Federated learning for neurodegenerative diseases: HEREDITARY collaborates in joint EU webinar

by | May 7, 2025 | Events

On Friday, 16th May, HEREDITARY will participate in a joint webinar alongside two other leading EU-funded initiatives — LETHE and BRAINTEASER — to explore how federated learning is shaping the future of neurodegenerative disease research.

The online event, titled “Federated Learning for Neurodegenerative Disease Research: A New Path to Risk Reduction and Better Care“, will take place from 10:30 to 11:30 CEST. It offers a unique opportunity to learn how cutting-edge machine learning approaches are being applied across collaborative European research efforts, enabling a secure, privacy-preserving data collaboration to improve risk prediction, diagnosis, and patient care in neurodegenerative diseases.

It will begin providing the audience with an introduction to federated learning and then dive into examples of how federated learning is being used in the three projects. There will be a chance at the end of the webinar for the audience to participate and ask our panellists questions.

Hereditary’s participation in the webinar

HEREDITARY will take center stage through a presentation by Umberto Manera, from Università degli Studi di Torino, a researcher partner for both HEREDITARY and BRAINTEASER, who will discuss how federated learning techniques in HEREDITARY can advance AI model developed by BRAINTEASER Project in clinical settings. Check the agenda, speakers and learn more about the projects here.

Join us to discover how federated learning is opening new frontiers in health research and paving the way for more personalized and effective care across Europe. Sign up here.

HEREDITARY Project launches “The UCD Mission of Observa”, a video series about the Anschutz Medical Campus (UCD) research activities

by | Dec 5, 2024 | Hereditary

We are delighted to introduce our latest video series, made by our partner Observa in the framework of the HEREDITARY project. Guided by Stephen McNamara, a research instructor at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, we delve into the potential of AI for early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases and ways of communicating with patients and the public.

Each video offers a closer look at the research group’s objectives, methodology, and layers, helping you to understand the impact of this pioneering work on healthcare and data research.

This video series is part of the HEREDITARY voices series.

Episode 1. Clinical tools for diagnosis

In this first episode, Stephen McNamara explains how they are trying to find ocular biomarkers that are able to connect imaging in the eye to broader systemic diseases, such as Parkinson. By looking at images and scans from the back of the eye, they can ultimately determine whether someone has a neurodegenerative disease now or in a near future. In that way, invasive imaging or testing can be avoided, eliminating the uncertainties surrounding these diagnoses.

Episode 2. The Eye: The mirror of the body

The research group is making diagnoses and establishing connections between the whole body from a detailed analysis of the eye. By doing so, it increases certainty about different diseases, improves predictions and helps patients receive specific therapies and treatments.

Episode 3. Information, AI and Decision Making

Information is key, not only to train models to make better disease predictions, but also to ensure that patients are aware of these new scientific treatments and how it can affect their lives. Transparency becomes increasingly relevant in a world where AI is a new and evolving feature.