Anavex Life Sciences Corp (AVXL)

[LGL8054]

Prior to advances in computers and genomics, this was less of a problem. Now, due to advances in scientific tools and biological knowledge, our ability to predict how patients will respond to specific drugs increases daily. The outdated one-size-fits-all approach to medicine is changing, but not nearly fast enough.

There are, for example, many differences between races and sexes. Prediabetic and diabetic Asians may respond better to acarbose than to diabetes medications developed for European populations. This may contribute to terrible diabetes-related mortality rates among American Indians, whose genomes include a major Asian component.

That raises an even more difficult question, though. What about those of us who have mixed genomes? My family has enough Algonquin and Cherokee blood to make most of us lactose intolerant and the men incapable of growing decent beards. Does that mean we should be taking acarbose rather than metformin?

I don’t have a clue. No one does. However, there is a solution: artificial intelligence (AI).

The cost of fully sequencing a genome is less than the cost of a comprehensive blood test, and still falling. The amount of genomic data generated today is overwhelming and growing constantly. We long ago reached the point where it is impossible for human scientists to analyze that data manually.

Fortunately, new AI technologies, both hardware and software, are developing in parallel. They automate thinking to perform immense, and immensely boring, analyses. As they reveal the rules of our genetic machinery, they enable solutions to the medical challenges every one of us faces. They can also solve the crushing debt problem imposed by a rapidly aging population. Traditional medical and regulatory tools are simply not up to the task.