UPDATE: The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine has just been awarded a groundbreaking $30.6 million federal grant aimed at revolutionizing drug testing through advanced digital heart models. This urgent funding announcement, made by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) on October 12, 2023, marks a historic moment as the first of its kind for any research institution in Maine.
The funding will be utilized over three years to create sophisticated digital models of the human heart, designed to evaluate drugs across various genetic profiles and physiological differences. This innovative approach aims to address a critical issue in drug development: the failure of promising medications during clinical trials due to inadequate predictive models.
Alicia Jackson, director of ARPA-H, emphasized the importance of this initiative, stating,
“Too many promising medicines fail late, after years of work and enormous cost, because our best tools still don’t reliably predict how a drug will behave in people.”
The new models will leverage artificial intelligence to better forecast drug safety and efficacy long before clinical trials commence.
Matt Mahoney, principal computational scientist at Jackson Lab and the project’s principal investigator, expressed enthusiasm about the initiative. He noted, “We’re tremendously excited. The idea of taking animal models out of pre-clinical safety evaluations and doing better with artificial intelligence and simulation is a tremendous opportunity.”
The new grant will not only fund the development of these models but will also lead to the creation of additional jobs at the laboratory, which currently employs over 1,000 staff members. Although Mahoney did not disclose the exact number of new positions, he confirmed that hiring will commence shortly.
One of the major focuses of this project is to combat cardiotoxicity, a leading cause of clinical trial failures where drugs negatively impact heart function. Mahoney explained, “Our project is using a combination of AI methods and human cellular models and physical simulation to design virtual human populations that we can use as a replacement for animal models to test for toxicity.”
The announcement has received widespread support, including praise from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who highlighted the significance of this funding. In a statement, Collins said, “This more than $30 million grant is a testament to the incredible work happening at The Jackson Laboratory that has the potential to dramatically reduce the time and cost of drug development.”
As this project unfolds, it promises to reshape the landscape of biomedical research and drug testing, making it a pivotal development for the future of medicine. Keep an eye on this transformative initiative as it progresses and brings to light new possibilities for patient care and drug safety.
Stay tuned for more updates on this extraordinary project coming out of Maine.
