⚡ $1M AI Prize to Crack Alzheimer’s

ALSO: Can AI Really “Solve All Disease”?

September 15, 2025

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AIHealthTech Insider: Issue #66

September 15, 2025

This week's edition covers AI's influence from Capitol Hill to healthcare: lawmakers debate risks, FDA considers mental health tools, hospitals test AI scribes, Isomorphic Labs aims to "solve all disease," China explores brain-inspired models, NEJM spotlights AI in diabetes care, and Gates Ventures announces a $1M Alzheimer’s AI Prize.

Here’s what’s inside ⬇️

🧬 Isomorphic Labs aims to “solve all disease” with AI
🧠 SpikingBrain1.0 pushes brain-like efficiency for health AI
🩺 Lawmakers weigh AI’s role in U.S. healthcare
💻 South Australia pilots AI scribes for doctors
⚡ Gates Ventures launches $1M Alzheimer’s AI Prize
🧬 NEJM highlights AI in precision diabetes care

Summaries for education, not medical advice. Verify locally before clinical use.

Source: Bloomberg

London-based Isomorphic Labs, led by Nobel laureate and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, is building an AI-driven drug discovery platform with the mission “to solve all disease.”

  • Spun out from DeepMind to commercialize AlphaFold protein-folding breakthroughs

  • Build a general AI platform to accelerate treatments in oncology & immunology

  • Cancer (the “holy grail”) and immune disorders chosen for promising clinical pathways

  • Traditional preclinical work takes 3–6 years Hassabis says AI could cut this to months

This marks a bold attempt to replace decades of guesswork with AI-driven precision medicine.

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🧠 SpikingBrain1.0: China’s Brain-Like AI Model

Image created by AI

China has unveiled the world’s first large-scale neuromorphic AI model, SpikingBrain1.0, designed to mimic human brain efficiency.

  • Trains on <2% of typical data while delivering 100× faster inference

  • Localized attention focuses only on recent context, cutting cost

  • 7B model: near-constant memory and strong baseline accuracy

  • Spiking neurons: convert activations into sparse events at inference

  • Runs on MetaX C550 GPUs, showing hardware independence

A new paradigm in low-power AI for drones, wearables, and edge computing.

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The U.S. House Subcommittee on Health held a Sept. 3 hearing on AI’s role in medicine.

  • AI could improve coordination, accelerate discovery, and lower patient costs

  • Chair Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) called AI central to patient care and admin efficiency

  • Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) asked how automation could support rural pharmacies

  • Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) pressed on benefits beyond savings testimony cited personalized care and transparency

  • Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-N.Y.) noted AI’s impact on diagnosis, outcomes, and rural access

The hearing reflects growing bipartisan focus on AI’s role in U.S. healthcare.

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Source: Reuters

The FDA will convene its Digital Health Advisory Committee on Nov. 6 to evaluate AI mental health technologies.

  • Focus: generative AI chatbots, digital therapy apps, triage assistants

  • Goal: balance innovation with safety, privacy, and evidence standards

  • Concerns: bias, over-reliance, lack of outcome data

  • Potential: scalable mental health support amid clinician shortages

One of the FDA’s first major steps in regulating AI for behavioral health.

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Doctors in South Australia are trialing an AI “scribe” that automates clinical note-taking.

  • Listens during doctor–patient visits and generates summaries in real time

  • Creates referral letters, notes, and patient instructions automatically

  • Aims to cut admin burden and free clinicians for more patient time

  • Early results show reduced burnout and shorter wait times

If scaled, AI scribes could become standard across global health systems.

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Image Source: NEJM AI on X

Experts convened by the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases highlighted AI’s role in transforming diabetes care.

  • Diabetes heterogeneity demands personalized prevention & treatment

  • AI can tailor risk prediction, therapy response, and prognosis

  • Opportunities: multi-omic data integration, diagnosis, better treatment paths

  • Challenges: data standards, validation, equitable access

Toward a shift from generic management to individualized health planning.

🔎 Do You Know? $1M AI Prize for Alzheimer’s 😃 

A new $1M Alzheimer’s Insights AI Prize has been launched to accelerate dementia research. Backed by Bill Gates and Gates Ventures, it invites global AI innovators to build systems that can reason, plan, and act on massive datasets.

  • Goal: uncover biomarkers, treatments, and trial designs

  • Winning tools open sourced on the AD Workbench 

  • With 152M cases projected by 2050, the prize aims to shift dementia science from reactive to predictive

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