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes. This similarity also hints toward a hidden jet in Sgr A*. The results were published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Scientists unveiled the first image of Sgr A* -- which is approximately 27,000 light-years away from Earth -- in 2022, revealing that while the Milky Way's supermassive black hole is more than a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87's, it looks remarkably similar. This made scientists wonder whether the two shared common traits outside of their looks. To find out, the team decided to study Sgr A* in polarized light. Previous studies of light around M87* revealed that the magnetic fields around the black hole giant allowed it to launch powerful jets of material back into the surrounding environment. Building on this work, the new images have revealed that the same may be true for Sgr A*. "What we're seeing now is that there are strong, twisted, and organized magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy," said Sara Issaoun, CfA NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Einstein Fellow, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) astrophysicist, and co-lead of the project. "Along with Sgr A* having a strikingly similar polarization structure to that seen in the much larger and more powerful M87* black hole, we've learned that strong and ordered magnetic fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them." Light is an oscillating, or moving, electromagnetic wave that allows us to see objects. Sometimes, light oscillates in a preferred orientation, and we call it "polarized." Although polarized light surrounds us, to human eyes it is indistinguishable from "normal" light. In the plasma around these black holes, particles whirling around magnetic field lines impart a polarization pattern perpendicular to the field. This allows astronomers to see in increasingly vivid detail what's happening in black hole regions and map their magnetic field lines. "By imaging polarized light from hot glowing gas near black holes, we are directly inferring the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that thread the flow of gas and matter that the black hole feeds on and ejects," said Harvard Black Hole Initiative Fellow and project co-lead Angelo Ricarte. "Polarized light teaches us a lot more about the astrophysics, the properties of the gas, and mechanisms that take place as a black hole feeds." But imaging black holes in polarized light isn't as easy as putting on a pair of polarized sunglasses, and this is particularly true of Sgr A*, which is changing so fast that it doesn't sit still for pictures. Imaging the supermassive black hole requires sophisticated tools above and beyond those previously used for capturing M87*, a much steadier target. CfA postdoctoral fellow and SAO astrophysicist Paul Tiede said, "It is exciting that we were able to make a polarized image of Sgr A* at all. The first image took months of extensive analysis to understand its dynamical nature and unveil its average structure. Making a polarized image adds on the challenge of the dynamics of the magnetic fields around the black hole. Our models often predicted highly turbulent magnetic fields, making it extremely difficult to construct a polarized image. Fortunately, our black hole is much calmer, making the first image possible." Scientists are excited to have images of both supermassive black holes in polarized light because these images, and the data that come with them, provide new ways to compare and contrast black holes of different sizes and masses. As technology improves, the images are likely to reveal even more secrets of black holes and their similarities or differences. Michi Bauböck, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said, "M87* and Sgr A* are different in a few important ways: M87* is much bigger, and it's pulling in matter from its surroundings at a much faster rate. So, we might have expected that the magnetic fields also look very different. But in this case, they turned out to be quite similar, which may mean that this structure is common to all black holes. A better understanding of the magnetic fields near black holes helps us answer several open questions -- from how jets are formed and launched to what powers the bright flares we see in infrared and X-ray light." The EHT has conducted several observations since 2017 and is scheduled to observe Sgr A* again in April 2024. Each year, the images improve as the EHT incorporates new telescopes, larger bandwidth, and new observing frequencies. Planned expansions for the next decade will enable high-fidelity movies of Sgr A*, may reveal a hidden jet, and could allow astronomers to observe similar polarization features in other black holes. Meanwhile, extending the EHT into space will provide sharper images of black holes than ever before. The CfA is leading several major initiatives to sharply enhance the EHT over the next decade. The next-generation EHT (ngEHT) project is undertaking a transformative upgrade of the EHT, aiming to bring multiple new radio dishes online, enable simultaneous multi-color observations, and increase the overall sensitivity of the array. The ngEHT expansion will enable the array to make real-time movies of supermassive black holes on event horizon scales. These movies will resolve detailed structure and dynamics near the event horizon, bringing into focus "strong-field" gravity features predicted by General Relativity as well as the interplay of accretion and relativistic jet-launching that sculpts large-scale structures in the Universe. Meanwhile, the Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) mission concept will extend the EHT into space, producing the sharpest images in the history of astronomy. BHEX will enable the detection and imaging of the "photon ring" -- a sharp ring feature formed by strongly lensed emission around black holes. The properties of a black hole are imprinted on the size and shape of the photon ring, revealing masses and spins for dozens of black holes, in turn showing how these strange objects grow and interact with their host galaxies. The individual telescopes involved in the EHT in April 2017, when the observations were conducted, were: the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), the IRAM 30-meter Telescope, the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), the Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano (LMT), the Submillimeter Array (SMA), the UArizona Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), the South Pole Telescope (SPT). Since then, the EHT has added the Greenland Telescope (GLT), which is operated by ASIAA and the CfA, the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) and the UArizona 12-meter Telescope on Kitt Peak to its network.