Discovery and development of digital biomarkers to inform home-cage neuro-behavioral assessments in the rodent

We collaboratively established a digital biomarker discovery and development pipeline to inform and support the development of a portfolio of digital biomarkers of rat behavior that will complement traditional neurobehavioral safety assessments. Our Digital Biomarker Development Plan included generation of ‘discovery’ video of untreated animals in home cage environment, identification of taggable behavioral features from those videos, and development of ML algorithms from the tagged data and experimental modulation of behavior to refine those models. A characterization and qualification strategy will ensure the analytical sensitivity and specificity of the resultant biomarkers as well as their toxicological relevance.