Lab Matters Fall 2024 | Page 65

APHL 2024 POSTER ABSTRACTS

Materials and Methods : For the 2023-2024 surveillance season , 118 sites have been identified as sentinel and mandated to participate in the DoDGRPSP by collecting and sending 6-10 respiratory specimens every week from patients who meet the influenza-like illness ( ILI ) case definition / Coronavirus Disease- 2019-like illness ( COVID-19 ; CLI ) case definition to the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine ( USAFSAM ) Epidemiology Laboratory , located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base ( WPAFB ), each accompanied with a completed patient questionnaire . These specimens may be tested via multiplex PCR , viral culture , or pathogen specific PCR ( e . g ., SARS-CoV-2 ). Specimens that test positive for influenza or SARS-CoV-2 may be selected for genetic sequencing for the purpose of further characterization .

Results : Through week 10 of the 2023-2024 surveillance season , 7,604 specimens have been tested from 107 locations . These samples came from 4,784 service members , 1,642 children , 1,064 adults and 114 individuals aged 65 years or older . Of these samples , 777 tested positive for influenza . There were 889 specimens positive for SARS-CoV-2 . Eleven specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 & influenza . Additionally , 1,745 specimens tested positive for other respiratory pathogens , with rhinovirus / enterovirus being the most dominant . Through March 2024 , 762 influenza positive specimens have been sequenced and characterized . These include 361 A ( H1N1 ) pdm09 with 107 in clade 5a . 2a and 254 in 5a . 2a . 1 , 253 A ( H3N2 ) with one in clade 2a . 3a and 252 in 2a . 3a . 1 and 148 B / Victoria all in clade V1A . 3a . 2 . Additionally , 964 SARS-CoV-2 positive specimens were sequenced , with 26 BA . 2.86 , two CH . 1.1 , 140 EG . 5 , 130 HV . 1 , 433 JN . 1 , nine JN . 2 , 57 XBB . 1.5 , 44 XBB . 1.9 , 75 XBB . 1.16 , 25 XBB . 2 and 23 other recombinant lineages .

Conclusion : The DoDGRPSP program can identify outbreaks , monitor viruses that are currently circulating and determine the incidence of ILI and CLI among military populations on a worldwide scale by collecting , testing and sequencing specimens year-round . These capabilities give the program the opportunity to acquire sufficient data to perform vaccine effectiveness studies to evaluate the current season ’ s influenza vaccine and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines , as well as share data and specimens with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) and the World Health Organization ( WHO ) to assist in their recommendation for the composition for the next season ’ s influenza vaccine .

Presenter : Jeffrey Thervil , jeffrey . thervil . ctr @ us . af . mil

Precision Patient Therapy : Leveraging the Power of AI on Laboratory and Clinical Data

P . Roychoudhury , K . Ghosh , N . Baig , LabVantage TCG Digital

Background and Challenges : Novel treatments for cancer are emerging on a regular basis . From 2000 to 2022 , 573 therapies have been approved for various oncologic indications . 48 % of these are targeted therapies while 43 % are biological and 9 % are cytotoxic treatments . FDA has approved 25 new oncology therapeutics since January 2023 . Oncologists are seeing hundreds of patients every week and are faced with the challenge of prescribing the best therapy to a patient . Depending on a patient ’ s clinical / genomics information , they have to factor in different criteria for a new therapy administration and possibilities of adverse events , which impacts the choice of therapies prescribed . The oncologists generally follow NCCN Guidelines , however , this does not always help them to identify the right therapy for a patient at the right time due to lack of information needed to make such decisions . An AI driven solution that leverages laboratory and curated clinical data is the key to drive improved therapy selection and hence better outcomes .

The Solution : Leverages AI driven matching for oncology patients to therapy with a focus of finding the right drug to treat a patient at the right time , thus significantly improving treatment outcomes . Includes :

• Innovative AI / NLP Algorithms for matching therapy to patients : novel algorithms using Generative AI / NLP to accurately parse and understand complex therapy information and patient data , focusing on improving patient-therapy alignment .

• Advanced Data Integration and Management : includes a comprehensive system for integrating genomic , clinical and environmental data

• User-Centered Design for Treatment recommendations : has a user-friendly interface for oncologists , enabling easier access to patient-therapy matching data and improving the decisionmaking process in selecting suitable therapies for patients .

• Feedback and Adaptation : establishes a mechanism for feedback from users to continuously improve the AI system ’ s accuracy and usability

It has been built on the robust foundation of tcg mcube , an endto-end AI platform with data ingestion capabilities from diverse sources , a data store that supports rapid data exploration and distributed query processing , data visualization and AI modelling capabilities .

The solution will provide the following :

• Searchable repository of treatment options for a chosen condition . This includes therapies in the market and experimental therapies

• Insights of applying similar treatment options on other patients , based on historical data

• Recommend the “ right therapy ” for an individual patient based on the matching scores generated

The Impact : By making patient to therapy matching more efficient and effective , it significantly improves treatment outcomes and has the potential to revolutionize the treatment landscape for oncology . It provides the following benefits :

• Helps physicians prescribe the best therapy for each patient at the right time

• Improves patients ’ access to experimental therapies by identifying best suited one for an individual patient

• Significantly increases the likelihood of improving treatment outcomes as drugs are recommended based on a patient ’ s clinical and genomics data

The recommendation of experimental therapies further helps accelerate the development of new treatments and improve the lives of patients around the world

Presenter : Jerry Lominac , jerry . lominac @ labvantage . com