Never before so much data has been produced within life sciences. At the same time, computing power, artificial intelligence and other technology necessary to handle data have been greatly improved.
The theme of this year’s WCMM Research Day held on April 12th in Lund, was artificial intelligence (AI) in medical research. A widely discussed topic that has opened up endless amounts of new opportunities within both medicine and health care. During the day many interesting questions and discussion around the topic have been raised and made it clear how much engaged our researchers are already in the newest developments of AI.
We had the opportunity to listen to the newly recruited DDLS Fellow Jacob Vogel, who gave us insight in the use of AI in investigating human neurodegenerative diseases. We learned that with "statistical learning" it is possible to dive into large patient data and classify the subtype of disease which reflects the prognosis, severity and success of treatment.
Einar Heiberg and Elin Trägårdh, both WCMM clinical researchers, talked about how computers can be trained to recognize structures in imaging data and gave several successful examples on how AI have been implemented into clinical use already, e.g., in diagnosis of prostate cancer. Very inspiring!
Four young researchers of WCMM Lund held excellent presentations about diverse topics explored throughout the center. We heard from:
- Ilia Kurochkin (Pereira group): “A transcription factor screening platform for immune cell reprogramming
- Steven Dupard (Bourgine group): “Engineering a standardized human hematopoietic niche using a dedicated mesenchymal line and a 3D-printed bioreactor system”
- Wesley Sturgess (Swaminathan group): “Proteomic analysis of force dependent changes in Integrin-based adhesion complexes reveals a novel mechanosensitive role for Septin 7”
- Maria Markus (Trägårdh group): “The predictive value of PET in locally advanced cervical cancer”
The WCMM Research Day 2023 finished the scientific part with an exciting workshop by Björn Eriksson, Director General at the Swedish Medicines Agency and Gesine Paul-Visse, Clinical PI, WCMM Lund how to bring a therapy from the bench to the clinic with an excellent example of preclinical-clinical collaboration within our centre, which led to a recent milestone clinical trial for treatment of Parkinon's disease. We thank both speakers for their insights in the regulatory steps and the science behind a truly inspiring success story in innovative medical science.
In connection with the Research Day, we had the pleasure to host the WCMM Lund Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). It was a great way for them to see the centre “in action”, interact with the WCMM Lund community and take part of the fantastic program. The SAB also had the honourable task to act as evaluators during the poster session to choose the best poster for the award winning ceremony.
We are very grateful to the amazing work the organizing committee - Inês Caiado, Camila Vazquez Echegaray and Denys Kovalenko - has done to put together this exciting program which made this day memorable. The dinner mingle after demonstrated very well the great connection between the groups of the WCMM centre in Lund and we are all looking forward to the next WCMM Research Day to connect and highlight the science of the WCMM in Lund.