First post-lockdown lab photo!

Our paper discussed on RheumMadness podcast

The RheumMadness podcast scouted our paper on using machine learning and immunoprofiling to understand juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Their summary?

Future: Future implications for immunophenotyping machine learning include the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of all rheumatologic conditions. With the increase in potential immunomodulating targeted therapies, along with the classification of disease based on those same immune targets, an exciting possibility of choosing precise individualized treatment plans for our patients exists.

In pediatric rheumatology, we are accustomed to using complicated clinical algorithms to properly diagnose and treat our patients. But is this really the most accurate system? Machine learning and immunophenotyping have the potential to turn the field inside out. 

Chances in the Tournament: As the only pediatric team in play, this team is the dark horse. However, the long-term clinical implications of this team are arguably more far-reaching than any other team in the Machine Region—and the entire tournament. Despite the small number of participants in this study, the exclusion of psoriatic and enthesitis-related JIA, and the lack of attention given to race, ethnicity and environmental factors that could potentially alter immune signatures, we still believe the strengths of this article make it a crucial one. We stand an excellent chance.

Immunophenotyping machine learning has implications for more than just anti-tumor necrosis factor response in RA, like our opponents would argue. Our study shows that its implications stretch far beyond one diagnosis or two therapy choices. In fact, pediatric rheumatologists have just begun to pave the way for better classifying patients in the adult world as well. Could eight subtypes of RA actually exist, and you just don’t know it yet? Immunophenotyping through machine learning could be the disrupter you’ve been waiting for. This study can go all the way.

Listen to the podcast here