Envie de créer des peluches, robes à sequins, objets en feutre, en velours ou en laine tricotée ? Alors découvrez Woolly, une collection de hair systems, matériaux, modifiers et modèles pour créer Blender.Rahul Parihar, son créateur, le propose sur G

A Simple Guide for Engineers in AustraliaIf you're an engineer working in Australia or planning to start your engineering career here, you might have come across the National Engineering Register or NER. But what exactly is it, and why is it becoming so important for engineers across the country?In this article, we’ll break it down in plain language so you can understand what the NER Engineers Australia program is all about—and why joining the National Engineering Register could be a great move for your career.What Is the National Engineering Register?The National Engineering Register (NER) is an official list of qualified and experienced engineers who meet professional standards in Australia. It is managed by Engineers Australia, which is the peak professional body for engineers in the country.Being on the NER means:You’ve been assessed and recognised as a competent, responsible engineer.Your name is listed in a public register, making it easy for employers and clients to find and trust you.You commit to ongoing learning and ethical professional conduct.Think of it as your professional badge that proves you are serious about your work.Who Are NER Engineers Australia?NER Engineers Australia are professionals who have gone through a formal review process and have been accepted onto the National Engineering Register. These engineers:Have a recognised qualification in engineeringHave at least five years of relevant work experienceShow continued professional development (CPD)Follow a strict code of ethicsAre capable of taking full responsibility for their engineering workWhether you’re a civil, mechanical, electrical, structural, or software engineer, if you meet these criteria, you can become an NER-registered engineer.Why Should You Join the National Engineering Register?Here are the top reasons why joining the NER Engineers Australia program is worth your time and effort:1. Build Trust and CredibilityThe NER is managed by Engineers Australia, which is highly respected in both public and private sectors. If you’re listed on the National Engineering Register, it tells others that you:Meet national standards of engineering competenceHave up-to-date skillsFollow ethical and safety standardsAre a reliable professionalEmployers and clients are more likely to choose engineers they can trust—and NER status helps you stand out.2. Improve Your Career OpportunitiesMany companies in Australia prefer or even require engineers to be on the NER. In some cases, you can’t apply for government jobs, contracts, or senior roles unless you're NER-registered.Having NER Engineers Australia status can also:Help you get promotedIncrease your salary potentialMake you more competitive for tenders and projectsLet you work independently without supervision3. Open International DoorsThe National Engineering Register is recognised beyond Australia. If you're planning to work in countries like the UK, UAE, New Zealand, or parts of Asia, having NER credentials can help you meet their professional standards too.4.  Meet Legal RequirementsIn states like Queensland and Victoria, certain types of engineering work must be done by registered professionals. Being listed on the NER ensures you meet the legal standards and avoid penalties.5. Pathway to Chartered StatusIf you’re aiming to become a Chartered Professional Engineer (CPEng), joining the NER is often the first step. The NER process prepares you to meet the same competency standards required for chartership.What Do You Need to Apply?To become one of the NER Engineers Australia, you’ll need: An engineering degree (Australian or internationally recognised)At least five years of relevant work experience Evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) A Competency Self-Assessment Two professional referees who can confirm your experience A signed ethics declarationYou can apply online through Engineers Australia. The process involves reviewing your documents and verifying your competencies.What If You Are from Overseas?If you studied or worked outside Australia, you can still apply. Many overseas-qualified engineers join the NER every year.However, you may first need to go through a Migration Skills Assessment to confirm your qualifications meet Australian standards.Once assessed, you can apply for the NER like any local engineer.Real-World ExampleLet’s say Rahul, a mechanical engineer from India, has been working in Australia for six years. He wants to apply for a senior position in a local council, but they require NER registration.Rahul submits his application to Engineers Australia with help from his previous supervisors as referees. After a successful review, he gets listed on the National Engineering Register.Now Rahul can confidently apply for senior roles and even start consulting work, knowing he’s recognised as a trusted professional.Quick Recap: Why Join NER Engineers Australia? BenefitWhat It Means for You✅ Trusted Professional StatusBuilds credibility and shows you meet Australian standards📈 Better Job OpportunitiesAccess more jobs, tenders, and promotions⚖️ Legal ComplianceRequired in some states for regulated engineering work🛤 Step Toward ChartershipEasier path to CPEng or RPEQ status🌎 Global RecognitionAccepted in many countries worldwideFinal ThoughtsThe National Engineering Register is more than just a list—it’s a way to prove your value, grow your career, and gain professional respect. Whether you're early in your career or already experienced, joining the NER Engineers Australia community can take your engineering journey to the next level.It’s simple: if you’re a skilled, qualified, and responsible engineer, the NER helps you show that to the world.Ready to Take the First Step?You can apply for the National Engineering Register on the Engineers Australia website. If you need help preparing your documents, consider speaking with a professional or mentor familiar with the process.Invest in your future. Join the NER Engineers Australia community today and get recognised for the great work you do.

