Three research projects using data science and artificial intelligence to combat COVID-19 have been awarded more than 700,000 euros by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), as announced this Thursday.
Three of the 12 projects funded by the FCT as part of the competition "AI 4 Covid-19: Data science and artificial intelligence in public administration to strengthen the fight against Covid-19 and future pandemics - 2020", will be led by researchers from the University of Coimbra (UC).
The three projects are "VIRHOSTAI - Discovery of the Host-Virus Interatom: An Approach Driven by Artificial Intelligence and Multi-Ohmic Data", "Lung @ ICU - Advanced Tools for Diagnosis and Prognosis in Pneumology @ Intensive Care Medicine" and "A documentation system for the interface between clinical and data science research must meet the challenge. "
The "VIRHOSTAI" project, led by Irina de Sousa Moreira from the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC), aims to develop an innovative platform to suggest new therapies specifically designed for the treatment of COVID-19.
In the current context, the researcher points out that "it is important to identify therapeutic targets and drug candidates quickly and reliably, so that only the best can proceed to preclinical and clinical studies".
To this end, it is important to "maximise the use of the enormous amount of data generated by the global fight against the pandemic and the latest advances in intelligent computing technologies to speed up and optimise the search for therapeutic solutions that are difficult to achieve using traditional methods".
The research, funded with 240,000 euros, will be developed in collaboration with the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC), the Institute of Systems and Computer Technology, Research and Development in Lisbon (INESC-ID) and the Association of Higher Technical Research and Development Institute (IST-ID) of the University of Lisbon.
The Lung @ ICU project, coordinated by Paulo de Carvalho from the Medical Informatics Laboratory of the Centre for Informatics and Systems of the UC, aims to create an integrated set of diagnostic and prognostic tools based on artificial intelligence, using thoracic remote auscultation and electrical impedance tomography.
Funded with 238,000 euros, this project aims to respond to "three major challenges in the current hospital environment in the fight against pandemic diseases", namely "the difficulty in diagnosing and properly assessing patients with COVID-19, the lack of intensive care units trained in pulmonology and the need for adequate decision support tools for accurate diagnosis and prognosis of disease evolution".
The third project funded by the FCT - "A system for documenting the interface between clinical and data science must face the challenge of Covid" - is led by Miguel Castelo-Branco, a researcher at the Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (Cibit), and has received funding of 239 thousand euros.
This research "focuses on the generation of data science tools and decision support at the hospital level, as well as the development of a line of remote support and neurorehabilitation that reduces the difficulty of organising responses".
These types of tools are vital at a time when there is a need to respond to the huge impact of Covid, emphasises UC's Miguel Castelo-Branco, who points out that "the aim is to develop a system that is easy to use and maintain and that has several different functions aimed at improving electronic clinical records and supporting research and clinical decision-making in the context of the current pandemic".
The project will provide a "clinical research tool essential to support complex clinical decisions related to COVID-19", with a focus on adult neuronal development and chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Translation by Diana Taborda