Author: Trirupa Chakraborty, Ph.D. Candidate in Integrative Systems Biology, University of Pittsburgh

Blood samples of patients infected with a parasitic worm that causes schistosomiasis contain hidden information that marks different stages of the disease. In our recently published research, our team used machine learning to uncover that hidden information and improve early detection and diagnosis of infection. The parasite that causes schistosomiasis completes its life cycle in two hosts – first in snails and then in mammals such as people, dogs and mice. Freshwater worm eggs enter human hosts through the skin and circulate throughout the body, damaging multiple organs, including the liver, intestine, bladder and urethra. When these larvae reach blood…