Toggle light / dark theme

Billionaire investor to accelerate research in artificial intelligence in healthcare

Interest in rejuvenation biotechnology is growing rapidly and attracting investors.


- Jim Mellon has made an investment in Insilico Medicine to enable the company to validate the many molecules discovered using deep learning and launch multi-modal biomarkers of human aging

Monday, April 10, 2017, Baltimore, MD — Insilico Medicine, Inc, a big data analytics company applying deep learning techniques to drug discovery, biomarker development, and aging research today announced that it has closed an investment from the billionaire biotechnology investor Jim Mellon. Proceeds will be used to perform pre-clinical validation of multiple lead molecules developed using Insilico Medicine’s drug discovery pipelines and to advance research in deep learned biomarkers of aging and disease.

“Unlike many wealthy business people who rely entirely on their advisors to support their investment in biotechnology, Jim Mellon has spent a substantial amount of time familiarizing himself with recent developments in biogerontology. He does not just come in with the funding, but brings in expert knowledge and a network of biotechnology and pharmaceutical executives, who work very quickly and focus on the commercialization potential. We are thrilled to have Mr. Mellon as one of our investors and business partners”, said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, founder, and CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc.

Old generations should step down in favour of the new ones

Dismantling the idea that older generations should ‘step down’ for younger ones.


Humans are really pros at sugarcoating. If you say old people should step down for the sake of new generations, it sounds so noble and rightful, doesn’t it? What it actually means, though, is ‘We value old people less than new ones,’ and this doesn’t sound very noble or rightful. This is plain and brutal survival of the species.

Kids are (generally) cute and helpless. This is what triggers our instinct to protect them, even thought it is not the reason we do it. A species relying on reproduction to ensure its existence wouldn’t last long if it didn’t care for its children. Even if we had already developed comprehensive rejuvenation therapies, we would still be mortals; if we stopped reproducing altogether and forever, we would still risk extinction, although on a very long timescale. (In other words, we could still die one by one of other causes than ageing.) It’s the reason children are important (to us and other species): They’re potential means of reproduction. Additionally, they need special attention, because they’re not able to take care of themselves and are thus more at risk of dying before they can reproduce. That’s why most species on the planet make such a big deal out of protecting their offspring—species that don’t are less likely to stick around long enough to tell the tale.

Individuals who are no longer kids but still are fertile are still important for reproduction purposes, but require less attention from others and from society, because they can look after themselves. Individuals who can no longer reproduce, or who wouldn’t be able to take care of their offspring even if they could have any (mainly elderly adults), have zero importance in this sense, because they use up resources of society without contributing to the survival of society itself. They’ve (assumably) already contributed to the perpetuation of the species, and now that they no longer can, they’re just a burden. Thus, from the cynical point of view of the survival of the species, it makes zero sense to dedicate any resources to the care of the elderly. As a matter of fact, besides humans, there aren’t many examples of species whose younger members look after the elderly of the family.

New drug aimed at slowing aging heads to the clinic

Everolimus heading for human clinical trials later this year to treat immune system decline.


The biotechnology company PureTech are moving towards human clinical trials with a new therapy that may slow down the aging process and combat age-related disease. The company has licensed two new drug candidates, derivatives of the drug Rapamycin, from pharmaceutical giant Novartis.

PureTech have recently announced a joint venture with Novartis called resTORbio and are moving to clinical trials of the new drugs later this year. The aim of the first test phase is to see if the new drug can rejuvenate the immune system of aged people a key reason why we lose the ability to resist diseases as we grow older.

Novartis already successfully completed two Phase IIa studies exploring the immune-enhancing potential of mTORC1 inhibitors in elderly patients. resTORbio plans to build on those findings and start a Phase IIb study with the two licensed candidates later this year. Excitingly the firm has also said that it plans to extend the program to other age-related disorders in the future.

Innovation in the Bay Area: Q&A with Nidhi Kalra

For people in that area, and it may be worth while to try reaching out to them for funding for anti aging stuff.


Why is RAND opening a Bay Area office?

The San Francisco Bay Area is really at the center of technology and transformation. That’s also been a focus at RAND since our very first report, Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship, in 1946, which foretold the creation of satellites more than a decade before Sputnik.

Today, our researchers are working on important questions related to autonomous vehicles, drones, cybersecurity, education technology, virtual medicine—the same questions driving Silicon Valley startups and billion-dollar Bay Area corporations. At the same time, we’re looking at issues surrounding social inequality, drug policy, water resource management, and transportation, all of which directly relate to the Bay Area.

Artificial thymus can produce cancer-fighting T cells from blood stem cells

The first step in producing an artificial thymus which has potential for cancer age related immune decline.


UCLA researchers have created a new system to produce human T cells, the white blood cells that fight against disease-causing intruders in the body. The system could be utilized to engineer T cells to find and attack cancer cells, which means it could be an important step toward generating a readily available supply of T cells for treating many different types of cancer.

The preclinical study, published in the journal Nature Methods, was led by senior authors Dr. Gay Crooks, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and of pediatrics and co-director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, and Amelie Montel-Hagen, an associate project scientist in Crooks’ lab.

The thymus sits in the front of the heart and plays a central role in the immune system. It uses to make T cells, which help the body fight infections and have the ability to eliminate cancer cells. However, as people age or become ill, the thymus isn’t as efficient at making T cells.