Junior Research Group Digital Biomarkers for Oncology
PD Dr. med. Titus Brinker
The development of digital biomarkers for non-invasive early detection, individualized diagnostic and therapeutic approaches as well as the prediction of tumor behavior is the research focus of our interdisciplinary research group. Scientists from the fields of medicine, molecular biology and data science focus on identifying relevant patterns in image data and their combination with other data such as results of molecular analysis or clinical data.
Our current activities focus on two major projects:
- The Skin Classification Project (SCP2) focuses on improving the accuracy of skin cancer screenings. With a network of 8 university hospitals throughout Germany, we develop and optimize AI-classifiers for the clinical routine. Our long-term goal is to demonstrate successful on-site implementation in prospective clinical trials, making AI-assisted skin cancer diagnostics the new standard of care.
- Within the Tumor Behavior Prediction Initiative (TPI), tumor behavior is predicted based on histologic slides. A crucial advantage of this approach is that tissue samples are taken anyway in clinical cancer diagnostics. With the help of artificial intelligence, we want to identify biomarkers on the digitized slides, which could be used in the future with minimal additional time and financial effort as a decision-making aid by the treating physician and represent a further building block for personalized medicine.