Health

AI ghosts are coming: Is that comforting or creepy?

Lisa Marshall — Tue, 20 May 2025 18:50:52 +0000

AI ghosts are coming: Is that comforting or creepy? Lisa Marshall Tue, 05/20/2025 - 12:50

Lisa Marshall

In 2019, a grieving mother named Jang Ji-Sun donned a virtual reality headset and was instantly transported to a grassy field where she spent 10 minutes playing with an AI version of her daughter, Na Yeon, who had died three years earlier of a rare blood disease.

The tearful reunion, viewed more than 36 million times on YouTube, offered a striking sneak peek at how technology might someday transform the way we interact with the dead.

Thanks to the advent of generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, and the emergence of AI “agents” created to act independently on behalf of their creators, that someday is here, according to new 91PORN research. And the possibilities are even wilder than many imagined.

“We anticipate that within our lifetimes it may become common practice for people to create custom AI agents to interact with loved ones and the broader world after their death,” writes Jed Brubaker, professor of Information Science, in a new paper titled “Generative Ghosts: Anticipating Benefits and Risks of AI Afterlives.”

Information Science Professor Jed Brubaker

Brubaker has spent much of his career at the intersection of death and technology. His research inspired Facebook’s Legacy Contact, the feature which enables platform users to assign someone to manage their account after they die. In November, he launched the nation’s first Digital Legacy Clinic, which helps people get their digital affairs in order.

For his latest paper, co-authored with Google DeepMind researcher Meredith Ringel Morris, he set out to inventory what’s been done and what’s coming in the nascent “AI afterlives” space. Meanwhile, in his lab on campus, Brubaker and his students have begun beta testing their own "AI ghosts" and conducting experiments to test how people feel about them.

“Today, you might interact with a Facebook memorial page for grandpa after he dies,” he says. “But what would it feel like to actually sit down with grandpa by the fire and have a conversation with him?”

That day may not be far off.

From text-based grief bots to resurrected celebrities

As Brubaker notes, tech-savvy futurists have been dabbling with AI afterlives for years.

After Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed died in 2013, his partner Laurie Anderson worked with machine learning experts to create a text-based chatbot (trained with Reed’s writings, songs and interviews) that she could converse with. She still uses it frequently.

“I am totally, 100% addicted to this,” Anderson recently told The Guardian.

In 2023, surviving members of The Beatles used AI to release a new song “Now and Then” featuring the deceased John Lennon’s voice singing along with his bandmates.

Just last month, the family of a man shot dead in a road rage incident used AI to create a life-like avatar of him. During an emotional video played in the courtroom, the avatar forgave his killer.

Meanwhile, numerous startups now help the living create posthumous digital versions of themselves: After a lengthy 3D video and interview session, Re;memory will create a “highly realistic AI avatar” to leave behind for family members. HereAfter, an AI app, invites people to record audio stories that the “virtual you” can share after your death.

To some, this all sounds exceedingly creepy.

An AI Chris Pelke addresses his killer in court. Credit: YouTube

But Brubaker points out that photographs were once believed to steal a person’s soul, and online memorials—widely viewed as creepy a decade ago—are now everywhere.

“After time, what’s creepy often becomes commonplace,” he says.

The rise of generative ghosts

Brubaker is most intrigued about what’s coming next: He and his co-author term them “generative ghosts.”

Powered by large language models that can generate and understand human language, and other features that enable them to remember, plan and exhibit other complex human behaviors, they can do far more than regurgitate old stories fed to them by the once-living.

For instance, they could have a conversation with their kids about current events which occurred after their death, write a new song or poem (that their family could potentially earn royalties from), or even help their kids manage their estate.

Right now, most generative ghosts are rudimentary and text based. But ultimately, we could get very close to that candid chat with grandpa by the fire, Brubaker says.

“You could go interact with this super high-fidelity, interactive memorial and, instead of them just reading you some pre-scripted words, you could have an authentic conversation.”

Promise and peril

Brubaker also imagines a day when generative ghosts could be used therapeutically for someone struggling with prolonged grief over a lost loved one.

