Davis receives $1.3M NHMRC Investigator Grant

Developing interpretable machine learning models for clinical imaging and single-cell genomics

Dr Davis McCarthy (MIG group leader) has received a $1.3 million boost with an Investigator Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

The Investigator Grant scheme is NHMRC’s flagship scheme, developed as part of a major reform of NHMRC’s grant program. This is the second round of Investigator Grants to be awarded. A total of 237 leading researchers across all career stages will receive five-year Investigator Grants from the NHMRC. See more here.

NHMRC Investigator Grants provide sole investigators, at a range of career stages, with 5-year funding for their projects.

This funding will enable Davis to advance his use of computational approaches – so-called ‘machine learning’ – to drive biological discovery.

“Machine learning is often called a ‘black box’ – data goes into a computer and decisions come out, but what happens between the input and the output is opaque. This limits our ability to improve the outcomes,” says Davis.

Over the course of his Emerging Leadership (Level 2) Grant, Davis will use research data to develop interpretable deep learning models and software tools – that provide a justification for their decisions.

These models will enhance outcomes from breast cancer screening programs and help to interpret complex, large-scale single-cell genomics data.

Congratulations Davis!