Probing the Secrets to Human Longevity with Methuselah Flies
In the 1980s, biologist Dr Michael Rose started to selectively breed Drosophila fruit flies for increased longevity. Today, the descendants of the original Methuselah flies are held by biotech firm Genescient Corporation and live 4.5 times longer than normal fruit flies.
The flies’ increased lifespan is explained by a significant number of systemic genetic changes — but how many of these variations represent lessons that can be used to design longevity therapies for humans? Dr. Ben Goertzel and his bio-AI colleagues at SingularityNET and Rejuve.AI are betting the answer is quite a few.
SingularityNET and Rejuve.AI have launched a partnership with Genescient to apply advanced machine learning and machine reasoning methods to transfer insights gained from the Methuselah fly genome to the human genome. The goal is to acquire new information regarding gene therapies, drugs or nutraceutical regimens for prolonging healthy human life.
The global average life expectancy has increased from 66.8 years in 2000 to 72.98 in 2022. The improvements in sanitation, healthcare and lifestyle over the years have contributed to this natural extension. However, these changes can only contribute so much to life expectancy before genetic elements prevent further extension.
To understand the precise ways in which our human biology predestines us to die at 120 years or less, the most direct path is to decipher how ageing is encoded into the human genome. Unfortunately, direct experimentation on human ageing is slow — it takes a long time to see whether an intervention has extended a human subject’s life or not. One could also measure biomarkers of ageing, but this is an imprecise art.
These barriers motivate many biologists to study ageing through model organisms with significantly shorter lifespans such as mice, flies and microorganisms. The challenge then is to translate what one has learned from these other organisms to humans. Modern AI techniques can help.
Genescient is providing SingularityNET access to DNA, RNA and other genomic and physiological information from its Methuselah flies, fruit flies selectively bred to have a generational span 4.5 times longer than their wild counterparts. SingularityNET and Rejuve’s AI analysts will then crunch this data using neural nets and other machine learning tools, along with symbolic AI methods.
The analysis will use deep neural networks, OpenCog probabilistic reasoning platform and SingularityNET’s Bio-Atomspace knowledge graph, curated from numerous bio databases and research papers. The objective is to identify the most critical biological patterns differentiating Methuselah flies from normal control flies.
To help their AI algorithms determine which fruit-fly longevity patterns can port over to human beings, SingularityNET and Rejuve’s scientists are extending the Bio-Atomspace to add the fruit fly database to the space’s existing human genomic and clinical data. This data comes from a broad spectrum of people of various ages and at various levels of health.
This work is a continuation of work Dr. Goertzel performed with Genescient about ten years ago where he applied machine learning to Methuselah fly genomic data. This earlier work identified numerous genes and pathways associated with Methuselah fly longevity, including many associated with neurological, heart and immune function, and formed the basis for the design of Stem Cell 100 and other nutraceuticals marketed by Genescient partner firms.
The Methuselah flies under study today are considerably longer-lived and present a more clear genomic signal. More importantly, both genomic measurement and AI tools have advanced substantially and now possess a far greater capability to illuminate medically critical patterns.
“I strongly believe we are within, at most, a few decades of curing human ageing,” states Dr Goertzel. “With the breadth and depth of omics data now available across multiple organisms, and the power of modern AI technology to sift through this data to find actionable patterns, plus new therapeutic methods like CRISPR and stem cell injections, the death of death is almost certainly near.
The Methuselah flies constitute a truly unique data source with incomparably powerful information about the causes of ageing. Already a number of years ago, in my previous work with Genescient, we figured out how to double the lives of middle-aged flies by feeding them appropriate combinations of supplements. Today in 2022, our AI tools have the ability to figure out which of the causes and cures of fly ageing will port over to humans.
We’ll need a lot of human data to feed the AI, but the Rejuve Network provides a solid mechanism for incentivizing people to contribute their data to feed the AI and get fairly compensated for it. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but the path to follow is clear and we have a great team geared up to move fast.”
“Genescient created a platform for the discovery of novel treatments for the diseases associated with ageing,” states Carlos Balarezo, CEO of Genescient, “SingularityNET and Rejuve.AI bring a compelling array of tools and resources to accelerate the discovery of treatments for these diseases, conditions that cause significant suffering to all those they touch.”
SingularityNET’s genetic flies project falls within the company’s philosophy of AI projects for social good, much like their work on Grace, the robotic healthcare assistant.
Although longevity research will likely take several years to bear fruit, SingularityNET’s many projects in healthcare will unlock a more democratic, decentralized and transparent use of biodata.