Crypto criminals can’t hide The single largest cryptocurrency heist in history took place one day in late February, when hackers exploited system vulnerabilities in Bybit, a Dubai-based crypto exchange, siphoning off a whopping $1.5 billion in digital assets within minutes. Bybit’s security team immediately launched an investigation that would eventually involve the FBI and several blockchain intelligence companies. Among those involved from the beginning were the experts at TRM Labs, a San Francisco-based company of around 300 that analyzes the blockchain networks which power cryptocurrency transactions to investigate—and prevent—fraud and financial crimes. “Literally from the first minutes, we were involved,”  says Ari Redbord, the company’s global head of policy, “working with Bybit and law enforcement partners like the FBI to track and trace funds.” The attack was soon attributed to a North Korean state-sponsored hacker organization commonly known as Lazarus Group. Lazarus has been blamed for a series of high-profile cybercrimes in recent years, including the 2014 hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, the 2016 digital heist from the Bangladeshi central bank and, more recently, billions of dollars in digital currency thefts. TRM was among the first to attribute the Bybit attack after detecting an overlap between the blockchain resources used here and those used in Lazarus’s previous thefts. Since then, the company has harnessed its expertise in tracking crypto to keep law enforcement abreast of where the stolen funds are headed, following them from blockchain to blockchain and through clever concealment mechanisms. “We were very much built for an investigation like this,” Redbord says. Today, TRM’s investigators probe cryptocurrency thefts, ransomware attacks, and phishing scams. They help investigate other crimes that involve digital currencies, from child pornography to drug trafficking. The company’s free, public platform Chainabuse, launched in 2022, helps people report fraud, hacking, blackmail, and other crypto-related crimes. Clients in the cryptocurrency and finance industries harness the company’s software and data about blockchain transactions to identify funds associated with criminal activity and to flag suspicious transactions. Law enforcement agencies around the world enlist TRM’s tools—and sometimes even the company’s own investigators. Demand for such investigators is growing. TRM—which stands for Token Relationship Management—has raised about $150 million in total funding to date, from notable backers that include the venture arms of PayPal, American Express, and Citi, as well as Goldman Sachs. The investment bank led TRM’s most recent, late-stage funding round, which closed in January for an undisclosed amount, according to the research firm PitchBook. Meanwhile, the crypto ecosystem is likely to experience positive growth throughout 2025, according to a recent analysis by PitchBook. So too will crypto crimes: Illicit operations took $40 billion worth of crypto last year, according to Chainalysis, another blockchain security company—far more than the roughly $10 billion in venture capital funding that flowed into the above-board crypto sector in the same span, and more even than crypto’s 2022 VC funding peak of $29.8 billion. Roles like TRM’s will become more urgent if the government continues to abdicate its regulatory duties. Last month, the Trump administration shuttered a Justice Department unit that targeted crypto-related crimes. Yet crypto sits at the nexus of so many of the president’s domestic interests—fentanyl, counterterrorism, border security, and fraud. For TRM and rivals like Chainalysis and Elliptic, all of which have already won millions of dollars in federal contracts, the future is bright. From NFTs to crypto fraud One paradox of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrency systems is that while they’re widely thought to provide anonymity, with users exchanging funds based not on real names and physical addresses, but on so-called digital addresses—unique and lengthy strings of alphanumeric characters that serve as a given account’s sole identifier—the records of those transactions are still public. A common ledger logs every payment, tying each transaction to those that came before, all the way back to the tokens’ minting. And once information becomes known about one transaction and the people or organizations behind the addresses involved, it becomes possible to trace those funds back and forth through time and from address to address. That allows clever observers to follow the money and deduce where funds came from, who other counterparties may be, and which transactions likely involved some of the same parties, like how investigators might piece together who used an anonymous burner phone based on the numbers they called. It’s a limitation to anonymity that Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto alluded to in the groundbreaking paper describing cryptocurrency’s underpinnings. And it’s one that computer scientist Sarah Meiklejohn and colleagues at the University of California San Diego showed to be a reality in a widely cited 2013 paper that demonstrated concretely how Bitcoins