This was, in fact, the impetus for Jang Ji-Sung’s heart-wrenching reunion with her deceased daughter. (After three years of battling mental health issues, she worked with a South Korean TV network to create a 3D version of Nayeon she could bid a final farewell to.)

Jang Ji-Sung embraces an AI simulation of her daughter.

Generative ghosts could also be used in historical exhibits.

“The last generation of Holocaust survivors will not be with us for much longer, so museums are trying to think of rich, interactive ways to keep their stories alive,” says Brubaker.

Along with such promise, of course, comes peril.

How long should someone interact with an AI ghost before it becomes unhealthy? What role should they play, or not, in the courtroom? What happens when they are created accidentally (e.g., someone creates an AI “agent” to perform other tasks for them and then unexpectedly dies)? How can I be sure no one will make a ghost out of me, against my will?

And when and how should a generative ghost die?

Brubaker doesn’t have the answers. But he hopes his research will get tech companies and policymakers thinking.

“What’s possible and what will actually happen are two different things as we move forward in this AI world,” he says. “When it comes to AI afterlives, we hope to see things move forward in the most ethical, thoughtful and sensitive way possible.”

Within our lifetimes, it could be common for people to interact with life-like digital avatars of the dead. New research explores their promise and peril.

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South Korean mother Jang Ji-Sun interacts with an AI simulation of her late daughter, Na Yeon. Credit: MBC Media/YouTube

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South Korean mother Jang Ji-Sun embraces an AI simulation of her late daughter, Na Yeon. Credit: MBC Media/YouTube

Moms helping moms: Postpartum depression eased through peer support

Lisa Marshall — Thu, 08 May 2025 18:09:12 +0000

Moms helping moms: Postpartum depression eased through peer support Lisa Marshall Thu, 05/08/2025 - 12:09

Lisa Marshall

Gracia Deras had just delivered her first child when the dark cloud that had nagged her during pregnancy began to overtake her.

She lacked the energy to care for herself—much less her newborn son—and her husband at the time was not supportive. Ashamed to feel depressed when she was expected to feel joyful, she folded inward: She skipped church, ignored her phone and hid in bed when visitors knocked at her door. At times her thoughts terrified her.

“I felt like I lost all hope in my ability to be a mother,” recalls Deras, who—at the advice of her pediatrician—sought therapy when her son was a few months old.

A decade later, Deras serves as a peer mentor for Alma, an eight-week 91PORN-born program that pairs new moms struggling with mental health issues with trained peers who have been through it and come out the other side.

New research published in the journal Behavior Therapy shows that the program—which has served nearly 800 moms—provides “rapid relief of symptoms” and “significant clinical improvement” to a population that has historically faced barriers to mental health care.

Another new paper, published this week, suggests that new moms nationwide are not only open to but hungry for peer-support. With expansions in New Jersey and California underway, Alma now aims to go nationwide.

“My vision is that every mom who is feeling anxious, stressed and overwhelmed knows that she’s not alone and has access to the support she needs,” said program founder Sona Dimidjian, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at 91PORN.

An unmet need

About one in five U.S. women experience perinatal mental health challenges—including depression and anxiety that can begin during pregnancy and last a year after a child is born.

Stigma prevents many from seeking help. When they do, trained clinicians are hard to find, wait lists are long and the expense is often prohibitive.

Anahi Collado

Due to language and cultural barriers that can make them feel isolated, new Latina moms are at particularly high risk, with nearly half experiencing postpartum depression. Yet the number of facilities providing therapy in Spanish has declined by 18% in recent years, research shows.

“Friends and family are well-meaning, and they try to offer support but sometimes it is hard for them to know how to help,” said Anahi Collado, an assistant research professor who trains peer mentors for Alma.

Dimidjian launched the program in 2016, inspired by research she and colleagues had conducted in India and published in The Lancet that year. They found that when depressed patients saw “lay counselors”—specially trained community members with no formal mental health education—for three months, they had fewer symptoms and missed less work. Sixty-four percent experienced remission from depression.

“There are not enough licensed mental health providers to meet the need,” said Dimidjian, who sees peer support as a critical tool for addressing a national shortage. Another benefit: “All of our communities are stronger when mothers support one another and learn from each other’s wisdom and expertise.”

