Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Congressman Tim Kennedy (D, NY-26) was in Buffalo on Friday to announce a $1.5 million grant for Hauptman-Woodward and the University at Buffalo to work on the effects of low-dose radiation.
"This investment will support work that allows for better insight and ultimately better protections against the health impacts of low-dose radiation exposure,” said Kennedy on Friday. "I commend Hauptman-Woodward for their national leadership on this important issue."
Edward Snell, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, and Dominic Sellitto, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Science and Systems in the UB School of Management, will serve as co-principal investigators on the research.
"Dr. Snell and his team have developed a method that targets different samples to analyze the biological impact of low doses of radiation, but these kinds of experiments are time-consuming and expensive, so that’s where AI comes in," said Sellitto. "As his team is refining those experiments, we’re also building a model that will go through all the data to create a lightweight, efficient AI you can just ask a question to, and it will accurately predict what the experiment would have produced. The experimental component allows us to test and validate the computational predictions."
"Leveraging the AI expertise of UB allows us to develop a new tool for one area of health research that could have a dramatic impact across many health areas in the future," Snell added.
HWI is one of only 14 projects on low-dose radiation in the nation awarded a total of $19.5 million. The goal of the nation’s Low Dose Radiation Research Program is to better understand the impact of low-dose radiation exposure, and subsequently implement protective measures.