could be grouped by likely common owner—and how those owners could sometimes be identified from a database of known addresses. And that database, Meiklejohn and colleagues showed, could be assembled by a determined researcher simply doing ordinary business on the blockchain and recording the addresses used by the various vendors, exchanges, and other parties they transact with. While not the first company to run with Meiklejohn’s ideas on tracking the transfer of cryptocurrencies—rival Chainalysis, for one, launched in 2014—TRM offered the first-ever platform compatible with the Ethereum blockchain, widely used both for its own currency and assets like non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. At the time, “all of these blockchain intelligence companies had built their entire data architecture on the Bitcoin blockchain,” Redbord says, “because Bitcoin was entirely synonymous with cryptocurrency, and vice versa.” TRM began in 2018 as CEO Esteban Castaño and CTO Rahul Raina’s effort to capitalize on NFTs’ trendiness. After demoing an easy-to-use analytics tool they’d built to help understand NFT market movement to a friend with his own blockchain-based startup, Castaño and Raina decided to pivot. Their creation could be its own product with wide appeal—the same blockchains which track NFTs also manage cryptocurrencies—Castaño says that while “nobody had ever gotten excited about any of the other NFT applications we were building,” this was different. Describing their friend and his employees’ reactions, he says, “it was the first time they’d seen on-chain activity visualized in a way they could understand.” Talking to potential customers soon revealed a critical use case beyond basic customer analytics: understanding the flow of funds on the blockchain to avoid unwittingly participating in money laundering. A now-pivoted TRM publicly launched in 2019 with a tool it planned to sell to blockchain businesses looking to comply with anti-money-laundering regulations. But a more proactive use case soon arose that suggested even bigger opportunities. A friend reached out to say he’d fallen victim to a cryptocurrency hack and wanted to know if TRM could help find the missing money. With the company’s tool, “we could see in clear daylight where the money was,” Castaño says. “So we got in touch with the Secret Service, we got in touch with the FBI, and that was the initial pull into that market.” By the time TRM Labs emerged from Y Combinator, in 2019, fighting and preventing fraud and other crime had become its primary focus. ‘They’re threat hunters’ Many TRM senior leaders and investigators honed their expertise over years in law enforcement, working at police agencies across the world. Redbord, the global policy head, served for more than a decade as a U.S. federal prosecutor and spent two years working on money laundering and national security at the Treasury Department before joining the company. Chris Janczewski, head of global investigations, previously served as a special agent at IRS Criminal Investigations, where he was instrumental in recovering cryptocurrency stolen in the infamous 2016 hack on the Bitfinex exchange; in the time between theft and recovery, the digital coins’ value had ballooned to $3.6 billion, making it the largest federal government seizure in history. The laptop Janczewski used in the investigation is now in the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. “They’re threat hunters,” Redbord says of TRM’s investigators. “Our terror financing expert is out there communicating on password-protected Telegram channels with mujahideen, who will send him a crypto address. He’ll take that address and label it terror financing, and then we use AI and machine learning to build on that attribution.” With investigators around the globe, the company is able to track illicit funds around the clock. “Things like Bybit, you can’t have just one investigator doing that,” says TRM senior investigator Jonno Newman. Being based in Australia, in a time zone close to that of North Korea, made it easy for Newman to help out in the early days of the still-ongoing Bybit investigation. It also helped that he had previously led TRM’s investigation into an earlier hack attributed to North Korea, in 2023, where more than $100 million in cryptocurrency was reported stolen from thousands of blockchain addresses on the digital coin storage tool Atomic Wallet. Then, Newman says, the hackers began obfuscating the stolen funds’ origins and ultimate destination, shuffling their plunder between different virtual addresses and cryptocurrencies. They relied on so-called mixers, which hold and combine coins from multiple sources before disbursing them to new addresses, and cross-chain bridges, which let users convert funds from one cryptocurrency to another. Hackers would later use a similar playbook in moving the Bybit funds. As a result of TRM’s automated fund tracker across bridges, a service it has offered since 2022—an industry first, CEO Castaño says—investigators were able to closely monitor where the Atomic Wallet funds headed, tipping off law enforcement as needed about opportunities to freeze or seize them. “It was early mornings and late nights trying to keep