Artificial intelligence available for astma- and allergy-research

The UMCG and MIcompany, an AI & data company from Amsterdam, are going to collaborate in the field of asthma and allergy research. The collaboration ensures that advanced AI techniques become available for application to the exponentially growing amount of data on the development of the DNA in the human body. The latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are becoming available to really understand asthma and allergy risks.This will lead to new scientific insights to better predict who will have a high risk of asthma and/or allergy. The collaboration is an initiative of Professor of Child Pulmonary Diseases Gerard Koppelman of the UMCG and founder Marnix Bügel PhD of MIcompany. The collaboration is entered into for a 4-year period.

The development of asthma and allergy

Despite recent major scientific results such as the identification of genes associated with asthma and the identification of environmental factors that can activate or deactivate certain genes, it is not yet possible to cure chronic lung diseases. Much is still unknown about the biomedical background of the development of allergy or asthma. That is why a new approach to research is needed to understand the causes of these allergic diseases.

Exponentially growing amount of data on DNA

As a result of the continuous development of DNA sequencing techniques, the amount of data about the human genome is growing at a rapid pace. In the past decade the amount of data on this has even doubled every seven months. This offers the possibility to map DNA (genetics), DNA changes (epigenetics) and resulting genes (mRNA) in relation to diseases. The level of detail of the data also offers many challenges. .

The latest AI techniques

The GRIAC (Groningen Research Institute for Asthma and COPD) has unique DNA data from blood and nose cells of participants in the so-called PIAMA cohort. This study was started in 1996 among 4,000 babies. Data is collected from this group on, among other things, the environment and the development of lung function. In order to be able to make good use of this enormous amount of data for research - in view of the challenges outlined - the newest techniques in the field of AI are needed. MIcompany has extensive experience with these techniques in other sectors, such as telecom, banking, market surveillance and retail. For example, MIcompany teaches the analysis of complex networks from its office in Tel Aviv. And, it applies this theory to companies to predict customer behaviour from social networks ranging from purchasing behaviour to fraud. .

Cross-border collaboration

Paediatric pulmonologist Gerard Koppelman and MIcompany founder Marnix Bügel met for the first time at Koppelman's lecture at the Amsterdam Circle of the Ubbo Emmius Fund. This foundation was established in 1996 to increase mutual involvement between society and the university and to raise funds for research and education projects. Together they recognized the opportunities for cross-border collaboration between GRIAC scientists and data analysts from the MIcompany business community. Koppelman: “Many ground-breaking innovations in science come from applying techniques from other fields. MIcompany has both the knowledge from another relevant specialist field and the quality in its team to cooperate with the top researchers at GRIAC.” Bügel: “From our mission, we believe it is important to have an essential contribution to society. Based on this and the knowledge and skills of our team, we have selected DNA research as a specialist field in which we believe that MIcompany can add the greatest value to society. With Gerard Koppelman we have found someone who has made an effort to actually shape this unusual collaboration between business and science.” The collaboration has been entered into for a 4-year period. A joint research team has been set up for this collaboration.

About chronic lung diseases

Chronic lung diseases such as asthma, most allergies and COPD are among the most common diseases in the world. Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children, while allergies are the commonest to adults. Around 400,000 people die of asthma worldwide every year. Around 150 million Europeans suffer from a chronic allergic disease and this number is increasing exponentially. By 2025, 50% of all Europeans are expected to have a chronic allergic disease.

About GRIAC

GRIAC operates in the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) and the overarching research theme Healthy Ageing. GRIAC has three goals: to prevent the disease from developing further by identifying risk factors; minimizing the effects of disease by optimizing diagnosis and treatment; and improving the quality of life of patients. The ultimate goal is to develop treatments to cure these diseases.

About MIcompany

MIcompany is an AI & data company with offices in Amsterdam (head office) and Tel Aviv. MIcompany has 70 employees working for them who all have an exact background in econometrics, mathematics or computer science and were among the best in their studies. MIcompany worldwide develops AI solutions to improve the essential activities of companies and institutions with data. Companies for which MIcompany works include eBay, Nike, Booking.com, Lease Plan and Shufersal.