Home Care In Hudson, IA

PAUL HUDSON, boss of Sanofi, is brandishing an iPhone. He is keen to show off the French drugmaker’s new artificial-intelligence (AI) app, plai. It draws on more than 1bn data points to provide “snackable” information, from warnings about low stocks of a drug to questions for a meeting with an ad agency or suggestions to set up clinical-trial sites that could expedite drug approvals. Like Netflix recommendations, plai delivers “nudges”, as Mr Hudson calls them, that are useful at that moment in time. He jokes that plai broke even in about four hours, and says the cost is “peanuts” compared with the $300m-400m that big consultancies charge for a project to curate a big company’s data. One in ten of Sanofi’s 80,000 staff uses it every day.

AI is not new in drugmaking. Biotech firms have been tinkering with it for years. Now interest from big pharma is growing. Last year Emma Walmsley, chief executive of GSK, said it could improve the productivity of research and development, the industry’s most profound challenge. Moderna recently described itself as “laser-focused” on AI. Sanofi is “all in”. Morgan Stanley, an investment bank, reckons that within a decade the pharmaceutical industry may be spending $50bn a year on AI to speed up drug development.

Most of the buzz revolves around AIs trained on biological data that could improve the hit-and-miss process of drug discovery. Drugs can take a decade to emerge, cost billions of dollars and succeed only 10% of the time. Even a small improvement in speed and efficiency would be hugely valuable. But scientists have struggled to tame biological big data with conventional statistical tools. Machine learning makes it possible to sift through piles of information, from clinical patient data and genome sequences to images of body scans. Last year DeepMind, an AI lab that is part of Google, made a breakthrough using its AlphaFold system to predict the structure of almost all proteins, which may one day help identify which molecules have therapeutic potential.

Though only around a dozen drugs in development have so far involved the use of AI, the list may grow rapidly—especially for simple molecules with properties that are relatively easy to predict. In the case of these more straightforward chemistries, the future of medicine is looking ever more like a computational problem.

Jim Weatherall, who oversees data science and AI at AstraZeneca, says the technology is used in 70% of the British firm’s small molecules in development. Using a technique called “reinforcement learning”, AstraZeneca’s AI is constantly tweaking its molecular suggestions and playing out how a tweaked molecule might react. Ali Mortazavi, boss of E-therapeutics, a biotech startup in London, says that knowing the sequences of all the genes in, say, the liver, lets his firm use software to design RNA molecules (which are more complex but, owing to their links to DNA, predictably so). AI algorithms then predict the activity of the molecules, which can stop the function of any disease-causing gene.

Euan Ashley of Stanford University points to another AI application. “Knowledge graphs” are a kind of database that stores data about genes, proteins, diseases and drugs, as well as the biological pathways that connect them. They, too, can help identify new targets for drug development. “Generative” AI, meanwhile, is being trialled for suggesting entirely new chemical and biological structures for testing, just as ChatGPT can ingest text on the internet and spit out a new poem or essay. Beyond drug discovery, AIs like plai could help with the perennial problem of efficiency in a heavily regulated and labour-intensive sector.

Some pharma bosses worry that generative AIs’ tendency to make stuff up could send researchers down blind alleys. More apocalyptically, Mr Hudson says half of the pharma CEOs he talks to about AI fear, like many people, the existential threats it poses. For his part, he foresees the next industrial revolution, not a robot uprising.

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) -The University of Iowa is going to investigate after 12 teachers were diagnosed with breast cancer in less than a decade at Hudson Schools. The University will be able to help determine whether an environmental factor at the school contributed to the cancer cases.

“I know there’s a lot of people concerned about this and we’re just really happy to follow through,” said Mary Charlton, Associate Professor at the University of Iowa Department of Epidemiology and Director & Principal Investigator of the Iowa Cancer Registry.

The Iowa Cancer Registry looks into a handful of cancer cluster cases in the state each year.

“Since the mid 90′s we’ve done about 145 cancer cluster investigations,” said Charlton.

When teachers in the Hudson School District came forward with concerns about the number of breast cancer cases among staff the University of Iowa was approached to try and find an environmental cause. But doing so, is extremely difficult.

Investigations typically look at a given geographic area, something that’s helpful as the Iowa Cancer Registry keeps track of cases across the state and where those diagnosed resided at the time of their diagnosis.

This time they’ll be looking at a specific school instead.

