WEBVTT - IMF Slashes Growth Forecasts, Warns Trade War Risks Worsening Outlook 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:10.560 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. You're listening to the 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:14.520 Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at ten am 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.799 Eastern on Apple, Coarplay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.000 Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts, 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:23.080 or watch us live on YouTube. 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:25.360 We do want to keep you updated on what's happening 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.159 on the economic front end in Washington, DC, and for 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.440 that we go to Michael McKee, international economics and. 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:31.960 Policy correspondent who's in DC. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.080 And the IMF just released its lowered forecast for world 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:38.040 growth this year and next, citing the risk of a 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.040 global trade war, also saying, Mike, the possibility of recession 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:44.200 in the US is rising to forty percent from twenty 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:45.360 seven percent in October. 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.879 What else did we learn, well, Alex, the world economic 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:54.440 outlook is rather cloudy. Indeed, according to the World Economic Outlook, basically, 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:59.000 the IMF had to retool all of their forecasts that 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:03.280 were underway when Donald Trump announced his tariffs on April second, 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.120 and so since then they've come up with a couple 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.920 of different scenarios because we don't know what exactly he's 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:09.360 going to do. 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:11.720 But the one they're using is one they call the 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:16.560 reference scenario, and it is that the global growth rate 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.160 will fall by half a percentage point this year, but 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.880 inflation won't rise as much because global slowdown will mean 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.880 that price pressures ease a little bit. That's for the 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.600 whole world. For the United States, it's much grimmer. We 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:32.959 will grow just one point five percent this year. That's 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.720 almost a full percentage point less than had been forecast 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:41.240 just two months ago by the IMF, and the inflation 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:45.440 rate will rise to three percent as unemployment rises above 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.560 four percent. So the US outlook is not particularly good 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:52.520 at all of this they blame on tariffs. 0:01:55.200 --> 0:01:57.360 So Mike, that's kind of where I wanted to go here. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.000 I mean, it does feel like a switch was thrown, 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:02.240 you know, three months ago, where we were in a 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.520 decent economic outlook GDP, you know, growing a three percent 0:02:06.600 --> 0:02:09.000 range on a real basis, inflation probably still a little 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:10.480 higher than the Fed like it, but you know, two 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:12.240 and a half percent, stock. 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:13.200 Market at all time high. 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.600 Is are they ascribing, as you mentioned, the majority or 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.200 all of their cuts to this uncertainty surrounding tariffs. 0:02:22.200 --> 0:02:26.320 Yes, and to modeling out the tariffs themselves and what 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:28.600 impact they might have of course they have to just 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:32.120 sort of pick a level of tariffs and try to 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.480 come up with an estimate for what that might mean, 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:38.239 since we don't have those numbers. But basically they're working 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:42.799 off what the administration had announced in early April, and 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:50.000 it's just an across the board drop in economic activity, GDP, markets, everything, 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.840 and of course, as you mentioned, they do put a 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:55.440 lot of weight not just on the financial costs but 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:57.120 on the costs of uncertainty. 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.120 Well, what areas through the IMF forecast or maybe the 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:04.800 least affected by all of this. 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:11.359 Interestingly, of the major economies, Great Britain is the least effective. 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.440 They don't see really any change in growth for the UK. 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:18.960 They forecast one point seven percent, that's down just the 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:21.760 tenth of a percent, and they don't see any change 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.519 in the UK inflation three point one percent or unemployment 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:29.720 four and a half percent, largely because the jump administration 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.119 didn't really put much in terms of tariffs on the UK, 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.080 just the ten percent universal tariffs, so they got off 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.320 a little bit easier than other countries. The Eurozone sees 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:47.080 a decline in growth of half a percent to just 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.080 seven tenths of a percent this year. 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:52.240 Hey, Mike did. 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.880 Does the IMF a pine at all on the duration 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:56.839 of tariffs? A lot of folks are saying, hey, if 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.120 you know President Trump backs off or waters down some 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.440 of these tariffs like he oftentimes does when push comes 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:05.880 to show where he that delays them that maybe the 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:07.119 impact won't be as bad. 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.080 Can you I MUS even model that out? 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:12.520 Well, they try in the sense that they're doing a 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.040 couple of different scenarios and they do a lighter tear 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:20.239 regime and so, which would mean that the impacts are lower. 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.040 There's still an impact, but they're lower than the reference forecast. 