May 27, 2026
VIDA faculty member Robert Krueger receives NSF CAREER award
News2026-05-27
Prof. Krueger has received the NSF CISE CAREER award for the project CAREER: Human-in-the-Loop Visual Analytics for Biomedical Spatial Profiling.
CAREER: Human-in-the-Loop Visual Analytics for Biomedical Spatial Profiling will integrate machine learning with interactive visualizations, allowing experts to steer AI and interpret results to precisely map disease progression, immune responses, and therapy performance.
Understanding how our bodies fight disease is essential to advancing medicine and increasing the quality of life. Modern technologies, known as spatial profiling, allow us to scan human tissue to derive genetic and physical information about biological processes. But the resulting data is so large and complex that even experts cannot fully explore it with the naked eye. This project will yield novel human-guided AI approaches to steer and interpret artificial intelligence through interactive visual interfaces. The technology will assist researchers in analyzing biological phenomena, including the causes of diseases (notably cancer), immune responses, and the effects of therapies at the cellular level. Since these phenomena rely on the spatial and temporal organization of cells within the tissue, we will develop an interactive biomedical atlas with embedded analytics to visually analyze these structures and communicate scientific findings to other researchers, practitioners, and the general public. A joint educational plan pairs computer science and biology students to learn and build the research tools of the future. Through these efforts, we aim to revolutionize our understanding of human disease and increase life expectancy for all Americans. Lessons learned in human-AI collaboration and spatial data analysis can expand to other disciplines, including earth and space science.
Understanding how our bodies fight disease is essential to advancing medicine and increasing the quality of life. Modern technologies, known as spatial profiling, allow us to scan human tissue to derive genetic and physical information about biological processes. But the resulting data is so large and complex that even experts cannot fully explore it with the naked eye. This project will yield novel human-guided AI approaches to steer and interpret artificial intelligence through interactive visual interfaces. The technology will assist researchers in analyzing biological phenomena, including the causes of diseases (notably cancer), immune responses, and the effects of therapies at the cellular level. Since these phenomena rely on the spatial and temporal organization of cells within the tissue, we will develop an interactive biomedical atlas with embedded analytics to visually analyze these structures and communicate scientific findings to other researchers, practitioners, and the general public. A joint educational plan pairs computer science and biology students to learn and build the research tools of the future. Through these efforts, we aim to revolutionize our understanding of human disease and increase life expectancy for all Americans. Lessons learned in human-AI collaboration and spatial data analysis can expand to other disciplines, including earth and space science.