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Stephanie Miller, PhD discusses how artificial intelligence can revolutionize medical research by assisting in drug development and potentially providing more targeted treatments across various diseases.
In an interview with Pharmacy Times, Stephanie Miller, PhD, staff scientist and machine learning team leader at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease, explained the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in health care, particularly in cognitive decline research. The discussion was based on the presentation "AI and Biomarkers for Early Disease Prediction," showcased during the Hot Topics in Neurology Plenary Session on April 5 at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California.
During the discussion, Miller highlights AI's current applications in preclinical research using animal models, emphasizing its ability to assess brain states through advanced computer vision and machine learning techniques. Miller sees significant promise in AI's future, suggesting it could help detect drug efficacy earlier, identify biomarkers for more personalized treatments, and potentially uncover subtle behavioral effects in diseases that could aid diagnosis and prognosis.
Pharmacy Times: How may artificial intelligence assist health care providers when treating patients, especially those at risk for cognitive decline?
1. AI can currently be used in preclinical research to assess brain states in ways traditional methods cannot.
2. AI-determined biomarkers could help pharmacists develop more targeted, individualized treatments.
3. The technology has broad potential applications across multiple diseases, even those without obvious behavioral manifestations.
Stephanie Miller, PhD: That's a great question. The current state of the art that I'm most familiar with is going to be relevant to translational, preclinical research in animal models of disease, where we can combine the computer vision and machine learning approaches with other more invasive approaches that would allow us to assess brain state in ways that might be difficult to do with patients in the clinic and certainly patients who are outside of the clinic. Now the future of these technologies, I think, can be brought to bear to both clinical contexts and even assessing the patient in their home environment. I'm really excited for where the technology is going.
Pharmacy Times: Could AI-determined biomarkers aid pharmacists in determining more targeted, individualized treatments for patients in the future?
Miller: Yes, I think that that will be possible. Now, one of the ways that I see that happening is the ability to detect earlier during the development of drugs whether they're working or not and whether side effects are present, whether it's in preclinical models or in clinical studies.
"I'm really excited for where the technology is going." - Stephanie Miller, PhD
Pharmacy Times: What are future areas of research in this field? Could AI-assisted biomarkers play a role in other diseases?
Miller: I believe that these technologies could be brought to bear on any number of diseases. In fact, I think that there are probably some benefits that can be derived in most any condition. This is because, I think that even if we have diseases in which there are not necessarily behavioral manifestations as a main thing that's known about them, there may still be subtle behavioral effects that could be assessed in the future and be used in order to determine diagnosis and prognosis.
