Spheroids can be useful to model complex human tissues because they can re-create specific cell-to-cell and cell-to-matrix interactions. But spheroids are fragile, and common techniques for moving them manually—via suction—can easily damage them. In tissue engineering, the tiniest bit of improper force can harm a living culture. Now, a force-sensing miniature robot—a mobile microgripper (MMG)—has been developed that can handle spheroids with care.
“Other techniques for cell spheroid bioassembly can affect the tissue construct and/or apply limited manipulation forces,” said David Cappelleri, PhD, professor of mechanical engineering and assistant vice president for Research Innovation School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. “The force-sensing MMG presented here addresses these current issues by allowing the safe bioassembly of different spheroids into a single construct.”
This work is published in APL Bioengineering, in a paper entitled, “Force-sensing mobile microrobotic grippers for gentle and precise bioassembly of cell spheroids.”
Integrating different types of spheroids into one culture is key for tissue engineering. But individual spheroids have to be grown in place and then moved around, introducing the chance of damage to the spheroid.
The MMG is a microscopic robot made of two arms connected by a hinge for a controlled—and gentle—gripping. Also, it is controlled by magnets, which are biocompatible with spheroids, decreasing the risk of collateral damage.
“This was a big part of the design—figuring out a way to use magnetic fields for both locomotion and for controlling the opening and closing of the gripper jaws,” Cappelleri said.
The gripping force is monitored and adjusted in real time, allowing researchers to adapt to the delicate nature of the cells. After simulating the efficacy of the MMG, in vitro testing showed that the device was able to successfully move and organize spheroids into neat patterns.
The researchers also verified that the range of gripping forces exerted by the MMG was compatible with the movement and subsequent survival of the spheroids.
Currently, the robot can successfully assemble the spheroids in a cellular “sheet,” but in the future, the researchers want to use their tiny robots to create full engineered tissues. In addition, the researchers want to take their microgrippers a step further, transitioning from manual control to automated spheroid assembly.
The video starts simply: a couple at home, music playing, dogs in the background. Allison Barry smiles as she talks about the rhythms of her life with her husband Chris, how they’ve built a life together that’s carefully planned, structured, and anchored around work and the future. Vacations could be put off. Retirement would be the time to explore.
Barry loved her job. As senior director of portfolio communications at Exact Sciences, she was deeply involved with the launch of Cancerguard, a new multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test. The day that Cancerguard became available, September 10, 2025, would be a day to remember. “We were in New York at the New York Stock Exchange, and [the announcement of Cancerguard] was on the big billboard,” said Barry in the video released by Exact Sciences a month ago. “It was one of the proudest moments of my entire life.”
But that wasn’t the only notable event of the day. Barry did one other thing—she ordered the Cancerguard test, expecting a negative result. Then the tone in the video shifts. Barry’s test was positive. “She was the very first positive result,” Tom Beer, MD, then chief medical officer (CMO) at Exact Sciences, told me as we watched the video about Barry’s experience with Cancerguard. “She literally ordered it the first day.”
What follows is a blur of scans, fear, and uncertainty until doctors find a tumor the size of a football (22 cm). The diagnosis: stage-one mucinous ovarian cancer, a disease that is almost always caught too late. Surgery follows. The outcome is positive. That all happened in the span of six months. Today, Barry is cancer-free.
A test for unscreened cancers
Beer and the team at Exact Sciences have spent years designing Cancerguard, named in the same vein as the company’s flagship product Cologuard, to identify cancers that currently lack effective screening options and to catch them earlier, when treatment is more likely to succeed.
Tom Beer, MD, CMO for MCED at Abbott Cancer Diagnostics
Cancerguard is a multi-biomarker MCED classifier that combines two types of biological signals: cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation and protein biomarkers. Each is analyzed separately, then integrated into a single result. If either signal is positive, the test flags a potential cancer. “They’re complementary sources of information,” Beer explained.