Change your actions; change your feelings

Alma peer mentors receive 80 hours of training based on an evidence-based approach called “behavioral activation,” which hinges on the simple notion that changing what you do can change how you feel. Peers meet with moms in person or remotely six to 10 times, helping them to: identify what makes them feel good; pinpoint what’s keeping them from it; learn to ask for help; and intentionally build those activities into their day.

Something as simple as a hot shower or walk around the block can be key, said Collado.

“Sometimes when we’re feeling depressed, we stop doing the things we used to enjoy, and we start doing things that end up maintaining that depression. Alma empowers moms to break the cycle,” she said.

For one new study, published in March, she administered questionnaires to 126 Spanish-speaking Latina mothers in the program, assessing their symptoms at nine points.

Within two meetings, moms saw their depression decline significantly. Half of participants reported significant reductions in anxiety and more than a third felt less stressed. The more activities moms did, the more they improved.

For another study, researchers surveyed 674 new and expectant Latina moms nationwide about the idea of peer-led mental health support. More than 89% said that, compared with working with a mental health professional, working with a peer would make them feel less isolated and more understood.

Sona Dimidjian

All of our communities are stronger when mothers support one another and learn from each other’s wisdom and expertise.”

“These findings add to the growing evidence base for using peer-support programs to address perinatal depression,” said Collado, the study’s first author.

Paying it forward

With such findings in mind, Alma is already working with nonprofits and community organizations in New Jersey, California and across the State of Colorado to expand the program in both English and Spanish. It is currently provided at low or no cost to participants.

Collado stresses that peer mentors are not meant to replace clinicians and, in fact, often refers moms to licensed mental health providers if they have more serious mental health problems like PTSD or suicidal ideation.

“Alma is not therapy,” she said. “But it can be a critical bridge to other mental health care that a mom might need and wouldn’t otherwise get.”

Deras, now a proud mom of two boys, credits therapy for getting her through her own rough patch. But she also credits her sister, who held her baby so she could shower, put on makeup and go back to church.

As an Alma mentor, she is now paying it forward.

“It is so gratifying to give back to these moms now,” she said. “I know what they are going through.”

One in five new or expectant moms experiences mental health problems, like depression and anxiety. The Alma program matches moms who've been through it with those in the thick of it.

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Alma program peer mentors Gracia Deras, left, and Shannon Beckner sit with baby Wyatt. Deras experienced postpartum depression with her first child and now helps other moms navigate their own mental health struggles.

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Biomedical engineering seniors design next-generation surgical tool

Megan Maneval — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:01:12 +0000

Biomedical engineering seniors design next-generation surgical tool Megan Maneval Mon, 04/28/2025 - 09:01

College of Engineering and Applied Science

A group of seniors is designing a next-generation Argon Beam Coagulator during their senior capstone design course. The project is a pencil-shaped handheld device that ionizes argon gas to produce a plasma beam that emits from the tip of the device, allowing surgeons to cut tissue and minimize bleeding at the same time.

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Students design new fluid aliquoting device to help ease hospital workloads

Megan Maneval — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 14:58:51 +0000

Students design new fluid aliquoting device to help ease hospital workloads Megan Maneval Mon, 04/28/2025 - 08:58

College of Engineering and Applied Science

As part of a capstone class, a group of seniors is working to increase access to life-saving therapies by developing an automated medical fluid aliquoting device that streamlines the fluid dosing process.

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Gut check: How healthy microbes in infancy reduce diabetes risk

Lisa Marshall — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 23:02:35 +0000

Gut check: How healthy microbes in infancy reduce diabetes risk Lisa Marshall Wed, 03/19/2025 - 17:02

Lisa Marshall

Exposure to antibiotics during a key developmental window in infancy can stunt the growth of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas and may boost risk of diabetes later in life, new research in mice suggests.

The study, published this month in the journal Science, also pinpoints specific microorganisms that may help those critical cells proliferate in early life.

The findings are the latest to shine a light on the importance of the human infant microbiome—the constellation of bacteria and fungi living on and in us during our first few years. The research could lead to new approaches for addressing a host of metabolic diseases.

