Prime Highlights
- NIH funds second phase of AI project to improve Alzheimer’s diagnosis and treatment.
- AI4AD2 brings together global researchers to study large health and genetic data.
Key Facts
- Total NIH funding for the initiative reaches 30.7 million dollars.
- Project uses AI to analyse brain scans, DNA data, and cognitive tests.
Background
The National Institutes of Health provides 12.6 million dollars to fund the second phase of the Artificial Intelligence for Alzheimer’s Disease project, which is called AI4AD2. With this funding, the total investment in the programme reaches 30.7 million dollars. The project aims to improve the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia using advanced artificial intelligence tools.
Paul M. Thompson, associate director at the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, leads the initiative. The project draws in ten senior investigators with 23 co-investigators from ten institutions, thus creating a strong platform for research.
AI4AD2 research investigates extensive datasets that contain complete genome sequences and brain imaging results, cognitive assessment data and various biological research materials. Researchers use this data to better understand how the disease develops and how it can be treated more effectively.
The initiative builds on the earlier AI4AD project, launched in 2020. That phase develops AI tools that identify Alzheimer’s related patterns in brain scans with over 90 percent accuracy after training on 80,000 scans.
In the new phase, researchers work on four key goals. They aim to identify different subtypes of Alzheimer’s and related diseases by analysing brain scans and genetic data. They also develop genomic language models to study DNA data from more than 58,000 participants across multiple groups.
It also prepares toolkits for Indian, African, Korean, and US audiences. Besides, AI is being used to find possible drug targets for the development of improved treatments for Alzheimer’s.
