Advances in computational biology and artificial intelligence used to identify compounds with potential to extend human life

Insilico Medicine, Inc. and Life Extension today announced the publication of a research paper describing the applications of its human signaling pathway-centric GeroScope platform for scoring human tissue-specific geroprotective properties of compounds implicated in the aging of model organisms.

GeroScope utilizes large human gene expression databases to analyze changes in tissue samples from healthy young compared with old human subjects at the level of signaling pathways implicated in aging and longevity. This enables the identification of compounds with known transcriptional response profiles that may be able to mimic the young healthy state in old human tissues. In collaboration with Life Extension, a trailblazer in the dietary supplement industry with a focus on health and wellness, authors analyzed the top scoring naturally-occurring compounds to predict the possible pathway-level synergy of combinations.

"Life Extension is a science-based nutritional supplement company recognized for their cutting-edge products and information," said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc. and the CSO of the Biogerontology Research Foundation (UK).

"We are happy to collaborate with Life Extension and their deep passion for health and wellness and together we will make a major impact on the identification of natural compounds with critical health, wellness, and longevity properties," noted Zhavoronkov.

The study initiated with 70 compounds that already had been implicated in extension of life span in animal models (Geroprotectors.Org) for which transcriptional response data in human cell lines was available. The compounds were scored for their ability to mimic the young healthy state in old tissues and the list of compounds was narrowed to just a few candidates that were ordered and tested in human senescent fibroblasts.

"We are excited to have these results published, since they served as an excellent platform for follow up studies we have underway," said Alex Aliper, president of Insilico Medicine and the lead author on the paper.

"Over the past year we made considerable progress in applying deep learning to geroprotector discovery and development of comprehensive biomarkers of aging and reconfirmed some of the findings in this paper using other methods," added Aliper.

To predict the possible side effects of the compounds the scientists applied the available transcriptional response data to ensembles of the deep neural networks trained on tens of thousands of samples. While not without caveats, this approach may serve as the proof of concept for evaluating the possible adverse effects of compounds that have not yet been tested in humans.

"We at Life Extension are focused on identifying natural products with critical health and wellness properties," said Andrew G. Swick, PhD, senior vice president of scientific affairs, discovery research and product development for Life Extension.

"Our collaboration with Insilico Medicine will enable us to apply artificial intelligence, sophisticated biologically-inspired algorithms and our knowledge of dietary supplements to the discovery and development of unique science-based products. This paper represents an example of merging artificial intelligence with natural product knowledge to produce leading-edge scientific results," Swick said.

"There has been much progress in biogerontology in the recent years and while working with model organisms, we need new methods for estimating the potential utility for humans," said Alexey Moskalev, PhD, DSc, professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, adjunct professor of the George Mason University and advisor to Insilico Medicine.

"Insilico Medicine is clearly leading the way in this regard. In this paper we demonstrated proof of concept, where geroprotective efficacy is predicted and then validated experimentally in human senescent cells," said Moskalev.

About Life Extension

A trailblazer in the $37 billion U.S. dietary supplement industry for the past 36 years, Life Extension's mission is providing cutting-edge information and dietary supplements to facilitate healthy longevity. Life Extension offers a full-range of premium-quality dietary supplements as well as unique, scientifically-supported formulas. The company's products are developed based on scientific studies from peer-reviewed medical journals and are consistently updated as new information occurs. To learn more about Life Extension, visit www.lifeextension.com.

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a bioinformatics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins UniversityEastern campus in Baltimore with R&D resources in Belgium, Russia and Poland hiring talent through hackathons and competitions. It utilizes advances in genomics, big data analysis and deep learning for in silico drug discovery and drug repurposing for aging and age-related diseases. The company pursues internal drug discovery programs in cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, sarcopenia and geroprotector discovery. Through its Pharma.AI division the company provides advanced machine learning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and skin care companies. Brief company video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8

SOURCE Life Extension

Related Links

http://www.lifeextension.com

Healthy ageing. Three days reality check.

The Eurosymposium on Healthy Ageing (EHA) is an international event that provides a unique opportunity for researchers, government officials, biotech executives, entrepreneurs, and non-governmental institutions from around the world to meet, network, and forge new scientific collaborations. The EHA is a biannual conference organized for the first time in 2012 by the European non-governmental organization HEALES, a Brussels-based association stimulating, promoting and informing the public about healthy life extension. Driving Heales and the development of the EHA conference are its two co-presidents, Sven Bulterijs and Didier Coeurnelle. 

The world has already faced the variety of challenges caused by an ageing population and the so called 'Silver tsunami', but following major discoveries in science and biomedicine in recent years we are now on the edge of a paradigm shift from treatment to prevention and an improvement in healthy longevity. The quickly growing trend has been marked by a number of speakers at the "World Economic Forum" in Davos and echoed by the major media such as The Economist journal which began a series of conferences in 2016 called "Ageing Societies" and "The business of longevity". 

