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Harnessing artificial intelligence to control diabetes

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University of Queensland alumnus Dr Nigel Greenwood has been globally recognised for building the world’s first genuinely machine-intelligent artificial pancreas.

The leader of Team MachineGenes, and founder of its member AI startups, is now one of the world’s 10 semifinalists in a global challenge to build AI applications to address critical global issues.

The team is one of 683 worldwide who entered the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE competition in 2016. It’s now the only team left that is based outside North America and Europe. The top 10 semifinalists will compete at TED HQ in New York in February 2020, with the hope of winning the US$3 million prize in the finals in April.

Dr Greenwood’s team is demonstrating the diabetes applications of his technology, using evolutionary machine learning and advanced AI to recommend the best insulin dosage to help people control their blood glucose.

“We’ve been using our technology to data mine the individual medical histories of people with diabetes,” Dr Greenwood said.

“Some with ‘brittle’ or highly unstable diabetes have a continuous glucose monitor strapped to their body day and night, and regularly check their blood glucose levels directly by pricking their fingers.

“They have insulin pumps and estimate the carbohydrates in their meals. Instead of forcing people to try and make sense of all this by themselves, all of these data sources are used by Neuromathix software to come up with the best insulin dosing decision.”

The three AI startups that comprise Team MachineGenes are Evolving Machine Intelligence (EMI), Diabetes Neuromathix and Turbine MachineGenes. EMI does pure research into new forms of AI and evolutionary machine learning. Diabetes Neuromathix applies this new technology to helping people with Type 1 diabetes, including those with ‘brittle’ diabetes, while Turbine MachineGenes applies the same technology and techniques to aviation engines.

Turbine MachineGenes was incubated by UQ’s ilab Accelerator program in 2014 and 2015, and remains at the University’s incubator situated at Long Pocket.

UQ has been supporting Dr Greenwood’s recent work, which first began with his studies under renowned mathematician and UQ Reader, Dr Janislaw M Skowronski, 30 years ago.

Last year, UQ and Advance Queensland sponsored Team MachineGenes’ attendance at the United Nations’ AI for Good Global Summit and the world’s top AI conference, NeurIPS 2019.

What does Neuromathix do with the information?

Real people’s medical histories go first to a high-performance computer.

Here, the best models of Type 1 diabetes from the medical literature are literally forced to evolve by the software until they match the medical histories. The result? Personalised models tailored for that person.

Dr Greenwood’s software passes these models to a tablet computer or similar—that the patient carries around.

Then two AIs, running on the tablet computer, sort through the personalised models and the available information that’s coming in real time and argue in terms of designing an insulin strategy.
One of them, the Prime, tries to design the best strategy it can. The other, the Adversary, tries to make bad things happen. The resulting conflict leads to an insulin strategy being synthesised. Then the person has the final say on the important aspects of this strategy, such as what level of insulin dose they’re happy with, and if necessary can tell the AIs to go back to the drawing board and try again.

“The two AIs churn out a really safe, robust, tested insulin strategy effectively in real time that no human endocrinologist could match,” Dr Greenwood said.

“It will allow for better and more accurate treatment than we’ve ever seen.”

What will Team MachineGenes do if they win the ultimate prize in April?

Winning the XPRIZE competition would enable Dr Greenwood and team to do two things: run a clinical trial out of Westmead Hospital, Sydney, and also continue to develop next-generation machine learning and consequent AI, using a completely different paradigm than the current “gold standard” of neural networks.

“Running a clinical trial would be a massive game changer as that is the final piece in the puzzle,” Dr Greenwood said.

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement and Entrepreneurship) Dr Jessica Gallagher said Team MachineGenes could be the next ‘moonshot’ that uses UQ’s entrepreneurial and research ecosystems to accelerate personalised medicine.

“Dr Greenwood’s decades-long work is now on the brink of making a huge impact for those hundreds of millions of people trying to live well with diabetes,” Dr Gallagher said.

Media: Evolving Machine Intelligence Dr Nigel Greenwood, nigel@machinegenes.com, 0410 477 049.

UQ responds to coronavirus outbreak

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The University of Queensland has been asked to develop a vaccine for the recent coronavirus outbreak at unprecedented speed, using new technology.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has requested the University use its recently developed rapid response technology to develop a new vaccine, which could be available worldwide in as little as six months.

