Dr Colette Christiansen

Grounded in prior research and its promising early findings, this project aims to support the development of a canine bio-detection system for human disease diagnostics, through the funding of a PhD studentship in Artificial Intelligence (AI) applied to Animal-Computer Interaction (ACI). Bio-detection with dogs has significant potential for early disease diagnostics but it also still presents significant limitations. This doctoral project will leverage animal-centred interaction to unlock the potential of bio-detection with dogs, bringing together sensor data sources and machine learning methods to detect, interpret and model the nuances of dogs’ olfactory stimulus response to biological compounds. This will lead to dramatic improvements in the early, non-invasive, safe, fast and inexpensive diagnosis of medical conditions including aggressive cancers, bacteria and viruses, by expediting the development of effective bio-electronic sensors for large-scale diagnostics and by informing strategies for the treatment of aggressive cancers, with a particular focus on colorectal cancer as a case study.