up with the laundering process.” says Newman of the investigation. The former head of South Australia Police’s cybercrime training and prevention unit and author of a recent children’s book about the crypto world, he says “it becomes this almost cat-and-mouse game about where they are going to go next.” TRM’s products at least make the game playable. “When you’re following the money, it used to be that you would reach a dead end when the money went to a different blockchain,” Castaño says. “But with TRM, tracing across blockchains is seamless.” Cautious optimism for blockchain security Not everyone believes TRM’s tech can fully deliver on its promise, at least from a legal perspective. J.W. Verret, an associate professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School who has testified as an expert witness in crypto-related matters, cautions that most testimony based on blockchain forensics tools should be viewed as potentially fallible, “They are useful for developing leads at the start of an investigation,” he says, but can be overly relied on like “the long history of junk forensic science—handwriting analysis, bitemark analysis, stuff that’s all kind of later proven to be unreliable.” For its part, Verret says, TRM Labs offers tools that are less prone than some of its competitors to false positives because the company is more careful about how it establishes associations between blockchain addresses and criminal activity. Meanwhile, last September, TRM announced the creation of the T3 Financial Crime Unit, a partnership with the organizations behind the Tron blockchain and Tether stablecoins to combat the use of those technologies for money laundering. By January, TRM said the partnership had helped freeze more than $100 million in USDT—Tether’s stablecoin pegged in value to the U.S. dollar—found to be tied to criminal activity. That figure has since more than doubled, with the total now including nearly $9 million linked to the massive Bybit heist. “In the seven months since launch, T3 has worked with law enforcement to freeze over $200 million linked to illicit activity ranging from terror financing to money laundering to fraud,” Castaño says. “And when you think about how much crime is financially motivated, adding a $200 million expense to criminals’ balance sheet is a huge win for deterring crime.” But even as TRM jockeys for pole position in a competitive industry, cybercriminals continue to develop new methods of stealing and hiding funds through complex blockchain machinations, often by taking advantage of crypto efficiency gains that make it easier to move more money faster. That will only continue as criminals deploy AI to automate scams and potentially even money laundering—and investigators use new AI and machine learning techniques, along with ever-growing blockchain datasets, to track them more efficiently and coordinate with law enforcement to stop them and seize their funds. And since blockchain ledgers last forever, crypto criminals are risking more than perhaps they realize, according to Castaño. “You’re betting not only that TRM and law enforcement won’t be able to identify your illicit activity today, but that we won’t be able to do it in the future,” he says. “Because the record is permanent.” And that’s the most powerful advantage investigators possess.

May 22, 2025Ravie LakshmananVulnerability / Software Security Cybersecurity researchers have uncovered multiple critical security vulnerabilities impacting the Versa Concerto network security and SD-WAN orchestration platform that could be exploited to take control of susceptible instances. It's worth noting that the identified shortcomings remain unpatched despite responsible disclosure on February 13, 2025, prompting a public release of the issues following the end of the 90-day deadline. "These vulnerabilities, when chained together, could allow an attacker to fully compromise both the application and the underlying host system," ProjectDiscovery researchers Harsh Jaiswal, Rahul Maini, and Parth Malhotra said in a report shared with The Hacker News. The security defects are listed below - CVE-2025-34025 (CVSS score: 8.6) - A privilege escalation and Docker container escape vulnerability that's caused by unsafe default mounting of host binary paths and could be exploited to gain code execution on the underlying host machine CVE-2025-34026 (CVSS score: 9.2) - An authentication bypass vulnerability in the Traefik reverse proxy configuration that allows an attacker to access administrative endpoints, which could then be exploited to access heap dumps and trace logs by exploiting an internal Spring Boot Actuator endpoint via CVE-2024-45410 CVE-2025-34027 (CVSS score: 10.0) - An authentication bypass vulnerability in the Traefik reverse proxy configuration that allows an attacker to access administrative endpoints, which could then be exploited to achieve remote code execution by exploiting an endpoint related to package uploads ("/portalapi/v1/package/spack/upload") via arbitrary file writes Successful exploitation of CVE-2025-34027 could allow an attacker to leverage a race condition and write malicious files to disk, ultimately resulting in remote code execution using LD_PRELOAD and