This project, coordinated by the University of Padova, will focus on various brain diseases, including ALS, MS, Parkinson’s, depression, anxiety, ADHD and Alzheimer’s. But also on intestinal disorders such as inflammatory diseases, diabetes and obesity. Expectations are high as it is hoped that this project will open new avenues for the treatment and diagnosis of these conditions. AI technology will help to better understand and treat the complex relationship between brain and intestinal health.
Search for correlations with AI
Recent studies, including a study published in Nature Communicationspreviously confirmed the undeniable relationship between the intestinal system and mental well-being. For example, the mentioned study supported the idea that the gut microbiome and diet play a significant role in depression, by establishing a clear link between the presence or absence of certain types of bacteria in the gut and the presence or absence of symptoms of depression.
The new international project, called HEREDITARY, is mainly focused on the development of an advanced AI-driven computer system that can discover correlations between disorders of both the brain and the intestines. Various types of medical data are used, including text, blood values, medical images and genetics. Thanks to these smart analyses, more personal patient advice may soon be possible.
The HEREDITARY project focuses on connecting and analyzing these enormous data flows. It focuses on disorders of intestinal health and the brain, because these organs strongly influence each other. The system will look for patterns in the data, such as the co-occurrence of certain conditions. This is done with algorithms that are able to learn from large amounts of data.
Healthy Brain Study
In Nijmegen, where a significant part of the preliminary data is already available, researchers such as Francesco Ciompi and Annemarie Boleij are already analyzing intestinal bacteria, genetic information and MRI scans of the brain. These data are now being integrated and linked in the context of this project.
In an earlier EU project, Francesco Ciompi already collected 20,000 digitized microscopy images of intestinal polyps and biopsies. Annemarie Boleij and Nils Kohn use analyzes of intestinal bacteria, genetic information and a large number of MRI scans of the brain, collected in the Healthy Brain Stud. The researchers will link this data together.
Grand Challenge platform
The algorithms are hosted on the Grand Challenge platform, which was developed at Radboud university medical center. “The Research Software Engineering team built this platform for global competitions to see who can develop the best algorithm for the analysis of medical images, such as CT or MRI scans,” says Francesco Ciompi at the website from Radboudumc. “But the platform can also host algorithms and data and make them available in different ways. Currently there are medical images and digital sections of pathology, but within the project we are expanding to include genetics.”
AI technology is advancing
The use of AI technology in healthcare is of course not new and is developing rapidly. For example, there are projects in which AI helps in the diagnosis of diseases such as breast cancer or lung cancer, in signaling impending heart failure and in optimizing care processes. The use of AI to discover new correlations between health conditions, such as in the large-scale HEREDITARY project, also demonstrates the growing role of AI in personalized medicine and diagnostics.
2024-01-22 11:45:00
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