AI 4 BM banner

CCLS Inaugural Research Symposium

AI for Biology and Medicine (AI4BM)

October 30, 2025

Gateway Center (Room 42/43/47), University of North Texas

 

 

a researcher in white lab coat in front of a computer screen

Join us for the CCLS Inaugural Research Symposium, AI for Biology & Medicine (AI4BM). This one-day event explores how AI is revolutionizing biological research, precision medicine, and healthcare technology through distinguished keynote speaker, research talks, poster sessions and a panel discussion.

We invite our research community to submit abstracts for posters and talks at AI4BM.

  • Who: Open to all students, post-doctoral researchers, and faculty/staff.
  • What: We are looking for submissions that highlight ongoing, innovative, and high-impact research in AI for biology and medicine.
  • Why: Showcase your work, and foster new collaborations.

Registration to AI4BM is free. Online registration is closed, but on-site registration will still be accepted.

 

 

Keynote Speaker

 

Artificial Intelligence and Foundation Models for Reproductive Medicine: From Embryo to Ovary

Recent advances in self-supervised learning and foundation model architectures have opened new frontiers in reproductive medicine by enabling scalable, standardized interpretation of complex imaging data. In this talk, I will present a series of efforts in my lab toward developing generalizable AI systems that enhance both embryology and pelvic imaging workflows.

Following an overview of deep learning applications for embryo imaging, I will introduce FEMI (Foundational IVF Model for Imaging)—a large-scale foundation model trained on 18 million embryo images that unifies multiple IVF tasks, including ploidy prediction, blastocyst quality scoring, component segmentation, and developmental stage assessment, within a single framework. I will then describe ARIA (Automated Reproductive Intelligence Agents), a multi-agent AI system that leverages FEMI and vision-language reasoning to automate continuous embryo monitoring and real-time reporting, achieving high accuracy across key embryology tasks. Finally, I will discuss the development of self-supervised foundation models for pelvic ultrasonography, trained on over 1.7 million unlabeled frames to standardize ovarian and follicular measurements and reduce operator variability.

Together, these efforts illustrate how AI and foundation models can unify reproductive imaging tasks, minimize subjectivity, and lay the groundwork for AI-based, clinically integrated tools in reproductive medicine.

Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha

Dr. Iman Hajirasouliha is an associate professor of systems and computational biomedicine at Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University. He is a member of the Englander Institute for Precision Medicine and the Meyer Cancer Center in New York. He is also the Co-Director of the Tri-I Computational Biology and Medicine Ph.D. program. He completed a Postdoctoral Scholarship at Stanford University's Computer Science Department and a Simons Research Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from Sharif University, an M.Sc. in Computing Science from Simon Fraser University (SFU), and a Ph.D. with Exceptional Recognition from SFU, followed by a postdoctoral appointment at Brown University. Dr. Hajirasouliha has received several prestigious awards, including the Simons-Berkeley Research Fellowship, an NIGMS Maximizing Investigators' Research Award, and an Irma T. Hirschl Career Scientist Award. Website: www.imanh.org.

 

Schedule and Posters

 

Schedule in PDF format
Poster List in PDF format

Other Information

 

Call for Abstracts

We invite submissions for oral presentations and posters from academic, industry, and clinical researchers working in areas related to AI, computational biology, and biomedical applications.

We invite abstracts in the areas including but not limited to:

  1. Predictive Models trained on multi-omics datasets – AI for genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, lipidomics; biomarker discovery; network modeling.
  2. Precision Medicine & Computational Drug Discovery – Virtual screening, molecular docking, predictive modeling for therapeutics and devices.
  3. Biomedical AI, Vision & Robotics – Medical imaging, surgical robotics, wearable and sensor-based healthcare AI.
  4. Machine Learning Foundations for Life Sciences – Active learning, model adaptation, domain transfer for biomedical datasets.
  5. Responsible AI, Security, & Fairness – Privacy-preserving AI, bias mitigation, explainability in clinical AI systems.
  6. Computational Plant Biology, Ecology & Environmental Health – AI applications in plant systems, environmental exposure, and health.
  7. Industry & Translational Innovation – Case studies and applied solutions from biotech, pharma, and med-tech companies.
Key Dates

Abstract Submission Deadline: October 7, 2025
Notification of Acceptance: October 15, 2025
Symposium Date: October 30, 2025