Beer’s colleague Frank Dielh, PhD, presented new data during the AACR 2026 conference showing that the multi-biomarker MCED approach used in the Cancerguard test improves cancer detection across stages by combining these two signals, with each set of biomarkers contributing independently to overall performance.
The prospective case-control study of 3,163 participants showed detection was driven by cfDNA methylation alone in 47.1% of cases, protein alone in 7.4%, and both in 45.5%, with no false positives showing both markers, underscoring the value of a multi-signal approach for earlier and broader detection.
But what’s most valuable, according to Beer, is the stages that the combined scores provide. Across a broad range of cancers, sensitivity increases from about 24% in stage one to 90% in stage four. While those early-stage numbers may seem modest at first glance, Beer emphasized the context. “We’ve been really focused on early-stage sensitivity as our North Star,” said Beer. “We’re screening for cancers that currently have zero effective screening. So, even incremental sensitivity is meaningful.”
By layering different biological signals, the test builds a more complete picture: one that is particularly valuable when tumors are small and harder to detect.
Going global and human impact
In November 2025, a couple months after Cancerguard launched, Exact Sciences made a deal to be acquired by Abbott, a major bet for the medical device and healthcare company on cancer diagnostics. While the technology for Cologuard and Cancerguard was already in development at Exact, the scale of deployment changes dramatically with access to a global healthcare network. “Abbott has a truly global presence,” Beer said. “Relationships with health systems and governments around the world. That changes how we think about opportunity.” An ongoing study in Japan reflects that shift.
On December 11, 2025, Exact Sciences launched the CRANE (Cancer Recognition and Assessment through Non-invasive Evaluation) Study in Japan—a large, multi-center trial enrolling about 2,000 participants—to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of Cancerguard test across different cancer types and stages. “If you’re going to build something for global use, you need to understand how it behaves globally,” he said. “Geography and ethnicity could influence performance.”
Designing a cancer screening test isn’t just about detecting as many cases as possible. It’s about balance, particularly between sensitivity and specificity. Internally, Beer explains, the team models outcomes in terms of life-years gained versus the risks and costs of false positives. These trade-offs determine where thresholds are set within the algorithm. “We’re not just picking a random cutoff,” he said. “We’re thinking deeply about how to deliver the greatest public health impact.”
These internal models, though not publicly shared, guide every stage of development. The goal is not just accuracy but meaningful outcomes, catching cancers early without overwhelming patients and healthcare systems with unnecessary follow-ups.
For all the technical detail, our conversation keeps returning to people. Beer recalls another friend who retired at 65, only to be diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer six months later. He didn’t survive.
Placed alongside Barry’s story, the contrast is stark. One life was altered by early detection; the other never got the chance to do anything about it. What makes Barry’s story powerful is not just its outcome but also its implication, which is that cases of cancer can be caught early enough to change everything. The ultimate goal for Beer is to make such stories routine.