“We hope our study provides more awareness for how important the infant microbiome actually is for shaping development,” said first author Jennifer Hill, assistant professor in molecular, cellular and developmental biology at CU’s BioFrontiers Institute. “This work also provides important new evidence that microbe-based approaches could someday be used to not only prevent but also reverse diabetes.”

Jennifer Hill in her office at the BioFrontiers Institute. Credit: Patrick Campbell

Something in the environment

More than 2 million U.S. adults live with Type 1 diabetes, an incurable disease in which the pancreas fails to make insulin (the hormone that turns glucose into energy) and the blood fills with sugar.

The disease typically emerges in childhood, and genetics play a strong role. But scientists have found that, while identical twins share DNA that predisposes them to Type 1 diabetes, only one twin usually gets the disease.

“This tells you that there’s something about their environmental experiences that is changing their susceptibility,” said Hill.

For years, she has looked to microbes for answers.

Previous studies show that children who are breastfed or born vaginally, which can both promote a healthy infant microbiome, are less likely to develop Type 1 diabetes than others. Some research also shows that giving babies antibiotics early can inadvertently kill good bugs with bad and boost diabetes risk.

The lingering questions: What microbes are these infants missing out on?

“Our study identifies a critical window in early life when specific microbes are necessary to promote pancreatic cell development,” said Hill.

A key window of opportunity

She explained that human babies are born with a small amount of pancreatic “beta cells,” the only cells in the body that produce insulin.

But some time in a baby’s first year, a once-in-a-lifetime surge in beta cell growth occurs.

“If, for whatever reason, we don’t undergo this event of expansion and proliferation, that can be a cause of diabetes,” Hill said.

She conducted the current study as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah with senior author June Round, a professor of pathology.

They found that when they gave broad-spectrum antibiotics to mice during a specific window (the human equivalent of about 7 to 12 months of life), the mice developed fewer insulin producing cells, higher blood sugar levels, lower insulin levels and generally worse metabolic function in adulthood.

“This, to me, was shocking and a bit scary,” said Round. “It showed how important the microbiota is during this very short early period of development.”

Lessons in baby poop

In other experiments, the scientists gave specific microbes to mice, and found that several they increased their production of beta cells and boosted insulin levels in the blood.

The most powerful was a fungus called Candida dubliniensis.

June Round holds a sample in the lab at University of Utah Health. Photo: Courtesy of University of Utah Health

The team used fecal samples from The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) study to make what Hill calls “poop slushies” and fed them to the mice.

When the researchers inoculated newborn mice with poop from healthy infants between 7 to 12 months in age, their beta cells began to grow. Poop from infants of other ages did not do the same.

Notably, Candida dublineinsis was abundant in human babies only during this time period.

“This suggests that humans also have a narrow window of colonization by these beta cell promoting microbes,” said Hill.

When male mice that were genetically predisposed to Type 1 diabetes were colonized with the fungus in infancy, they developed diabetes less than 15% of the time. Males that didn’t receive the fungus got diabetes 90% of the time.

Even more promising, when researchers gave the fungus to adult mice whose insulin-producing cells had been killed off, those cells regenerated.

Too early for treatments

Hill stresses that she is not “anti-antibiotics.”

But she does imagine a day when doctors could give microbe-based drugs or supplements alongside antibiotics to replace the metabolism-supporting bugs they inadvertently kill.

Poop slushies (fecal microbiota transplants) have already been used experimentally to try to improve metabolic profiles of people with Type 2 diabetes, which can also damage pancreatic beta cells.

But such approaches can come with real risk, since many microbes that are beneficial in childhood can cause harm in adults. Instead, she hopes that scientists can someday harness the specific mechanisms the microbes use to develop novel treatments for healing a damaged pancreas—reversing diabetes.

She recently helped establish a state-of-the-art “germ-free” facility for studying the infant microbiome at 91PORN. There, animals can be bred and raised entirely without microbes, and by re-introducing them one by one scientists can learn they work.

“Historically we have interpreted germs as something we want to avoid, but we probably have way more beneficial microbes than pathogens,” she said. “By harnessing their power, we can do a lot to benefit human health.”