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.240 But they make no predictions about how likely any of 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:28.279 these are going to be. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.320 When we take a look at other areas of the 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:36.920 global economy, what don't I m F say on China? 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.480 That's really interesting, Alex because the Chinese take a big 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.640 hit growth of just three point two percent, down one 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.240 point three percent from their January forecast. That would be 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.240 the lowest growth rate in China in decades. The Chinese 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.599 government is aiming at five percent this year, so it 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.800 could be a big hit to the Chinese. In terms 0:04:57.800 --> 0:04:59.920 of inflation, they think. 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:00.679 They'll be flat. 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:08.760 That's maybe the best case scenario for China. In this situation, 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.480 a lot of people think they would experience disinflation, if 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:13.320 not deflation. 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.960 Mike, We're going to get some economic data this week 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.760 initial Joba's claims. I mean, what's the what are you 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.520 looking at this week to try to see those initial 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.920 signs of economic impact in what we like to call 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:28.599 the hard data. 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:33.599 Well, you'd be looking at things like jobless claims, which 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.479 haven't moved at all. They've actually come down some, so 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:39.200 it doesn't look like companies are letting people go. But 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:42.360 this is a kind of a different scenario because we're 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.640 in an environment coming out of the pandemic where companies 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:49.159 couldn't find workers, so they are more reluctant to let 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:53.800 people go, more reluctant to adjust in the face of 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.320 a potential recession than they might have been in the past. 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:02.680 Next week we'll get the the March jobs report and 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:05.160 the April jobs report rather, and that will give us 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:08.359 some indication in the unemployment and labor force numbers of 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:12.960 what's going on. If immigration, illegal or otherwise has basically 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:15.800 fallen to zero, the labor force won't grow, it should 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:19.440 probably shrink, and so that's something to keep an eye 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:20.400 on as well. 0:06:21.640 --> 0:06:22.159 As well. 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:24.320 All right, Mike, super appreciated. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:26.960 Down and you see there, Michael McKee, Boomerg International Economics 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:28.800 and Policy corresponding. 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.359 You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:37.520 weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple Corplay and Android 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.840 Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.040 you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube. 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:45.880 Ox Steele, Paul Sweeney. 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.839 We're live here at New Jersey Institute of Technology. 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.760 That's NJ. It to the cool kids. I'm gonna stop 0:06:51.760 --> 0:06:53.520 at the store and get some swag. I thic. 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:55.200 Okay, the whole team. 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:57.480 Oh no, I think I'm just me and maybe a 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:58.960 sticker for the car carsh man. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.000 Yeah, we're hearing New New Jersey and some smart people 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:03.919 here doing some really smart research. 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:04.720 And we have one of the. 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:09.320 Next will be study Distinguished Professor Chemistry and Environmental Science 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:12.200 here and j T. When we talk to us about 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.679 what you're working on in terms of your research here, 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:18.160 I see the Biosmart Center. 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:19.720 That sounds pretty cool. What are you guys doing at 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:20.920 the bio Smart Center. 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:24.760 Thank you so much for having me at the Biosmass Center. 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:29.560 Our goal is to look for sustainable materials in terms 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:33.960 of chemistry to create technologies. 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:34.560 That will help people. 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:40.520 One of us technologies actually, you know, to detect pain. 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.640 Over one hundred US adults live. 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:51.840 With chronic pain and more than ten million individuals struggle 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:55.520 with prescription medications. But every time you go to the 0:07:55.600 --> 0:08:00.400 hospital and the clinicians, physicians are required to measure pain. 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:06.080 And the only way we do that, despite advancement, is 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.640 to show you a facial scale. 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:11.760 They wear on the scale like what phases are you 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:12.320 right now? 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:12.840 Exact? 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:15.280 So what would your research be able to do? 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:21.280 So basically my research days, pain is biochemical in nature, 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.720 and when you have chronic pain, there's a lot of inflammation. 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.920 And when there's inflammation, there are chemicals that are about 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:34.199 chemicals that are produced by the body. By measuring be 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:37.959 faust of all, By knowing those biochemicals and measuring how 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.880 much they are, we can relate this to pain that 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.800 people are feeling. And so you won't need this subjective 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:50.320 approach to measure pain because if you have infants, for example, 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.079 if you have elderly, if you have people who are conscious, 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.240 they're not able to articulate their pain, and so you 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:01.800 can actually use about sensors a smart biosensors to give 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:03.760 you the level of pain that people are going through. 