Neurodegenerative Diseases Identified Using Artificial Intelligence Newswise: News for Journalists

Newswise -- (New York – March 4, 2019) Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence platform to detect a range of neurodegenerative disease in human brain tissue samples, including Alzheimer's disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the Nature medical journal Laboratory Investigation. Their discovery will help scientists develop targeted biomarkers and therapeutics, resulting in a more accurate diagnosis of complex brain diseases that improve patient outcomes. The buildup of abnormal tau proteins in the brain in neurofibrillary tangles is a feature of Alzheimer's disease, but it also accumulates in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy and additional age-related conditions. Accurate diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases is challenging and requires a highly-trained specialist. Researchers at the Center for Computational and Systems Pathology at Mount Sinai developed and used the Precise Informatics Platform to apply powerful machine learning approaches to digitized microscopic slides prepared using tissue samples from patients with a spectrum of neurodegenerative diseases.