“What we don’t capture in our registry is who worked where when. So in that case we’ll have to be provided with a list of all the people who worked there back you know several years so we can really understand,” Charlton explained.

It’s going to take district participation, that’s something Superintendent Dr. Voss is on board with knowing a cause still may not be found.

“It’s going to be difficult to find answers, I don’t know if there is going to be a correlation or a causation,” Dr. Voss said.

The University says even when an environmental cause isn’t found, they’re investigations can still be of value to a community.

“Even when we don’t find things you know one environmental source a lot times we can learn things about risk factors,” Charlton explained.

She says some common risk factors for cancer include tobacco or smoking exposure, lack of physical activity, obesity, dietary factors and alcohol exposure. Environmental factors are less commonly proved.

“Sometimes it’s things in the water, sometimes it’s things in the air, sometimes soil, that type of thing,” said Charlton.

Cancer cluster investigations typically take a couple of months to complete, but the more complex cases can take longer.

Only one cancer cluster investigation the University of Iowa has done has lead to further investigation by the CDC. That case was in Wellman in the 90′s where there was a brain cancer cluster. An environmental cause there was never pinpointed.

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CEDAR FALLS, Ia. — A year ago, Hudson came up short in the state championship game. On Thursday, the Pirates left no doubt that they are the best team in Class A.

Hudson beat AHSTW of Avoca, 30-7, in the Class A state championship game here at the UNI-Dome. The Pirates are state champions for the third time in school history, and for the first time since 1994. They finished the 2018 season with a perfect 13-0 record.

“It feels great, just knowing that we finally accomplished it,” said Hudson linebacker Ethan Fulcher, who contributed 7.5 tackles, including five for a loss. “Last year, our motto was ‘finish’ and we came up one step short.

“This year, we actually finished it, and it feels great.”

Christian Seres was the star on this day. Hudson’s senior running back finished with 161 rushing yards on 32 carries and two touchdowns. His highlight was a third-quarter 20-yard touchdown run, during which he made five AHSTW defenders miss, that put the Pirates up 23-0.

“I don’t really know what happened,” Seres said. “I’m going to watch it also. I was just bouncing off people. I saw a couple of guys and juked them out. But I don’t really know what happened. It all goes so fast.”

Hudson totaled 316 yards on offense and 200 came on the ground. Quarterback Jacob Murray also scored twice on the ground, from 10 and 2 yards. That strong rushing attack allowed the Pirates to own the time-of-possession battle, as they had the ball for 29 minutes, 40 seconds of game time.

As such, an AHSTW offense that averaged 40.8 points per game never found a rhythm. The Vikings finished with 260 total yards of offense, a season low, and went 2 of 11 on third downs. They did not help themselves with 111 penalty yards on 11 flags.

“We wanted to get our offense out there and set the line of scrimmage, pass the ball around and have some fun,” said AHSTW quarterback Blake Osbahr, who finished 14 of 27 with 198 passing yards along with 22 rushing yards and the Vikings’ lone touchdown.

“They showed some looks that we weren’t used to and kept the coverage good. We weren’t sure what to expect when they came out and switched things up on us.”

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

The Pohlad Cos. on Monday announced plans to sell JB Hudson Jewelers to Sioux City, Iowa-based Gunderson’s Jewelers.

In a news release, the Pohlad Cos. said the sale is slated to close on March 31. No other financial details were disclosed.

The Pohlads first purchased a majority stake in JB Hudson in 2007. A decade later, Pohlad Cos. became the sole owner of the storied jewelry retailer.

“Following this sale, Gunderson’s will build on JB Hudson’s strong legacy,” said Ben Hawn, chief of staff for the Pohlad Cos. “Customers in this market will continue to enjoy exceptional workmanship in jewelry manufacturing and repair and will benefit from an expanded assortment of fine gifts, jewelry and watch brands.”

The Pohlad Cos. has been offloading some of its assets within recent months. In December, the company announced plans to sell radio stations Go 95.3 and 96.3, which the Pohlads originally purchased for about $36 million. The stations were sold to a Christian broadcaster for just $2.45 million, according to radio industry publication Radio Insight.