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.240 So where are you in terms of your research. 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.400 Our sensors that have been used currently? 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:14.600 Uh, you know, you know, we have collaborators in Upside 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:19.679 New York and they take human blood samples and they 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:26.040 measure the levels of molecules called cyclopgen is two or 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:30.000 inducible nitros oxide tastes, and. 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:31.480 They measure the level. 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:36.080 We combine this with artificial intelligence to be able to 0:09:36.520 --> 0:09:39.640 give you the amount of pain that people are going through. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.600 And for the most part, we've been able to link 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:48.440 the level that people suggest to the level that we're 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.280 measuring from our bios. 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.360 Are How far are we from like regular doctors and 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.320 nurses using it in hospitals currently? 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.480 I mean it's we've looked at close to one thousand 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:04.280 in the doors and we're getting eighty percent accuracy in 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.280 terms of what people tell you. At the end of 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:11.640 the day, pain is also individualistic, right, There are aspects 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:15.599 of pain that you know, you know, it depends on individuals. 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.080 You have pay tolerants, right exactly. 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:19.960 You know you have you know, you have saturation, you 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.360 can so there are so many other components that will impacted. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.400 But in terms of being able to actually test this out, 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:27.880 we're doing this already. 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.160 So how does doing research at a place like njai 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.120 T How does that work? How do you balance like 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:35.880 I guess, research with teaching and all that, because I 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:39.280 know most professors have to deal with that across various disciplines. 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:45.199 In actual fact, there's correlation because in the classroom I 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.800 teach graduate students, I teach them the fundamentals, and then 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.720 we take it further from the classroom and actually do 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.120 this in the lab, and so there is a connection 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.680 between what you do in the classroom, what you're teaching 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:00.800 the classroom, and what you actually doing your love. 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:06.000 We talk a lot on Bloomberg here about tariff risks, 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:07.640 but economic risks. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.040 About products being in short supply. 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:13.560 Is any of that relevant to the work that you do, Like, 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:18.280 are you worried about getting certain materials or products to fund. 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:20.040 And continue moving your research along? 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.679 Suddenly we're going to be affected because, as you know, 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.520 most research at the moment are funded by the federal government, 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:34.800 and so if there's less funding, there's less time that 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:36.800 we will not be able to support students to be 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.319 able to do the work, and so ultimately it will 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:44.040 impact our research, It would impact the classroom and what 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:45.040 we do. 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:47.000 What's the next step for you in your research? 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:47.400 Are you? 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:51.480 Are you working with a team other professors, maybe other universities. 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.000 What's your team looks like my. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.200 Team at at the moment, we have six PhD students, 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.640 we have post dogs, we have clinicians that I'm working with, 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.640 those who have computer scientists who are looking at the 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:09.000 AI component of our work. So it's a whole center activity. 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.199 How did you come to research this particular part. I 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:14.960 always find that really fascinating when you like narrow it down, 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.600 like the field must be so broad, right, Like why 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:18.559 measuring pain? 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:21.839 That's a very good I'm sorry, that's a very good 0:12:21.920 --> 0:12:26.120 question because I have always developed sensors for different things. 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.640 We developed sensors for the environment, We developed sensors to 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.880 measure different things. But I had a friend whose daughter 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:38.839 was suffering from sickle cell and you know, and she asks, 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:39.760 you know a view. 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.840 You know, many times she's in crisis. 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.959 Physicians that tificately they cannot really assess whether or not 0:12:47.080 --> 0:12:49.600 she's in pain. And I thought, well, that should be 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.199 easy as long as we can find a particular molecule, 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:54.800 we can measure that. 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:56.800 And I thought somebody should have done that. 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.280 It seems so obvious now I'm getting But we did. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:03.720 We looked in literature and we realize it's actually not. 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:08.000 And this is where we started the work fifteen years ago. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.439 And our doctor's clinicians in the marketplace, are they receptive 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.240 to your research and in what you're in your products? 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:16.560 Clinicians are receptive. 