The Center for Lung Analytics and Imaging Research (CLAIR) will launch at UAB this year to improve diagnosis and monitoring for patients with chronic lung disease. The center brings together experts from nine scientific specialties who will work to establish new methods for lung imaging and other diagnostic modalities, expanding our current understanding of lung disease development and progression and enhancing phenotyping for precision-based therapies.
Surya P. Bhatt, M.D., MSPH
Surya P. Bhatt, M.D., MSPH, professor of Medicine and Endowed Professor of Airways Disease in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, will serve as the founding director of CLAIR. “We are very excited to establish this center with the help of the Heersink School of Medicine,” he said.
Developing these cutting-edge capabilities for lung imaging will advance the school’s research priority to create Disruptive Tech Empowering Precision Health (D-TECH). These technological advances will be available to researchers across UAB.
“With this center, we will create the infrastructure for increasing interdisciplinary collaborations for lung imaging and analytics by using quantitative methods and artificial intelligence,” Bhatt continued.
Specifically, the center will introduce several pioneering technologies for lung imaging, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the lungs with hyperpolarized Xenon, or xeMRI, which enables investigators to produce images of ventilation-perfusion irregularities and detect the diffusion of oxygen at the tissue level. Center members will also collaborate with investigators across campus to enhance molecular imaging of the lungs. They will also utilize new techniques such as photon counting computed tomography and digital dynamic radiography.
Three programs — Quantitative Imaging, Lung Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) — and several cores will facilitate the introduction and advancement of existing and novel technologies. The Quantitative Imaging Program will be led by Arie Nakhmani, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The AI Program will be led by Sandeep Bodduluri, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine and the director of AI Programs at the Marnix E. Heersink Institute for Biomedical Innovation.
“In addition to quantitative imaging and artificial intelligence, CLAIR’s Lung Analytics Program will focus on data-driven research, including using spirometry for disease diagnosis and monitoring, digital wearables for remote monitoring, the establishment of large deeply phenotyped data repositories, and the advancement of respiratory epidemiology studies. These include spirometry for disease diagnosis and monitoring, digital wearables for remote monitoring, the establishment of large deeply phenotyped data repositories, and the advancement of respiratory epidemiology studies at UAB,” Bhatt said
Center members will continue ongoing training of master’s students, Ph.D. students, postdocs, residents, fellows, and junior faculty in the intersections of medicine and engineering and medicine and AI.
“With the development of biologics and other therapies for chronic airway diseases, there is increasing interest in the accurate identification of disease endotypes for targeting therapies,” Bhatt concluded. “These opportunities will be leveraged by the Center for extramural funding.”