The IEEE Seminar on Solving the Schizophrenic Brain was held at FEEIT on Monday, April 14, 2025. The seminar was held by Dr. Spase Petkovski and MSc. Daniela Janeva from the Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes (INS, UMR1106). INS is a multidisciplinary research institute of Inserm and Aix-Marseille University located on La Timone Campus in Marseille, France. INS members are comprised of academic faculty and clinicians of La Timone Hospital (APHM) institutions, as well as Inserm and CNRS researchers.
In his talk, Dr. Petkovski spoke about the research focus of his team at the INS, as well as the broader work of all the groups that make up the Institute. He focused on the importance of building a digital twin of the human brain, called a “virtual brain,” which would not only allow to model brain function and simulate medical images with biomarkers of various brain disorders, but would also help uncover the direct cause behind the appearance of these biomarkers.
In the second part, Ms. Janeva presented the latest results of her doctoral research focused on assembling all the information about brain function obtained with different biomedical engineering imaging methods, pharmacological analyses and clinical data into a single puzzle to describe the functioning of the brain with schizophrenia. In her talk, she discussed the details of the identification of two different subtypes of the disease using unsupervised machine learning methods, which is crucial for the development of personalized therapeutic strategies.
The seminar was supported by the Macedonian Section of the IEEE through its chapters: the Joint Chapter for Signal Processing and Engineering in Medicine and Biology (SP/EMB), the Joint Chapter for Electronic Devices, Instrumentation and Measurements, and Semiconductor Circuits (ED/IM/SSC), the Joint Section for Industrial Electronics/Industrial Applications/Power Electronics (IE013/IA034/PEL035), as well as the affinity group of IEEE life members (LM80077).
