TIA Centre: News

European Congress on Digital Pathology, Barcelona (26th - 28th June 2025)

The three-hour train journey from Madrid to Barcelona gave me plenty of time to reflect on what lay ahead. As an undergraduate student preparing to attend my first major international conference in digital pathology, I was both excited and nervous about representing the University of Warwick at the European Congress on Digital Pathology (ECDP) 2025. From the moment I set up my poster presenting "MitoNet: Efficient Ki-67 Detection in H&E-Stained Images" (see picture), I could sense this conference would challenge my understanding of AI in medicine. My research focuses on democratizing cancer diagnosis by using deep learning to predict Ki-67 expression directly from standard H&E-stained breast cancer images, potentially eliminating the need for costly immunohistochemistry in resource-limited settings.

As I explored the exhibition floor, it became clear that this year's congress was grappling with one of the most pressing challenges in our field: how do we ensure that AI in diagnostic pathology serves everyone equitably? This question would prove central to my entire conference experience, becoming most apparent during the bias and fairness session where leading researchers confronted uncomfortable truths about our technology.

The most eye-opening presentation came from Saniye Gülser Corat, founder of NoBiasAI? and ex-Director of Gender Equality at UNESCO, who illustrated how deeply embedded biases permeate our technological landscape. Her observation that "When the people building diagnostic AI don't reflect the diversity of patients who will use these systems, bias becomes inevitable" particularly resonated with me as a woman in STEM. However, she offered hope through practical solutions, emphasizing awareness and mitigation strategies.

It was particularly exciting to witness the University of Warwick's TIA Centre making significant contributions throughout the conference. Meeting Nasir Rajpoot and Simon Graham at the Histofy booth, a spinout success story from the TIA Centre, reinforced how our research translates into real-world impact. Mark Eastwood's presentation on "High Resolution 3D Reconstruction and Visualization of Tubulo-villous Adenoma Tissue" showcased the cutting-edge visualization techniques being developed at Warwick (see picture). The 3D navigation capabilities he demonstrated represent exactly the kind of innovative approach needed to make pathology more accessible and accurate.

What struck me most was seeing how Warwick researchers are tackling such diverse challenges across computational pathology. Behnaz's poster on macrophage scoring with semi-supervised deep learning addresses the critical issue of limited labeled data that many labs face, a problem that often prevents smaller institutions from benefiting from AI advances. Adam's research on laryngeal lesions and Yijie's lung cancer poster demonstrated the breadth of clinical applications our centre is pursuing. During the poster reception, explaining my research to international colleagues and discussing shared challenges reinforced how collaborative this field truly is. Meeting my supervisor Shan Raza and seeing fellow Warwick posters alongside work from leading institutions worldwide made me proud to be part of this community.

ECDP 2025 taught me that the future of digital pathology isn't just about building better algorithms, it's about building fairer ones. The conversations in Barcelona have convinced me that the next generation of computational pathologists must be as fluent in fairness metrics as they are in performance metrics. Seeing the TIA Centre's diverse contributions at ECDP 2025 – from my own work on democratizing Ki-67 detection to our colleagues' advances in 3D visualization and multi-organ AI applications – reinforced that our centre is not just keeping pace with these challenges but actively leading solutions that prioritize both technical excellence and equitable access to healthcare.

The author would like to thank the TIA Centre and the University of Warwick for supporting this valuable learning experience.

By Celia Benitez Camacho