A robotic system armed with AI-powered cameras can grow and image skin cells from test tubes to diagnose Parkinson's disease with minimal human help, according to researchers from Google and the New York Stem Cell Foundation.
Parkinson's disease is estimated to affect 2 to 3 percent of the population over the age of 65. Nerve cells located deep within the basal ganglia region of the brain slowly die over time, impacting motion. Patients find it difficult to control their movements; their limbs may shake or feel stiff. Scientists aren't sure what causes the disease, and it is currently incurable.
"Traditional drug discovery isn't working very well, particularly for complex diseases like Parkinson's," NYSCF's CEO Susan Solomon explained in a statement. "The robotic technology NYSCF has built allows us to generate vast amounts of data from large populations of patients, and discover new signatures of disease as an entirely new basis for discovering drugs that actually work."
The non-profit research institute developed a robotic system capable of performing lab experiments in a controlled environment. Known as the Global Stem Cell Array, the robotic system is made up of a series of machines with robotic arms capable of manipulating test tube samples for cell culture.
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