Opening New Paths in Aging Research

In medicine, few problems are as complex—or as far-reaching—as aging. The biological processes intertwined in aging often determine how long people can live in good health. At Calico Life Sciences, Matt Onsum, Head of AI/ML, and Katherine Labbé, Chief Scientist, are using Co-Scientist to connect research findings scattered across the biology of aging and turn them into testable hypotheses.

This is no easy task, because the biological literature is full of findings of uneven quality, dead ends, and experimental results that cannot be reproduced. Onsum says Co-Scientist impressed Calico’s experts with its scientific judgment, helping them cut through the noise and identify genuinely promising new ideas worth exploring.

One example comes from Calico’s work on the integrated stress response (ISR). ISR is a protective cellular mechanism, but when it remains switched on, it can also contribute to disease. The Calico team used Co-Scientist to generate a novel but plausible hypothesis: ISR may be regulated by metabolism, which is known to change with age and in a range of diseases. Researchers also worked with Co-Scientist to refine the experimental design used to test the hypothesis, feeding in new information as results emerged. The experiments yielded new findings with important implications for the role of ISR in health and disease, and the team plans to publish the results.

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One of the things that was both exciting and surprising to me about using Co-Scientist was how much it thinks like a scientist. It really aligns naturally with the way scientists already think and work.

Katherine Labbé, PhD, Chief Scientist

Calico Life Sciences

Seeing how Co-Scientist can help us synthesize all the information around us to better unravel the mysteries of aging—that is perhaps the boldest, most game-changing effort I can think of.

Matt Onsum, PhD, Head of AI/ML

Calico Life Sciences