University of Alaska Fairbanks

"University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) a.k.a. the USA's Arctic Research University is renowned for its Arctic research, Alaska Native and Indigenous programs. At this crucial period of climate change, the university would like to build biomedical and healthcare research capacity emphasizing the circumpolar North and its diverse peoples who are experiencing unprecedented diseases because of harmful encroachment of warm-weather biomes in the Arctic environment. On the interface of world wide advances in AI, we would like to take this AIM-AHEAD PAIR seed fund opportunity to initiate an AI-based investigation at UAF to understand the climate change’s impact on rural health of Alaska. As a pilot, we will explore the potential of AI to predict the risk of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP), a CDC-prioritized,  zoonotic disease that is caused by consuming shellfish that are contaminated with toxic algae that are growing exorbitantly in Alaskan lakes (algal bloom) unfortunately as a consequence of global warming.  However, The long-term goal of this research is not only limited to investigate this particular disease but to set up a cutting-edge Health Equity Lab at UAF to develop AI-powered technologies to investigate the high-priority health issues and diseases that are growing among rural Alaskans with the warming temperature."  -- UAF 2023