The EHA is the largest and the most authoritative conference on the subject of longevity in Northern Europe. It provides a unique platform with the particular purpose to embrace the latest findings made by passionate scientific individuals. The programme board encourages you to immerse yourself into the programme for knowledge exchange and new network creation. The time has come to live longer healthier lives, and everyone is welcome to learn about the latest discoveries in the science of healthy longevity.

This year we have over 30 scientific lectures and 3 panel sessions by the most prominent scientists in the field of biotechnology and regenerative medicine, providing access to the forefront of scientific research in the field of ageing. The keynote lecture on the first day will be given by the renowned tissue engineer Dr. Alexander Seifalian (University College London). On the second day the keynote will be given by one of the leading experts in the biology of aging, Dr. David Gems (University College London). The three days are filled with lectures given by a number of the brightest minds in biomedicine from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, University College London, Maastricht University and many other reputable scientific institutions. 

Over the recent decades, science has been exploring how to tackle the root and consequences of ageing. While in previous years the field of longevity was explored exclusively by the scientific community, it is now widely studied and represented by the innovative general public. The biotech industry of aging has come to maturation in recent years with the founding of many biotech companies focused on aging, for example Calico, InSilico Medicine, BioViva, Human Longevity inc., and many others. This year the conference will host a number of entrepreneurs and venture investors including Dmitry Kaminskiy, the general partner of Deep Knowledge Ventures.

The conference will last 3 days, during which the participants will cover a wide range of questions from deep research and practical medical applications to investment issues. The first two days will be devoted to discussing the biology of aging and the biotech market. The last day will centre around the societal, ethical and economical aspects of aging. Europe has already faced a variety of challenges caused by the 'silver tsunami' in a manner similar to Japan, both from the economic and sociological points of view. What if the process of getting old could be mitigated and associated diseases prevented? What opportunities are there for the non-scientific community? The conference will raise the critical issues of related finance aspects, public health issues, investments and business opportunities arising out of ageing societies. In collaboration with Deep Knowledge Ventures we will discuss these matters with leading representatives. The conference will end with the adoption of a Declaration for Longevity in which the importance of longevity research will be stated, and tangible steps will be set to achieve this goal. 

This year the conference will become multidisciplinary and even more informative and thought-provoking. Due to the subject's rising popularity and the exponentially growing knowledge in the field, the conference will take an annual form starting this year.

Join us in the Royal Library of Belgium at the EHA 2016, the pre-eminent longevity think tank in Northern Europe!

###

Registration: http://www.eha-heales.org/registration.html

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/eha2016

Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8567785

More information?

Sven Bulterijs 
Co-president of Heales 
32-495-31-49-99 (English - Dutch) 

Didier Coeurnelle 
Co-president of Heale 
33-489-43-55-94 (English - French) 
Email: info@heales.org

Key Supporters:

Sven Bulterijs - is the co-founder of Heales and currently serves as its co-president & CSO. He has studied biochemistry and biotechnology at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and has worked in the lab of David Spiegel at Yale University. He has published multiple peer-reviewed papers and has lectured at multiple international conferences. He is a long-time proponent of healthy life extension, and has been involved in advocacy and outreach for many years.

Didier Coeurnelle, born in 1962, is co-founder and co-president of Heales and a member of the board of the International Longevity Alliance. He is also a lifelong member of Longecity (former Immortality Institute) and a donor to the SENS Foundation. As a member of Heales, Didier publishes the monthly newsletter La mort de la mort (in French). He has also taken part in many conferences and had many TV appearances about longevity. He has also written two books about longevity and technological progress. Didier is a jurist, working in Belgium as a civil servant specialized in Social Security. He is also politically active in social and ecologist movements and defines himself as a social activist and world citizen.

The Healthy Life Extension Society (HEALES) is a Brussels-based non-governmental association stimulating, promoting and informing the public about healthy life extension. In addition Heales supports scientific research into the biology of aging and works together with national and international policy makers. We believe it is time to switch from the current paradigm of treating disease to one of preventative gerontology. By intervening in the mechanisms underlying biological aging we believe it is possible to simultaneously delay or prevent the development of all age-related diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and many more.

Deep Knowledge Ventures is a new type of investment fund using a novel appropriate investment approach and decision-making process based on the worldwide, advanced scientific expertise and sophisticated data-driven analytical tools empowered by AI. The Fund works on the major global challenges related to demographic ageing and the integration of AI with an exponentially expanding flow of bioinformatic data. The main mission of the fund is to trigger the shift of a global paradigm from treatment to prevention and refocus healthcare systems towards a model of healthy longevity within a 5 year period on a global scale.