a reverse shell. "Our approach involved overwriting ../../../../../../etc/ld.so.preload with a path pointing to /tmp/hook.so," the researchers said. "Simultaneously, we uploaded /tmp/hook.so, which contained a compiled C binary for a reverse shell. Since our request triggered two file write operations, we leveraged this to ensure that both files were written within the same request." "Once these files were successfully written, any command execution on the system while both persisted would result in the execution of /tmp/hook.so, thereby giving us a reverse shell." In the absence of an official fix, users are advised to block semicolons in URL paths and drop requests where the Connection header contains the value X-Real-Ip. It's also recommended to monitor network traffic and logs for any suspicious activity. The Hacker News has reached out to Versa Networks for comment, and we will update the story if we hear back. Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post. SHARE    

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Returnal developer Housemarque are deep in development of Saros, an upcoming cinematic action game starring Gears of War, Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Mass’ Rahul Kohli. With the studio’s new single-player game planned to release in 2026, the studio head Ilari Kuittinen and creative director Gregory Louden vowed to keep the studio away from live-service games. As live-service titles with battle passes and constant grinds become commonplace in the industry, Kuittinen and Louden explain that Housemarque will focus on single-player for as long as players are buying their games. Returnal devs won’t make live-service games Speaking to Eurogamer at the developer’s 30th anniversary event in Finland, the two Housemarque leads explained that they will keep making single player adventures for “as long as people are buying premium games”. Kuittinen described the studio’s cinematic single-player shift as something like a movie or TV series where players follow a “phase” of a person’s life. On the other side, live-service games require players to always stay dedicated to the game in order to not miss out. “Our philosophy is that [our games] are an experience for a certain time of your life, and you experience that within a few days, or weeks, or whatever,” they said. “And I believe that’s really cool. You don’t need to spend the rest of your free time with our games.” Kuittinen explained that Housemarque games are not something you “need to play it for the rest of your life”, but instead a “unique experience” that players can come back to if they want to. As long as the studio is providing something unique, fun and polished, that’s fine. “We are only as strong as our latest game,” added brand director Mikael Haveri, explaining that the team has not had an easy journey getting to where it is today. However, the Returnal developer is kept going by its continued mission to create “special games” that survive long into the future. Since its first release on the Atari ST in 1993, Housemarque has done just that—create special games. While the studio is known for its successes with Super Stardust, Nex Machina and Returnal, even the studio’s most obscure games like Dead Nation are unique. (We can’t speak about its Gizmondo Motorcross game though as we’ve never owned a Gizmondo.) Returnal Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 5 Genre(s): Action, Shooter 9 VideoGamer Subscribe to our newsletters! By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime. Share

Photo Credit: CloudSEK CloudSEK has more than 250 clients across banking, healthcare, technology, and the public sector Highlights The funding round saw participation from India and US-based investors MassMutual Ventures and Infexor Ventures participated in the funding CloudSEK was founded in 2015 Advertisement CloudSEK announced the completion of its Series A2 and B1 funding rounds on Tuesday. The cybersecurity platform said that it has raised $19 million (roughly Rs. 162.3 crore) in the combined funding round. The round witnessed participation from both Indian and US-based investors, the company stated. While new investors have been onboarded, the existing backers continue to be part of the company. CloudSEK said that the funds will be used to scale its artificial intelligence (AI) models and integrate the technology into its platform.CloudSEK's Funding Round Witnesses Global ParticipationIn a press release, the AI-powered cyber threat prediction and intelligence platform announced that it has raised funding acorss its combined Series A1 and B1 round. While the company did not mention who led the round, the funding witnessed investors such as MassMutual Ventures, Inflexor Ventures, Prana Ventures, Tenacity Ventures, as well as strategic investors, including Commvault. The company's existing backers including Meeran Family (founders of Eastern Group), StartupXSeed, Neon Fund, and Exfinity Ventures are continuing to hold stake in the firm, and are not exiting.The latest funding round comes four years after its Series A round, which was led by MassMutual Ventures. CloudSEK raised $7 million (roughly Rs. 59.8 crore) in its 2021 funding round and it raised $1.9 million (roughly Rs. 16.2 crore) in its pre-Series A round in 2018.CloudSEK stated that the newly raised capital will be used for product innovation and global expansion. The main focus will be on scaling its AI models and platform integration. Notably, the company has an in-house predictive cybersecurity platform for threat detection and intelligence. The company claimed that instead of responding after a breach, it identifies initial attack vectors (IAVs), which are the earliest signs of a potential breach. These include leaked credentials, exposed application programming interfaces (APIs), or compromised vendors.