The Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) Centre hosts a seminar series for those interested in computational pathology. The series invites researchers and leaders in computational pathology and related fields to present their work and foster thought-provoking discussions.
This seminar features Dr Linda Studer from Radboud UMC, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Abstract
Given the significant increase in kidney transplantations, maximizing long-term transplant survival is even more important. While histopathologic assessment of biopsies remains the diagnostic gold standard, the current diagnostic classification system (Banff Lesion Scores) possesses considerable observer variability, is mostly qualitative, and lacks granularity in key areas, therefore challenging biopsy assessment. To address these limitations, the DIAGGRAFT project aims to develop and clinically validate deep learning-based tools for renal transplant histopathology. The first step of the project was the development of tissue segmentation algorithms for the key renal compartments. The second step focused on automating the objective quantification of inflammatory cells necessary for reproducible Banff scoring, for which we launched the MONKEY (Machine-learning for Optimal detection of iNflammatory cells in the KidnEY) computational challenge. Currently, we are running a validation study with over 40 pathologists to assess the clinical utility, efficiency, and integration readiness of these algorithms.
Bio
Linda Studer holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and has an academic background in life sciences. Her PhD mainly focused on the use of Graph Neural Networks for colorectal cancer histopathology. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher within the Computational Pathology Group (CPG) at Radboudumc. She is working on the DIAGGRAFT project, which focuses on developing AI solutions for kidney transplant diagnostics. As part of this project, she led the MONKEY computational challenge (a MIDL 2025 challenge), which focused on the detection and classification of inflammatory cells in PAS-stained kidney transplant biopsies. She was also an organizer for the COMPAYL workshop at MICCAI 2024 and 2025.