Dmitry Kaminskiy is an innovative entrepreneur and investor who is active in the fields of BioTech, FinTech, BlockChain and Artificial Intelligence. Kaminskiy is a co-founder and a senior partner at Deep Knowledge Ventures. Dmitry is a leading visionary in the field of ultra-innovative technologies. In addition to his business experience, Kaminskiy is involved in several scientific endeavors. Dmitry's major interest is anti-aging and healthy longevity which he has engaged in business, research and public activities. Dmitry is well known for his support of life extension think-tanks in UK and many other non-profit activities. Mr Kaminskiy's US$1 million prize for the first person to reach their 123th birthday went viral, and was widely covered by the world's top media.

Biogerontology Research Foundation (BGRF) has been constituted as a charity in the UK to support the application of knowledge of the mechanisms of ageing to the relief of disability, suffering and disease in old age. The BGRF accelerates progress in biotech and regenerative medicine field by encouraging collaboration between researchers and scientists in different fields and organising seminars and conferences.

Beauty.AI

Insilico Medicine to co-organize and present new research data at the Aging Forum at BLSW

 New insights into human aging to be presented at the 3rd International Practical Applications for Aging Research Forum at the Basel Life Science Week

Insilico Medicine, Inc, one of the leading companies applying latest advances in artificial intelligence to drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research is co-organizing the 3rd International Practical Applications for Aging Research Forum at the Basel Life Science Week in Basel, Switzerland, September 21-22. On September 21st, the CEO of Insilico Medicine will present new data on geroprotectors, small molecules that mimic the young healthy state in old human tissues. The results are a result of a multi-year research program with multiple in silico predictions made using algorithms validated using data from many age-related diseases and culminated with in vitro validation. The manuscript presenting these research results was recently accepted by a major peer-reviewed journal "Aging" and will be published after the conference. 

"Aging research is slowly gaining credibility and some of the largest pharmaceutical, biotechnology and nutritional companies are launching research programs to translate these new insights into products. For the third year in a row Insilico Medicine is co-organizing the Aging Forum during the Basel Life Science Week and bringing together world's top thought leaders in the field. This event intends to bridge academic and commercial research and foster collaborations that will result in practical solutions to one of humanity's most challenging problems", said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, CEO of Insilico Medicine. 

The BLSW conference is free to attend as it is sponsored by the city of Basel and large industry players headquartered in Basel including Novartis and Roche. The forum was originally organized by Alex Zhavoronkov of Insilico Medicine and Bhupinder Bhullar of Novartis and in 2016 it welcomed Brian Kennedy, the CEO of the Buck Institute on Aging as a co-organizer. 

The 3rd annual forum will feature 20+ speakers from both the industry and academia and http://www.nature.com/natureevents/science/events/47271-3rd_Annual_International_Aging_Research_for_Drug_Discovery_Forum.

Since its inception in 2014, scientists at Insilico Medicine are applying advanced signaling pathway analysis and deep learning techniques to analyze the changes transpiring in human tissues during aging and in many diseases and identifying molecules that may be able to correct the pathological processes in old tissues. In 2015 some of these predictions were validated experimentally and for the first time the results will be presented at the 3rd Annual International Aging Research for Drug Discovery Forum in Basel. 

Other speakers representing companies and academic institutions working in longevity research will present their research findings including Michael West, CEO of Biotime, Robert Hariri, co-founder of Human Longevity, Mun Yew Wong, CEO of Asia Genomics, Jerome Feige, head of aging at Nestle, Vadim Gladyshev, professor at Harvard, Alexey Moskalev, professor of the Russian Academy of sciences, Jing-Dong Han of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhaxybay Zhumadilov, director of the National Laboratory Astana, Miguel Camargo of UCB, Morten Scheibye-Knudsen of the Healthy Aging Center in Denmark, and many others. 

In addition to Alex Zhavoronkov, who will present at the forum, five scientists from Insilico Medicine will present their posters on perspective geroprotectors, senolytic drugs and applications of deep learning to drug discovery and biomarker development. 

"We are very excited to present our research at one of the largest drug discovery events in Europe and co-organize industry's first forum bridging advances in aging research with drug discovery for the third year in a row. Basel Life Science Week is expanding every year and should be on the calendar of every life sciences professional", said Alex Aliper, president of Insilico Medicine, Inc. 

###

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a bioinformatics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore with R&D resources in Belgium, Russia, and Poland hiring talent through hackathons and competitions. It utilizes advances in genomics, big data analysis and deep learning for in silico drug discovery and drug repurposing for aging and age-related diseases. The company pursues internal drug discovery programs in cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, sarcopenia and geroprotector discovery. Through its Pharmaceutical Artificial Intelligence division the company provides advanced machine learning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and skin car companies. Brief company video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8.