Page 70 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017

68
Identifying affordable, non-invasive measures
of health
Vinet Coetzee, Facial Morphology Research Group, Department of Genetics
Africa has an immense burden of disease, but limited access to health care, funds, infrastructure and trained personnel result in many people suffering from conditions that could be treated effectively and affordably if they were diagnosed early.
The work of Dr Vinet Coetzee, principal investigator of the Facial Morphology Research Group and the African Longitudinal Facial Appearance and Health (ALFAH) study in the Department of Genetics, and her co- researchers, focus on developing novel diagnostic tools to detect a variety of conditions.
Dr Coetzee and her research group and collaborators recently filed a provisional patent for a rapid, affordable and non-invasive method to screen for malaria. The method uses sensitive skin colour measurements in the palm of the hand, coupled with artificial intelligence,
to predict whether someone has malaria. Once implemented, this device can facilitate wide-scale malaria screening, even in the most remote areas, bringing us one step closer to a malaria-free world.
Current collaborators include Professor Tiaan de Jager and Dr Taneshka Kruger from the UP Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control; Professor Dominik Endres from the Philipps-University Marburg, Germany, who developed novel machine learning algorithms for the research group; and Drs Alida Melse and Martin Mwangi from Wageningen University, the Netherlands who facilitated the data collection.
Another focus of the research group is on inborn conditions. In Africa, children with Downs syndrome are often only diagnosed around eight months of age. To address this problem, the researchers have developed an affordable 3D facial imaging system at one-tenth of the price of commercial systems. The system is used to photograph infants with and without Downs syndrome and to train artificial intelligence algorithms to predict Downs syndrome. The long-term goal is to develop
a 3D facial screening tool and 2D mobile app which
can assign probability of Downs syndrome, and other inborn conditions, from facial images alone.
Multidisciplinary collaboration has strengthened the scope of the research. This includes PhD student Kishen Mahesh and Dr Engela Honey in the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology; Dr Emad Ghabrial in the Department of Orthodontics who
uses the 3D facial imaging system for his work on
cleft lip studies; and Professor Tania Hanekom in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering who is developing an affordable 3D camera.
Two further areas of work in Dr Coetzee’s research group include the development of novel diagnostic tools for micronutrient deficiencies, which is undertaken in partnership with the Institute for Food, Nutrition and Well-being. The other is the ALFAH study, which is the first of its kind in Africa, and will initially recruit 4 000 African men and women over a period of five years and then follow up on their health and well-being over the next three decades. The study will collect a range of health measures, genetic information and facial images from participants.
In 2017 Dr Coetzee was selected as a Next Einstein Fellow. It is a distinct honour for a young researcher to participate in this African platform that connects science and society in Africa, and the rest of the world, with the goal of leveraging science for human development globally.