Schedule

8:00 – 8:45 AM Registration & Light Breakfast
8:45 – 9:00 AM Welcome & Opening Remarks
8:45 – 8:50 AM Opening Remarks – Harrison Keller, President, University of North Texas
8:50 – 8:55 AM Opening Remarks – Ed Dzialowski, Dean, College of Science, University of North Texas
8:55 – 9:00 AM Welcome and Introduction of Keynote Speaker – Serdar Bozdag, Director, Center for Computational Life Sciences
9:00 – 10:00 AM Keynote Address
Artificial Intelligence and Foundation Models for Reproductive Medicine: From Embryo to Ovary
Iman Hajirasouliha, Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University
10:00 – 11:00 AM Session 1: Computational Drug Discovery and Precision Oncology
Moderator: Mark Albert, University of North Texas
10:00 – 10:15 AM "Drugging the Undruggable": Discovering inhibitors of the GTPase-accelerating activity of RGS14 via AI-directed virtual screening
David Siderovski, UNT Health Science Center
10:15 – 10:30 AM Machine Learning Models for Liquid Biopsy-Based Treatment Response Prediction and Biomarker Discovery in Cancer
Jianli Zhou, Lantern Pharma
10:30 – 10:45 AM From General-Purpose to Disease-Specific Features: Aligning LLM Embeddings on a Disease-
Specific Biomedical Knowledge Graph for Drug Repurposing
Suman Pandey, University of North Texas
10:45 – 11:00 AM Machine Learning Ensemble Models for In Silico Screening and Prediction of Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability: A Comprehensive Approach Using Molecular Fingerprints and Descriptors
Rick Fontenote, Lantern Pharma
11:00 – 11:30 PM Poster Session with Coffee
11:30 – 12:30 PM Session 2: Gene regulation and Multi-Omics Integration
Moderator: David Siderovski, UNT Health Science Center
11:30 – 11:45 AM ASPECT: Classifying Alternative Splicing Events with Transformers Model
Sahil Thapa, University of North Texas
11:45 – 12:00 PM Deconvolving intra-tumor heterogeneity using tissue morphology
Aleksandra Nielsen, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
12:00 – 12:15 PM HINN: Hierarchical Input Neural Network identifies multi-omics biomarker for cognitive decline
Yashu Vashishath, University of North Texas
12:15 - 12:30 PM MultiGEOmics: Graph-Based Integration of Multi-Omics via Biological Information Flows
Bizhan Alipourpijani, University of North Texas
12:30 – 1:00 PM Lunch
1:00 – 2:00 PM Poster Session
2:00 – 3:00 PM Session 3: 3D Genomics and Circuit Modeling
Moderator: Todd Castoe, UT Arlington
2:00 – 2:15 PM Data-Driven Frameworks for Neural Dynamics: Applications to Sleep, Pain, and ADHD Biomarkers
Pedro Maia, University of Texas at Arlington
2:15 – 2:30 PM HiC-LEGO: A Generalized GAT-Based Framework Leveraging Domain Ensembles for High-Resolution 3D Genome Reconstruction from Hi-C Data
Abhishek Pandeya, University of North Texas
2:30 – 2:45 PM Canonical recurrent neural circuits: A unified sampling machine for static and dynamic inference
Eryn Sale, UT Southwestern Medical Center
2:45 – 3:00 PM Natural gradient Bayesian sampling automatically emerges in canonical cortical circuits
Zimei Chen, UT Southwestern Medical Center
3:00 – 3:30 PM Poster Session with Coffee
3:30 – 4:30 PM Session 4: Neurodegeneration and Electronic Health Records analysis
Moderator: Ke Yang, UT San Antonio
3:30 – 3:45 PM NaviDoc: A Multimodal RAG-based Clinical Chatbot for Contextual EHR Analysis
Gowtham Vuppaladhadiam, University of North Texas
3:45 – 4:00 PM Quantum Transfer Learning to Boost Dementia Detection
Himanshu Thapliyal, Southern Methodist University
4:00 – 4:15 PM A Systematic Fairness Evaluation of Racial Bias in Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis Using Machine Learning Models
Neha Goud Baddam, University of North Texas
4:15 – 4:30 PM Equitable Electronic Health Record Prediction with FAME: Fairness-Aware Multimodal Embedding
Mehak Gupta, Southern Methodist University
4:30 PM Best Poster Awards & Closing Remarks

 

Venue & Travel

Gateway Center, University of North Texas
Room: 42/43/47
Address: 801 N Texas Blvd, Denton, TX 76201

Parking map

Guidelines for Presenters
Oral Presentation Guidelines

Please review the following information for oral presenters:

  • Talk Duration:
    Each presentation is 10 minutes long, followed by 3 minutes for Q&A.
  • Technical Setup:
    Presentations will run from the symposium computer. If your slides include videos or animations, please test them in PowerPoint before uploading to ensure compatibility.
    You may also bring a backup copy on a USB drive as a precaution.
  • Session Logistics:
    Please arrive at least 30 minutes before your session to check in with the session chair and confirm your slides are displaying properly. Oral presentations will take place in Room 42.
  • For any questions, please contact the organizing team at serdar.bozdag@unt.edu
Poster Presentation Guidelines

Please review the following information for poster presenters:

  • Poster Sessions:
    • 11:00 – 11:30 AM
    • 1:00 – 2:00 PM
    • 3:00 – 3:30 PM
      Presenters are expected to be with their posters during all these sessions.
  • Poster Size:
    Maximum dimensions: 36 inches tall × 48 inches wide.
    Please ensure your poster fits within this limit for proper display.
  • Setup & Takedown:
    • Setup: Between 8:00 – 8:45 AM during registration.
    • Takedown: Between 3:30 – 4:30 PM.
  • Display Details:
    Easels and poster boards will be provided.
    Poster sessions will be held in Gateway Rooms 43 and 47.
  • Awards:
    The top three posters will be selected by the symposium committee and recognized with awards at the end of the event.
  • For any questions, please contact the organizing team at bozdag@unt.edu
Organizing Committee
Serdar BozdagSerdar Bozdag (Chair)
Associate Professor
Computer Science & Engineering
University of North Texas
Zubair HasanZubair Hasan
PhD Student
Computer Science & Engineering
University of North Texas
Ali KhanAli Khan
PhD Student
Computer Science & Engineering
University of North Texas
Suman PandeySuman Pandey
PhD Student
Computer Science & Engineering
University of North Texas
Himanshu SharmaHimanshu Sharma
PhD Student
Computer Science & Engineering
University of North Texas
Fahmida Yasmin RifatFahmida Yasmin Rifat
PhD Student
Computer Science & Engineering
University of North Texas

 

 

For all inquiries, please email serdar.bozdag@unt.edu