Company Seeks To Combat Aging And Disease With AI And Deep Learning

That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead." Hollywood has been speculating on the subject via the big screen for decades. Indeed one of its most famous seemingly prophetic films opened some 34 years ago as a near-indestructible humanoid cyborg returned from 2029 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son would lead humanity in a war against the machines. A sculpture of Terminator seen during the temporary exhibition called'Gallery of Steel Figures' at the Museum of Municipal Engineering in Krakow. The exhibition of Steel Figures is inspired by the study of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London. The exhibition of Steel Figures is inspired by the study of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London. And though the ramifications of the unknown to our pre-computerized world scared us a bit at the time, we've found that The Information Age and shift from the Industrial Revolution has been far more beneficial than destructive. One company born of the digital or computer age is using artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning for drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research, and its founder couldn't be more hopeful. Insilico Medicine is a Baltimore-based company focusing on next-generation AI and blockchain technologies for drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research. Through bioinformatics (using computer science to understand biological processes), research and development offices in six countries around the globe, 49 employees and more than $12 million in venture funding, Insilico and Founder and CEO Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov aspire to extend healthy longevity through innovative AI solutions for drug discovery, aging research and preventing and/or curing disease. Zhavoronkov said the company's value is mainly in its intellectual property or the molecules Insilico is creating that could eventually be sold for billions of dollars. "We are a sizable player in AI--one of the top 100 AI companies in the world," he said. But as with most ideas that change the world--think Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Apple Computers--profits are rarely the focus. Zhavoronkov said his founding Insilico was a "calculated decision" based on "basic mathematics." Consider the quality-adjusted life year. The QALY, as it's referred to by scientists, is a generic measure of disease burden, including both the quality and the quantity of life lived. The QALY is used in economic evaluation to determine the value for money of medical interventions, thus one QALY equates to one year in perfect health. The US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health says the QALY calculation is simple: "the change in utility value induced by the treatment is multiplied by the duration of the treatment effect to provide the number of QALYs gained.