Beyond the story

Our bioscience impact by the numbers:

Top 7% university for National Science Foundation research funding
No. 30 global university system granted U.S. patents
89-plus biotech startups with roots at 91PORN in past 20 years

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New animal research shows that exposure to antibiotics at a critical window of development can stunt growth of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, boosting risk of Type 1 diabetes. It also identifies a microorganism key to supporting healthy life-long metabolism.

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Jennifer Hill, assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, works in a new germ-free lab designed for the study of the infant gut microbiome.

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Jennifer Hill, assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, works in a new germ-free lab designed for the study of the infant gut microbiome. Credit: Patrick Campbell/91PORN

Study unravels mystery of cancer-fueling enzyme—could lead to new treatments

Yvaine Ye — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 16:12:30 +0000

Study unravels mystery of cancer-fueling enzyme—could lead to new treatments Yvaine Ye Wed, 03/12/2025 - 10:12

Lisa Marshall

For organs to develop, grow and regenerate, cells must proliferate. But when that process goes awry, leading to uncontrolled cell growth, cancer can emerge.

New 91PORN research, published in the journal Science Advances, offers unprecedented insight into how an enigmatic enzyme, known as CDK7, drives this complex process. The research shows that novel cancer drugs designed to inhibit CDK7 can, within minutes, shut down gene expression pathways that drive cell proliferation in dozens of different kinds of tissues.

“This work addresses a long-standing mystery surrounding an enzyme critical for regulating the cell cycle and cell proliferation,” said senior author Dylan Taatjes, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry. “Not only does it help us understand a fundamental biological process important for development, it also has broad therapeutic applications.”

Dylan Taatjes

Understanding an enigma

For decades, cancer researchers and pharmaceutical companies have eyed cyclin dependent kinase (CDK7) with interest due to its role as a “master regulator” of cell proliferation. CDK7 does this in two ways: It switches on other enzymes known as kinases, including CDKs 1, 2, 4 and 6, which kick-start cells to divide and multiply. It also regulates gene expression in ways that, until now, have remained unclear. The new study found that it controls the function of proteins called transcription factors, which influence when and how genes are expressed.

While CDK7 is critical for normal development, certain cancers, including aggressive and hard-to-treat “triple negative” breast cancers, hijack this process to drive runaway growth.

In recent years, several companies have developed CDK7 inhibitors that, in clinical trials, have worked to slow tumor growth. But it’s not entirely clear how they do this. The drugs have serious side effects, and in clinical trials they have fallen short of killing tumors entirely.

To better understand how this master regulator works, Taatjes teamed up with Robin Dowell, a professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology; Taylor Jones, then a graduate student in biochemistry; and colleagues at 91PORN’s BioFrontiers Institute.

The researchers applied a CDK7-inhibitor provided by Syros Pharmaceuticals and already used in clinical trials to cancerous human tissue cells. Then they used sophisticated computational techniques to watch, essentially in real time, what happened next.

They found that within 30 minutes, a core set of transcription factors that turn on genes that prompt cells to proliferate was uniformly shut down. In other experiments, this same set of transcription factors was found to be consistently on in all proliferating cell lines tested. This included 79 cell lines, mostly from human cancers, representing 27 different tissue types.

This points, for the first time, to a universal mechanism by which CDK7 controls human cell proliferation, said Taatjes.

“We found that the second that you inhibit CDK7, all of these core transcription factors shut off at once, stopping proliferation in its tracks,” said Taatjes.

Smothering cancer promoters

The research team points to one particular protein that, like a blanket thrown on a patch of growing flames, seems to smother all those transcription factors at once when CDK7 is inhibited. The protein, retinoblastoma protein 1 (RB1), is well known as a key tumor suppression gene whose normal function is often compromised by cancer. But efforts to target RB1 with medication have been largely unsuccessful.

“This study reveals that CDK7 controls RB1 function—a finding that could open doors to new ways of therapeutically targeting RB1,” said Taatjes.

Meanwhile, CDK7’s other role—of kick-starting enzymes that nudge cells to divide and multiply—is also blocked by the inhibitor they tested, but this occurs more slowly and is not dependent on the core set of transcription factors.