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:18.559 But my own daughter is not a sociologist. 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:23.280 She's a physician and she's at Opkins, and she says, Mommy, 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.360 if we can find an instrument that would tell us 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:29.400 how much pain people are in, this is going to 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:33.160 be significant because we get people, a lot of people coming, 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:35.440 they say they're in pain. 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.959 We're required to treat the pain. 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:42.000 But how can we actually assess how much pain they're in? 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:44.480 So if somebody says some ten out of ten, who 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:45.319 are you to say they're not? 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:45.720 Right? 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:46.640 Yep? 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.960 Interesting, well, really great stuff. Congratulations on all of it. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.560 We wish you a lot of luck. It seems like 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.800 an amazing, amazing research that you guys wind up doing here. 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:57.040 Thank you so very much. 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.719 That is a professor Wami joining us a NJ T 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:06.240 Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science, on measuring pain. 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:08.040 I never thought about it. I thought it was again just. 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:10.480 A little But the inflammation thing, that's so key. I 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:12.160 feel like everything wrong with us is inflammation. 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:14.199 Really, she's nodding. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.720 Then I said that, so therefore it must be real exactly. 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.160 You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.320 weekdays at ten am Eastern on Apple, Coarplay, and Android 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.640 Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.840 you get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube. 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.360 All right, let's talk to our next guest here, Tara Alvarez, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:41.840 nj T Distinguished Professor Biomedical Engineering, talking about treating vision disorders. 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.280 I've had a vision disorder since sixth grade. I've had glasses. 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:46.160 So is that a vision disorders? 0:14:46.200 --> 0:14:47.880 Is just I don't know, maybe it's just bad eyes. 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:49.240 That is there a distinction? 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:50.560 I don't here's a distinction. 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.640 Tarah, thank you so much for joining us here at 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:55.440 nj T your home. Talk to us about the work 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.560 you're doing. What are you looking at? What's the vision 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:00.000 disorders that you guys are looking at. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:03.920 Thanks so much for having me, and you're right glasses 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:06.160 is what most people think of when they think about 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:09.960 an eye disorder, and if you can imagine, it's very 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:13.720 difficult to know what clear vision looks like unless you've 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:18.000 been fitted for your first pair of glasses. My expertise 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:21.440 is in how the brain brings visual information into the brain, 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:24.000 which is the idea of using the eyes as a 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.720 team to get the information into the brain. And if 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:30.600 you don't do that well, you might not even realize 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:34.080 you have it, but it can result in problems when 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:36.840 doing near work such as reading, working on your phone, 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:41.760 working on computers, and vision therapy works quite well for 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:46.000 this condition known as convergence insufficiency, which is the inability 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:50.040 of the eyes to work well as a team. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.320 How do you have how do you fix that? I 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:53.920 guess or how do you find it? 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:54.960 And then how do you fix it? 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:59.080 Great questions. So vision therapy, which is basically like a 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.040 form of physical or occupational therapy for your eyes, strengthens 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:06.400 the eye muscles and the communication between the brain and 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:10.040 the eyes. My work has been funded mostly through the 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.680 National Institutes of Health, which is very critical in funding 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.000 research that has direct impact to our society. You can 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.040 find this by going to an eye doctor, so an 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.560 optometrist or an ophthalmologist, and they can do an exam, 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:27.240 but most people don't even know that they have it, 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:29.960 so they don't even realize that this is a problem. 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:33.480 So typical problems people can have as they get headaches 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.520 while reading, they feel like they read slowly, they get 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.600 blurry vision, double vision, and it takes them much longer. 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.760 So it's not that they have a cognitive or a 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.160 problem in learning, it's that they're struggling to get the 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.200 visual information into the brain. 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:52.600 How common is this affliction or this issue. 0:16:52.200 --> 0:16:55.080 So depending on how you do, the diagnosis is present 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.120 in between four and twelve percent, so you can say 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.600 roughly eight percent of the population. 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.040 You mentioned the funding. What's your level of confidence that 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.280 funding for this kind of study will stay. 