Private company - Berg - co-founded in 2006 by Silicon Valley real estate billionaire Carl Berg, uses artificial intelligence to discover new drugs and diagnostics. The company, based in Boston, Massachusetts will help England's national genomics project mine DNA and health data from thousands of British citizens for potential drug targets. The Genomics England 100,000 Genomes Project, is the latest partner with Berg. The Genomes Project aims to accelerate development of new diagnostics and treatments through a year-long industry trial, focusing on patients with rare diseases and six common cancers.
Berg plans to open an office in the UK office in 2016, to shepherd the project as well as to seek new collaborations with drug company and academic partners in Europe.
Berg has been working to change the way drugs are discovered, working in partnership with key players such as the U.S. Department of Defense and the Parkinson's Institute Clinical Center.
Berg’s co-founder and president, Niven Narain said the company uses artificial intelligence "to look at patterns in the data to find areas in the biology that are fingerprints of that disease."
Artificial intelligence supercomputer platform known to insiders as 'Betsy', Berg uses it to look at what is going on inside cells, studying all the proteins, the lipids that form cell membranes plus, govern cell communication and the way cells metabolize energy. The approach allows Berg to add far more data points in addition to DNA.
The company is planning Phase 2 trials in early 2016, per Narain, for its experimental cancer drug BPM 31510 aimed at treating solid tumors which works by reversing changes in the metabolism of cancer cells that allow them to thrive. The company choose how to develop the drug based on predictions from the computer model. Early-stage data suggests BPM 31510 helps shrink tumors when used alone and when used in combination, it increases the potency of chemotherapy.
Narain said, "We're seeing responses in gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, renal cell sarcomas," which are all highly metabolic tumors.
Industry partners with Berg include drugmakers such as AstraZeneca PLC (AZN - NYSE), Biogen Inc. (BIIB - Nasdaq), GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK - NYSE) and Roche Holding AG (RHHBY - OTC).
Contributed by Millennium Traders