AURAK researchers suggest new framework to detect broken kidney cells

Dr Arfan Ghani, Affiliate Professor – Laptop Engineering, on the Faculty of Engineering, and Dr Rawad Hodeify, Affiliate Professor of Medical Biotechnology, have demonstrated a brand new strategy to detect cell toxicity in actual time utilizing a technique based mostly on pc imaginative and prescient, completely different from the generally used time-consuming technique of inspecting the biochemical and structural modifications of the cells.

For the most recent headlines, observe our Google Information channel on-line or through the app.

Human kidneys are very important life-supporting organs that regulate fluid stability and maintain the blood clear. Every kidney has hundreds of thousands of small constructions known as nephrons that work collectively to filter wastes that should be excreted from the physique, resembling toxins, wastes produced by cells, and extra fluids, that are faraway from the blood by the urine.

The proximal tubule is a serious a part of the kidneys and carries out main features, however it’s also delicate to damage from a number of causes, leading to a lower in kidney perform. One of the frequent forms of cells utilized in learning human kidney perform is human proximal kidney cells. These cells will be grown and maintained within the laboratory.

Dr. Ghani and Dr. Hodeify centered on exploring how poisonous situations resembling irregular ion stability or the presence of chemical substances within the kidney have an effect on the survival of human proximal kidney cells.

Of their research, they tried to check the survival of human kidney cells in situations the place the calcium within the surrounding surroundings is increased than regular. In earlier research, testing the exercise of those cells had been generally finished by inspecting biochemical and structural modifications of those cells in several situations, involving experiments which can be tough, time-consuming, and expensive.

Laptop vision-based method

“The present system has many shortcomings and deficiencies. Our focus was on mitigating these elements by the usage of pc imaginative and prescient, and we succeeded in producing wonderful outcomes,” stated Dr. Ghani. “The pc vision-based method was additional complemented by reconfigurable computing which presents the flexibleness of the software program mixed with the excessive efficiency of {hardware} with very versatile high-speed computing material, known as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).”

He stated the proposed {hardware} accelerator takes solely 400ns to detect every cell picture, which is a big enchancment over the software-based options.

Dr. Hodeify stated: “Our method scores over the present mannequin. We now have demonstrated that visible inspection of cells rising beneath completely different situations utilizing a microscope is extra speedy than biochemical assessments.”

To additional prolong this work, the authors envisage creating an end-to-end answer with an augmented pipeline with the availability of further sources.