Students use AI technology to find new brain tumor therapy targets — with a goal of fighting disease faster

Glioblastoma is one of the deadliest sorts of brain most cancers, with the typical affected person residing solely eight months after prognosis, in accordance to the National Brain Tumor Society, a nonprofit. 

Two bold highschool college students — Andrea Olsen, 18, from Oslo, Norway, and Zachary Harpaz, 16, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida — are trying to change that. 

The teenagers partnered with Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based medical technology firm, to establish three new goal genes linked to glioblastoma and growing older. 

They used Insilico’s synthetic intelligence platform, PandaOmics, to make the invention — and now, they plan to proceed researching methods to battle the disease with new medicine. 

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Their findings about goal genes have been printed on April 26 in Aging, a peer-reviewed biomedical educational journal. 

A 3rd highschool scholar, Christopher Ren from Shanghai, China, additionally contributed to the analysis.

Olsen, who attends Sevenoaks School within the U.Okay., has been finding out neuroscience since 2020.

She started an internship in 2021 with Insilico, the place she discovered to use AI to uncover new genetic targets to deal with growing older and most cancers.

“It was there that I started this big investigation into glioblastoma and using AI to research it,” she advised Fox News Digital in an interview.

Meanwhile, at Pine Crest High School in Fort Lauderdale, Harpaz — who had been specializing in laptop science and biology — was trying to get into medical analysis. 

“There’s definitely a way to use artificial intelligence to speed up the study.”

He selected to research glioblastoma partially as a result of a childhood good friend of his had the disease.

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“I saw how long studies like these take — in the lab, target discoveries can take five years — and I thought to myself, ‘There’s definitely a way to use artificial intelligence to speed up the study and also make an impact as a high schooler,'” he advised Fox News Digital. 

Harpaz got here throughout Insilico Medicine and reached out to the CEO, Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, in Dubai — who related him with Olsen.

The two college students started collaborating on the glioblastoma mission. Ultimately, they found the three new goal brain tumor genes — CNGA3, GLUD1 and SIRT1. 

“I think this is one of the most important uses for data — sharing diseases and making people’s lives better.”

“Basically, a target is some driving factor for a cancer or a different disease, where if you can inhibit it or turn it on or off, you can stop the cancer growth and cure the disease,” Harpaz stated.

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“That’s really awesome compared to a normal chemotherapy, where it attacks every fast-growing cell and is really damaging to other parts of the body other than the cancer.”

Zach Harpaz, 16, introduced his findings on the International Forum on Research Excellence (IFoRE) in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2022. The two youngsters plan to construct on their findings with continued analysis into new medicine to battle glioblastoma.  (Zach Harpaz)

The teenagers introduced their findings on the Aging Research and Drug Discovery (ARDD) convention in Copenhagen final fall.

(They’re not really concentrating on brain tumors, however are finding issues contained in the tumors known as “targets,” that are mainly areas that the medicine would hone in on.) The college students now plan to construct on their findings with continued analysis into new medicine to battle the disease. 

‘Analyzing trillions of information factors’

Zhavoronkov, Insilico Medicine’s CEO, defined to Fox News Digital how the PandaOmics system makes use of generative AI to establish therapeutic targets related with any given disease.

“It finds these new disease targets by analyzing trillions of data points, including human biological data and data from scientific publications, clinical trials and grant applications,” he stated.

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“It scores the targets on factors like novelty (how unique is it?), druggability (can it be easily drugged?) and safety — so scientists know immediately which targets are best to pursue.”

Insilico has used the AI system to establish new targets for most cancers, fibrosis, persistent kidney disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), amongst different illnesses, Zhavoronkov stated. 

The firm additionally has 31 AI-designed medicine within the pipeline, together with one for COVID-19 and one other for pulmonary fibrosis.

Andrea Olsen, 18, of Norway introduced her work on the Aging Research & Drug Discovery Meeting in 2022 on the University of Copenhagen. Glioblastoma is one of the illnesses for which researchers have the least quantity of information, she stated.  (Andrea Olsen)

‘All about the data’

To find the new therapeutic targets, the scholars used Insilico’s AI platform to display information from the Gene Expression Omnibus, a repository of information that the National Center for Biotechnology Information in Bethesda, Maryland, maintains.

“It’s all about data,” Harpaz advised Fox News Digital. “And I think that’s one of the most important uses for data — sharing diseases and making people’s lives better.” 

Glioblastoma is one of the illnesses for which researchers have the least quantity of information, stated Olsen.

“That’s why it’s so hard to analyze and come up with new therapies,” she stated. 

“Therefore, a really good call to action would be to get more patients to submit their medical information so that their genetic sequences can be analyzed to help prevent such diseases in the future.”

Connection between growing older and most cancers

Cancer disproportionately impacts older folks. 

More than 50% of individuals who have most cancers are 65 or older, in accordance to information from the World Health Organization. 

That hyperlink impressed Olsen and Harpaz to focus their efforts heading in the right direction genes for each growing older and glioblastoma.

Zach Harpaz, 16, from Florida introduced his findings on the Aging Research & Drug Discovery Meeting in 2022 on the University of Copenhagen. “As you age, your risk for cancer grows, along with many different diseases,” he advised Fox News Digital about his work.  (Zach Harpaz)

“Aging is the leading cause for tons of diseases like cancer,” Harpaz stated. 

“As you age, your risk for cancer grows, along with many different diseases. So if we can figure out a way to prevent all the negative effects of aging and keep you in your prime as you age, that could prevent a lot of diseases and increase the quality of life in general.”

AI’s potential to remodel well being care

Insilico founder Zhavoronkov stated he’s optimistic that AI can remodel practically each aspect of well being care and drugs. 

That consists of disease prediction, disease identification, goal discovery and the event of new medicine, he stated.

“In traditional drug discovery, it takes over 10 years and costs around $2 billion to bring one drug to market — and 90% of drug candidates fail during human trials,” he advised Fox News Digital. 

“This high cost and slow speed is preventing new life-saving medications from reaching patients.”

“I expect AI to play a major role in advancing personalized medicine.”

AI is already used to assist display sufferers to establish illnesses, to make predictions and to monitor progress, the physician stated. 

“Eventually, I expect AI to play a major role in advancing personalized medicine, in which treatments are tailored to a specific patient based on their individual profile,” he added.

‘Human scientists are essential’

Although he is optimistic about AI’s potential to enhance the pace and high quality of well being care, Zhavoronkov acknowledges that technology can’t exchange people’ contributions.

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“Even as AI can take on more tedious and repetitive work, allowing us to accelerate the pace of discovery, human scientists are essential,” he advised Fox News Digital. 

Andrea Olsen, 18 (far proper), attends The Longevity Forum on the University of Oxford in 2022. (Andrea Olsen)

“Humans are the real brains behind the machines.”

He additionally stated, “There is a lot of fear and speculation about AI and robots replacing humans, but in reality, humans are harnessing the power of technology to do specific tasks more quickly and efficiently, just as we always have.”

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“The only difference is that with AI, the level of complexity of the tasks it can accomplish has increased exponentially,” stated Zhavoronkov.