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Credit: Insilico Medicine
Summary:
- Many recent advances in artificial intelligence and aging biomarkers that transpired since 2013 are converging
- Gachon University and Gil Medical Center are at the forefront of aging research in Korea
- Aging research is gaining credibility in the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare in general
- Insilico Medicine and Gachon University and Gil Medical Center have partnered to collaboratively develop biomarkers and interventions
Friday, 3rd of February, 2017, Baltimore, MD - Insilico Medicine today announced that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and started the first collaborative research project with one of the largest research and medical networks, Gachon University and Gil Medical Center. The intent of the long-term collaboration is to develop artificially intelligent multimodal biomarkers of aging and health status as well as interventions intended to slow down or even reverse the processes leading to the age-related loss of function.
"We are happy to collaborate with Insilico Medicine, one of the leaders in AI with a specific focus on practical aging research in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The field of artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving and in addition to our own cutting-edge research programs, we collaborate with other leaders to expedite progress and ensure that we can save and extend human life sooner", said Dr. Lee Uhn, Director of AI-based Precision Medicine at Gachon University, Gil Medical Center.
The first MOU between the companies was signed on November 18th, but the first project launched and data exchange transpired in January 2017.
"When we first visited the Gachon University and Gil Medical Center we saw the future of medicine in the making. The centers are at the forefront in many areas of medicine with ultra-high resolution best in class neuroimaging equipment, diagnostic and treatment facilities. It is a great honor for us to have a chance to collaborate with the leading research and medical network in Korea", said Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., CEO of Insilico Medicine.
Insilico Medicine is testing a range of nutraceutical products developed using deep learning techniques with Life Extension to be launched in 2017. The effects of these nutraceuticals will be measured using a range of companion biomarkers. Earlier this year the pharmaceutical artificial intelligence division of Insilico Medicine published several seminal proof of concept papers demonstrating the applications of deep learning to drug discovery, biomarker development, and aging research. Recently the authors published a tool in Nature Communications, which is used for dimensionality reduction in transcriptomic data for training deep neural networks (DNNs). The paper published in Molecular Pharmaceutics demonstrating the applications of deep neural networks for predicting the therapeutic class of the molecule using the transcriptional response data received the American Chemical Society Editors' Choice Award. Another paper demonstrating the ability to predict the chronological age of the patient using a simple blood test, published in Aging, became the second most popular paper in the journal's history.
Insilico Medicine was the first company to apply deep generative adversarial networks (GANs) to generating anti-cancer drugs with given parameters and published a seminal paper in Oncotarget.
"AI, longevity and new distributed ledger technologies like BlockChain are among the highest priority areas of focus and investment in Korea. Close collaboration with country's leading futurists working on the government level allowed Korea to lead in the 3rd industrial revolution and will ensure Korean leadership into the 4th industrial and post-industrial revolution. I am happy of inviting the #1 company in AI and aging research to Korea and establish partnerships with the leading companies in Korea", said professor Younsook Park, country's leading futurist and official representative of Insilico Medicine in Korea.
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About Gachon University and Gil Medical Center
Founded by Dr. Gil Ya Lee, Gachon University Gil Medical Center started off as a small Obstetrics and Gynecology clinic in 1958. After half a century, it has become one of the leading medical centers in Korea. Gil Medical Center employs approximately 2900 heath care providers in 30 departments. In 2010, the hospital was awarded the JCI authentication. The following year in 2011, Gachon University was established along with the opening of Gachon Medical Gil Hospital Cancer Center. With state-of-the-art technology, the hospital system accommodates several thousand beds. As a tertiary general hospital with 1,400 number of beds, Gil Medical Center offers world-class medical services through more than 30 medical departments and specialized centers, such as Heart Center, Women's Center, Eye & ENT Center, Cancer Center, Brain Health Center, and Emergency Center, Trauma Center just to name a few. Moreover, we are operating Neuroscience Research Institute and Lee Gil Ya Cancer and Diabetes Institute, which enabled us to be chosen as the representative research-centered hospital of Korea by the government.
About Professor Youngsook Park
Professor Youngsook Park is the leading futurist in Korea, who serves as Chair of Millennium Project Korea. She also represents several global futures research organizations such as TechCastGlobal, and Davinci Institute. She has been Information Officer of the British Embassy Seoul (1982-2000) and Director of Public Diplomacy of the Australian Embassy Seoul (2000-2010) where she was trained as a futurist by attending World Future Society conferences, and other futurists meetings. She now teaches Futures Studies at Ewha Woman's University Graduate School for Design (2013-present) and lectures Futures Studies at Yonsei University (2006-present). Park is known for bringing global futurists to Korea for the last 30 years, and is a co-organizer of Korea Future Forum along with News1, a Korean news agency, inviting famous futurists to Seoul to speak on futures. She founded the Korea Foster Care Association after learning from the futures studies that Korean population declines drastically and needs to stop exporting Korean orphans to overseas. Professor Park is the official representative of Insilico Medicine, Inc in Korea.
About Insilico Medicine, Inc
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 Pharma.AI division, the company provides advanced machine learning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and skin care companies.Through a network of management and strategy consultants, it provides technology and strategy guidance in the areas of AI, aging research and blockchain integration to some of the most advanced executives and board member of the large biopharmaceutical companies.
Brief company video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8