Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Can the University of Tennessee (UT) System pursue recognition as a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated center?

That’s a question that administrators at UT, Knoxville (UTK) and across the UT System are seeking to answer, according to Brad Day, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation Initiatives at the Knoxville campus. It involves a collaboration with colleagues throughout the UT System including the UT Medical Center along with the Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville, the UT Health Science Center (UTHSC) in Memphis, and scientific collaborations with the College of Veterinary Medicine and others.

Noting that healthcare is not just the job of chemists, Day says the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development is currently funding projects across 14 UTK colleges. That aligns nicely with what he said were the five research gateways. In addition to human health and wellness, the others are:

• Advanced materials and manufacturing;
• Advanced mobility;
• Artificial intelligence (AI); and
• Energy and the environment.

Day came to UTK, where he earned his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in microbiology, three years ago from Michigan State University (MSU). During his time there, he spent one year as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Prior to MSU, he was a National Institute of Health-funded Postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, and an NSF postdoc at the National Institute of Agroenvironmental Resources in Japan.

With his background in microbiology, the human health area is particularly interesting to him, and Day cited two projects that have demonstrated the power of working across the UT System on human health matters.

One, first spotlighted in January, uses an AI algorithm that can identify sepsis in a patient four to six hours before it can be diagnosed through traditional methods. Sepsis is treatable if caught in time, but many patients show no signs of the condition until it’s too late in the cycle to cure effectively and expeditiously.

“You have to catch it early,” said Anahita Khojandi, Heath Endowed Faculty Fellow in Business and Engineering and Associate Professor in UTK’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. “With our new predictive tools, we think health care professionals will be able to catch it at least four to six hours sooner, leading to more effective treatment and better health outcomes. That might not sound like a lot of time, but sepsis moves so rapidly that four to six hours could be the difference between life and death.”

Another that Day said “opened our eyes” came from John Bell, the Director of the Cancer Institute at the UT Medical Center, who wondered how artificial intelligence (AI) could help extract data faster and more accurately from cancer technology reports.

Working with Drs. Bing Yao and Xueping Li from UTK’s Tickle College of Engineering, and Dr. Tom Berg from the College of Nursing, the team is developing an algorithm that is capable of reading, and extracting, diagnostic information from cancer pathology reports. First, using an AI-based tool to redact patient information, the technology is capable of quickly, and with high accuracy, redact  protected information (e.g., names, dates of birth, and additional identifiable data) from the reports. This opens access to the reports as resources that physicians and scientists can then use to conduct unbiased analysis of disease, treatment protocols, and outcomes. In short, this tool is able to read 250,000 cancer reports in just two hours. Compared to the current manual human data extraction process that takes up to 30 minutes per report, the entire process of reading 250,000 reports would have taken 14 years to do otherwise and be subject to human error.

“Fourteen years down to two hours represents a significant step forward is assisting UTMC physicians and UTK scientists in creating resources that will allow teams to ask questions that will improve the lives of patients,” Day said, adding, that the algorithm also has an accuracy rate of 97 percent in staging the cancer. “This is a great first step! This work is not only bringing together caregivers and UTK faculty but is also creating an environment where these types of collaborations are assisting clinicians in the use of data to diagnose and treat patients. We have some of the worst cancer survival rates in the country. Together, we are going to change this.”

In addition to using data to develop new pathways to improve the lives of patients, UT is also working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to develop the next generation of diagnostic, imaging, and treatments to reduce the cancer burden. In collaboration with UT, UTHSC, and the UT Graduate School of Medicine, the UT-Oak Ridge Innovation Institute is supporting research in Radiotheranostics – a combination of imaging and therapy using medical radioisotopes to target and treat diseases, particularly cancer. Led by Dr. Sandra Davern (ORNL), Rachel Patton McCord (UTK), Junming Yue (UTHSC), and Gabor Joseph Tigyi (UTHSC), a team of more than 20 scientist are working together to develop the next generation of anti-cancer therapies.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Day says as he looks to the future, the assets across the UT System, and the possible application for NCI designation. There are currently two NCI-designated centers in Tennessee; one is the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville and the other is at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. UT is making significant investments in education and innovation that will lead to improvements in the life and lives of Tennesseans and communities throughout the nation.

“It’s an exciting time to be a part of UT. The Volunteer Spirit – mission-driven collaboration and teamwork – is fueling innovation and opportunity across the state,” added Day.

---