UQ Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Peter Høj AC said the fluidity of the current outbreak represented a significant challenge to the international community.

“There is a lot that is still unknown regarding how easily the virus is able to be transmitted between humans,” he said.

“Working with CEPI, The University of Queensland is using its vaccine technology to respond to this global health challenge.”

Head of University’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, Professor Paul Young said The University of Queensland had novel technology for the rapid generation of new vaccines from the knowledge of a virus’s genetic sequence information.

“The team hopes to develop a vaccine over the next six months, which may be used to help contain this outbreak,” he said.

“The vaccine would be distributed to first responders, helping to contain the virus from spreading around the world.”

Dr Keith Chappell describes the Vaccine Pipeline from The University of Queensland in 2019.

Dr Keith Chappell, from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences and the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology said the key to the speedy development of this potential vaccine was the ‘molecular clamp’ technology, invented by UQ scientists and patented by UniQuest.

“The University of Queensland’s molecular clamp technology provides stability to the viral protein that is the primary target for our immune defence,” he said.

“The technology has been designed as a platform approach to generate vaccines against a range of human and animal viruses and has shown promising results in the laboratory targeting viruses such as influenza, Ebola, Nipah and MERS coronavirus.”

Media: UQ communication, communications@uq.edu.au, +61 73365 1120; Tom Matthews, tom.matthews@uq.edu.au, +61 468 746 070; Dominic Jarvis, dominic.jarvis@uq.edu.au, +61 413 334 924.

Rehoming native bee colonies at UQ

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UQ is a hive of activity – even when students aren’t on campus.

Stingless native bees pollinate many native plants across the St Lucia campus, and large hives can be found in urban cavities, such as in sides of buildings, valve pits and water meters.

UQ’s Property and Facilities division have teamed up with UQ’s School of Biological Sciences to rehome native bees in educational display hives to be used for teaching and research purposes.

Watch the video now to see how UQ’s native bees are safely rehomed on campus.

Faster is the best medicine

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Life moves fast for UQ graduate Dr Luke Bennett – but that’s bound to happen when your world revolves around Formula 1 racing. Contact caught up with Bennett on his pit stop back in Australia to discuss his transition from flying doctor to sports performance specialist. Read more…

Healing runs in the family

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Medical student Sherice Ansell is following in her father’s footsteps, as she prepares to graduate as a doctor from The University of Queensland.

Ms Ansell’s father is a Ngangkari in Alice Springs, a traditional Aboriginal healer, as well as an Aboriginal health worker.

She said he encouraged her to take the less traditional path.

“He knew in order to make changes for our people that you had to have a western education,” Ms Ansell said.

“I was an Aboriginal health worker working with medical staff, but it’s the doctor that makes the changes.

“You listen to whatever they say, and for a lot of Aboriginal patients that isn’t necessarily the best thing because those decisions are coming from a place outside.

“My father told me if you do medicine, you will be in a better position to talk for your people.”

Ms Ansell was the first of her family to study at university, but said it wasn’t an easy transition.

“I didn’t know what university was when I went through high school.

“It wasn’t until I was rubbing shoulders with nurses and doctors as an Aboriginal health worker that I thought, I could do that.”

She said she was grateful for the support of UQ’s ATSIS unit throughout her studies, as she found it difficult at first to live in a big city.

“The first two years were probably the most difficult because I moved away from home,” she said.

“I was at the ATSIS unit almost every day and the support was just awesome and made so much of a difference.”

While studying at UQ, Ms Ansell participated in the PNG Health Project, a charity set up by fellow student and friend, Eve Golma.

“It was just the best experience and I saw so many similarities between Indigenous culture and PNG culture.”

She wants eventually to return home to practice but for the time being, is staying put.

“I was attracted to the Rural Generalist program, which is Queensland-based and makes you a Rural Generalist with an advanced skill in some other area.

“For now, I’ve decided to go to Ipswich because it’s a small hospital, and I just didn’t feel like it was the right time to come home just yet.

“My goal is to come back to Alice Springs or work outside Alice Springs.”

And she’s thrilled to be an inspiration for the Indigenous children she comes into contact with.

“You don’t believe that you can become something if you don’t see it,” she said.

“So I think the more Aboriginal doctors we get out there and our families see, the more they know that they can do it too.”

Media: UQ communication, communications@uq.edu.au, +61 7 3365 3439.

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