The last several years witnessed major advancements in the development of technologies with the goal of collecting various types of data in many application domains. The biomedical domain represents a clear example of such development, since every time the evolving biomedical technologies make it possible for bioscience researchers to have access to new type of biological data, exciting research questions attract new studies: Would it possible for the new data to provide new biological signals or biomarkers to be used for supporting biomedical research and advancing healthcare? Would the biological signals associated with the new data be robust enough to be used for the purpose of early disease diagnosis or the assessment of different treatments for certain health conditions.This tutorial begins with a brief introduction to biomarkers and how various technologies helped produce biomarkers with major impact on biomedical research and healthcare. We then discuss how recent technologies have made it possible to generate new types of data that can be used to obtain a new generation of biomarkers. We discuss biomarkers obtained from mobile wearable devices, microbiome data, and nanoparticles profiles. We discuss how the exciting new AI tools and network models can leverage the new biomarkers in supporting advanced biomedical research and lead to the next generation of healthcare.
Keywords: Biomarkers, AI tools, network models, mobility data, microbiomes, Extracellular Vesicles, preventive healthcare.
TUTORIAL OBJECTIVES
Biomarkers, or biological signals, play an important role in numerous biomedical studies and in supporting various aspects public health related tasks. A biomarker is a measurable indicator of a biological state or a health condition that can be used to assess health status, disease presence, or track the success level of treatments. Recent advancements in computational approaches, particularly AI-approaches, and the increasing availability of biological data make it possible to further increase opportunities for of obtaining and utilizing biomarkers. The main objectives of this tutorial are:
1- discuss the impact of recent development in computational technology, including the recent AI outburst, on Biomedical research and healthcare
2- Familiarize the participants of the various types of biomarkers that have been utilized the last couple of decades and their significant impact on biomedical research.
3- Introduce the audience to new generation of biomarkers using advanced computational techniques and growing available data with a focus on biomarkers related to mobility parameters, microbiome communities and nanoparticles data.
4- Highlight several case studies in which the newly developed biomarkers play key roles in reaching new medical discoveries and discuss new directions in biomedical research using innovative application of the new biomarkers.
REQUIREMENTS AND TARGET AUDIENCE
The tutorial is intended primarily for computational scientists interested in AI-rich biomedical informatics, complex networks and data analytics, and their applications in advancing biomedical research. It is also of interest to Biomedical researchers interested in the impact of exploring new informatics approaches to support biomedical studies and public health issues. The main concepts will be introduced in a highly accessible manner. No formal background will be needed.
TUTORIAL DURATION AND FORMAT
The tutorial is designed as a 3-hour tutorial. The material will be presented as an interactive lecture with audience participation. It will use case studies to illustrate the use of AI tools and network models to analyze different types of medical data, obtain new biomedical signals and extract useful health-related information.