The Academy of Finland has awarded funding to two University of Eastern Finland projects in the field of personalised health research. Funded through the international ERA PerMed call, the projects focus on the personalised treatment of osteoarthritis and breast cancer.
Professor Rami Korhonen at the Department of Applied Physics secured approximately 200,000 euros for a project seeking to develop a novel tool for personalised and socio-economically optimal treatment planning for patients with osteoarthritis. Coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland, the project partners include the University of Oulu, Lund University in Sweden and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The overall funding of the project amounts to one million euros.
Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease affecting over 40 million Europeans. There is no cure for the disease. Thus, the most effective treatment for the disease would simply be prevention. That, however, is currently problematic, and proper preventive actions should be guided by personalised prediction of the disease progression.
The aim of the DEEPMECHANOKNEE project is to develop an accurate and fast method to predict the progression of knee osteoarthritis over time. In the novel method, multi-scale biomechanics and computational modelling, imaging, and clinical data are combined with a deep learning algorithm. Through simulations, the method can indicate the best possible personalised treatment for a patient that could ultimately prevent or delay the progression of knee osteoarthritis. The treatment could be a changed lifestyle, tailored rehabilitation or a specific surgical intervention. The socio-economic impact of this approach is expected to be significant.
Senior Researcher Leena Latonen from the Institute of Biomedicine secured approximately 130,000 euros of funding for a project that is focused on advancing breast cancer histopathology towards AI-based personalised medicine. The study constitutes part of a project coordinated by Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, with the University of Tampere and Zealand University Hospital in Denmark as partners. The overall funding of the project amounts to approximately million euros.
Manual histopathological assessment of tumours is currently the main mode to establish a breast cancer diagnosis. However, there is a shortage of pathology expertise in many parts of the world, and also high inter-assessor variability between pathologists exists. This leads to prolonged response times, unnecessary patient anxiety, and unequal access to top-quality histopathology assessments for cancer patients. Furthermore, misclassification can cause over- and under-treatment.
The study led by Latonen seeks develops state-of-the-art AI-based models for breast cancer routine histopathology. Novel methodologies for stain-free and multi-stain histological analysis will also be developed. The project aims to improve the quality of breast cancer histopathology assessments by reducing errors and inter-assessor variability, enhancing patient stratification and reducing over- and under-treatment of patients, while also contributing toward more efficient and reliable routine pathology.
Six Finnish projects funded
The Academy of Finland has awarded 1.2 million euros in funding to six Finnish projects involved in four European research consortia. The consortia have received funding through the ERA-PerMed 2019 call, the second ERA PerMed call so far. ERA-PerMed is an ERA-NET cofund which is supported by 32 partners from 23 countries. The next ERA PerMed call will be opened in January 2020.
The projects that were now granted funding will be integrated in the pHealth (Personalised Health – From Genes to Society) Academy Programme. This programme is focused on the collection and application of genome and other personal health data to maintain and promote the individual’s health and to prevent and treat diseases.
For further information, please contact:
Professor Rami Korhonen, rami.korhonen (a) uef.fi, tel. +358403553260
Senior Researcher Leena Latonen, leena.latonen (a) uef.fi, tel. +358505767822
For more information on the call:
Programme Manager Heikki Vilen, firstname.lastname@aka.fi, tel. +358 29 533 5135
Programme Manager Sara Illman, firstname.lastname@aka.fi, tel. +358 29 533 5119
