肿瘤学的开拓者:
通过计算病理学改变病人的治疗结果

写的:

萨德帖)

执行董事,计算病理学,肿瘤R&D、澳门在线赌城娱乐

当我还是个孩子的时候,我喜欢英国广播公司世界频道的周六特别节目. 我从来没有想过,这个童年的消遣会让我发现我对病人护理和终身工作的热情. It started with a special on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 我从未听说过美国疾病控制与预防中心(CDC),但节目中描述的在大流行的中心寻找零号病人,并寻求通过药物减轻人类痛苦的方式,让我着迷.

我是一个孤独,笨拙的孩子,喜欢阅读. 我不间断地阅读,不偏爱任何特定的体裁, 甚至读我哥哥姐姐的生物课本. 我读的大部分书都是推理小说, anything from Agatha Christie to Sherlock Holmes to the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series. Mesmerised by the BBC special, a lightbulb went off for me: “They are the disease detectives!“就在那时,我知道我也会成为其中一员.


通往数字病理学之路

I grew up in India and saw the need for disease detectives all around me. Devastating diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis were endemic where I grew up; it was not uncommon to see lepers amongst the pedestrian traffic, 在一个6岁的孩子的词汇中出现“肺结核疗养院”这个词,证明了这种疾病的流行. 霍乱这个词使我母亲非常焦虑. 后来我才知道,她最喜欢的妹妹在几小时内就因为霍乱爆发而失去了她,由于隔离措施,她无法与她告别. Every day I was acutely aware of the suffering these diseases caused. I went on to study microbiology and received my master’s degree with distinction and honours. However, I was frustrated at the lack of wet lab experience that would have allowed me to put my studies to use. 除了, 我痛苦地意识到,在我经常埋头读书的孤立成长环境中,我并没有为这个世界做好准备. 我决定暂时搁置继续深造的计划,并在国家生物科学中心(NCBS)给我提供了一个初级研究员的职位时答应了。. I was a misfit for lack of experience but approached this opportunity with grit, 决心和毅力. 这并不容易, but I understood what could happen if I applied my drive and ambition with a commitment to the long hours. I worked for four years in a community of researchers that asked the simple question why and how do cells die? 那些成长的岁月教会了我倾听, 用语言来表达我的好奇心, 设计实验, 解释结果并与同事沟通, 以及决定和优先考虑接下来要做什么. 几乎每天都有一个奇迹出现在长凳上,证明了一个假设,同时为一个想法或一个阴谋打开了大门. 我从未体验过连接数据点和完成故事的那种独特的欣快感,这些里程碑式的实验就像链上的珍珠一样突出.

When I did eventually receive my PhD, I ended up at a crossroads. 我不想重蹈前人的覆辙——我渴望一种改变,引领我走上新的探索之路. So, 我抓住了另一个机会,加入了一家制药公司的数字成像和病理部门,这将以我从未想象过的方式改变我的生活.


数字病理学:一个全新的世界

I had next to no experience in pathology, let alone digital pathology, but that was not a deterrence. The four years I spent with this group were similar to the formative four years I spent at NCBS. 我像海绵一样, 吸收病理实验室的知识, 数字病理技术, learning about the health platforms and the quantification of drug responses through image analysis in patients. The evolution of technology and its applications were absolutely astonishing, and so was the realisation of what we were actually accomplishing.

病理学重新点燃了我童年的激情, giving me new insights into the impact of scientific research and how mysteries of diseases are solved. 病人的潜力真的很鼓舞人心, 但我有一个很大的挫败感:自19世纪以来,病理学的实践方式基本上没有改变.

几乎所有的癌症诊断都是由病理学家通过光学显微镜观察到的形态学变化做出或证实的, 主要来自H&e染色的肿瘤样本装在玻片上. This 19th century method, which relies on subjective pattern recognition, remains the gold standard. Pathologists are expected to also provide accurate quantitative measures such as tumour grade, 增殖指标及抗体染色强度, 哪些容易出现主观错误. 越来越多地, 这种期望需要精确测量复杂的异质和多样的模式,而这些模式超出了人类大脑的准确分析能力. 虽然这些措施并不总是一致的, they are heavily relied upon for assessing the best potential treatment for people with cancer. The digital transformation occurred in radiology over 15 years ago, 但事实证明,在病理学领域很难找到一个足够有说服力的商业案例,因为黄金标准方法的成本效益很高. 人工智能(AI)可以帮助改变这些做法,不仅会改变病理学的做法,还会创建大量的成像数据库,可以挖掘这些数据库来识别以前未被识别的模式,从而提供新的生物学见解, improve diagnostic accuracy and accelerate the adoption of precision medicine.

