We have an opportunity to uplift UK cystic fibrosis research in general by providing knowhow, training and reagents in a number of areas including genomics, bioinformatics, stem cells and clinical trials technology
- Andres Floto
John Winn’s office at Microsoft Research looks like that of any typical academic: on one wall is a whiteboard graffitied with impenetrable equations and mathematical scribblings, on the opposite wall books and files line shelves, and on his desk are photos of his family.
His desk, however, is somewhat different: it can rise or fall, depending on whether he wants to work standing or sitting – and underneath is a treadmill for walking and working at the same time. “There have been times when I’ve been deep in thought and almost fallen off it,” he jokes.
Winn has cystic fibrosis (CF) and keeping fit is an important part of managing his condition: the stronger his lung function, the better equipped he is to fight the potentially life-threatening infections that plague people living with the condition.
CF occurs when an individual inherits two copies of a single genetic variant, one from each parent. The disease causes a build-up of thick, sticky mucous in the lungs, intestines and organs, and those affected by the condition are particularly susceptible to lung infections leading to progressive inflammatory lung damage. Although life expectancy for people with CF has almost doubled in recent decades, it is still significantly below average.
Winn is a machine learning specialist and is using his expertise to fight the condition that affects his everyday life. Together with Professor Andres Floto from the Department of Medicine at Cambridge, he is turning data from the daily lives of people with cystic fibrosis into potentially life-saving information.
As part of this study, funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Papworth Hospital, participants have been submitting data – everything from heart rate and lung function through to self-reported wellbeing – via an app that also monitors their activity levels. Machine learning then sifts through the data, looking for patterns and – it’s hoped – building a model that can predict when a patient’s health is about to deteriorate and advise them to seek medical help.
“The overarching principle is about giving people control over their own health data and making it work for them,” says Winn. “There’s some informal feedback that just participating in the study and taking these readings has already improved health outcomes for some individuals: for example, it’s helped with adherence with taking their medications as they noticed that if they missed taking certain medicines, their readings got worse.”
The project is just one strand of a major new Cystic Fibrosis Innovation Hub based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and run by Floto. The Hub is supported through a £5 million commitment from the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and matching funds from the University of Cambridge. It will strengthen existing collaborations across the University and with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, as well as build new collaborative research networks with CF centres around the UK. The Trust’s Chief Executive, David Ramsden, said it will “provide in CF research across the country”.
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge