Three 30 MSEK projects awarded grants
To address complex research questions with significant implications for both science and society, the SciLifeLab and Wallenberg National Program for Data-Driven Life Science (DDLS), and the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP) have launched NEST (Novelty, Excellence, Synergy, and Teams) projects. Three projects have now been approved for funding.
Crossing borders to solve complex questions
The NEST-initiative aims to foster multidisciplinary collaboration by combining the expertise of the WASP and DDLS programs in AI and data-driven life science.
Thomas Schön, Beijer Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Uppsala University, is one of the awarded main investigators:
“As a person and researcher, I am very curious. A great opportunity we have as researchers is to enter new worlds and learn new things while simultaneously creating new knowledge. This is why I entered this project, in which I hope to gain better ways to describe dynamic medically relevant properties based on various high-dimensional measurements. This requires exciting basic research in areas such as machine learning, while it is also incredibly exciting to see how we can help understand some of life’s smallest components.”
Ola Spjuth, Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences at Uppsala University and SciLifeLab AI lead, is one of the main investigators of the TIMED project:
“Having worked extensively with static imaging and AI, I’ve seen how much of biology’s complexity is lost when we try to understand dynamic systems through single timepoints. Cells are constantly changing, adapting, responding, and capturing that requires new forms of time-resolved data and intelligent models to make sense of it. To move forward, we need tools that better reflect the continuous nature of biological processes. What excites me most about the TIMED project is the opportunity to not only develop new AI models, but also to generate the kind of rich, time-resolved data they require. By designing both the experiments and the analytical tools hand in hand, we can better capture the dynamics of cellular behavior and open new possibilities for discovery.”
Substantial funding to make an impact
Each NEST project is funded with up to 30 million SEK over five years, equally supported by the DDLS and WASP programs. The funding will primarily cover salaries for personnel, including new PhD students and postdocs, who are expected to participate in the respective graduate or research schools.
“The focus we can maintain in this project through substantial financial resources combined with exciting ideas makes me genuinely believe that we will be able to make a significant impact in an area that is important in many ways when it comes to understanding how life works,” Thomas Schön comments.
| Authors | University | Project title |
|---|---|---|
| Rocio Mercado, Ola Spjuth, Ashkan Panahi, Prashant Singh and Brinton Seashore-Ludlow | CTH, UU, KI | Time-resolved Imaging and Multi-channel Evaluation of cellular Dynamics (TIMED) |
| Claes Lundström, Mattias Rantalainen, Sophia Zackrisson and Dave Zachariah | LiU, KI, LU, UU | Multimodal AI-based Precision Diagnostics and Decision Support for Breast Cancer (AID4BC) |
| Thomas Schön, Johan Elf and Magda Bienko | UU, KI | Learning 3D genome dynamics from heterogeneous data |
