By Hazel Scott
Under a collaborative research opportunity, Alabama State University Cancer Biology Research and Training (CBRT) researchers have received a pivotal one-year $73,942 pilot grant from the National Institute of Health’s Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD).
The pilot is led by the University of North Texas in partnership with Pennsylvania State University, Savannah State University and Alabama State University.
“We are excited to receive this pilot funding that provides steppingstones for a bigger opportunity in the near future for faculty and students. The data science and the analysis of available cancer data using AI/ML will change the perception and how the scientists predict and treat the deadly disease,” said ASU’s principal investigator, Dr. Manoj Mishra, professor of biology, and founding director of the University’s Cancer Biology Research and Training Program (CBRT).
Mishra noted that this grant will not only enhance inter-college, inter-university and community collaborations among faculty and students, but it also will provide future funding and collaborative opportunities in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and explore how this initiative will be used to predict cancer disease outcomes in diverse populations.
“This grant further enhances the educational training capacity of Cancer Biology Research and Training and helps ASU on the cancer research maps in the River Region,” Mishra said.
Assisting Mishra are ASU co-investigators Dr. Ram Alagan, professor of geography, a GIS expert and interim director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Honors program, and Dr. Seela Aladuwaka, geography professor.