科技飞速发展, 我知道我可以在这里留下自己的印记, helping to accelerate the process of getting new treatments to patients in need. 数字和计算病理学就是答案.



用数字和计算病理学改变结果

数字和计算病理学有可能以前所未有的方式改变医学领域——通过改变临床药物开发的实践和推动下一代精准医学诊断的发展.

A key part of putting patients first is choosing the right drug for the right patient at the right time. My team uses AI-driven methodology to extract objective information from tissue, 利用这些信息来预测对治疗的反应,并提供临床可操作的结论,以改善患者选择和开发个性化治疗. 澳门第一赌城在线娱乐的目标是建造更强大的, 定量工具为药物开发研究人员提供了比澳门第一赌城在线娱乐用肉眼获得的更多的临床可操作信息. 澳门第一赌城在线娱乐有能力在几分钟内量化数以百万计的细胞,以及它们所有空间关系的总和. 而这仅仅是个开始.

The power of computational pathology approaches lies in its ability to provide objective, precise, and robust assessment of a tissue biomarker expression and localisation. 除了, 它们是广泛适用的, 组合, scalable, faster and deliver a more accurate diagnostic with increased reproducibility and greater predictivity. 随着技术的日新月异, 澳门第一赌城在线娱乐正在开发的算法正变得越来越强大,并弥合差距,以实现澳门第一赌城在线娱乐的目标.

一种计算病理学方法是澳门第一赌城在线娱乐的旗舰全监督算法:定量连续评分(QCS). QCS不仅寻找生物标记物的存在与否——这是靶向癌症治疗的重要指标——而且还能识别所有肿瘤细胞,并在整个样本中以像素水平量化目标生物标记物. This has the potential to be the first AI-driven test, providing countless benefits to the patient. 通过使初级诊断过程更容易和更快, we can ensure patients are receiving the right treatment for their specific cancer quicker than ever before.


Enhancing the human element behind the data and computational science

I have been able to work on these incredible projects in my current role because once again, there was the desire for a challenge and the drive to better myself in that journey. 我被一家小型生物技术公司聘用,这家公司后来被澳门在线赌城娱乐(AstraZeneca)收购,这对我来说又是一个巨大的变革时刻. 除了 to witnessing the growth in the field of digital and computational pathology, 我自己也经历了剧烈的成长. 在不到一年的时间里,我从一名资深科学家变成了一名高级主管,并获得了新的技能和专业知识,这让我想起了人在医学研究和发现中的重要作用. Technology is a vector through which we enhance our abilities to identify, 治疗和治愈疾病, 但发现背后的驱动力是人. I am fortunate to have worked with such a talented and dedicated pool of skilled individuals, many of whom were my best resources for learning and shaped who I am today.

People continue to be responsible for all we accomplish in this field. There may be patterns beyond the capacity of machine learning and the human brain to compute, 尽管它有这么多神奇的品质, 人工智能仍然依赖于人类大脑的输入和解释. There are many questions still to be answered about AI and its role in our world going forward. 当涉及到计算病理学, however, I see a future where AI transforms pathologists into computational pathologists.


塑造数字和计算病理学的未来

我已经很长时间没有读推理小说了, but often times ponder about how those stories connect to the mysteries we continue to solve in research. Digital and computational pathology enables researchers to take on a role as a “disease detective,这比以往任何时候都更重要, 澳门第一赌城在线娱乐现在有很多新工具, 计算方法和技术使澳门第一赌城在线娱乐的工作变得超级强大.

构建算法并引导复杂软件和工具的开发将改变计算病理学如何改善患者的生活,这是一种荣幸. 澳门第一赌城在线娱乐即将为病人开创一个光明的新未来, and I am so proud to be part of the team at AstraZeneca that is leading the way.


哈达萨的故事是澳门第一赌城在线娱乐正在进行的系列节目的一部分: 肿瘤学先驱, which spotlights colleagues on the AstraZeneca Oncology team who are making an impact, 无论是个人还是职业.