Genomics researcher and former NASA data scientist, Shirley Pepke, and Greg Ver Steeg with his Correlation Explanation machine learning algorithm (which extracts hidden patterns in large, high-dimensional data sets) may have helped drive Pepke's ovarian cancer into remission. The team also found that the gene therapy worked by boosting a protein called PD-1, which is known to be involved in regulating cell growth. Pepke and Ver Steeg are working to confirm the results in a larger population of patients.
Genomics researcher and former NASA data scientist, Shirley Pepke, and Greg Ver Steeg with his Correlation Explanation machine learning algorithm (which extracts hidden patterns in large, high-dimensional data sets) may have helped drive Pepke's ovarian cancer into remission. Based on the CorEx results and data relating to her own tumour, Pepke opted for an as-yet-unapproved immunotherapy drug over a second-in-a-row round of chemo, which may have contributed to the remission of her cancer, as "the disease progression was very consistent with an immunotherapy-type response", she said. Pepke and Ver Steeg are working to confirm the results in a larger population of patients.