HONG KONG, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Endurance RP Limited’s (“Endurance Longevity” or the “Company” and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”; stock code: 0575.HK) wholly owned subsidiary Deep Longevity, Inc, a leading provider of deep biomarkers of aging and longevity is pleased to announce its collaboration with Dr. Nancy Etcoff of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Etcoff is widely recognized in the field of psychology and is a member of the Harvard University Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative where she teaches a seminar on “The Science of Happiness.” She is also a practicing psychologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry where she is the director of the Program in Aesthetics and Well Being.
Today, Deep Longevity, in co-authorship with Dr. Etcoff, has published an article in Aging-US describing a machine learning approach to human psychology: “Optimizing future well-being with artificial intelligence: Self-organizing maps (SOMs) for the identification of islands of emotional stability.” The article serves as the scientific background for a free self-help application, FuturSelf, developed by Deep Longevity.
The authors used data from the Midlife in the US study to create two digital models of human psychology.
The first model is an ensemble of deep neural networks that use information from a psychological survey to predict the chronological age of the respondents and their psychological well-being in 10 years. This model demonstrates the aging-related trajectories of the human mind. It also shows that the ability to build meaningful relationships increases with age, as do mental autonomy and environmental mastery. It simultaneously indicates that the focus on personal growth steadily declines, and the feeling of having a purpose in life only drops after 40–50 years. These findings contribute to the discussion of socioemotional selectivity and hedonic adaptation in the context of adult personality development.
The second model is a self-organizing map developed as the backbone of a recommendation engine for mental health applications. This automated learning technique divides all respondents into clusters based on their risk of developing depression and identifies the shortest path toward a cluster of mental stability for any individual. Alex Zhavoronkov, the Chief Longevity Officer of Deep Longevity, elaborates, “Existing mental health applications offer generic advice that applies to everyone yet fits no one. We have built a system that is scientifically sound and offers superior personalization.”
To demonstrate this system’s potential, Deep Longeivty has developed FuturSelf, a free online application that lets users take the psychological test described in the original publication. At the end of the assessment, users receive a report with insights aimed at improving their long-term mental health and well-being and can enrol in a guidance program that provides them with a steady flow of AI-chosen recommendations. Data obtained on FuturSelf will be used to further develop Deep Longevity’s digital approach to mental health with the aim of offering the application via a B2B SaaS model to insurance companies, large corporates and other employers to allow their employees to track their own mental health and wellbeing.
In recent years, given the worldwide pandemic and its impact on workplace changes (including an increased emphasis on remote work and the associated psychological effects), large employers have developed a keen awareness of the importance of employee’s mental health. In order to address how mental health can be tracked to help employees better cope with job demands and maximize their productivity, Deep Longevity is focused on providing highly scalable and commercial solutions that can be applied cost effectively across all industries. Using Deep Longevity’s digital approach to managing mental health, an invaluable feedback loop is created that can help employees thrive by increasing their motivation and productivity or allowing them to seek important emotional support when required. On a per-employee basis, the cost to employers to provide this essential human resource function can be minimal. Ongoing discussions with large insurance companies and other multinational corporations suggest that the commercial opportunity for Deep Longevity (through Futurself and other applications) is immense and geographically scalable across all markets world-wide.
A leading biogerontology expert, professor Vadim Gladyshev from Harvard Medical School, comments on the potential of FuturSelf: “This study offers an interesting perspective on psychological age, future well-being, and risk of depression, and demonstrates a novel application of machine learning approaches to the issues of psychological health. It also broadens how we view aging and transitions through life stages and emotional states.”
The authors plan to continue studying human psychology in the context of aging and long-term well-being. They are working on a follow-up study on the effect of happiness on physiological measures of aging.
Jamie Gibson, Chief Executive Officer of Endurance Longevity said, “As one of the forerunners in the longevity AI market, we are thrilled to achieve this remarkable milestone together with the world’s top-notch scientists. We are confident about the future of integrating deep learning AI technologies in human psychology and the development of digital solution to improve people’s mental health and overall well-being.”
About Deep Longevity
Deep Longevity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Endurance Longevity (SEHK:0575.HK), a publicly-traded company. Deep Longevity is developing explainable artificial intelligence systems to track the rate of aging at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, system, physiological, and psychological levels. It is also developing systems for the emerging field of longevity medicine, which enables physicians to make better decisions on the interventions that may slow down or reverse the aging processes. Deep Longevity developed Longevity as a Service (LaaS)© solution to integrate multiple deep biomarkers of aging dubbed “deep aging clocks” to provide a universal multifactorial measure of human biological age.
Originally incubated by Insilico Medicine, Deep Longevity started its independent journey in 2020 after securing a round of funding from the most credible venture capitalists specializing in biotechnology, longevity, and artificial intelligence: ETP Ventures; the Human Longevity and Performance Impact Venture Fund; BOLD Capital Partners; Longevity Vision Fund; LongeVC; Michael Antonov, the co-founder of Oculus; and other expert AI and biotechnology investors supported the company. Deep Longevity established a research partnership with one of the most prominent longevity organizations, Human Longevity, Inc., one of the most prominent longevity organizations to provide a range of aging clocks to the network of advanced physicians and researchers.
https://www.deeplongevity.com/
About Endurance Longevity (Stock code: 0575.HK)
Endurance Longevity is a diversified investment group based in Hong Kong currently holding various corporate and strategic investments focusing on the healthcare, wellness and life sciences sectors. The Group has a strong track record of investments and has returned approximately US$298 million to shareholders in the 21 years of financial reporting since its initial public offering.
This press release is distributed by LBS Communications Consulting Limited.