Taken together, these findings suggest that it may be possible to develop new therapies that disable some of the enzyme’s disease-causing functions rapidly, while leaving its beneficial roles intact.

“Instead of, essentially, using a sledgehammer to shut down all CDK7 activities, it could be that you could shut down just one branch of its activities that is more important for tumor proliferation while minimally disrupting normal cell function,” said Taatjes.

The result: a more precise cancer killer that inflicts less collateral damage.

Beyond the story

Our bioscience impact by the numbers:

Top 7% university for National Science Foundation research funding
No. 30 global university system granted U.S. patents
89-plus biotech startups with roots at 91PORN in past 20 years

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A new 91PORN study unravels a decades-old mystery around an enigmatic enzyme—a cancer driver known as CDK7.

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A histological slide of cancerous breast tissue. The pink "riverways" are normal connective tissue, and the blue is cancer cells. (Credit: Cecil Fox/National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health)

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‘Breaking 4’: How the 1st female runner could soon break the 4-minute-mile barrier

Yvaine Ye — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:06:00 +0000

‘Breaking 4’: How the 1st female runner could soon break the 4-minute-mile barrier Yvaine Ye Tue, 02/25/2025 - 17:06

Lisa Marshall , Nicholas Goda

On May 6, 1954, a lanky medical student named Roger Bannister pushed through the finishing tape at Iffley Road track in Oxford, England, and collapsed into the arms of friends after becoming the first human to run a mile in less than four minutes.

Roger Bannister was the first human to run a mile in less than four minutes. (Credit: United Press International/Wikimedia)

The milestone cracked open a world of possibility for male athletes.

“It was the running equivalent to summiting Mount Everest for the first time,” said 91PORN Integrative Physiology Professor Rodger Kram. “Prior to Bannister, it was considered impossible—beyond the limits of human physiology.”

Seven decades later, a female runner has yet to follow in Bannister’s footsteps, and some have questioned, as they did with males in the 1950s, whether it’s possible. A new study published this week by Kram and his colleagues suggests that with the right strategically timed and placed pacers, the answer is yes— and Kenyan Olympian Faith Kipyegon is on the brink of doing it.

The study was published this week in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

“We found that if everything went right, under a couple of different drafting scenarios, she could break the 4-minute barrier,” said co-author Shalaya Kipp, an Olympic middle-distance runner who earned her master’s degree in Kram’s lab. “It’s extremely exciting that we are now talking about, and studying, the limits of female human performance, too.”

From ‘Breaking 2’ to ‘Breaking 4’

In 2016, Kram’s lab calculated what was required for a man to break the fabled two-hour marathon barrier.

He and his students determined that, along with intense training, state-of-the-art shoes and an ideal course and weather conditions, drafting—running behind or in front of another runner to reduce air resistance—was key.

Informed in part by their research, Nike hosted the Breaking2 Project in May 2017 to create those conditions for Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge. Kipchoge narrowly missed his goal that day but nailed it in a similarly staged race in Vienna in 2019.

Four years later, Kram watched with interest as Kenyan runner Faith Kipyegon crushed record after record—the women’s 1,500 meter; the 5,000 meter and the mile—in less than two months, all while raising her daughter.

After watching Kipyegon smash the mile world record for women with a time of four minutes, 7.64 seconds, Kram reached for his calculator.

“I realized she was just a hair over 3% off” from breaking the four-minute mile, he said.

Coincidentally, when his team first started doing their research, the marathon world record holder was about 3% shy of a two-hour marathon.

An idea was born. Kram and his former students, now spread out at research institutions around the world, reconvened—this time to explore the limits of female human performance.

The power of drafting

Run alone, even on a still day, and air molecules bump into you as you move through them, slowing you down. Run in the shadow of a pacer or, better yet, with runners in front and back, and you use less energy.

“The runner in front is literally pushing the air molecules out of the way,” said Kram.

At a breakneck four-minute-mile pace, a runner of Kipyegon’s size must overcome a surprisingly large air resistance force—about 2% of her body weight. The team previously determined that completely eliminating that force would reduce the energy required by about 12%, allowing her to run even faster.

