Artificial Intelligence Supported Identification of Novel Non-invasive Biomarkers of Aging
AI-AGE team participated in presenations during the implementation of the “Awakening the vision at UDG 2024”. We gave several presentations and workshops relevant to the AI and need to understend and adopt the AI in everyday’s life and workflow. Please check out the video about the event that engaged about 1000 new students enrolled in the first year of studies at UDG.
Isidora Rubežić – Lukić, MD, will publicly present the goals and expected results, as well as present the research program with the conditions for the successful completion of the doctoral thesis entitled: “Methods for the assessment of biological age and their correlation with morbidity and frailty syndrome”. This preliminary defense will take place in the Meetin Room, Faculty of Medicine, before the Committee for the Evaluation of Doctoral Dissertation Applications, consisting of:
Researchers from the AI-AGE team participate in the he 34th EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR DIABETIC EYE COMPLICATIONS (EAsDEC) Meeting, which was hosted in the city of Milan, Italy. Initial research results from the AI-AGE project were presented in a form of a poster by prof. N Popovic and prof. A. Adzic Zecevic. The conference took place from 30 May to 1 June. More information can be found here.
ABSTRACT – Introduction / study design: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) is associated with changes in retinal microvascular complexity measured by fractal dimension (Df). Expression of micro RNAs (miRs), -146a and -101 is also affected by T2D, but the studies investigating these miRs in context of microvascular changes in T2D are scarce. Since hypertension (HTN) and Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) frequently coexist in patients with T2D, in the present cross-sectional observational prospective study, participants were divided in two groups – healthy (H, n=8), and with chronic disease (D, n=20, suffering from T2D, HTN and/or AD). The purpose: Study explores association between changes of retinal microvascular Df and expression levels of circulating miR-146a and miR-101 in patients with T2D. The influence of HTN and AD on this association is also investigated. Methods: Retinal fundus images were captured by using a non-mydriatic, hand-held MIIS-HORUS scope DES200. The optic disc-centered images were manually segmented, binarized, cropped to 350-pixel radius, and Df was determined by using ImageJ 1.53q. MiRs were isolated from plasma, quantified by qRT-PCR and normalized to expression levels of miR-361-5p. SPSS Statistics 29.0.1.0., t-test and ANCOVA were used to compare the two groups. P<0.05 was considered significant. Results: Age was not different between the 2 groups (Hvs.D mean age±SE=63.6±2.9 vs.68.5±1.8, p=0.17). Df and miR-101 expression were decreased in the group D (Hvs.D mean: Df±SE=1.36±0.01 vs.1.32±0.01, p=0.016; miR-101±SE=1.68±0.32 vs.0.83±0.22, p=0.041). Eight participants in the group D had T2D (1-moderate, and 7-no diabetic retinopathy). All participants with T2D had HTN, and 5 of them also had AD. Next, we used HTN and AD as covariates to account for effects of these comorbidities, and to determine effects of T2D. This analysis showed: in addition to decreased Df and miR-101 expression, T2D was associated with increased expression of miR-146a (Hvs.D mean miR-146a±SE=0.58±0.29 vs.1.69±0.17, p=0.018). Conclusions: fa Changes in Df and in expression of miR-101 are non-specific, and can be caused by T2D and concurrent comorbidities. Increased expression of miR-146a might be a part of the unique expression pattern of the circulatory miRNAs associated with T2D.
A very successful two-day workshop for students and industry took place on April 22nd and 23rd 2023, on which young researches from AI-AGE gave presentation. The workshop was organized in the context of the training project called “Competency Training for IoT and AI – InnovateYourFuture” supported by ANSO – Alliance of International Science Organizations, China. The organization is done in collaboration with EuroCC Montenegro and Montenegrin AI Association. During the event, UDG also presented AI-AGE project, as well as some of other projects currently implemented at UDG.
Mr Dejan Babic gave presentation on ML/AI in medicine
AI-AGE project was presented at the 28th IEEE IT2024 Conference that took place 21-24 Feb 2024 in Zabljak, Montenegro. The presentation took place in a poster section dedicated to project presentations. We had a chance to talk to conference attendees, our colleauges from Montenegro and abroad. Also, the next day we had a large group of students participating in the EuroCC Workshop on HPC and Industry Applications, where we had a chance to discuss the project posters and take their attention to AI-AGE and other projects presented at the conference.
