Ahead of World Cancer Day on 4 February, scientists are revealing a cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to help grade cancer, by analysing cell division.

In numerous cancer types, counting the number of cells undergoing division, known as mitotic figures, serves as a key indicator of cancer aggressiveness, or grade. This information helps inform treatment pathways, making it a crucial asessment tool. Traditional mitosis counting is both time-consuming and plagued by poor reliability. To address this, scientists have developed a new tool, MitPro, which uses AI to count and profile mitosis.

Histofy, a spin-out company from The University of Warwick that is leading developer of AI solutions for pathology, has engineered the tool to accurately profile mitosis throughout the entire tumour sample. This identifies the most suitable areas for further analysis.

We are happy to announce that Dr Gihan Mudalige and Dr Victor Sanchez have both been promoted to Professor from 1st August 2023.

Many congratulations to our colleagues for all their achievements!

Professor Edmund Rolls is pleased to announce the publication of his 16th book, Rolls,E.T. (2023) Brain Computations and Connectivity. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Open Access.

Brain Computations and Connectivity provides a computational framework for understanding brain function in health and disease. The book also describes many discoveries on the computational functions of many brain regions.

The book includes research performed with many members of the Department of Computer Science including Professor Jianfeng Feng. The Gatsby Foundation is thanked for a grant towards the cost of enabling this book to be Open Access. A link to the book is available here.

We are happy to announce that Dr Amina Asif has joined the Department of Computer Science as a Teaching Fellow. Amina has previously worked with us as part of the Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) centre, where her research focussed on weak supervision and model robustness in Computational Pathology. We welcome her to the department!

We are happy to announce that Dr Shan Raza has been promoted to Associate Professor from 1 January 2023. Since joining Warwick in 2019, he has made a significant contribution to the activities of the Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) Centre and the PathLAKE initiative. Many congratulations to Shan for his achievements!

We are happy to announce two promotions in the department.

Dr Fayyaz Minhas has been promoted to Associate Professor from 1 July 2022.

Dr Rossella Suma has been promoted to Assistant Professor from 1 August 2022.

Many congratulations to our colleagues for all their achievements!

Professor Edmund T Rolls' book, Brain Computations: What and How, has now been reviewed in Brain, where it has been described as "the first complete attempt to summarize our current knowledge about computation in the brain". The book considers what is computed in each brain system; and how it is computed. The reviewer considers that this book may provide a grand unifying theory, with biologically plausible models of brain computations. The book review, and information about Brain Computations: What and How (Rolls 2021) Oxford University Press are available here.

Colleagues, friends, family and former students of Professor Roland Wilson gathered last Friday to celebrate his life and to inaugurate a bench in his memory. The bench is located outside the Department, surrounded by daisies at this time of year, overlooking the lake and the fountains.

Roland's son and daughter toured the Department and visited one of the research groups which is building on Roland’s intellectual legacy under the leadership of his former PhD student Nasir Rajpoot (now a Professor in the Department). Dr Abhir Bhalerao, also a former student and close colleague of Roland, said a few words about Roland's contribution to our community and his lasting importance to us. Head of Department Professor Yulia Timofeeva cut a ribbon on the bench before we all returned to the common room to share memories and anecdotes.

Although an emotional occasion for many of us, it was very nice to be able to gather together again after the restrictions of the last two years and to remember Roland and his legacy.

A team of TIA researchers have published their study on a new deep learning algorithm that can pick up the molecular pathways and development of key mutations causing colorectal cancer more accurately than existing methods, meaning patients could benefit from targeted therapies with quicker turnaround times and at a lower cost. The research was funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the UHCW NHS Trust, University of Nottingham and WHO IARC. The study has just been published in the prestigious Lancet Digital Health journal.

We are pleased to report that Dr Simon Graham, Senior Research Fellow from the Department of Computer Science, has received a SEM Faculty Thesis Prize.

Each year, the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine (SEM) funds a prize for the best PhD/EngD thesis in each of its ten departments. Each department nominates a winner out of the applications received after a judging process as determined by the Faculty.

Dr Simon Graham commented regarding his award:

My research focussed on the development of computational tools for the automatic analysis of digitised cancerous tissue samples. Now, I am continuing my research in the area of computational pathology and soon hope to see it utilised in a clinical setting, where it may help improve cancer recognition and treatment planning. I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Nasir Rajpoot and all my collaborators within the Tissue Image Analytics Centre and at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire for their support during my PhD.