Technology company Dell has teamed up with University of Limerick to build an artifice intelligence-powered platform to advance cancer research.
The project is designed to accelerate the diagnosis and treatment of B-cell lymphoma, and provide more effective and personalised therapies for patients to help improve long-term outcomes.
The platform, which will power both predictive and diagnostic cancer research, uses AI and cancer patient digital twins – virtual models – for better diagnostics.
The tech giant created the AI platform, bringing high performance computing power to the university‘s Digital Cancer Centre’s multicloud ecosystem, using Dell storage arrays and servers optimised to produce the digital twins.
The platform allows researchers to accelerate biomarker testing for cancer, and how to treat patients with B-cell lymphoma, with a view to investigating possible new treatments to cure patients.
“Through our partnership with the Dell Technologies team, we will be able to advance our knowledge of how cells go wrong during cancer development and find new ways to diagnose and treat cancer patients,” said Paul Murray, Professor of Molecular Pathology at University of Limerick and Director of Digital Pathology Unit at the Digital Cancer Research Centre. “This is the beginning of a very exciting research project for the team here at the University of Limerick’s Digital Cancer Research Centre, and we’re looking forward to accelerating this project with the digital support and insights from the team at Dell Technologies.”
One area being explored is the role collagen within the tumour “micro-environment” can play in spreading cancerous cells around the body.
“The new AI-driven platform developed by Dell Technologies will ultimately help researchers and healthcare professionals deliver precision treatments for patients with B-cell lymphoma by understanding how it develops,” said Catherine Doyle, managing director of Dell Technologies, Ireland. “Through the creation of these digital twins, the University of Limerick and Dell are taking clinical research to a new level. Together, we are harnessing the power of data through new technologies to benefit patients and healthcare professionals globally.”
