OutSee wins Longitude Prize award for ALS target discovery

OutSee has been selected to receive a Discovery Award from the Longitude Prize on ALS, giving the genomics and drug discovery company access to one of the world’s largest amyotrophic lateral sclerosis datasets as it looks to find new therapeutic targets for the disease.

The award includes £100,000 in funding and access to genomic data from 9,000 ALS patients, supporting a nine-month research programme using OutSee’s proprietary AI-driven genomics platform, Nomaly.

The company said the project will focus on discovering previously unidentified disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Access to one of the largest ALS datasets

The Longitude Prize on ALS provides researchers with access to a large-scale global dataset that combines multiple layers of biological and clinical information for the first time.

This includes whole genome sequencing data from 9,000 ALS patients, alongside epigenomic, transcriptomic and proteomic data from more than 2,000 cases. The dataset is also supported by neuroimaging and detailed clinical information.

Researchers hope the integrated resource will help improve understanding of the molecular mechanisms driving ALS and support the development of new treatments.

The Longitude Prize on ALS provides researchers with access to a large-scale global dataset that combines multiple layers of biological and clinical information for the first time.

ALS affects around one in 300 people during their lifetime and prevalence is expected to rise as populations age. Studies suggest global cases could increase by 25 percent by 2040.

Inspired by the original Longitude Act of 1714, the modern Longitude Prize was established to develop new innovations in areas of major unmet medical need. Previous programmes have focused on fields including antimicrobial resistance and dementia.

The Longitude Prize on ALS is a £7.5 million international challenge aimed at using advances in artificial intelligence and computational biology to discover effective new therapeutic targets for the disease.

AI-driven genomics approach

OutSee said its Nomaly platform differs from conventional genomics analysis tools by using hypothesis-free predictive modelling to analyse the molecular and cellular biology of the genome.

According to the company, the platform is designed to predict disease and phenotype directly from a single genome without relying on predefined assumptions.

The approach also aims to identify patterns and disease signals in genomic regions that may have been overlooked or inaccessible using previous analytical methods.

OutSee believes this capability could enable researchers to generate new insights from datasets that have already undergone extensive analysis through other approaches.

According to the company, the platform is designed to predict disease and phenotype directly from a single genome without relying on predefined assumptions

Once promising therapeutic targets are identified, the company plans to work with external collaborators to advance them towards further development.

This includes collaboration with Dr Martin Turner and his group at the University of Oxford Department of Clinical Neurosciences, which will provide disease-specific expertise for the ALS programme.

“We are excited to have been selected for a Discovery Award, which will enable us to access genomic data from ALS patients on an unprecedented scale,” said Dr Chang Lu, Chief Scientific Officer at OutSee. ”We have already built a strong internal pipeline of targets in CNS diseases and are confident that our breakthrough genomics platform and expertise in AI-driven target identification uniquely place OutSee to unlock new insights into the mechanisms that underpin ALS, and to translate those insights into valuable new therapeutic targets.”