“Today, over 60 percent of our net new revenue comes from international markets, with the US emerging as our fastest-growing region. We've achieved this scale while staying cash flow positive,” said Rahul Sasi, Co-Founder and CEO of CloudSEK. Notably, CloudSEK was founded in 2015 by cybersecurity researcher Rahul Sasi. It is said to have more than 250 enterprises as clients across banking, healthcare, technology, and the public sector. For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube. Further reading: CloudSEK, Cybersecurity, AI, Artificial Intelligence Akash Dutta Akash Dutta is a Senior Sub Editor at Gadgets 360. He is particularly interested in the social impact of technological developments and loves reading about emerging fields such as AI, metaverse, and fediverse. In his free time, he can be seen supporting his favourite football club - Chelsea, watching movies and anime, and sharing passionate opinions on food. More Related Stories

The morning after Elon Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter (now X), reporters encountered two men with boxes outside the company’s headquarters. One introduced himself as recently laid-off Twitter engineer “Rahul Ligma.”  His real name is Rahul Sonwalkar but the prank went viral. While he never worked for X, he is actually very much a techy. Sonwalker spent several years working as an engineer at Uber. He even went through Y Combinator at that time, working on a logistics startup that he later scrapped before pivoting.   The now 27-year-old wants to draw attention to his more serious endeavor: Julius, the AI data analyst startup he founded about two years ago.  The tool, which can analyze and visualize extensive datasets and perform predictive modeling from natural language prompts, has attracted over 2 million registered users. “I wanted to build something that would make data science very accessible to everyone,” Sonwalkar told TechCrunch. While some of Julius’ functionality is also available on ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s Gemini, Iavor Bojinov, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School (HBS), liked the tool so much that he had to convince Sonwalkar to modify Julius specifically for HBS’ new required course called Data Science and AI for Leaders. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW  “We had done a head-to-head comparison across a number of platforms, including ChatGPT, and Julius ended up performing the best,” Bojinov told TechCrunch. The adoption by HBS, an educational institution that breeds about 1,000 future business leaders annually, is clearly a big win for Julius, which is currently a team of 12 employees. Sonwalkar has also raised a seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners’ Talia Goldberg, TechCrunch learned from someone familiar with the deal. But Sonwalkar wouldn’t discuss the details.  Bessemer didn’t respond to a request for comment. Did Sonwalkar’s “Rahul Ligma” stunts open doors when he was first building Julius?  “A little bit in the early days, but to be honest, not as much recently,” he said.

In recent decades, researchers have consistently explored new ways to tackle the global obesity epidemic. While existing methods show significant results, such as the dramatic, long-term weight loss from bariatric surgery or the flexible, non-invasive use of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, each approach has its drawbacks. Surgery can be risky and irreversible, while medications often bring unpleasant side effects and a risk of regaining weight once treatment stops.But what if we could combine the best of both? Imagine achieving the benefits of gastric bypass surgery without going under the knife — simply by taking a pill.A Boston-based biopharmaceutical company (Syntis Bio) is working on exactly that. The first-in-human study of their new treatment, known as SYNT-101, was presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga, Spain. It demonstrated not only safety and good tolerance but also promising signs of appetite regulation and weight loss, without the side effects commonly seen with GLP-1 drugs.Bariatric Surgery vs. GLP-1 DrugsBariatric surgery remains the gold standard for significant weight loss. These procedures reduce stomach size or bypass parts of the small intestine (gastric bypass), physically limiting nutrient absorption. But it’s a serious commitment, typically reserved for people with a BMI over 40 and requires lifelong lifestyle changes, medical supervision, and carries the inherent risks of major surgery.On the flip side, GLP-1 drugs offer a less invasive option