Moving Towards Precision Medicine

How can we harness the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify tailored treatments for patients with cancer? Dr. Amber Simpson, Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Computing and Informatics, seeks to transform how clinicians treat patients with cancer using a data-driven approach. By defining relevant biomarkers to guide targeted treatments, and ultimately improve human health, she will move the field from the “treat everyone to help a few” paradigm towards precision medicine. 

Simpson leverages state-of-the-art machine learning technologies for biomedical data integration and exploration. Specifically, to develop, validate, and translate to clinical practice two important field innovations. The first will develop benchmarking and novel machine learning-based predictive and prognostic imaging biomarkers to better select patients for optimal treatment. The second innovation will be to integrate computation modelling of multi-scale, multi-resolution biomedical data to elucidate new phenotypes, such as appearance, development, and behaviour, of cancer tumors.  

Ultimately, through developing new computational strategies, Simpson will advance biomedical data science and computer-aided surgery to improve human health.