Approved research

The eye and aging

Lay summary

Aims: The overall goal of this project is to develop a risk assessment system for predicting aging and age-related disease. Specific aims are: 1) To explore the relationship between age-related eye disease and associated genes. 2) To explore the causality of previously reported risk factors in age-related disease. 3)To build a deep learning system for age-related outcome prediction and risk assessment. Recent developments in deep learning has revealed that a bunch of age-related disease, such as aging, cardiovascular events, cognitive dysfunction could be predicted using imaging techniques with or without a series of combined risk factors. It is promising to use data from different dimensions to explore the association, the causality for risk factors and age-related diseases, and finally build deep learning models to predict age-related disease. Since the eyes are very much associated with the quality of life for the aging people, and the examinations could be easily obtained, we paid special attention on the eyes. The project duration is expected to be 36 months. If this AI system is successfully developed, the onset and progression of age-related disease could be predicted, the course of disease may be slowed with proper management. The aging population, which accounts for a sizable proportion of the whole, will fundamentally benefit from it.