Another innovation under Big data: See how AYASDI uses topological data to analyze cancer

If the big data is a resource-rich treasure trove, then the key to open the treasure is in each of us. Big data startups like AYASDI can lend you a pair of eyes that will help you find the key to your body and open up a treasure trove of big data.

Recently, AYASDI, a Silicon Valley start-up, plans to use the algorithm of topological data analysis to promote cancer research using just a $10 million trillion in funding.

The large data vertical application represented by AYASDI is clearly becoming one of the focuses of large data investments, the article before the IT Manager network: The next hot spot for big data is in the application software, we have stated:

In terms of long-term value, breakthroughs in industry or market segments can be applied beyond the current red-hot large data infrastructure platform.

New wealth in old data

Stanford scholar Gurjeet Singh, Gunnar Carlsson, and Harlan Sexton have been working on a topological approach to data analysis. Topology is an ancient branch of mathematics that has been studied since the Euler era, but in the last 15 years or so, topology has been combined with data analysis to find some invisible relationships in large data. Gurjeet Singh, Gunnar Carlsson, and Harlan Sexton in 2008, felt that the technology was commercially available. So he became a AYASDI company. (Ayasdi from Indian, meaning "seek"). The goal of AYASDI is also to help users make some new discoveries from existing data.

In the words of AYASDI's founder Gunnar Carlsson:

"People have the data, then ask questions based on the data, and follow the different trajectory of the problem to find the answer." While some of the problems are correct, others are not necessarily correct. And Ayasdi's goal is to help users answer questions they haven't thought of yet. ”

When AYASDI was founded, he received 3.5 million dollars of support from DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Project group. (Editor: Many of DARPA's projects are very forward-looking, and the DAPRA Web project ARPANET is now the predecessor of the Internet). Subsequently, AYASDI's technology, which integrates machine learning and topological data analysis, has attracted the attention of Silicon Valley's investment community.

An important feature of AYASDI's technology is that unlike other systems, it requires similar search-query statements. AYASDI can automatically discover hidden patterns from the data.

With the investment of Khosla Ventures and floodgate and other funds in place, AYASDI currently 30 of the technical team will expand, while marketing and sales will also be launched.

AYASDI investor Vinod Khosla has a famous saying that 80% of doctors in the future will be replaced by machines. He believes that AYASDI's "machine Intelligence" technology will enable us to explore the ability to achieve the past difficult to reach the heights. Thus helping to solve some global social and economic problems.

Make large data "developer"

One of the applications of AYASDI is in the field of medical research. Eric Schadt, director of the Sinai School of Genetics and Multi-scale Biology, led a team to study the genetic predisposition of some diseases using AYASDI technology. These diseases include cancer. Eric Schadt hopes the technology will help find new discoveries that could lead to some healing breakthroughs.

In fact, AYASDI has been working with pharmaceutical companies in the top U.S. hospitals. Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies can get a lot of data from open sources, combine them with their own data, and do some new research.

AYASDI's CEO, Gurjeet Singh, said:

"The data is still the data, but we are using new technology to automatically get some new discoveries from the data." ”

The analysis of a dataset, which was studied by thousands of scientists, was carried out in 15 by a cumulative collection. AYASDI's data analysis technique helped to identify 14 variants of breast cancer. AYASDI's algorithm found that patients with breast cancer had a higher survival rate in one gene subgroup. If the patient's genes are in such subgroups, they can be immune from chemotherapy.

Collective, a partner at risk fund data, Matt Ocko, an investor in the Big data field, decided to invest in AYASDI after seeing the news of the medical breakthrough. He said:

At present, the problem of government and enterprise is not the lack of data, but the discovery of data and the lack of intuitive ability. It is a breakthrough that AYASDI technology can improve the intuitive ability of analysts to face massive data in a short time.

For the healthcare industry, the big data wealth is at its feet, and even in the discarded data, as mentioned in the article "Rich Smolan: The human face of Big Data", MIT computer scientists and University of Michigan computer scientists have created a new computer model, It is possible to analyze the discarded ECG data, detect the neglected heart disease recurrence signal, and significantly improve today's heart disease risk screening techniques. )

AYASDI obtains the favor of venture capital, from one side, it shows that data intuition and data analysis innovation is the key point of medical data development.