Infosys partners with University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for research in precision medicine

Bengaluru-headquartered IT services and consulting provider Infosys has signed a strategic partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) to develop precision medicine technologies. 

Infosys’ artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning platform Nia will be leveraged by the university to improve preventive care. 

Using the Nia platform, the university’s data management and healthcare research applications will help predict diseases and even reduce healthcare costs, according to a statement issued by Infosys.

As part of the partnership, Infosys will also become a member of the Centre for Computational Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine (CCBGM), the healthcare research centre of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The CCBGM, a non-profit medical research centre based in Minnesota, was set up as a collaborative initiative between UIUC and the Mayo Clinic Center for individualised medicine. 

“The future of precision medicine, which allows tailoring diagnosis and treatment to each patient in order to optimize the outcome, is dependent on the ability to jointly analyze large datasets of heterogeneous biological and clinical measures while incorporating key clinical domain knowledge. This is a complex challenge and will require innovations in both data-driven analytics and system design to succeed,” said Ravishankar K. Iyer, professor of electrical and computer engineering, University of Illinois.

Founded in 1867, the University of Illinois at the twin cities of Urbana-Champaign is a prominent research institution in the city of Chicago.