Research Teams Receive Funding for Projects Using Biomedical Informatics and AI

The grants will support Rutgers-wide collaborations involving research on drug management, cancer and stroke rehabilitation

The Rutgers Center for Biomedical Informatics and Health Artificial Intelligence selected three interdisciplinary research teams as recipients of its annual Pilot Grant Awards.

Three groups of Rutgers researchers received funding to support innovative projects that harness biomedical informatics and artificial intelligence (AI) to advance computational medicine and public health.

The Pilot Grant Program was established in 2025 to foster new Rutgers-wide collaborations that capitalize on the university’s strengths in biomedical informatics, data science and AI. Awardees will receive one year of funding to support projects with potential for future extramural grant applications and intellectual property development.

“This second round of awards confirms our commitment to building a collaborative Rutgers-wide research ecosystem that capitalizes on innovation, community building, and direct translational impact in health AI and beyond,” said Leslie Lenert, the director of the center and a professor in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

The research cohorts receiving the pilot grants are:

Lead principal investigator: Luigi Brunetti, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy

Co-principal investigators:

• Srinivas Denduluri, a principal clinical informatics analyst in the Office of Information Technology – Advanced Research
• Erin Roberts-McCarthy, an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Health Informatics at the Rutgers School of Health Professions
• Rahul Mittal, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Informatics at the Rutgers School of Health Professions

The scientists said their project, “AI-Derived Multi-Dimensional Therapeutic Sequencing for Precision Drug Response and Toxicity Prediction,” aims to modernize the management of drugs by shifting from a reactive, trial-and-error approach to a proactive, AI-driven precision model.

Lead principal investigator: Tengteng Wang, an assistant professor of medicine in the Section of Cancer Epidemiology and Health Outcomes at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Member, Cancer Prevention and Control Program, Rutgers Cancer Institute

Co-principal investigators:

• Elisa V. Bandera, a professor and the chief of Cancer Epidemiology and Health Outcomes, the Unilever Endowed Chair in Nutrition and Cancer Prevention, the co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program, and the director of the Cancer Prevention and Outcomes Data Support Shared Resource at Rutgers Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
• Coral Omene, the program director for breast cancer disparities research, Rutgers Cancer Institute and an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
• Maria Kowzun, the medical director of the breast surgery program at the Center for Breast Health and Disease Management at Clara Maass Medical Center and an associate professor of surgery in the Section of Breast Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

The project, “Uncovering the Tumor Microbiome in Early-Onset Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Toward Spatial Architecture and Risk Stratification,” will study what kinds of bacteria grow inside of breast cancers and whether the age of onset of cancer can be linked to certain types of bacteria. generate the first comprehensive characterization of the intratumoral microbiome in early-onset triple negative breast cancer and identify AI-derived microbial signatures linked to age of onset.

Lead principal investigator: Qinyin Qiu, an associate professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences at Rutgers School of Health Professions

Co-principal investigators:

• Soha Saleh, an assistant professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences in the Rutgers School of Health Professions
• Sergei A. Adamovich, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology
• Waheed U. Bajwa, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Statistics
• Fares Yahya, a postdoc in the Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences in the School of Health Professions

The project, “AI-Guided Close-Loop transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) For Stroke Rehabilitation,” aims to improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation after stroke by delivering electrical impulses directly to the nervous system to help it relearn how to move paralyzed muscles.