The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded the University of Tennessee a $231,000 federal Project Grant under the NEI Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) for the project "A Generalizable Deep Learning Platform for Unifying Quantification of Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis". The project aims to develop an artificial intelligence-based platform to improve the objectivity, reproducibility, and accuracy of assessing and quantifying experimental autoimmune uveitis, an animal model that is valuable for studying the mechanisms of human uveitis and evaluating new therapies. The researchers will generate multi-modal datasets from three independent centers and develop a foundation model using emerging AI techniques like self-supervised learning and vision transformers to enable unified assessment of the uveitis model. The goal is to provide robust, generalizable AI tools that can enhance experimental research on uveitis and potentially other ocular diseases. The project will run from February 1, 2025 to January 31, 2027.
Generated 3/4/25, 3:50 AM