PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New paper proposes standards – and actionable clinical tools – for biomarkers of aging

New paper proposes standards – and actionable clinical tools – for biomarkers of aging
2024-02-16
(Press-News.org) A new paper led by Harvard researchers has zeroed in on biomarkers of aging using omic data from population-based studies. The team, which included aging and longevity expert Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder and CEO of AI-driven drug discovery company Insilico Medicine, provided a framework for standardizing the development and validation of biomarkers of aging to better predict longevity and quality of life. The findings appeared in Nature Medicine. 

Biomarkers are biological characteristics that can be measured and used to evaluate various biological processes, including disease progression and response to treatments. Aging is associated with a number of biological changes – including increased molecular and cellular damage – but researchers do not yet have a standardized means to evaluate and validate biomarkers related to aging. 

For this study, the research team set out to create those standards as well as actionable clinical tools. They analyzed population-based cohort studies built on omic data (data related to biological molecules which can include proteomics, transcriptomics, genomics, and epigenomics) of blood-based biomarkers of aging. The researchers then compared the predictive strength of different biomarkers, including study design and data collection approaches, and looked at how these biomarkers presented in different populations. 

In order to better assess the impact of aging using biomarkers, the researchers found that clinicians needed to expand their focus – to consider not only mortality as an outcome, but also how biomarkers of aging are associated with numerous other health outcomes, including functional decline, frailty, chronic disease, and disability. They also call for the standardization of omic data to improve reliability. 

“Omics and biomarkers harmonization efforts, such as the Biolearn project, are instrumental in validation of biomarkers of aging” said co-first author Mahdi Moqri, PhD, of the Division of Genetics. Biolearn is an open-source project for biomarkers of aging and is helping to harmonize existing aging biomarkers, unify public datasets, and provide computational methodologies.

It’s also important, the researchers note, that there are continued collaborations among research groups on “large-scale, longitudinal studies that can track long-term physiological changes and responses to therapeutics in diverse populations.” Further work is required to understand how implementation of biomarker evaluation in clinical trials might improve patient quality of life and survival.

“If we hope to have clinical trials for interventions that extend healthy lifespan in humans, we need reliable, validated biomarkers of aging,” said co-first author Jesse Poganik, PhD, of the Division of Genetics. “We hope that our framework will help prioritize the most promising biomarkers and provide health care providers with clinically valuable and actionable tools.”

Insilico Medicine has been developing multi-modal biomarkers of aging since it was founded in 2014. The Company’s end-to-end generative AI platform, Pharma.AI was first trained to predict age using different data types, including pictures, blood tests, PBMC and tissue-specific transcriptomes, proteomes, imaging data, microbiome, wearable data and more. The Company’s deep neural networks (DNNs) captured the most biologically-relevant features and used those as targets to retrain the DNNs on various diseases. Insilico scientists have contributed to numerous papers related to identifying biomarkers of aging using these deep learning methods, including the identification of population-specific biomarkers; the development of deep learning-based biomarkers for aging and longevity; and the discovery of numerous dual-purpose targets for aging and disease using Insilico’s AI-powered discovery engine, PandaOmics. 

 

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, a global clinical stage biotechnology company powered by generative AI, is connecting biology, chemistry, and clinical trials analysis using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, immunity, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. www.insilico.com

END

[Attachments] See images for this press release:
New paper proposes standards – and actionable clinical tools – for biomarkers of aging New paper proposes standards – and actionable clinical tools – for biomarkers of aging 2 New paper proposes standards – and actionable clinical tools – for biomarkers of aging 3

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Researchers identify genes and cell types that may have causal role in primary open-angle glaucoma formation

2024-02-16
Although primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) is the leading cause of blindness in people over the age of 55, there remains no cure for the disease and its biological mechanisms are not well understood. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a major risk factor for the disease, but many patients with glaucoma have normal eye pressure and still lose vision. In a new study published this past month in Nature Communications, researchers from Mass Eye and Ear, led by Ayellet Segrè, PhD, conducted a comprehensive study that combined genetic discoveries from a large cross-ancestry genome-wide association study meta-analysis of POAG, led by Janey Wiggs, MD, PhD, ...

New book helps school leaders focus on what they can do without getting weighed down

2024-02-16
LAWRENCE — No one can do everything. Yet that is exactly what many school leaders feel like they must do. A new book from a pair of school leaders and scholars aims to help those who often feel overwhelmed focus on what they can and should do and how to help teachers and students lead schools to reaching their full potential. “Focused: Understanding, Negotiating, and Maximizing Your Influence as a School Leader,” by Jim Watterston and Yong Zhao, aims to help educational administrators guide schools to success without getting ...

Research grant aimed at improving wastewater monitoring for diseases in rural Appalachian communities

2024-02-16
Testing wastewater to assess the spread of the COVID-19 virus became common and well-publicized during the pandemic, but it has been focused mostly on urban areas. The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has awarded $400,000 to Virginia Tech, with an additional $50,000 to Virginia Tech from the Virginia Department of Health, for a two-year project to identify and implement improved and new methods to detect pathogens for multiple diseases in the wastewater of rural communities. “My work and research have primarily been focused on rural areas, and prior to the pandemic, most ...

