Invited Speaker

Invites Speaker I

Asst. Prof. Junhan Zhao
University of Chicago, USA

Invited Lecture: AI-driven Phenomics Analysis for Cancer Diagnostics, Prognostics and Therapeutics

Abstract: AI-driven phenomics analysis has revolutionized the field of cancer diagnostics, prognostics, and therapeutics by leveraging advanced algorithms to analyze cellular images such as H&E histology images. In this talk, I will discuss my work to incorperate medical domain knowledge for developing clinical AI, including weakly-supervised, self-supervised learning and foundation model. We will conclude with a discussion on enhancing cancer care through more efficient and effective AI.

Biography: Junhan Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago and a visiting scientist at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where he specialized in AI-driven digital health. Zhao earned his Ph.D. in computer graphics as a Bilsland Fellowship awardee and served as a lecturer at Purdue University. He completed his engineering training and graduated with distinction from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Cornell University. He also holds a M.Sc in Biostatistics from Harvard University. Zhao has served as first or senior author on high-impact publications featured in Nature, Nature Comm, Light Science & Applications, Med, and IEEE portfolio (TVCG, TIP, TMI, TIM, TCSVT, JBHI). He led AI development and deployment in early-stage ventures related to AI, wearable devices, stem cell therapy and rejuvenation.

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Invites Speaker II

Dr. Jin Y. Du
Guangdong CAS Angels Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

Invited Lecture: Advancing Dental Diagnostics with Image Processing Models

Abstract: I discuss two dental diagnostics research projects from the AI team of our company CAS Angels. One project was on dental disease classification from oral images and textual records using large vision models. We assembled a database of over 50,000 images as well as written notes. The data come from 8775 dental checkups, 4800 patients from a Suzhou dental clinic. We then tested large vision models Qwen-VL and GPT-4o at classifying dental diseases and generating diagnostic reports, and then evaluated these by comparing to the diagnoses and reports of the actual doctors. Results show that Qwen greatly improves after supervised fine tuning. The second project was on implant annotation and peri-implant bone loss measurements from CBCT images using a TransUNet model. We collected 55 clinical CBCT scans from both healthy and peri-implantitis patients from a Guangdong hospital. These are partitioned into 7224 2D slices. The model then labels which pixels from these slices should be part of the implant, with the labeling evaluated against human annotation. Slices are then reassembled into a 3D model, which is used to calculate peri-implant bone loss measurements.

Biography: Dr. Du received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2018, under the supervision of Professor Dima Sinapova. His doctoral research was on utilizing forcing techniques to prove the consistency of infinitary combinatorial principles assuming large cardinals. He then pursued postdoctoral research at The Chinese University of Hong Kong under the mentorship of Professor Xiaodan Fan to develop a Hidden Markov Model for which genes may influence a phenotype. Since 2022, he has collaborated with Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine on a project to develop an artificial intelligence-based medicine recommendation system for nasopharyngeal cancer patients.

Dr. Du’s core research involves developing AI-powered dental lesion detection systems based on large-scale language models and reconstructing precise 3D dental implant models from CBCT scans using advanced segmentation algorithms. He has published papers in various fields. His work has been recognized with funding, awards or recognition from the Association for Symbolic Logic, the UCLA Department of Mathematics and Guangdong CAS Angels Biotechnology Co., Ltd., earning him high acclaim.

Since 2019, Dr. Du has focused on applying artificial intelligence technology to medical and health monitoring and treatment. His research has been published in top-tier journals such as Molecular Therapy - Nucleic Acids and conferences such as IMIP2022.