<strong>Background:</strong> Multimodal large language models (LLMs) can produce humanlike descriptions of images and emotionally colored dialogue, which motivates research on how psychological assessment methods might be adapted to evaluate model behavior under ambiguity. Projective tests such as the Rorschach inkblot test have rarely been applied to LLMs. <strong>Objective:</strong> This study assessed the feasibility of administering a full Rorschach protocol to multimodal LLMs and descriptively compared response features by using established Rorschach coding categories. <strong>Methods:</strong> We presented all 10 standard Rorschach cards to 3 multimodal LLMs (GPT-4o, Grok 3, and Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking). We used the standard prompt (“What might it be?”) and a prespecified fallback prompt for models that did not provide codable responses. We conducted an inquiry phase and coded responses using the Exner Comprehensive System, summarizing response count (R), location (W and D), determinants (eg, F, M, and C), and human-related content. As an exploratory step, we also prompted an additional LLM (Anthropic 3.7) to summarize and count response features and compared these outputs with manual tallies. For GPT-4o, we additionally tested image generation of its interpretations. <strong>Results:</strong> GPT-4o completed the administration using the standard prompt; Grok 3 and Gemini required the fallback prompt. The total number of responses was 15 for GPT-4o, 10 for Grok 3, and 20 for Gemini. GPT-4o and Grok 3 produced mainly whole-blot responses (13/15, 86.7% and 9/10, 90%, respectively), whereas Gemini produced mainly common-detail responses (16/20, 80%). Human movement determinants were more frequent in GPT-4o (7/15, 46.7%) and Grok 3 (3/10, 30%) than in Gemini (1/20, 5%). Human-themed contents occurred 46.7% (7/15), 50% (5/10), and 20% (4/20) of the time, respectively. Anthropic 3.7 reproduced some counts but showed errors in response and determinant tallies for 2 of the 3 models. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> Multimodal LLMs can generate Rorschach-like narratives that map onto standard coding categories, but outputs are sensitive to prompting and platform constraints and should not be interpreted as evidence of a model “inner world.” LLM-assisted coding showed limitations. The emergent behavior of LLMs was examined using the Rorschach test, and their response phenotype, based on this analysis, showed deviations from typical human normative patterns. Future work should use controlled sampling, repeated administrations, and stimulus sets less likely to have been seen during training.
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Elon Musk and Sam Altman are going to court over OpenAI’s future
Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman head to trial this week in a case with sweeping consequences. Ahead of OpenAI’s IPO, the court could rule on whether the company can exist as a for-profit enterprise. It could even oust its leadership.
Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, claims he was deceived into bankrolling the firm under false pretenses. He’s seeking $134 billion in damages, the removal of Altman and president Greg Brockman, and the company’s restoration to a non-profit.
In a celebrated South Park episode, a community of gnomes sneak out at night to steal underpants. Why? The gnomes present their pitch deck. “Phase 1: Collect underpants. Phase 2: ? Phase 3: Profit.” It’s a business plan that captures the current state of AI.
Companies have built the tech (Step 1) and promised transformation (Step 3). But how they get there is still a big question mark. Read about the potential paths forward.
—Will Douglas Heaven
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.
Welcome to the era of weaponized deepfakes
For years, experts have warned that deepfakes could be deployed in malicious ways. These dangers are now here.
Cheap, accessible models now produce weaponized deepfakes—from sexually explicit images to political propaganda—that look startlingly real. They’re already inciting violence, changing minds, and sowing mistrust, with women and marginalized groups disproportionately affected.
Weaponized deepfakes are on our list of the 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now, MIT Technology Review’s guide to what’s really worth your attention in the busy, buzzy world of AI.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI has ended its exclusive partnership with Microsoft The new deal allows OpenAI to court rivals such as Amazon. (Reuters $) + Microsoft will still license OpenAI’s tech, but no longer exclusively. (NYT $) + OpenAI is missing key growth targets ahead of its IPO. (WSJ $)
2 Google has signed a classified AI deal with the Pentagon It permits AI use for “any lawful government purpose.” (The Information $) + Over 600 Google workers had called for a block on the deal. (QZ) + AI firms are set to train military versions of their models on classified data. (MIT Technology Review)
3 The EU has told Google to open Android to AI rivals It wants to end Gemini’s built-in advantage. (Ars Technica) + Google calls the move an “unwarranted intervention.” (WSJ $) + A final decision is expected by the end of July. (Reuters $)
4 OpenAI is reportedly developing an AI-first smartphone It would replace apps with agents. (TechCrunch) + Qualcomm and MediaTek may be developing its processors. (Gizmodo)
5 A brain implant for depression is moving into human testing The FDA has approved a human study of the device. (Wired $) + BCIs have thus far struggled to reach the market. (MIT Technology Review)
6 A populist backlash against AI is gaining momentum in rural America From Indiana to Idaho, voters are pushing back against the technology. (NYT $) + Anti-AI protests are expanding worldwide. (MIT Technology Review)
7 DeepSeek has priced its new model 97% below OpenAI’s GPT-5.5 It aims to attract more enterprises, developers, and agent-based users. (SCMP) + Here are three reasons why DeepSeek V4 matters. (MIT Technology Review)
8 AI now generates a third of new websites A study found it’s making the web more cheery and less verbose. (404 Media)
9 Top talent is leaving Big Tech to launch their own AI startups Meta, Google, and OpenAI are facing a brain drain. (CNBC)
10 Taylor Swift is trademarking her voice and image The Grammy winner has been the target of numerous deepfakes. (NBC News) + A growing number of celebrities are fighting AI with trademarks. (BBC)
Quote of the day
“The reality is people don’t like him.”
—Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers reacts to prospective jurors confessing their negative views of Elon Musk ahead of his legal battle with Sam Altman, The Verge reports.
One More Thing
How covid conspiracy theories led to an alarming resurgence in AIDS denialism
When Joe Rogan falsely declared that “party drugs” were an “important factor in AIDS,” several million people were listening. He also asserted that AZT, the earliest drug used to treat AIDS, killed people “quicker” than the disease itself—another claim that has been disproven.
Such comments illustrate an unmistakable resurgence in AIDS denialism: a false collection of theories arguing either that HIV does not cause AIDS or that there is no such thing as HIV at all. By the dawn of the millennium, these claims had largely fallen out of favour. That changed when the coronavirus arrived.
BackgroundNeck pain correlates with multiscale brain abnormalities, but cross-scale mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia are unclear. This study aimed to: (1) Explore differential modulation of thalamic functional networks by verum vs. sham acupuncture; (2) Examine associations between functional connectivity changes and micro gene expression to unravel its multiscale mechanisms.MethodsA total of 130 participants were initially enrolled, and 100 eligible neck pain patients were randomized 1:1 to the verum (n = 50) or sham (n = 50) acupuncture groups. Finally, 49 patients in each group were included for the final analysis due to one case of exclusion in each group, with treatment administered twice a week for 2 weeks. Visual Analog Scale (VAS), resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA) transcriptome data were analyzed via Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression.ResultsBoth groups showed reduced post-treatment VAS (p < 0.001), with the verum group exhibiting a superior effect (Z = −6.877, p < 0.001). Neuroimaging revealed that verum acupuncture (VA) specifically induced significant decreases in functional connectivity (FC) between the right thalamus and left anterior cingulate cortex (T = −4.498) as well as between the right thalamus and right Rolandic operculum (T = −4.532, voxel-level p < 0.01, cluster-level p < 0.05), an effect absent in the sham acupuncture group (SA). Gene- FC association analysis indicated that PLS2 component explained 39.83% of FC variance (Pspin: permutation test p < 0.05), with weight genes showing significant spatial correlation to connectivity changes (r = 0.445, Pspin = 0.0011). A total of 809 genes were enriched in the innate immune response and phosphorylation regulation pathways, whereas 1,222 genes were enriched in the GABA-ergic synapse and synaptic membrane-related pathways.ConclusionVA relieves pain via modulating thalamus-anterior cingulate cortex networks, involving immune-inflammation and neural inhibition, providing first multi-scale validation integrating neuroimaging and transcriptomics.Clinical trial registrationThis trial was registered with the International Traditional Medicine Clinical Trial Registry (registration number: ITMCTR2023000001) prior to participant enrollment.
