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BALTIMORE, June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Life Extension™ and Insilico Medicine have announced an exclusive collaborative effort to identify novel biomarkers of human aging through the use of big data analytics and artificial intelligence, with the ultimate goal of nutrient formulation discovery to support health and longevity.

Insilico Medicine, Inc, is a big data analytics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore, MD, specializing in applying advances in deep learning to biomarker and drug discovery. Life Extension, a Florida-based organization established in the early 1980s is dedicated to extending healthy human longevity.

Insilico Medicine will focus on applying advanced signaling pathway activation analysis techniques and deep learning algorithms to find nutraceuticals that mimic the tissue-specific transcriptional response of many known interventions and pathways associated with health and longevity. They will also search for dietary ingredients referred to as "geroprotectors" that mimic the young healthy signaling state in older human tissues. Life Extension will use this information to develop novel nutraceutical products to support health and longevity.

"For many years I was buying a range of supplements from Life Extension, and saw how passionate they are about extending healthy human life and supporting cutting-edge research in the field," said Alex Zhavoronkov, PhD, CEO of Insilico Medicine, Inc. and the chief science officer of the Biogerontology Research Foundation in the UK.

"Life Extension's discovery research and product development teams have decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical research and have set very high standards for science based nutraceutical discovery. I am excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with Life Extension to expand our research activities substantially and translate our knowledge to healthy beneficial products," added Zhavoronkov.

Recently, Insilico Medicine published several key papers on applying deep learning techniques to biomedical applications in influential peer-reviewed journals including,

"Deep learning applications for predicting pharmacological properties of drugs and drug repurposing using transcriptomic data" in Molecular Pharmaceutics, a journal published by the American Chemical Society,

"Deep biomarkers of human aging: Application of deep neural networks to biomarker development" in Aging, one of the highest-impact journals in aging research,

"Applications of Deep Learning in Biomedicine", also in Molecular Pharmaceutics.

Scientists at Insilico Medicine regularly publish papers on multiple aspects of aging and longevity and geroprotector discovery. A recent publication included "Developing criteria for evaluation of geroprotectors as a key stage toward translation to the clinic" in Aging Cell, another influential journal in the field.  

"We believe accelerating the rate of progress in novel biomarker identification, as well as precision nutrient formulation development is critical," said Andrew G. Swick, Ph.D., senior vice president of scientific affairs, discovery research and product development for Life Extension.

"We are excited about our collaboration with Insilico Medicine because of their outstanding academic publication record, proven ability in deep learning, and team of scientists dedicated to extending productive human longevity. Our staff looks forward to collaborating with Insilico Medicine scientists to utilize their cutting edge technology to stay at the forefront of aging and natural medicine research," says Swick.

"Life Extension aims to improve health and human longevity by utilizing the experience of noted research scientists and engaging in academic and industry collaborations. Artificial intelligence is one of the promising areas, where years of experience in the nutraceutical industry combined with sophisticated biologically-inspired algorithms and high-performance computing may produce unprecedented results," added Swick.

About Life Extension

A trailblazer in the $35 billion U.S. dietary supplement industry for the past 36 years, Life Extension's core mission is to extend the healthy human life span using an integrative approach by reporting on and funding cutting-edge scientific research. Life Extension Foundation Buyer's Club, Inc. ("Life Extension") offers a full-range of premium-quality vitamins, minerals, and hormones as well as unique, specially made formulas. The company's products are developed based on the latest scientific studies from peer-reviewed medical journals and are continually updated as new information occurs. To learn more about Life Extension, visit http://www.lifeextension.com/

About Insilico Medicine

Insilico Medicine, Inc. is a bioinformatics company located at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore with R&D resources in Belgium, Russia and Poland hiring talent through hackathons and competitions. It utilizes advances in genomics, big data analysis and deep learning for in silico drug discovery and drug repurposing for aging and age-related diseases. The company pursues internal drug discovery programs in cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, sarcopenia and geroprotector discovery. Through its Pharma.AI division the company provides advanced machine learning services to biotechnology, pharmaceutical and skin care companies. Brief company video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l62jlwgL3v8 

SOURCE Life Extension