The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded FIU researchers a $1 million grant to design and develop machine-learning algorithms that allow biologists to make sense of proteomics, or the large-scale study of proteins.
The study of proteins is critical for understanding and treating diseases. In the past, biologists have spent long periods of time – sometimes their entire lives – studying as few as one single protein. In recent years, mass spectrometers, machines that use electricity and magnetism to analyze atoms, have allowed biologists to generate massive amounts of data from a few samples. The challenge is the data is difficult to understand with the naked eye.
With this three-year grant, Fahad Saeed, principal investigator and associate professor in the School of Computing and Information Sciences (SCIS) within the College of Engineering & Computing, along with other FIU researchers plan to develop machine-learning algorithms that work with supercomputers to analyze and understand the data. Supercomputers are large computers used for complex mathematical calculations, with speeds that greatly exceed that of standard computers.
Read more at FIU News.