Cloud based AI Clinical Data Trials System
Introduction
Aegasis Labs partnered up with Novai to build the Darc Stratos platform for them. Novai is a biotechnology start-up, commercialising DARC Technology, an exploratory retinal biomarker for use in Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) & glaucoma clinical studies. DARC combines an innovative patented biologic with a state-of-the-art AI algorithm and uses standard imaging equipment to identify cellular level disease activity
Novai were looking for an AI partner to build their Darc Stratos platform in the cloud. Based on our extensive experience building AI and Cloud solutions they partnered with us to bring this platform to life. Novai were looking for an AI partner who could help them build the AI system and the cloud platform for this AI system to be used. They were looking for a partner with extensive experince in training AI Models and building scalable cloud applications with AI systems. Aegasis Labs designed, built and delivered the Darc Stratos platform with the following success metrics
- Reliable system developed with 100% uptime and auto scaling capability
- AI system with > 90% accuracy in detection early stage Glaucoma
- Ability for the platform to encrypt, store and handle patient sensitive data in different geographies
- Ability for the platform to scale using a serverless architecture
- An intuitive UI/UX that allowed multiple tiered users to perform various actions on the platform
- Automated cloud-based analysis using AI. The scalable nature of the cloud-based system allowed the analysis of multiple trials to be completed concurrently.
- Automated cloud-based reporting, as live reports will be based on the collected data and are be available in real-time as the trial progresses
The Story of Darc Stratos – Novai
Novai is a British biotechnology company developing and commercialising DARC technology. Novai’s immediate goal was to establish DARC (Detection of Apoptosing Retinal Cells) as the market leading biomarker in the clinical development of treatments for Glaucoma and Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). They won an Innovate UK grant to complete the development of this project and ship it to their first client within a year. Using Novai’s proprietary DARC platform, consisting of a biologic combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI), pharmaceutical companies are able to de-risk and accelerate their clinical development programs, providing significant cost and time savings.
The Opportunity
There was an unmet global need in the ophthalmic space, particularly in glaucoma and AMD, for accelerating and de-risking drug development. Current diagnostics in both diseases are reliant on observing structural or visual function changes, both of which take years to manifest. Using existing endpoints, clinical trials typically last between 2 – 5 years, with economic implications relating to time and cost. Experience from trials in other neurodegenerative diseases has shown that patient stratification is extremely important in testing therapies. In glaucoma, there is strong evidence that the rate of progression in patients varies significantly. Using adaptive trial strategies, proof-of-concept neuroprotective trials would have the greatest chance of success in enriched populations where patients are at risk of rapid progression of disease. COVID-19 stalled clinical trials; however, these still need to be done, hence the requirement for a remote cloud-based solution was more urgent than ever. There was more client budget available and the demand had increased as companies are looking to get back to the timelines delayed due to the disruption caused by COVID-19.
The Solution
Aegasis Labs designed and developed the Darc Stratos Platform for Novai. The Darc Stratos platform consisted of a new proprietary biomarker (developed by Novai) and combined Artificial Intelligence (AI). The platform was built for pharmaceutical companies to enable them to de-risk and accelerate their clinical development programs, providing significant cost and time savings. We worked with Novai to develop a cloud based Clinical Data Trials System (CDTS) integrated with AI that allowed:
- Remote access and administration, enabling centralised data input into the clinical trials system.
- Direct logging of the participants with data directly entered into the system from global locations, thereby reducing input errors and data transfer issues.
- Automated cloud-based analysis using AI. The scalable nature of the cloud-based system allowed the analysis of multiple trials to be completed concurrently.
- Automated cloud-based reporting, as live reports were based on the collected data and are be available in real-time as the trial progresses.
Technologies used:
- Python Tensorflow
- Python Flask for REST API
- Angular for Frontend of the platform
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Various AWS Services (Sagemaker, Elastic Container Service, Lambdas, Step Functions, AWS Batch and more…)
The Results
Aegasis Labs designed, built and delivered the Darc Stratos platform with the following success metrics/
- Reliable system developed with 100% uptime and auto scaling capability
- AI system with > 90% accuracy in detection early stage Glaucoma
- Ability for the platform to encrypt, store and handle patient sensitive data in different geographies
- Ability for the platform to scale using a serverless architecture
- An intuitive UI/UX that allowed multiple tiered users to perform various actions on the platform
- Automated cloud-based analysis using AI. The scalable nature of the cloud-based system allowed the analysis of multiple trials to be completed concurrently.
- Automated cloud-based reporting, as live reports will be based on the collected data and are be available in real-time as the trial progresses