Department of Surgery Researchers Awarded NSF–ANR Grant for International AI Rare Disease Collaboration

Originally published by the Department of Surgery

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) have jointly awarded funding to support CIL-FLARE (Federated Learning for AI-driven Rare Disease rEcognition for Ciliopathies), a U.S.–French research collaboration focused on improving early detection of rare genetic disorders using artificial intelligence.

The University of Minnesota team is led by Rui Zhang, PhD, FAMCI, FAMIA, FIAHSI, with Genevieve Melton-Meaux, MD, PhD, serving as senior personnel. The team specializes in biomedical AI, using large language models and federated learning to enable institutions to train models collaboratively without sharing patient data, ensuring strong performance across different health systems. The U.S. award provides $600,000 to the team.

The project is led in France by Dr. Xiaoyi Chen at the Imagine Institute of Genetic Diseases in Paris, with AP-HP Necker Children's Hospital (Greater Paris University Hospitals) serving as a key clinical partner. Their goal is to improve early detection of ciliopathies, a group of rare and genetically complex disorders that can be challenging to diagnose. The French team receives €765,853 (approximately $905,162 USD) for their work.

The project is among the first in the medical domain to be funded under the NSF–ANR Memorandum of Understanding on Research Cooperation, established in 2020, highlighting the growing impact of international collaboration in advancing AI-driven healthcare innovation.

Congratulations to Dr. Zhang, Dr. Melton-Meaux, and their collaborators on this incredible international award!