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BMI 702 | Biomedical Artificial Intelligence

Harvard - Foundations of Biomedical Informatics II, Spring 2024

Artificial intelligence is poised to reshape medicine. This course provides a survey of artificial intelligence for biomedical informatics, covering methods for key data modalities: clinical data, networks, language, and images. It introduces machine learning problems from a practical perspective, focusing on tasks that drive the adoption of machine learning in biology and medicine.

The course covers foundational algorithms and highlights the nuances of handling biomedical data. It places a strong emphasis on strategies for evaluating and seamlessly integrating machine learning methods into biomedical research and clinical practice. This includes critical discussions on topics such as trustworthiness, interpretability, evaluation, and the ethical and legal challenges associated with biomedical artificial intelligence.

Marinka Zitnik

marinka@hms.harvard.edu

Office Hours: Thu, 4pm - 5pm


Week 1

Course overview and introduction to biomedical AI

Jan 25
LectureWhat makes biomedical problems unique
Slides, Reading List
Jan 26
QuizWeek 2 pre-class quiz (due Feb 1)
Canvas

Week 2

Machine learning using electronic health records, subtype discovery, disease diagnosis and prognosis prediction

Feb 1
Module 1LectureClinical AI Part I
Slides, Reading List
Feb 2
QuizWeek 3 pre-class quiz (due Feb 8)
Canvas

Week 3

Machine learning on clinico-genetic datasets, diagnostic odyssey and therapy selection

Feb 8
Module 1LectureClinical AI Part II
Slides, Reading List
Feb 9
QuizWeek 4 pre-class quiz (due Feb 15)
Canvas

Week 4

Interpretability and explainability

Feb 15
Module 2LectureTrustworthy & Efficient AI Part I
Slides, Reading List
Feb 16
QuizWeek 5 pre-class quiz (due Feb 22)
Canvas

Week 5

Fairness, bias, distribution shifts, and robustness

Feb 22
Module 2LectureTrustworthy & Efficient AI Part II
Slides, Reading List
Feb 23
QuizWeek 6 pre-class quiz (due Feb 29)
Canvas
Feb 23
PSet releasedPSet 1: Bias, trustworthiness, and fairness
Canvas

Week 6

Foundations of graph representation learning, link prediction, node classification, graph clustering, graph classification, semi-supervised learning, label propagation, network medicine, and disease modules.

Feb 29
Module 3LectureBiomedical graph learning Part I
Slides, Reading List
Mar 1
QuizWeek 7 pre-class quiz (due Mar 7)
Canvas

Week 7

Machine learning with heterogeneous graphs, graph neural networks, knowledge graph embeddings, prediction and reasoning using knowledge graphs

Mar 7
Module 3LectureBiomedical graph learning Part II
Slides, Reading List
Mar 8
QuizWeek 8 pre-class quiz (due Mar 21)
Canvas
Mar 8
PSet duePSet 1: Bias, trustworthiness, and fairness
Canvas

Week 8

Week 9

Natural language processing across clinical domains and tasks

Mar 28
Module 4LectureMedical language modeling Part II
Slides, Reading List
Apr 29
QuizWeek 10 pre-class quiz (due Apr 4)
Canvas

Week 10

Vision and vision-language pre-training, towards generic vision interface, multimodal LLMs

Apr 4
Module 5LectureBiomedical imaging Part I
Slides, Reading List
Apr 5
QuizWeek 11 pre-class quiz (due Apr 11)
Canvas
Apr 5
PSet duePSet 2: Knowledge graphs and geometric deep learning
Canvas

Week 11

Multimodal learning, computational pathology with applications to oncology, analysis of histopathology slides

Apr 11
Module 5LectureBiomedical imaging Part II
Slides, Reading List
Apr 12
QuizWeek 12 pre-class quiz (due Apr 18)
Canvas
Apr 12
PSet releasedPSet 3: Biomedical imaging methods and applications
Canvas

Week 12

Introduction to ethical frameworks, data privacy, regulation and liability aspects of AI (Guest lecture by Dr. Sara Gerke)

April 18
LectureEthical and legal considerations for biomedical AI
Slides, Reading List
Apr 19
QuizWeek 13 pre-class quiz (due Apr 25)
Canvas

Week 13

AI-guided drug design, small-molecule generation, molecule optimization, drug target identification

Apr 25
Module 6LectureGenerative AI Part I
Slides, Reading List
Apr 26
QuizWeek 14 pre-class quiz (due May 2)
Canvas
Apr 26
PSet duePSet 3: Biomedical imaging methods and applications
Canvas

Week 14

Design of chemical and genetic perturbations, drug repurposing, emerging uses of generative AI (protein design and generative agents)

May 2
Module 6LectureGenerative AI Part II
Slides - Part 1, Slides - Part 2, Reading List