Cardiovascular diseases, morbid obesity or the digitisation of histopathology preparations are the main areas of research work in two projects being carried out by the Łukasiewicz – PORT Biobank Research Group. The consortium of which the Group is a part has received funding of nearly PLN 60 million from the Medical Research Agency.

Biobank will carry out the projects in cooperation with the University Clinical Hospital in Opole and the 4th Military Teaching Hospital with Polyclinic SP ZOZ in Wrocław, which are the leaders of the consortia. In both cases, the Biobank Łukasiewicz – PORT Research Group will be a partner co-creating the RCMC platform and cooperating in the conduct of the complex clinical and scientific research for which the consortia have received funding.

For the research programme led by USK in Opole, the main focus of the research work will be put on cardiovascular diseases and giant obesity. One area of research will be spatial phenotyping, which involves identifying multiple cell populations and their interactions using a single slice of histopathological material.

Research work within the second funded project, carried out in collaboration with the 4th WSK in Wrocław and other units of the consortium, will aim to create a centre for digitisation of histopathological preparations.

The centre will be the starting point for implementing and developing artificial intelligence in pathomorphology, mainly in oncology research. In collaboration with the Hospital and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology, AI tools will be developed to identify histopathology signatures of prognostic significance.

For Biobank, this project means an increase in scientific potential in the field of histopathology, and for all grant beneficiaries, the creation of tools allowing the identification of histopathological signatures based on AI-based analysis of histopathological samples.

Adrian Andrzejewski