​

 

Searching for genetic markers for celiac disease with machine learning

Sana Syed, an assistant professor in the UVA School of Medicine’s department of pediatrics, and Suchitra Hourigan, Inova Children’s Hospital’s vice chair of research and innovation seek to determine if machine learning is useful in diagnosing celiac disease sub-types. Currently, treatment and management of celiac disease involves gluten-free diet and is not intended to help assess the specific for the risk of patients developing other diseases. Syed and Hourigan will investigate gut tissue biopsies as well as genetic markers of patients with celiac disease and type 1 diabetes and/or hypothyroidism. Their aim is to determine whether biopsy or gene markers at the time of disease diagnosis can predict the risk of developing these diseases in the future. The team will utilize machine learning algorithms to analyze multiple datasets. If successful, the team is hopeful that any patterns found will enable them to create linkages between biopsies and unique genes; thus paving the way for improved care of patients with celiac disease.

 

Measuring medication in patients with epilepsy

In most instances how medications act on the brain to produce their therapeutic effect (e.g., pain relief) are not well understood. Aashit Shah, and a professor of internal medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and Virginia Tech’s Sujith Vijayan, an assistant professor in the Virginia Tech College of Science’s School of Neuroscience will study patients with intractable epilepsy who have been implanted with electrodes to determine the region responsible for their seizures. The team will study signals measured in epileptic patients undergoing intracranial electroencephalography. They will review intracranial electrical signals from various brain regions following administration of medications that work on the brain. Shah and Vijayan hope to improve the understanding of how and where these medications work. They anticipate this can help in the development of new biomarkers for neuroactive drugs, which may improve development of medications in the future.

 

Studying auditory therapy for Parkinson’s disease

Della Williams, a neurologist at Carilion Clinic and an assistant professor of internal medicine at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, has also partnered with Sujith Vijayan, to study auditory therapy for patients living with Parkinson’s disease. Their project seeks to better understand the disease progression and if it can be slowed by providing some background noise to patients as they sleep. Additionally, simple auditory stimulation during sleep may help to improve learning and memory processes.

​

Designing an interactive training system for pediatric telemedicine cart operations incorporating augmented reality
Elham Morshedzadeh, an assistant professor of industrial design in Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture and Urban Studies; Andre Muelenaer, a professor of practice in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, a professor of pediatrics for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, and a pediatric pulmonologist at Carilion; Wallace Lages, an assistant professor in the School of Visual Arts; and Melinda Schriver, Carilion’s director of digital health, are designing a robust and affordable training program to help improve telemedicine encounters for infants and pre-school children. They’ll seek to provide a robust, feasible, and affordable training program integrating augmented reality, online and hands-on learning experience. The study will hopefully make telemedical encounters vastly more inclusive and efficient.

 

Defining donor characteristics for pediatric heart transplants

Heart transplantation is the standard of care for pediatric patients with end-stage heart failure or inoperable congenital defects, yet nearly 20 percent of patients with these conditions die while on the waitlist. To help increase the odds of successful pediatric heart transplants, Michael McCulloch, an associate professor and a pediatric cardiologist at UVA Children’s Hospital Heart Center, and Michael Porter, an associate professor of systems engineering in UVA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, will analyze donor echocardiographic data to identify which donor characteristics contribute to positive heart transplant recipient outcomes.

 

About iTHRIV

iTHRIV is a cross-state translational research institute which combines the expertise of clinical translational biomedical researchers and data scientists to create infrastructure and investigator resources for using data to improve health across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Partner sites include University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Carilion Clinic and Inova Health System. iTHRIV is funded by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, through award number UL1TR003015.

 

For more information about the NIH CTSA program, see: https://ncats.nih.gov/ctsa

For more information about iTHRIV, see: http://ithriv.org/

For media inquiries regarding pilot grants please contact Joshua Barney, Deputy Public Information Officer  Email  |  jdb9a@virginia.edu