Illinois researchers, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, have developed a machine-learning-based approach that uses alpha-rhythm-related features to determine the potential for epilepsy and identify the seizure-generating side of the patient's brain. The results were reported in a paper titled, "Electrophysiological correlates of brain health help diagnose epilepsy and lateralize seizure focus". Yogatheesan Varatharajah, the first author of this paper, was named a finalist in the 2020 Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Student Paper Competition, chosen from over 1000 submissions. Varatharajah is a graduate of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois and will be joining the department of bioengineering as a research faculty this summer. 

Computational, Data, and Digital Approaches to Advance Health will highlight the expertise at Illinois in the applications to health and medicine of AI, machine learning, deep learning, computational imaging, computational genomics, big data and data analytics, and other computational/digital approaches.

Danielle Yee was among seven of Illinois' brightest undergraduates who participated in Mayo Clinic’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) this past summer. The Alliance's commitment to this educational program continues to be a popular, competitive opportunity for Illinois students.

Computational genomics is a field that brings high-performance computing resources to drive precision medicine research toward new discoveries. However, when over 50 Mayo Clinic physicians, researchers and students gathered in June to participate in the Computational Genomics Course, the emphasis was on the needs of the patient.

Dan Wickland, who recently completed his Technology-Based Health Care Research Fellowship and earned his doctorate in Bioinformatics, has accepted a position as a research associate at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida. During his fellowship, Wickland worked with Mayo Clinic and Illinois researchers to analyze genomic sequencing data of more than 10,000 cases and healthy controls from the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP). Wickland will soon join Mayo Clinic’s Department of Health Sciences Research, where he will continue to work with fellowship adviser Yan Asmann, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical informatics at Mayo Clinic, on a project with Mark Sherman, M.D., professor of epidemiology and laboratory medicine and pathology at Mayo Clinic, that focuses on breast cancer immunogenomics.

Dr. Bobo has collaborated with Mayo Clinic and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) researchers to develop a model that combines genomics and clinical assessments to uncover patterns of how patients respond to antidepressants.

Mayo Clinic and Illinois collaborators have developed a highly efficient workflow that will allow for rapid genetic analysis and better treatment plans for Mayo Clinic patients.

A collaboration between the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois, Mayo Clinic, and the University of Michigan are introducing a new machine-learning-driven approach to latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) diagnostics. While leveraging a high throughput detection technology and powerful bioinformatics, this approach aims to reveal multi-marker signatures for LTBI diagnosis and risk stratification.