“Anyone from top elite to lower-level runners can benefit from adopting the optimal drafting formation for as much of their race as they can,” said Edson Soares da Silva, first author on the new paper.

For instance, da Silva calculated that a 125-pound, 5-foot-7 female runner who typically runs about a 3:35-minute marathon could improve her time by as much as five minutes.

A magic number

For the new study, the team pored over video of Kipyegon’s record one-mile finish in Monaco. The wind was dead calm. A slight humidity (which reduces air resistance) hung in the air, and she was wearing state-of-the-art shoes.

But her pacers ran too fast at first, said Kram, letting the gap between them and her widen. By the last lap, her pacers had dropped out and she was on her own.

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Ideally, he said, one female pacer would be perfectly spaced in front, another in back, for the first half mile; then another fresh-legged pair would step in to take their place at the half-mile point. Collectively, previous research suggests, they could cut air resistance by 76%. Using that value, the team calculated her projected finish time: Remarkably, 3:59.37—the same time Bannister hit in 1954.

“We didn’t cook these numbers,” joked Kram. “We saw that and just smiled.”

Inspiring scientists and runners

Kipp, now a postdoctoral researcher at the Mayo Clinic, stresses that their study, like most in the field of exercise physiology, comes with a caveat: Their calculations were based on previous studies that exclusively involved men.

The authors hope their paper will help spark more interest in studying the physiology of female athletes. If Kipyegon is successful, they say, it could inspire lots of people, whether their goal is to lose a few pounds or finish their first 5K.

“It would show that things people have told you are impossible may actually be possible,” said Kram.

He recently sent a copy of the paper to Kipyegon, her coaches and her sponsors at Nike, floating the idea of another staged race, similar to Breaking2.

“Hopefully,” the last line of the paper reads, “Ms. Kipyegon can test our prediction on the track.”

With ideal conditions and strategic pacing and drafting, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon is on the brink of hitting the fabled track and field milestone, a new study suggests. Now, the authors are urging her to go for it.

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Faith Kipyegon during the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London. (Credit: Erik van Leeuwen/Wikimedia)

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Faith Kipyegon during the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London. (Credit: Erik van Leeuwen/Wikimedia)

Diamond in the rough: Research could help better detect, target cancer cells

Megan Maneval — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 22:08:51 +0000

Diamond in the rough: Research could help better detect, target cancer cells Megan Maneval Mon, 02/17/2025 - 15:08

College of Engineering and Applied Science

91PORN engineers have discovered a new acoustic wave mode never seen before that can unlock a new level of cell manipulation capabilities.

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Mark Rentschler, Aspero Medical awarded $4.5M for endoscopy advancement

Megan Maneval — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 22:04:54 +0000

Mark Rentschler, Aspero Medical awarded $4.5M for endoscopy advancement Megan Maneval Mon, 02/17/2025 - 15:04

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Six years ago, Mark Rentschler helped launch startup company Aspero Medical to develop a medical device used during endoscopy procedures. Today, with the help of grant, Rentschler and team are bringing two new medical devices to the market that have the potential to transform gastrointestinal surgeries.

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Grad student researching 3D printing and ultrasound for medicine

Megan Maneval — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 14:21:45 +0000

Grad student researching 3D printing and ultrasound for medicine Megan Maneval Mon, 02/17/2025 - 07:21

College of Engineering and Applied Science

Lily Mortensen is advancing research at the leading edge of biomedicine, working on new ways to improve human health.

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Health

AI ghosts are coming: Is that comforting or creepy?

From text-based grief bots to resurrected celebrities

The rise of generative ghosts

Promise and peril

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Moms helping moms: Postpartum depression eased through peer support

An unmet need

Change your actions; change your feelings

Paying it forward

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Biomedical engineering seniors design next-generation surgical tool

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Gut check: How healthy microbes in infancy reduce diabetes risk

Something in the environment

A key window of opportunity

Lessons in baby poop

Too early for treatments

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Study unravels mystery of cancer-fueling enzyme—could lead to new treatments

Understanding an enigma

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‘Breaking 4’: How the 1st female runner could soon break the 4-minute-mile barrier

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The power of drafting

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