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.880 I'm unclear right now. So right now we have I'm 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:17.000 on my second randomized clinical trial where we're concentrating on 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:23.040 concussions because we have the CDC released in December of 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:27.240 twenty four that concussion costs is about forty billion dollars 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.359 a year. And if you have had a concussion, especially 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:36.400 multiple concussions, you can develop persistent postconcussive symptoms and out 0:17:36.440 --> 0:17:40.240 of that population, about half of them have this convergence 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:43.240 and sufficiency, which is that teeming problem of the eyes. 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:48.000 So it is quite common. It's very impactful. My program 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:51.080 officer at the National Eye Institute within the National Institutes 0:17:51.160 --> 0:17:55.199 of Health is extremely excited about our work, and in 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.840 the past administration, I would have much more confidence that 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.120 we would have funding to continue. That is very important work, 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:03.320 but it is something I have a lot of concerns 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:04.040 about right now. 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.159 How often do you get funded or how often do 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.760 most researchers get fund Is this an annual thing? 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.080 So typically you get what's called an R one, which 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:19.240 is five years of funding, and you are reviewed every year, okay, 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.600 and typically with a randomized clinical trial, which is what 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:28.120 I'm leading. That's done in collaboration with Children's Hospital Philadelphia 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:33.040 as well as Rutgers chop Yes and Rutgers University. It 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:36.040 takes time because this is a rehabilitation and it's a 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:40.120 longitudinal study, and it's also done with Saless University of Drexel, 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:45.120 so it's not something that happens overnight. It takes time 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.760 to acquire this data. But it's really critical because the 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.680 knowledge that I'm gaining from this study has been patented 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.919 where NNGIT holds the patents, and that led to our 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:59.040 startup company, Ocular Motor Technologies. And the key reason I 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.760 became a biomedical engineer is I want to have a 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:06.960 positive impact on others, specifically in the healthcare sector. And 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.800 it's my children that actually inspired the core technology of 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:14.880 our company, which is the idea of trying to do 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.879 the therapy that works very well but is incredibly boring. So 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.520 if you can put the therapy in a virtual reality 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.520 headset and make it into a game. If you have 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.679 a child, a mine or almost all grown now, but 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.159 it's not difficult to get a kid to play a 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:32.919 VR game. And in essence, we are sugar coating the 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.320 therapy and they think they're having fun, but in actuality 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.280 it's sugar coating a ton of science to get those 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.119 eyes to work better together. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.200 It's like when I put kale in the oven. 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:44.919 Correct. 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.520 Yeah, it's a lot of the sad lines exactly. So 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.440 what is the exit strategy for the startup and can 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:54.359 you get outside funding at the same time. 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.840 So we have been funded through the NSF through SBIR, 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.240 which is the small Bestiness Investigator grants. We've had both 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.760 phase one and phase two, and we also participated in 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:11.320 an NNGIT iCore program, and we did a national version 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:15.960 of iCore, which is basically teaching professors how to create 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.520 and translate their science out of the lab and to 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:20.760 have a positive impact. 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:22.000 Amazing. 0:20:22.040 --> 0:20:23.399 We have to leave it there. I'm sorry, we're up 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:25.880 against the clock. Listen, don't leave me yet quite yet. 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.720 Thank you so much. We really appreciate Tara Tara Alvarez 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.840 NJIT Distinguished Professor Biomedical Engineering joining us here at NJIT. 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:35.760 I love hearing about all the variety of work. It 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:37.840 is truly truly amazing. 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.240 You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:46.720 weekdays at ten am Eastern on Applecarclay and Android Auto 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:49.879 with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.920 get your podcasts, or watch us live on YouTube. 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:55.359 Right now, when we get back to some of our 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.800 speakers here at NJIT, Chow Yohon and J T alumnus 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.080 and he's co foundered CEO Princeton New Energy, which is 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:07.960 a global leader in lithium ion battery direct recycling. I 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:10.600 know that's what I learned from my he's now twenty 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:13.320 nine year old engineer son back when he's like twelve. 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:15.800 He explained to me these lithum ion batteries that we're 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.600 powering his little remale control cars, how serious you have 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.120 to handle them? You can't just throw them away. And 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:23.919 here's twelve and he's schooling me there, So I know 0:21:24.000 --> 0:21:26.080 this thing. Child talked to us about your company. What 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.320 are you guys trying to do here? Because these batteries 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:29.160 are everywhere now. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:33.000 Yeah, So Princeton New Energy, we have a great technology 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:36.159 in the use in plasma to recycle lithim ion battery 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:39.600 is much lower cost roughly forty to fifty percent lower 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:44.400 than the traditional recycling technology and also much more cleaner 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:47.879