for people with moderate weight gain. Available in pill or injection form, they’re easier to use but often cause side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. There’s also concern about losing lean muscle mass and regaining weight once the treatment stops.Faced with these extremes, many patients are left feeling stuck. That’s where SYNT-101 steps in, a new oral treatment that mimics gastric bypass without cutting or injections.Pill Mimics Gastric BypassSYNT-101 works by forming a temporary coating in the first part of the small intestine, rerouting how nutrients are absorbed. This “nutrient exclusion” triggers earlier satiety and helps regulate metabolic hormones.In animal studies, SYNT-101 led to an average weekly weight loss of 1 percent for six weeks and preserved 100 percent of lean muscle mass — better than GLP-1 drugs. In the human pilot study, nine healthy adults (aged 24–53, with BMIs from 19 to 29) received a single dose in liquid form at three increasing dosage levels.According to the press release, endoscopic imaging confirmed that the coating formed as expected. Blood tests showed increased leptin (signals fullness) and reduced ghrelin (triggers hunger), consistent with preclinical results. Glucose tolerance tests showed delayed glucose absorption, indicating that uptake was occurring later in the digestive tract.Importantly, there were no adverse events or gastrointestinal symptoms, and participants reported zero pain. Rahul Dhanda, CEO of Syntis Bio, summarized in the news release: “These data validate the potential of SYNT-101 to induce metabolic changes that support glycemic control, weight loss and energy balance.”Need Of Novel Treatment OptionsThe temporary lining lasts up to 24 hours. While the initial study used a liquid dose, the treatment is being developed as a once-daily pill for convenience.“We believe that SYNT-101 will provide a convenient, more sustainable oral alternative and/or complement to systemic therapies such as GLP-1 drugs,” said Dhanda in the statement. “The millions of people living with obesity need novel treatment options that are safe, effective and avoid the high costs and severe side effects that often accompany available treatment options.”Larger clinical trials are planned, and Syntis Bio aims to submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA in late 2025. As Dhanda added: “We are eager to replicate these data in our upcoming Phase 1 clinical trial and further explore the ability of SYNT-101 to produce sustainable, safe, effective weight loss by reducing fat, preserving lean muscle and stimulating natural production of satiety hormones to prevent weight regain.”Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery: Bariatric Surgery More Effective and Durable Than New Obesity Drugs and Lifestyle InterventionF1000 Reports Medicine: Quick fix or long-term cure? Pros and cons of bariatric surgeryHarvard Health Publishing: GLP-1 diabetes and weight-loss drug side effects: "Ozempic face" and moreHaving worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts – ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition – into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When she’s not immersed in a popular science book, you’ll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.

Saucycarpdog Member Oct 25, 2017 20,231 The E3 of Warhammer games comes back for another year. Hope we see some Mechanicus 2 gameplay View: https://youtu.be/wEonJHkA9ZU?si=OnVDXjCqVZHDv1To Also Darktide will be there to announce new content. View: https://youtu.be/cnS4KrViqyQ?si=uwFHj7kIjRmKQIO9  y2kyle89 Member Mar 16, 2018 10,577 Mass Will the Leagues of Votann reveal themselves?   Hella Member Oct 27, 2017 24,468 Hopefully this is why Creative Assembly have kept the new Total Warhammer 3 DLC so close to their chest. Make it a good one.  Native_Vel Member Jun 5, 2022 2,012 Saucycarpdog said: Also Darktide will be there to announce new content. Click to expand... Click to shrink... I will be there no matter what. It would be nice for the Dawn of War rumors to be something real.  Gman! Avenger Oct 25, 2017 1,305 Dallas Finally - Fire Warrior 2   data west Member Oct 25, 2017 13,803 y2kyle89 said: Will the Leagues of Votann reveal themselves? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Some Leagues of Votann armor in DRG would be peak   Mr Evil 37 Member Mar 7, 2022 27,515 *whispers* Dawn of War   Kordova Member Dec 10, 2023 1,182 Hayabusa Village Always down for new 40k games.   SirKai Member Dec 28, 2017 10,114 Washington Finally we're gonna get the Saltzpyre/Kruber MLM romance graphic novel I've been pestering FatShark for for the past 6 years.   Miker Member Oct 25, 2017 3,551 Are there any actual credible Dawn of War rumors or just wishful thinking?   Genesius Member Nov 2, 2018 20,470 Is Rahul back?   Mr Evil 37 Member Mar 7, 2022 27,515 Miker said: Are there any actual credible Dawn of War rumors or just wishful thinking? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Wishful thinking lol but it makes some sense with Relic going independent. They need bankable projects and next to Age, DoW makes the most sense.   Bessy67 Member Oct 29, 2017 13,040 Oh man, are we finally getting a 5th Darktide class?