#IIMEC16 11 Rowan Gardner 16th Invest in ME Research International ME Conference 2024

Summary

Precision Life's presentation delves into their approach to analyzing patient data for chronic diseases, focusing on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). They employ a hypothesis-free method to identify combinatorial risk signatures in genetic data, revealing distinct subgroups within the patient population. This method has potential for clinical research and diagnostics, offering a scalable way to understand complex chronic diseases and identify novel drug targets.

Takeaways

• 🔬 Precision Life focuses on complex chronic diseases, which account for 80% of healthcare costs and significantly impact life expectancy.
• 📊 They utilize patient data to analyze chronic conditions, working with organizations like UK Biobank, patient charities, and the DECODE study group.
• 🧬 Precision Life challenges traditional genomic analysis methods, arguing that they are not suitable for complex chronic diseases due to their multifactorial nature.
• 🔍 The company's approach involves finding statistically significant combinations of markers for patient subgroups to achieve a hypothesis-free stratification.
• 🌟 They have identified various disease mechanisms in Alzheimer's patients, including lipoprotein metabolism, post-viral inflammation, and neurotransmitter mechanisms.
• 💡 Precision Life's findings are shared in a proprietary repository called the 'Disease Bank' and are used to expand knowledge on known targets and identify novel ones.
• 📈 The company has conducted over 50 disease studies, identifying patterns across different diseases and novel drug targets, such as a GPCR implicated in multiple CNS indications.
• 🔑 Precision Life's method is highly scalable and has the potential to be applied in clinical research and diagnostics for patient stratification.
• 📚 The speaker emphasizes the importance of publishing findings to either be proven wrong or to advance knowledge, echoing the philosophy of 'publish or be damned'.
• 🤝 Precision Life collaborates with the Metrodora Institute to move findings into clinical applications, aiming to validate their predictive model and develop treatments.
• 🙌 The speaker expresses gratitude to the patient community, experts, and colleagues for their contributions to the research and development process.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of Precision Life's work?

Precision Life focuses on complex chronic diseases, which account for 80% of all health care costs and significantly impact most people's lives.

Why is the approach of Precision Life different from traditional genomic analysis?

Precision Life's approach differs because it looks for combinations of markers that are statistically significant for subgroups of the patient population, rather than single features across a whole population, which is the traditional method used in genomic analysis.

What is the significance of the work done by Precision Life in the field of Alzheimer's disease?

Precision Life's work in Alzheimer's disease is significant because it identifies not just the well-known genetic variants in the APOE locus, but also other mechanisms such as post-viral neuroinflammation, autophagy, and neurotransmitter mechanisms, which could potentially lead to new treatment approaches.

How does Precision Life's approach to patient data analysis benefit the pharmaceutical industry?

Precision Life's approach can help the pharmaceutical industry by identifying novel target biology and expanding the knowledge around known targets, providing insights into the directionality and causality of these targets, which can be used in clinical research and diagnostics.

What is the potential application of Precision Life's findings in clinical research and diagnostics?

The findings from Precision Life could potentially be used for mechanistic patient stratification by marker, which may have applications in clinical research for better understanding patient subgroups and in diagnostics for more accurate disease identification.

How does Precision Life identify potential drug targets for complex chronic diseases?

Precision Life identifies potential drug targets by analyzing patient data to find combinations of genetic markers that are statistically significant for subgroups of the patient population and then mapping these to known biological mechanisms.

What was the initial motivation for Precision Life to study post-viral chronic conditions like ME/CFS?

The initial motivation was to understand the host response to the virus and how certain people were having severe forms of the disease, especially during the pandemic when UK Biobank uploaded its first dataset for severe COVID patients.

What is the significance of the combinatorial risk signatures identified by Precision Life in the context of ME/CFS?

The combinatorial risk signatures are significant because they represent clusters of genetic markers that are associated with different subgroups of ME/CFS patients, potentially explaining different clinical presentations and offering insights into the underlying disease mechanisms.

How does Precision Life's approach to analyzing patient data contribute to the understanding of ME/CFS?

Precision Life's approach contributes by providing a hypothesis-free mechanistic stratification of the patient population, which can link genetic observations to specific clinical phenotypes and potentially explanatory mechanisms for the symptoms experienced by ME/CFS patients.

What is the next step for Precision Life in terms of clinical validation and treatment development for ME/CFS?

The next step involves proving the predictive value of their model, working with the Metrodora Institute to recruit patients, genotype them, and plan clinical trials to test the efficacy of drugs targeting the identified mechanisms in patient subgroups.