The American Neurological Association (ANA) is an organization which is comprised of the top academic neurologists and neuroscientists from across the country. At the ANA’s Annual Meeting, these academics share and discuss the latest research and breakthroughs related to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis, etc. The Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award is one of the awards that the ANA gives out at the Annual Meeting. The 2019 Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award went to our own Cassie S. Mitchell, Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology. We are very proud of her, and are excited to see her hard work being nationally recognized.

Dr. Cassie Mitchell is the head of the Pathology Dynamics lab as well as a wheelchair-bound quadriplegic. However, her disabilities have never stopped nor even slowed her down. On top of exploring future possibilities for the direction of predictive medicine, she has also dedicated her time to ensuring the disabled portion of the Georgia Tech community have the necessary resources available to them. This lab is beyond proud to see her selected as a 2019 Diversity and Inclusion (DI) Fellow at Georgia Tech and believe she is well deserving of the title. To read more about Dr. Mitchell and this appointment, please click on the link below:

https://www.bme.gatech.edu/bme/cassie-mitchell-selected-2019-diversity-and-inclusion-fellow

The Undergraduate Research Ambassadors (URA) are a dedicated group of students who help their peers find opportunities to gain experience. Premi Mohanavelu has chosen to join their ranks to help give back to those looking for the same chances that were once allotted to her. She is an integral member of our team and as a computer science major has helped the Pathology Dynamics lab build our CML database. We are proud Premi has chosen to become a URA and help those achieve the same things she has.

The prestigious National Science Foundation, or NSF, Fellowship has been awarded to our lab’s talented Ph.D. student, Breanna Lee. She achieved this with her proposed project to examine using sparse data/ML techniques to better predict rare pediatric diseases where clinical trials and data are lacking. This lab is very excited for Breanna as this is her third fellowship awarded, making her one of the most decorated Ph.D. students in BME. This is Breanna’s first year at GT-Emory, but she is already making waves. Our lab is anxious to see the amazing things she does next.

Albert Lee, one of the many talented students in our lab, has been awarded the President’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) salary fellowship for Summer 2019. This is a prestigious honor that has been hard earned through Albert’s work using an optimized form of dynamic meta-analysis to better inform preclinical ALS and neurological disease etiological assessment and potential therapy identification. The Pathology Dynamics lab has been lucky to have Albert be a part of our team for a couple of years now, building a resume that includes conferences and journal co-authorships.

The Laboratory for Pathology Dynamics is grateful to be awarded a 1-year pilot grant from the Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Research Consortium (ADRC) entitled, “Towards network models to differentiate Alzheimer’s from normative aging.” Dr. Mitchell is the PI of this research project, which focuses on the complex data aggregation and integration necessary for future predictive algorithms capable of differentiating cognitive decline due to normative aging from cognitive decline due to pathological Alzheimer’s Disease. As part of this pilot, the lab will be aggregating multiple complex clinical data sets, performing proof-of-concept machine learning prediction on aggregated clinical data, and using novel literature mining software to help prioritize predictive or distinguishing metrics from the published Alzheimer’s and aging literature. The lab will collaborate with clinicians at the Emory ADRC to help prioritize clinical insight and optimize clinical data platforms.

The Laboratory for Pathology Dynamics was recently awarded a 2-year National Institute of Health and National Cancer Institute (NIH-NCI) R21 grant entitled, “A Big Data Approach to BCR ABL Leukemias”. Dr. Mitchell is the PI of this research project, which will utilize a plethora of existing and novel big data analytics techniques, from computational modeling to text mining to machine learning, to improve personalized medicine for BCR ABL leukemias. While the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) has vastly improved life span for BCR ABL cancer patients, such chemotherapy is currently recommended to be taken for life, as even patients who reach remission have >60% chance of relapse if they stop treatment. With such long-term treatment, therapy resistance is an issue. There are a variety of TKIs, all of which have their own unique acute or chronic side effect profiles, which also influence safety and compliance. The goal of this work is to uncover complex patterns that improve understanding of the etiology and treatment of BCR ABL cancers and lead to predictive medicine algorithms that can personalize treatment and improve TKI selection, long-term outcomes, and overall quality of life. The lab will collaborate with oncologists specializing in pediatric and adult hematological malignancies.

Our lab was honored to receive a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association for the diligent work in trying to uncover the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. We are very proud to receive this grant and aim to continue making progress on this front. Check out the BME department press release for more information!

https://www.bme.gatech.edu/bme/mitchell-gets-alzheimers-association-award