Cancers are among the leading causes of death around the world, with an estimated annual mortality of close to 10 million. Despite significant efforts to develop effective cancer diagnosis and therapeutics, the ability to predict patient responses to anti-cancer therapeutic agents remains elusive. This is a critical milestone as getting the right choice of therapy early can mean superior anti-tumor outcomes and increased survival, while the wrong choice means tumor relapse, development of resistance, side effects without the desired benefit, and increased cost of treatment. An cyber-physical system that allows an accurate prediction of patient tumor responses to anti-cancer therapies; that is, enable real-time precision medicine, can have a transformative effect not only on health outcomes, but also on the costs of treatment. The goal of this project is therefore to develop an engineered cyber-physical system that combines advanced biological models with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence methods for predictive, automated screening of anti-cancer drugs and optimizations of their dosing. This will move science towards realizing the long-desired precision medicine paradigm leading to significant social impacts. The project has additional social impacts, including minimizing the exponentially growing ethical issues surrounding the use of animals in the past years through increased adoption of the engineered human cancer and heart tissue model systems. The project will provide opportunities to promote STEM education for K-12 students, train students, especially those from under-represented groups, and disseminate science and engineering knowledge to the public.
Abstract
Performance Period: 10/01/2022 - 09/30/2025
Institution: Brigham & Women's Hospital Inc
Sponsor: NSF
Award Number: 2225698