Yejin Kim, PhD works to improve Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial process

Earlier this fall, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston Assistant Professor Yejin Kim, PhD earned a grant worth almost $3.9 million from the National Institute on Aging (NIA). This grant marks the second NIA grant Kim has earned in two years.

The project, titled “Data-driven Subtypes of Alzheimer's disease progression for targeted treatment,” aims to reveal and stratify heterogeneous populations into clinically targetable groups using completed clinical trial/registries data. If successful, this project will speed up clinical trials by informing the design of future intervention trials. Associate Vice President for Medical AI and Chair of the Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD, is a MPI on this project.

Therapy development for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been impeded by significant disease heterogeneity according to Kim. Her research team hopes to “develop AD subtypes that respond differently to therapies.” By identifying the subtypes, the researchers can create more focused clinical trials. For example, they hope to salvage patient subgroups that may have benefited from past therapies but were overlooked because of one-size-fits-all trials.

“This challenge, understanding the diverse manifestations of AD, seemed particularly well-suited to machine learning approaches,” notes Kim, whose areas of expertise include data mining, machine learning, and computational phenotyping. “While human experts excel at identifying patterns from a limited number of data points, the vast datasets associated with AD exceed human cognitive capacities.”

Kim has spent extensive time investigating how machine learning can be used in the battle against AD. Over the years, her research has expanded as she examines treatment responses in clinical trials. “Ultimately, I want this work to be a launching pad for something even bigger: developing disease-curing therapies for Alzheimer’s,” Kim stated. “If successful, millions of people and their families could benefit from this work, as we inch closer to truly personalized treatment for this devastating disease.”

This grant, which started September 30 of this year, will be funded through June 30, 2029.