For this evening talk we will be exploring using rule based Formal Concept analysis for converting Big Data into optimal treatment selection tools and real time diagnostics.  This talk will be presented by Mohammad Afshar, MD, PhD; and Mariana Kuras, PhD 

Abstract: The drive towards personalized health is fuelling efforts for the development of effective biomarkers, which requires capturing and analysing an ever growing amount of information. Genomic technologies, in particular, contribute to an exponential growth of data. This vast amount of collected data is often in sharp contrast with the limited number of patients assessed. Even panels based on several hundred patients are still orders of magnitude smaller than the tens of thousands of data points identified by microarrays, hundreds of thousands of RNAi, hundreds of proteomic signals and a wide range of clinical and phenotypic data. The exploration of the gut microbiota has been yet another source of “big data”. Furthermore, smart bio-monitoring connected devices are becoming commonplace, making even more data available. This complexity is the key reason why standard analytical approaches are plagued by the over fitting issue. This holds particularly true when combining markers into a predictive signature. It is noteworthy that, despite an impressive production of scientific work related to multimarker diagnostic signatures, to date, the FDA has approved only 4 for diagnostic applications.

We will illustrate the huge need to effectively push big data analytics to the patient for direct use by clinicians through two projects: Winther and ExtempoNMR. The Winther trial is being conducted with the Worldwide Innovative Networking (WIN) Consortium in personalized cancer medicine, using software for providing tailored therapy for patients based on genomics, transcription, and other data. ExtempoNMR is a Neuro-oncology diagnostic tool to give surgeons the ability in "real-time" to discriminate brain tumor tissue from surrounding healthy tissue.  

Present Author: Mohammad Afshar 
Mohammad is the President and CEO of Ariana Pharmaceuticals and founded the company in 2003. Prior to this, Mohammad was one of the founders and the Director of Drug Design and IT at RiboTargets, Cambridge, UK, leading the computer aided discovery of novel anti infective and oncology molecules.  Before joining RiboTargets, Mohammad held several positions in academic institutions including the Department of Chemistry at the University of York, UK, and the CRBM of the CNRS in France. He holds a Medical Degree (DCEM), MPhil in Computer Science (DEA), a PhD in structural biochemistry and a “Habilitation doctorate” (HDR) from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montpellier, France.  He is involved with a number of charities, including the Cystic Fibrosis foundation