One of the Twin Cities’ oldest enduring retailers, JB Hudson dates back to 1885 when Josiah B. Hudson first opened a shop at 230 Nicollet in Minneapolis. When a fire destroyed the store, JB Hudson moved to Seventh Street and was there until the Dayton Company acquired the jewelry shop in 1929. For the next several decades, JB Hudson held a prominent first floor corner of the department store on Nicollet Mall, where it remained until moving two blocks down, to the historic Young Quinlan Building at 9th and Nicollet.

A fixture on Nicollet Mall, JB Hudson dabbled in suburban retail for a time with a store at Ridgedale Center in Minnetonka. In 2018, in a sign of shifting downtown shopping preferences, JB Hudson opened a satellite shop that still operates today within MartinPatrick 3 in the heart of the North Loop. “There’s a lot of trust in JB Hudson,” MartinPatrick 3 co-founder and co-owner Greg Walsh said at the time. “We love the history of it—the iconic aspect of it for the Twin Cities market.”

MartinPatrick 3 CEO Dana Swindler said Monday that he doesn’t anticipate any major changes. He expects the satellite shop, called The Loupe, to continue operating “as it does today, independent of JB Hudson.”

This won’t be the first time ownership of the fine jeweler has been outside Minnesota: In 1982 Henry Birks and Sons of Montreal, Canada bought the brand, but it struggled, and James R. Cargill purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1992.

A supporter of downtown retail and local causes, JB Hudson’s dramatic two-level corner storefront has hosted many fundraisers and fashion events.

Hudson's Southside Tap, the new restaurant and whiskey bar in southwest Iowa City, takes its name from the street — Hudson Avenue — that runs parallel to the west side of the building.

They also serve a burger called the Hudson — it has jalapeno cream cheese, jalapenos and chipotle mayo on it — along with eight other burgers named after nearby streets: Orchard, Miller, Benton, Douglas.

The goal of Hudson's Southside Tap, 482 Highway 1 W., is to establish itself as neighborhood bar and grill in the southwest side of Iowa City, where dining options are not as plentiful as downtown or the north side.

"There's a great niche to be carved out in this part of town," Cameron Wheatley, general manager of Hudson's, said earlier this week.

Opened about a month ago by owners Kevin Perez, Dan Ouverson and Ryan O'Leary,who also own Short's and Stella and Ride, Hudson's features an array of traditional sports bar foods made with local foods from local venues. The eatery uses ingredients that Wheatley promised are never frozen.

"They have experience running unique and successful restaurants in the area," said Hudson's server Lauren Shaefer, who has worked at two other chain restaurants in the Iowa City area. "And every single piece of food I bring to a table smells amazing."

The menu focuses on the expected foodstuffs that a sports bar is expected to provide: burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, sliders, appetizers, soups and salads.

But within each category are little twists of culinary ingenuity. The Bahn Mi sandwich features lemongrass marinated chicken, garlic mayo and mint. The Giblin burger features chili and sour cream on top. The underdog hot dog has jalapeno cream cheese and salsa on top. The wings are marinated in sriracha soy sauce before they're fried.

Although there is plenty of food, the number of different drinks available at Hudson's is more extensive. Wheatley had the drink numbers memorized: 40 beers on tap, many from Iowa breweries, 35 different whiskeys and bourbons, 25 different scotches.

"We are a unique, local restaurant bar that's, well, really a whiskey bar," he said.

With eight televisions hanging throughout the bar that can house about 80 people inside — 25 more when the outdoor porch area is open during spring, summer and fall — Hudson's has quickly shaped itself as a place to watch sports. Wheatley said that the wild success of the 11-0 Iowa footballl team has already helped established the restaurant as a place to watch football on the weekends.

"We get a lot of traffic after football games too," Shaefer said. "This year, they've been celebrating wins each time."

Along with a distinct decor, featuring steel beams throughout the restaurant, portraits of construction workers standing on unfinished skyscrapers, hardwoods for the walls and floor and a black-colored bar with illuminated shelves of hard liquor behind it, Shaefer knows that Hudson's has a unique style.

"There's really a Prohibition-style to it all," Shaefer said. "It's much more unique than the other restaurants I've worked at."

Reach Zach Berg at 319-887-5412, [email protected], or follow him on Twitter at @ZacharyBerg.

If you go...

What: Hudson's Southside Tap, a new restaurant and bar in the south side of Iowa City.

Where: 482 Highway 1 W.

When: Opens at 11 a.m. every day. Kitchen closes at 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, restaurant closes at 9 p.m. Sunday.

Contact: 319-499-1058.