Translational Biomedical Data Science for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Project Purpose Statement: The purpose of this Biomedical Data Science project is to develop transparent ‘clinical-grade’ high dimensional cell free RNA (liquid biopsy) models that will provide insight into the rewired network of underlying pathological mechanisms of Neurodegenerative Diseases (NDD).

Project Description: An understanding of etiology and successful management of Neurodegenerative Diseases has lagged substantially behind other diseases. Among the key reasons for this delay are the i) underappreciation for the complexity and heterogeneity of NDD, ii) lack of reproducibility and generalizability of ‘research-grade’ efforts, and iii) high failure rate, cost and elapsed time for pharmacotherapy development to delay or mitigate severity of disease. The Data Mine team will become familiar with and apply Biomedicine-specific data preprocessing and feature selection, generate simulated data to complement and extend primary data, employ statistical and artificial Intelligence /Machine learning (AI/ML) tools (supervised, unsupervised and ensemble) to discern the involved discrete and overlapping network modules, and Bioinformatic interpretation of the ontology of the gene network modules.

Corporate Partner Mentors: Drs. Samantha Khoury and John Sninsky (Translational HDPM)