V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N

At last all examinations are already passed. I am very happy that i've got an oncology internship.
 There are many deals which were to be made: to improve skills in English, study of oncology, statistics, study to investment, getting drive licence and to resolve an issue with living in Moscow (since constantly to move from place to place it is a huge waste of time, money and forces). But i have to forget about this deals. As someone spoke in the "Godfather" movie, "you should spend time for family" therefore I think that it is necessary to forget about blogs to september. I wish    this summer will be unforgettable and interesting for you my Dear Reader!
 

The Former Head of the Human Genome Project Joins InSilico Medicine, Inc. in the War on Aging as the Chair of the SAB

Charles Cantor, PhD, professor emeritus at Boston University and former principal scientist of the Human Genome Project joined the Science Advisory Board of InSilico Medicine, Inc.

BALTIMORE, Md., June 4, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - InSilico Medicine, Inc. announced today that Charles Cantor, Ph.D. will chair its Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Cantor, one of the leaders of the Human Genome Project, has published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles, authored and co-authored more than 50 U.S. and international patents. He is also an author of the first genomics textbook, "Genomics: The Science and Technology of the Human Genome Project" and the three-volume textbook "Biophysical Chemistry".

"Professor Cantor's discoveries and leadership are already helping save lives and improve human health span. What is less known is his interest in areas related to aging including the complex and multi-year research projects in isotopically-fortified organic compounds and advanced diagnostics using the cell-free nucleic acids. He is the role model for the many research scientists aspiring to utilize resources available in the private sector, accelerate scientific research without the many formal constraints and budgetary limitations of academia and turn their discoveries into practical projects. We are honored to have Charles join our advisory board", said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, CEO of InSilico Medicine, Inc. 

Dr. Cantor is the co-founder of Sequenom, Inc, a company engaged in non-invasive prenatal diagnostics and co-founder of Retrotope, a company developing isotopically-fortified organic compounds to bolster stress resistance and combat age-related diseases and acts as a consultant for several companies within the biotechnology industry. He is professor emeritus at the Boston University, distinguished adjunct professor at the University of California Irvine and adjunct professor at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and at Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Cantor was previously the chair and professor of the department of biomedical engineering and biophysics, and director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology at Boston University, and his research laboratory remains active.

"Aging is one of the most pressing problems facing the economies of the developed countries and there is an urgent need for new ways to increase productive longevity and screening the known drugs for their geroprotective properties and personalizing anti-cancer and aging-suppressive regiments using genetic and epigenetic analysis is one of the low hanging fruits in applied aging research. I am pleased to join the SAB of this international team dedicated to develop working solutions for both aging and age-related diseases", said Charles Cantor, PhD, chair of the Science Advisory Board of InSilico Medicine, Inc.

Dr. Cantor was the chairman of Genetics and Development at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, and Professor of Molecular Biology, University of California, Berkeley.

He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry at Columbia College, and his doctorate at the University of California Berkeley.

About InSilico Medicine, Inc.

Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a Baltimore-based bioinformatics and drug discovery company specializing in cancer and aging research and personalized medicine in age-related diseases. The company is developing models and softwares to predict the efficacy of the various targeted drugs in oncology and extrapolated these methods to evaluate the possible geroprotective properties of the many drugs with known molecular targets. The mission of InSilico Medicine is to find working solutions to treat, cure and prevent age-related diseases and aging itself through excellence in knowledge management, machine learning and bioinformatics, relentless pursuit for new drug, omics and clinical outcomes data, development of reliable in silico drug screening methods, novel validation approaches and strong international partnerships in personalized medicine. This mission will be achieved within the regulatory frameworks as well as the legal and ethical boundaries and by working with the outstanding scientists, academic and medical institutions and pharmaceutical companies of impeccable credibility. For more information please visit http://www.InSilicoMedicine.com . 

Contact @ Insilico Medicine, Inc.:

InSilico Medicine, Inc.
Johns Hopkins University Eastern Campus
B301, 1101 East 33rd Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

Qinsong Zhu, PhD
Chief Operating Officer
+14107109674
zhu@insilicomedicine.com

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/InSilico/Medicine/prweb11904553.htm

 

Practical Applications of Aging Research for Drug Discovery

International symposium on geroprotectors:
Practical Applications of Aging Research for Drug Discovery 

Aging lies at the core of every age-related disease and affects every person on the planet. It represents an unbearable toll on the economies of the developed countries resulting in over two trillion dollars in direct medical costs, costs of caring and lost productivity in the US and EU alone. Yet, pharmaceutical companies fail to see the practical applications of aging research as many early experiments with drugs that held promise in slowing the aging processes resulted in commercial failures and write offs. Lack of business models, regulation and absence of a clear set of aging biomarkers make it difficult for large pharmaceutical companies to fully engage in aging research. Unlike other events that are geared towards academia or have a broad range of topics, this forum intends to focus on drug discovery and pharmaceuticals that may have a role in postponing the aging processes, preventing the age-related diseases and evaluating the effectiveness of various small molecules with geroprotective properties.

The event will showcase the research projects in aging research to the leaders of the pharmaceutical industry. The symposium will comprise into the three sessions relevant to the drug discovery companies. Each session will be chaired by the top expert in the field:

Session I: Predicting the activity of geroprotective drugs: in-silico screening, omics data analysis and rational drug design
Session II: Drugs with the potential geroprotective properties
Session III: Aging Biomarkers: how do we measure aging and geroprotective efficacy?
Session IV: Trends in Aging Research

www.AgingPharma.org

Leukemia

Nature: Leukemia - Anton Buzdin, Andrew Garazha , Alexander Aliper and Pathway Pharmaceuticals using the OncoFinder(TM) package.

"Silencing AML1-ETO gene expression leads to simultaneous activation of both pro-apoptotic and proliferation signaling"
The t(8;21)(q22;q22) rearrangement represents the most common chromosomal translocation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). It results in a transcript encoding for the fusion protein AML1-ETO (AE) with transcription factor activity. AE is considered to be an attractive target for treating t(8;21) leukemia. However, AE expression alone is insufficient to cause transformation, and thus the potential of such therapy remains unclear. Several genes are deregulated in AML cells, including KIT, which encodes a tyrosine kinase receptor. Here we show that AML cells transduced with shRNA vector targeting AE mRNAs have a dramatic decrease in growth rate, which is caused by induction of apoptosis and deregulation of the cell cycle. A reduction in KIT mRNA levels was also observed in AE silenced cells, but silencing KIT expression reduced cell growth but did not induce apoptosis. Transcription profiling of cells that escape cell death revealed activation of a number of signaling pathways involved in cell survival and proliferation. In particular, we find that the ERK2 (MAPK1) protein could mediate activation of 23 out of 29 (79%) of these upregulated pathways and thus may be regarded as the key player in establishing the t(8;21)-positive leukemic cells resistant to AE suppression.