Tuesday, April 9, 2019 – Today Insilico Medicine, a biotechnology company developing the end-to-end drug discovery pipeline utilizing the next generation artificial intelligence, and the Scheibye-Knudsen Lab, University of Copenhagen, announce the presentation of David Gems, Ph.D., Professor of Biogerontology at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London, at the 6th Aging Research, Drug Discovery, and AI Forum during the Basel Life Congress, September 10-12, 2019, Basel, Switzerland.
David Gems will give a talk titled “New discoveries about ageing in C. elegans” presenting the mechanisms by which senescent pathologies originate in these nematode worms, providing clues to understanding the nature of senescent pathologies in humans.
Studies of the genetics of ageing in C. elegans have yielded riches in terms of new genes and pathways affecting lifespan, but the proximate mechanisms of ageing that such genes influence remain uncertain. Recent work in Dr. Gems lab is testing hypotheses based on ideas from George Williams and Misha Blagosklonny where senescent pathologies that limit lifespan are driven primarily by late-life, futile run-on of wild-type biological programs, rather than damage accumulation. They motivate a new, pathology-centred approach to understanding senescence, particularly via the study of how pathologies develop, and how they cause mortality.
“The nature of the primary causes of ageing is perhaps the most important unsolved puzzle in biomedical research,” said David Gems, Ph.D., Professor of Biogerontology at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, University College London.
“I am really excited that professor David Gems from University College London has decided to join our meeting. Professor Gems is a leading figure in biogerontology and has been spearheading our understanding of aging using the c. elegans model organism. Through his career, he has remained a voice of reason fearlessly questioning emerging hypotheses and supplying new evidence in our understanding of how aging may be regulated. I am therefore very happy that he has chosen to join our meeting and I very much look forward to his undoubtedly fascinating talk.” said Morten Scheibye-Knudsen, MD, Ph.D., University of Copenhagen.
“Over the last 5 years, the “Aging & Drug Discovery” and “AI for Healthcare” forums have been leading events at BaselLife, attracting hundreds of delegates from over 50 countries. This year, we are combining the 2 platforms into a 3 day-event titled “the 6th Aging, AI and Drug Discovery Forum” to explore the convergence of these 2 cutting edge disciplines. Under the program leadership of Professor Morten Scheibye-Knudsen and Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, with distinguished scientists and industry experts in the field, we look forward to exploring breakthroughs for this great healthcare need for the planet,” said Dr. Bhupinder Bhullar, Chair, Innovation Forum program committee, Basel Life 2019.
“The 6th annual Aging Research, Drug Discovery, and AI Forum at Basel Life will have a fresh program featuring some of the most prominent scientists and industry players in aging and longevity research covering the theory, applications and convergence of these three exciting areas,” said Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., Founder, and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc.
The 6th Aging Research for Drug Discovery Forum Basel will bring together leaders in the aging, longevity, and drug discovery field, to describe the latest progress in the molecular, cellular and organismal basis of aging and the search for interventions. Furthermore, the forum will include opinion leaders in AI to discuss the latest advances of this technology in the biopharmaceutical sector and how this can be applied to interventions. 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: aging. The Forum will be held in Basel, Switzerland, September 10-12, 2019.
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Insilico Medicine Contact: Ola Popova
Website: http://insilico.
About Insilico Medicine, Inc
Insilico Medicine is an artificial intelligence company headquartered in Rockville, with R&D and management resources in Belgium, Russia, UK, Taiwan, and Korea sourced through hackathons and competitions. The company and its scientists are dedicated to extending human productive longevity and transforming every step of the drug discovery and drug development process through excellence in biomarker discovery, drug development, digital medicine, and aging research.
Insilico pioneered the applications of the generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning for generation of novel molecular structures for the diseases with a known target and with no known targets. In addition to working collaborations with the large pharmaceutical companies, the company is pursuing internal drug discovery programs in cancer, dermatological diseases, fibrosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS, diabetes, sarcopenia, and aging. Through a partnership with LifeExtension.com, the company launched a range of nutraceutical products compounded using the advanced bioinformatics techniques and deep learning approaches. It also provides a range of consumer-facing applications including Young.AI.
In 2017, NVIDIA selected Insilico Medicine as one of the Top 5 AI companies in its potential for social impact. In 2018, the company was named one of the global top 100 AI companies by CB Insights. In 2018 it received the Frost & Sullivan 2018 North American Artificial Intelligence for Aging Research and Drug Development Award accompanied with the industry brief. Brief company video: https:/
Website: http://insilico.
About David Gems
David Gems is Professor of Biogerontology at the UCL Institute of Healthy Ageing, of which he is a founder member and a director. He has a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Sussex University, and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Glasgow University. He was a postdoc at Imperial College, and the University of Missouri-Columbia, USA before founding his own research group at UCL in 1997 as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. The aims of his research are to understand the causes of ageing, and identify general principles of pathophysiology for late-life diseases. Much of his work uses the nematode worm C. elegans, but he has also contributed to studies of aging in other nematodes, Drosophila and the mouse, and penned articles on ageing and ethics. Ageing is now the main cause of serious illness worldwide, yet its underlying biology remains poorly understood. Understanding ageing is key to treating late-life disease.
About UCL
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. It is a constituent college of the federal University of London, and is the third largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment, and the largest by postgraduate enrolment.
Established in 1826 as London University by founders inspired by the radical ideas of Jeremy Bentham, UCL was the first university institution to be established in London, and the first in England to be entirely secular and to admit students regardless of their religion. In 1836 UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London, which was granted a royal charter in the same year. It has grown through mergers, including with the Institute of Neurology (in 1997), the Royal Free Hospital Medical School (in 1998), the Eastman Dental Institute (in 1999), the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (in 1999), the School of Pharmacy (in 2012) and the Institute of Education (in 2014)
Official Website: https:/
About the Scheibye-Knudsen Laboratory
The growing proportion of the elderly population represents an increasing socioeconomic challenge, not least because of age-associated diseases. It is therefore increasingly pertinent to find interventions for age-associated diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and cardiovascular diseases. Although the cause of aging is currently unknown accumulation of damage to our genome, the DNA, may be a contributing factor.
In the Scheibye-Knudsen lab we try to understand the cellular and organismal consequences of DNA damage with the aim of developing interventions. We have discovered that DNA damage leads to changes in certain metabolites and that replenishment of these molecules may alter the rate of aging in model organisms. These findings suggest that normal aging and age-associated diseases may be malleable to similar interventions. The hope is to develop interventions that will allow everyone to live healthier, happier and more productive lives.
Laboratory website: http://scheibye-knudsen.
About the University of Copenhagen
With over 40,000 students and more than 9,000 employees, the University of Copenhagen is the largest institution of research and education in Denmark and among the highest ranked universities in Europe. The purpose of the University – to quote the University Statute – is to ‘conduct research and provide further education to the highest academic level’. Approximately one hundred different institutes, departments, laboratories, centres, museums, etc., form the nucleus of the University.
University Website: http://introduction.
About Basel Life 2019
Aging Research for Drug Discovery Forum description
In this symposium, leaders in the aging, longevity, and drug discovery field will describe the latest progress in the molecular, cellular and organismal basis of aging and the search for interventions. Furthermore, the forum will include opinion leaders in AI to discuss the latest advances of this technology in the biopharmaceutical sector and how this can be applied to interventions. 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: aging. A panel of thought-leaders will give us their cutting edge reports on the latest progress in our quest to extend the healthy lifespan of everyone on the planet.
Conference Official Website: https:/
Media Contact
Ola Popova
[email protected]
