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Artificial Intelligence to Predict the Presence of <i>S. epidermidis</i>

by Mohamed Fathima S on Dec 16 2018 12:55 PM

Artificial Intelligence to Predict the Presence of <i>S. epidermidis</i>
Ubiquitous colonizer of human skin Staphylococcus epidermidis causes serious nosocomial infections with indwelling devices and surgical procedures like a hip replacement. Now, scientists have found a way to predict the presence of the bacteria with the help of machine learning.//
It has not been known whether all members of the S. epidermidis population colonizing the skin asymptomatically are capable of causing such infections, or if some of them have a heightened tendency to do so when they enter either the bloodstream or a deep tissue.

FCAI scientists Johan Pensar and Jukka Corander from the Aalto-University and the University of Helsinki, joined a team of microbiologists and geneticists to unravel this mystery. By combining large-scale population genomics and in vitro measurements of immunologically relevant features of these bacteria, they were able to use machine learning to successfully predict the risk of developing a serious, and possibly life-threatening infection from the genomic features of a bacterial isolate.

This opens the door for future technology where high-risk genotypes are identified proactively when a person is to undergo a surgical procedure, which has high potential to reduce the burden of nosocomial infections caused by S. epidermidis.



Source-Eurekalert


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