STAT+: Verge Labs’ new AI model solves patient stratification problems for neurology clinical trials

Verge Labs released STAT+ on an AI model named STAT+ designed to address patient stratification challenges in neurology clinical trials on an unspecified date. Verge Labs, co-founded by Alice Zhang over a decade ago, aimed to develop drugs for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, ALS, and Alzheimer's by analyzing gene networks. The company achieved some success, with Eli Lilly nominating two Verge Labs targets for its internal pipeline in 2024. However, Verge Labs' own ALS drug candidate failed its Phase 1b trial last month, with a third of participants discontinuing due to drug intolerance. Zhang stated to STAT that sharing postmortem trial data, even from failures, offers valuable learnings for the broader scientific community, a practice she noted is not frequently undertaken. The AI model STAT+ leverages data from such trials, including the recent ALS trial failure, to improve patient selection for future studies.