Meet AI: your new research partner

6 May 2021

ANU partnering with TenWise to develop improved systematic review technology.

Picture this: you’re part of a new and exciting research project. But your heart sinks at the thought of wading through thousands of articles for your systematic review. Saving time through computer “text-mining” has traditionally been reserved for computer-savvy folks who can code – but that’s not the case anymore.

ANU, led by Associate Professor Brett Lidbury, has partnered with TenWise, a Netherlands based company that has developed machine learning and text-mining methodologies to extract preclinical and clinical evidence from PubMed literature – in an easy to use format. 

“We welcome ANU as our partner. As part of this research collaboration, we will deliver text-based classifiers to extract preclinical and clinical evidence from PubMed literature for animal free experiments in the coming years,” says Dr. Wynand Alkema, CSO at TenWise.

Lidbury, an expert in the field of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, commonly applies systematic reviews to his research projects.

“The volume of research publications today is massive, and evaluating the literature is now too difficult to attempt accurately via reading. For the best evidence, we need to amalgamate information from multiple publications,” says Lidbury.

Text-mining algorithms and AI are used to detect patterns in large collections of research articles, with the TenWise platform* linking to more than 200 million health-related articles.

“Automating aspects of the systematic review process will improve accuracy, and the quality of evidence extracted from fundamental research to inform innovations for patients,” says Lidbury.

This technology isn’t just for Lidbury to trial, however. All researchers from across the College of Health and Medicine are welcome to use this technology which will provide advantages both in fundamental research, as well as research translation. They are then invited to provide feedback on the tool, to further refine it and improve usability.

If you would like to find out more about text-mining for systematic reviews, or the TenWise technology and how you can use it, please contact Associate Professor Brett Lidbury.

 

*TenWise B.V. offers text mining solutions by providing access to its KMAP and performs dedicated multi-omics analyses in life sciences and food.