New study analyzes link between digit ratio and oxygen consumption in footballers

2024-02-16
The efficiency of oxygen supply to tissues is a factor in the severity of important diseases such as Covid-19 and heart conditions. Scientists already know that the relationship between the length of a person’s index and ring fingers, known as the 2D:4D ratio is correlated with performance in distance running, age at heart attack and severity of Covid-19. Now Swansea University digit ratio expert Professor John Manning has been working with colleagues to look more closely at the subject. Their findings have just been published by the prestigious American Journal of Human ...

Under pressure - space exploration in our time

Under pressure - space exploration in our time
2024-02-16
In the past decade, humanity has seen the birth and expansion of a commercial space sector with new, private players, addressing technological challenges - from space launch to communication and satellite imagery of Earth. Last year, the global space industry skyrocketed launching more than 2,660* satellites into orbit, and, into the universe, interplanetary probes, landers, and much more. In the United States, SpaceX was responsible for almost 90% of these launches. In parallel to this progression is the expansion of more than 70 countries** demonstrating space capabilities. It affirms the general consensus and understanding ...

Climate change has brought forward the flowering period in Doñana National Park by 22 days

2024-02-16
Researchers from the University of Seville have investigated how the flowering of 51 species of shrubs, bushes and trees has changed over the last 35 years in Doñana National Park so as to understand how plant communities are responding to climate change in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Over this period, the average temperature in the area has increased by 1 °C and the minimum temperature by as much as 2 °C. As a result, the community’s peak flowering time, the time when the greatest number of species are in flower, has been brought forward by 22 days, from 9 May to 17 April.   This earlier flowering is not ...

Games in the classroom and the boardroom: How ‘serious games’ are helping us learn

2024-02-16
A team of researchers are encouraging us to swap textbooks for games, as they drive the application of games in learning, engagement and research.   Known as ‘serious games’, these games are designed for more than just entertainment. Ranging from digital applications to physical board games, they are developed for learning, problem solving, raising awareness, research, and stakeholder engagement – with potential in both schools and workplaces. A key application will be for educating people on sustainable development and climate change.   Experts leading in the field at the Universities of Warwick, Cardiff, York, and Sussex, ...

Entrepreneurship on the periphery: between precarious work and the search for a meaningful life

Entrepreneurship on the periphery: between precarious work and the search for a meaningful life
2024-02-16
Understanding how the poor deal with the effects of the economic crisis into which Brazil plunged in 2014 was the aim of the research project “The crisis seen from the periphery: struggle for social mobility in the frontiers of (i)legality” conducted by Leonardo de Oliveira Fontes with FAPESP’s support (19/13125-2 and 21/13970-4). An article published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research is one of the results of the investigation. Fontes is currently a professor in the Department of Sociology ...

Optimal volume of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity postconcussion in children and adolescents

2024-02-16
About The Study: The findings of this study of children and adolescents with acute concussion suggest that moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity reduced symptoms up to a certain threshold but appeared to offer no further benefit in symptom reduction beyond that point.  Authors: Andrée-Anne Ledoux, Ph.D., of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/  (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.56458) Editor’s Note: Please ...

Projecting the future registered nurse workforce after the pandemic

2024-02-16
About The Study: The rebound in the total size of the U.S. registered nurse (RN) workforce during 2022 and 2023 indicates that the earlier drop in RN employment during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic was likely transitory. Updated forecasts of the future RN workforce are very close to those made before the pandemic.  Authors: David I. Auerbach, Ph.D., of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.5389) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New study reveals 33% gap in transplant access for UK’s poorest children

Dysregulated epigenetic memory in early embryos offers new clues to the inheritance of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)

IVF and IUI pregnancy rates remain stable across Europe, despite an increasing uptake of single embryo transfer

It takes a village: Chimpanzee babies do better when their moms have social connections

From lab to market: how renewable polymers could transform medicine

Striking increase in obesity observed among youth between 2011 and 2023

No evidence that medications trigger microscopic colitis in older adults

NYUAD researchers find link between brain growth and mental health disorders

Aging-related inflammation is not universal across human populations, new study finds

University of Oregon to create national children’s mental health center with $11 million federal grant

Rare achievement: UTA undergrad publishes research

Fact or fiction? The ADHD info dilemma

Genetic ancestry linked to risk of severe dengue

Genomes reveal the Norwegian lemming as one of the youngest mammal species

Early birds get the burn: Monash study finds early bedtimes associated with more physical activity

Groundbreaking analysis provides day-by-day insight into prehistoric plankton’s capacity for change

Southern Ocean saltier, hotter and losing ice fast as decades-long trend unexpectedly reverses

Human fishing reshaped Caribbean reef food webs, 7000-year old exposed fossilized reefs reveal

Killer whales, kind gestures: Orcas offer food to humans in the wild

Hurricane ecology research reveals critical vulnerabilities of coastal ecosystems

Montana State geologist’s Antarctic research focuses on accumulations of rare earth elements

Groundbreaking cancer therapy clinical trial with US Department of Energy’s accelerator-produced actinium-225 set to begin this summer

Tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes could be avoided each year if cholesterol-lowering drugs were used according to guidelines

Leading cancer and metabolic disease expert Michael Karin joins Sanford Burnham Prebys

Low-intensity brain stimulation may restore neuron health in Alzheimer's disease

Four-day school week may not be best for students, review finds

Using music to explore the dynamics of emotions

How the brain supports social processing as people age

Túngara frog tadpoles that grew up in the city developed faster but ended up being smaller

Where there’s fire, there’s smoke

[Press-News.org] New paper proposes standards – and actionable clinical tools – for biomarkers of aging