Are you ready for a challenge? There is a PhD position available in the
AI Technology for Life group at Utrecht University. You will develop novel explainable AI methods to work with Multimodal Life Sciences Data and help improve cancer care.
Your job In this PhD project, you will develop novel explainable AI methodologies tailored for multimodal data within the Life Sciences. The main focus revolves around understanding the interplay between imaging and omics information. As we intend to move towards precision medicine, it is imperative to understand what genetic information is embedded in radiology and pathology images. In the most recent years, radiology images have been used to predict tumour progression and treatment response, offering the unique advantage of characterising tumour heterogeneity through non-invasive procedures. The apparent success of these image-based methods stems from the relationship between genetic information and observable image phenotypes. Despite this progress, prevalent studies often limit their evaluation to classification performances, leading to an incomplete assessment with repercussions on trust and scientific understanding. This project aims to address this limitation by developing inherently interpretable AI models that explain the relationship between the different modalities and are robust against domain shifts. The emphasis on explainability and robustness is paramount for the integration of AI systems into clinical settings. In summary, this project aims to develop novel AI methodologies, contributing to the improvement of cancer research and cancer care.
You will become part of the vibrant interdisciplinary research group “AI Technology for Life” as part of a collaboration between the
department of Information and Computing Sciences and the
department of Biology. The group was created as a result of the great importance attached by the Faculty of Science to stimulate research and teaching between departments. Together with the members of the group, you work at the interface between Life Sciences and AI.