UC San Diego researchers received two multimillion-dollar grants Tuesday, totalling $16 million, to support research that seeks to reduce infant mortality and prevent the spread of infectious diseases and drug overdoses.
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The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health awarded a team led by Drew Hall, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering, and Louise Laurent, co-director of the university’s Center for OB/GYN Research Innovation, to develop a blood test that can quickly indicate whether a mother’s unborn child is at risk of experiencing low oxygen levels after birth.
Up to $10.4 million is allocated for the multi-year effort, which is part of ARPA-H’s “Making Obstetrics Care Smart” initiative, itself part of the federal agency’s overall mission to “accelerate innovations that have the potential to change lives.”
Plans call for development of a “point of care” test that could detect blood biomarkers, such as small strands of genetic code, proteins or tiny particles called “extracellular vesicles” that could indicate a risk of fetal oxygen insufficiency, allowing medical teams to take action earlier.
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The university also announced that Natasha Martin, a mathematical biologist and vice chief of global public health at UCSD School of Medicine, received a $5.6 million Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, to model decision making in people with HIV, hepatitis C and drug users at risk of overdose.
The project will use artificial intelligence to create “digital twins” trained to make decisions similarly to those struggling with these challenges in the real world. Incorporating existing models of infectious disease transmission and overdose, the approach aims to “test different prevention and treatment strategies before they are implemented in the real world.”
“Beyond this project, this approach could help design new health services, identify barriers to care and tailor interventions for populations whose needs are poorly understood,” Martin said.
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