2022 Cooper Award: Biomarkers for automatically identifying brain injury at birth
Dr Hamid Abbasi, University of Auckland Waipapa Taumata Rau, has been presented the Cooper Award for developing a method for automatically identifying biological markers of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury at birth.
Presented for developing advanced technology for automatically identifying biological markers of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HI) at birth. HI results from reduced oxygen delivery and blood supply but is challenging to diagnose partly due to a lack of robust biomarkers.
Using a sheep animal model, Hamid has identified promising prognostic biological signatures of the injury, in the form of subtle high-frequency spike transients in the electroencephalographic (EEG) electrical brain signals. These can be seen in the first 6 hours after HI, when it would be optimal to start potential neuroprotective treatments.
His advanced machine-learning framework, based on deep-learning technology, can accurately identify and quantify these subtle wave-form signatures in real-time, with accuracy of over 99.8% and could be a game-changer for treating at-risk infants.
Cooper Award:
For encouraging research excellence in technology, applied science and engineering by early career researchers in New Zealand.
Citation:
For the development of advanced technology for automatic identification of biological markers of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury at birth.