BREAKING: The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has just been awarded a groundbreaking federal grant of up to $30.6 million to develop digital models of the human heart. This award, announced today by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), marks a historic moment as it is the first specialized federal funding of its kind for a research institution in Maine.
This significant funding will enable the lab to create innovative digital heart models designed for drug testing, which could revolutionize how medications are evaluated across diverse genetic profiles and patient populations. According to Alicia Jackson, director of ARPA-H, “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 grant is part of a national initiative that supports eight projects aimed at developing advanced computer models that realistically mimic human biology. These models are intended to forecast drug safety and efficacy long before clinical trials begin, significantly improving the drug development process.
Matt Mahoney, principal computational scientist at the Jackson Lab and principal investigator for the project, emphasized the scale and ambition of this initiative. “We’re tremendously excited,” Mahoney stated. “The idea of taking animal models out of pre-clinical safety evaluations and doing better with artificial intelligence and simulation is a tremendous opportunity. It’s really exciting.”
One of the primary challenges in drug development is cardiotoxicity, where medications adversely affect heart function. Traditional animal models often fall short in accurately predicting human responses. Mahoney noted, “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.”
This grant not only promises to accelerate the pace of drug development but also opens new employment opportunities at the Jackson Laboratory, which currently employs over 1,000 people. While Mahoney did not specify the number of new positions to be created, he highlighted the lab’s commitment to expanding its workforce.
Senator Susan Collins praised the award, calling it a testament to the innovative research being conducted at the Jackson Laboratory. “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,” Collins stated in a press release.
As the Jackson Laboratory embarks on this ambitious venture, the implications for the future of medicine and drug safety are immense. The project is set to redefine how researchers approach drug development and safety assessments, potentially saving lives and resources in the process.
Stay tuned for updates on this developing story as the Jackson Laboratory takes the lead in pioneering new methods for drug testing and safety evaluation.