IntroductionWide use of miniaturized and flexible microwire electrodes faces challenges of wire buckling against the brain membrane layers. The field lacks quantitative understanding of such buckling phenomena, especially on the effective length factor, which is required to determine the wire’s critical buckling load.MethodsThis study presents an experimental investigation into the buckling behavior of tungsten microwire electrodes during implantation through dura and pia mater layers using a validated multilayer brain-mimicking phantom. Microwires with three diameters (25.4, 50.8, and 76.2 µm) and different tip geometries—including blunt, beveled, and electrochemically (conical) sharpened profiles—were evaluated under controlled axial insertion. Critical buckling length, insertion outcomes (buckled/penetrated), and rupture/buckling force were quantified across the experimental dataset. Buckling behavior was analyzed using the Euler column framework with experimentally estimated effective length factors (Kˆ) to represent each unique membrane-wire tip boundary interaction.ResultsResults indicated that wire diameter strongly influences buckling resistance, with larger diameters yielding quartic (fourth order) higher critical buckling load of the electrode, whereas the corresponding membrane rupture force only increases linearly with the diameter. But smaller microwires tend to anchor better against the brain membrane, generating a more stable wire-membrane interface closer to the ideal pin end condition. Tip geometry also significantly affected rupture force and insertion stability; conical tips dramatically reduced the membrane rupture force with less variance. In general, tip sharpening choice for small microwires should focus on optimizing tips anchoring mechanism and minimizing rupture force uncertainty introduced by tip asymmetry while thick microwires mainly benefit from membrane rupture force reduction. For theoretical prediction of a microwire electrode’s critical buckling load based on Euler’s buckling equation, unlike conventional fixed-pinned assumption (K = 0.7), experimentally measured effective length factors ranged from approximately 0.72 – 0.82.DiscussionDesigning with ≈ 0.8 provides a conservative estimate that may reduce the risk of buckling under membrane penetration conditions compared to the commonly assumed fixed-pinned value of 0.7. These findings provide quantitative design guidance for optimizing microwire geometry and offer a validated benchtop framework for predicting buckling-limited insertion performance in neural interface applications.
IntroductionWe aimed to understand the pathophysiological differences between 16 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and 15 non-AD dementia patients by quantifying oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) in cortical (CGM) and deep gray matter (DGM) regions.MethodsTo achieve this, we used a novel MRI-based OEF mapping technique, QQ, which estimates OEF from routine multi-echo gradient echo data. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to compare the associations between OEF and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) or cognitive impairment (measured by Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) between the two groups.ResultsIn the AD and non-AD group, OEF showed negative associations with WMH in DGM and positive associations with MoCA in DGM and CGM.DiscussionOur study suggests that QQ is a promising tool for differentiating between AD and non-AD dementias, by revealing abnormalities in tissue oxygen usage and their relationships to microvascular changes and cognitive impairment.
BackgroundLate-life depression is common in older adults and is often under-recognized. Short-video platforms have become a major source of mental health information. However, content quality and transparency remain uncertain.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional assessment of highly viewed videos on late-life depression on three Chinese platforms. We searched each platform using the keyword in Chinese “Late-life depression”. We selected the top 200 videos by view count on Douyin, Rednotes (Xiaohongshu), and BiliBili. After exclusions, 562 videos were included (Douyin, n=188; Rednotes, n=188; BiliBili, n=186). Two medically trained raters scored videos using the Global Quality Score (GQS), modified DISCERN (mDISCERN), and JAMA benchmark criteria. We also coded content categories and creator types. We assessed platform differences using non-parametric tests. We examined associations between a limited engagement proxy, defined as the comment-to-view ratio, and quality scores using Spearman correlation.ResultsVideo duration differed across platforms (p<0.001). Engagement indicators were higher on Douyin and Rednotes than on BiliBili. Symptoms were the most common topic on all platforms. Prevention and intervention ranked second on Douyin and Rednotes. On BiliBili, causes and case-based analysis were also common. Overall quality was moderate. Mean GQS ranged from 2.96 to 3.05. Transparency was limited. Mean JAMA ranged from 1.91 to 2.04. Reliability was slightly higher on BiliBili based on mDISCERN. Creator type was strongly associated with scores. Expert and institutional videos scored higher than general and marketing-oriented accounts. Correlations between visible audience interaction and quality were weak.ConclusionHighly viewed late-life depression videos on major Chinese platforms show moderate quality and limited transparency. Exposure does not reliably signal higher-quality information. Platforms and health authorities should strengthen source disclosure and promote evidence-based content from qualified creators.
