The study aimed to add to cancer research literature by addressing the problems caused by lengthy processing of biopsy specimens and the limited number of pathologists around the country. Focus on thyroid cancer, the study offered the use of Fourier transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy imaging “to detect malignancy before visual changes [become] evident…a limitation of H&E-stained samples.”

Using artificial intelligence through neural networks in the clinical setting, the study was able to accurately distinguish “between malignant and the benign thyroid lesions using FTIR data. The best NN-based model was able to obtain an accuracy…far beyond the performance metrics of other models.”

The study’s next phase involves the testing and the evaluation of the NN-based models in a new data set, which will serve as the testing set, according to the study’s summary.

Tomas was joined in the study by fellow Thomasian researchers , , , Abegail Santillan; Ruth Bangaoil, Rolando Lopez, Maria Honolina Gomez, Allan Fellizar, Antonio Lim, and Lorenzo Abanilla.

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Emerging as the Champion of the Young Scientists Forum is 2019 Summa cum Laude Simon Miguel Lopez, who presented the research entitled “Cholinergic, beta-secretase, and oxidative activity evaluation of spider venom from Philippine Tarantula (Therposidae),” which he co-authored with Jeremy S. Aguilar, Jerene Bashia B. Fernandez, Angelic Gayle J. Lao, Anna Beatriz R. Mayor, Mirzi Rain R. Estrella, Lance Ehrold D. Sarmiento, and faculty members Mark Kevin P. Devanadera, , , and .

Meanwhile, two faculty members placed third in their respective categories in the poster presentations segment of the conference. Winning 3rd Place for Natural Proucts is (LESO) Administrator , for the research “Immunogenicity and specific antipeptide binding activity of in silico predicted epitope of fragilysin from Bacteroides fragilis.” Co-authoring the paper with Guevarra were Gieanne Louise J. Abara, Christian Rafael B. Lorenzo, Maryrose O. Boongaling, and .

Finally, winning in the category of Health was Mr. Mark Kevin P. Devanadera, for the research entitled “Evaluation of the cytotoxic activity of polyunsaturated fatty acids and its concoction on human breast adenocarcinoma cells.” His co-authors were R.M. Bennett, K. Watanabe, , , T. Aki, and .

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