AI Longevity Daily

Today’s Summary

Insilico nominates AI-designed oral VAV1 degrader as preclinical candidate; all data from animal studies.
From virtual-cell scoring calibration to T-cell buoyant mass metrics, AI and novel biomarker tool validations remain limited in scale.
Readers should verify mouse mechanism data linking BCG to dementia; animal results cannot be directly extrapolated to humans.

🔥 Today’s Top 10

1. Shift Bioscience publishes Nature Biotechnology paper introducing new scoring framework for AI “virtual cells”

Shift Bioscience, the Cambridge-based company, announced on October 5 the publication of a paper in Nature Biotechnology detailing a calibration framework for genetic perturbation models, according to Longevity.Technology’s coverage . The paper argues that poor performance scores for virtual-cell models may stem partly from biased evaluation metrics rather than insufficient model capability. After correcting the scoring system, some models demonstrated biologically meaningful predictive power. Shift says it will apply the framework to aging target screening, starting with liver fibrosis through combined in-vitro and computational screening. Current results represent methodological refinement with no new targets or human data; a better ruler does not equal drug efficacy.

2. KAUST and Oxford jointly develop blood sensor for Parkinson’s, achieving 90.9% accuracy in small sample

KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) and the University of Oxford used an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) sensor to simultaneously read three forms of alpha-synuclein from blood in approximately 40 minutes, according to research published in Science Advances and reported by Longevity.Technology . In a blinded evaluation of 59 participants from Oxford’s Discovery cohort (Parkinson’s patients, healthy controls, and isolated REM sleep behavior disorder patients), the platform achieved 90.9% accuracy. Researchers explicitly stated this is not yet an independent clinical blood test, characterizing it as a retrospective, small-sample pilot study without disclosed false-positive/false-negative analysis, requiring larger prospective multicenter validation.

3. Insilico Medicine nominates AI-designed oral VAV1 degrader as preclinical candidate

Insilico Medicine announced the nomination of ISM9546 as a preclinical candidate—an oral VAV1 molecular glue degrader designed with the Chemistry42 platform, targeting autoimmune diseases, according to Longevity.Technology’s report . VAV1 has long been considered “undruggable” due to the absence of obvious binding pockets. In animal acute colitis models, histopathology scores improved by approximately 60%, with reduced inflammatory cell infiltration and intestinal damage; 14-day toxicology studies in rodents and non-human primates showed no significant safety signals. All current data are from animal experiments, with no human data or clinical timeline disclosed.

4. Low-fat vegan diet reduces liver fat by average of 33% in 16-week trial with type 2 diabetes patients

A single-arm clinical trial published in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care enrolled 24 completers (type 2 diabetes patients, average age 59) on a 16-week ad libitum low-fat vegan diet, according to Lifespan.io’s coverage . HbA1c dropped from 7.6% to 6.6%, liver fat decreased approximately 33%, visceral fat volume reduced by about 290 cm³, and skin advanced glycation end-product (AGE) scores fell from 3.1 to 2.7. Some participants reduced or discontinued metformin. This is the first plant-based diet intervention study to simultaneously measure liver fat, muscle fat, visceral fat, and skin AGEs. Without a control group and with a small sample, participants self-reported a natural 346 kcal/day calorie reduction and 6 kg weight loss; results cannot exclude the confounding contribution of energy deficit.

5. Roche licenses Rona Therapeutics’ ALK7 RNAi therapy

Rona Therapeutics announced on October 13 that it granted Roche exclusive worldwide rights to an RNAi candidate targeting ALK7 (encoded by the ACVR1C gene) for obesity and metabolic disease, according to Longevity.Technology’s report . Potential milestone payments cap at $100 million upfront and near-term plus $1.06 billion in subsequent milestones. ALK7 is predominantly expressed in adipose tissue; human genetics studies link lower ALK7 activity to healthier fat distribution. The announcement provides no human data; total milestone amounts are paid only if the drug advances through each stage and do not represent actual revenue.

6. Italy’s San Raffaele Hospital launches early lab study on encapsulated pancreatic β-cells

Avaí Bio and Austrianova announced on October 7 the first joint steering committee meeting with Ospedale San Raffaele (OSR) to initiate preliminary research protocols for encapsulated β-cell replacement therapy for insulin-dependent diabetes, according to Longevity.Technology’s coverage . OSR provides a stem cell-derived β-cell differentiation platform; Austrianova provides Cell-in-a-Box® encapsulation technology. The primary goal is to confirm whether encapsulated cells can maintain viability and function; no patients are involved. OSR’s Professor Lorenzo Piemonti explicitly stated the work is at a very early stage; no in-vitro or animal study data are available for citation.

7. MIT study shows T-cell buoyant mass predicts immune checkpoint therapy response

An MIT team used suspended microchannel resonator (SMR) technology to measure T-cell buoyant mass; in a clinical study of 28 melanoma patients receiving immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, this physical metric outperformed traditional tumor mutational burden (TMB) for predicting treatment response, according to [GEN’s coverage]( https://www.genengnew