Georgia Southern researcher secures more than half a million in funding for new biomedical research

Salim Sazzed, Ph.D., a faculty member in Georgia Southern University’s Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Computing, is conducting research that could help scientists better understand the relationship between changes in human cells and serious illness. 

As the sole principal investigator of a four-year, $568,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Sazzed is developing artificial intelligence–based methods and software tools to identify and trace actin filaments more accurately in three-dimensional cellular images. These filaments help cells maintain their shape, move and divide. Their alteration is closely associated with cancer, neurological disorders and heart disease.

Currently, these images are produced using “Cryo-electron tomography (Cryo-ET)”, an imaging technique that allows scientists to see the microscopic actin filaments within the cells. Cryo-ET can provide insight, but the images it produces can also be difficult to analyze, according to Sazzed.

“Through my previous work, I know that these images can be very noisy,” he said. “Manually tracing the filaments can sometimes take hundreds of hours, while existing automated approaches often lack sufficient accuracy.”

 Sazzed expects his AI models and software tools to provide a more accurate automated approach for analyzing these images and to be ready for public use by 2030. While the software won’t provide an immediate treatment or diagnostic test for disease, Sazzed is hopeful about its long-term impact.

“Having a more comprehensive knowledge of how cells function and how actin filaments change in the presence of disease could eventually support the development of new treatments,” Sazzed explained.

Another important aspect of the project is student involvement. Two Ph.D. students and six undergraduates will help develop the software, train the AI models and analyze results. They will also attend team meetings with Sazzed and other collaborators, experts in biology, biochemistry and actin research from the University of Oregon, Ohio State University and Reed College. 

“Working with students is one of the most rewarding parts of this project,” Sazzed said. “They will contribute directly to this  NIH-funded effort while developing as independent researchers.”

Sazzed also plans to host an annual workshop during the project period to promote computational modeling and artificial intelligence in biomedical research.