News & Events
FaceBase posters at Ostrow School of Dentistry Research Day (08 April 2024)
Congratulations to the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry’s 2024 Research Day which happened on April 3rd! Ostrow, part of the University of Southern California, is No. 3 on the list of top-funded U.S. dental institutions by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). In addition to showcasing groundbreaking research from Ostrow students, FaceBase was spotlighted in two posters presented at this special annual event. You can find the abstracts, in addition to high quality profiles and interviews, in their yearly publication The Explorer:
View 2024’s edition of the Explorer.
The following FaceBase posters were presented (see page 59):
Poster 51 - FaceBase 3: Craniofacial Development and Dysmorphol- ogy Data Management and Integration Authors: Ishmael Howard, Thach-Vu Ho, Robert Schuler, Cristina Williams, Bridget Sam- uels, Yuan Yuan, Joseph Hacia, Yang Chai, and Carl Kesselman
Poster 54 - Training Students on Craniofacial Development Using FaceBase MicroCT Datasets Authors: Thach-Vu Ho, Janet Sanchez
Registration is open for the FaceBase Forum on Tues & Wed, May 7 & 8! (27 March 2024)
The FaceBase Hub is thrilled to announce that registration is open for the 4th Annual FaceBase Community Forum right on the NIH campus!
This year, we’ve expanded our event to one-and-a-half days of enriching discussions, groundbreaking advancements, and invaluable networking opportunities in Bethesda, MD. FaceBase is an NIDCR funded repository and it’s a primary repository for dental, oral, and craniofacial data.
Who should attend? This meeting is relevant for investigators, clinicians and trainees who conduct foundational, translational, and clinical research of dental, oral, craniofacial, as well as anatomically and biologically relevant diseases and conditions.
Visit our event page for more details about the exciting happenings at this year’s FaceBase Community Forum and to register today!
Join us at NIDCR's FaceBase Symposium at IADR/AADOCR/CADR on March 14th (06 March 2024)
In honor of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research’s (NIDCR) milestone 75th anniversary, we invite you to attend an enlightening symposium at the 2024 General Session of the IADR/AADOCR/CADR in New Orleans, LA.
NIDCR75: Facilitating Multimodal Data-Driven Translational Research via FaceBase
When? March 14, 2024 | 8:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. CT
Where? Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Room 294, New Orleans, LA
Overview Data-intensive research driven by machine learning and other data science methods have the potential to transform the field of dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) research through new discoveries and better understanding of existing paradigms, that can fill in knowledge gaps across the translational continuum. As research into DOC diseases and conditions increasingly generate large volumes of data of different types, the need for findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data and supporting infrastructure become even more apparent. In anticipation and preparation for this future powered by data-driven research, NIDCR established the FaceBase repository as a data hub for dental, oral, and craniofacial disease research. Over the years, FaceBase has grown to become a data repository compliant with the FAIR and TRUST principles that facilitates translational research in DOC and related diseases and conditions from both humans and model organisms.
In furtherance of the goal of facilitating translational research to expedite the delivery of data-driven solutions to DOC health, this symposium session will highlight studies with current and future data shared via FaceBase. The featured presentations will illustrate the power of integration of data with computational methods to make these connections along the translational continuum. This session will also include discussion on ways the data shared via FaceBase can be leveraged to drive new DOC research directions.
Organizers
Lu Wang, Ph.D.
Director, Translational Genetics & Genomics Program, NIH NIDCR
Jason Wan, Ph.D.
Director, Mineralized Tissue Physiology Program, NIH NIDCR
Session Chairs:
Noffisat Oki, Ph.D.
Director of the Data Science, Computational Biology, & Bioinformatics Program, NIDCR
Axel Visel, Ph.D.
Deputy of Science Programs, DOE Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Speakers:
Data-Driven Approaches for Identification of Genetic and Epigenetic Factors Related to Craniofacial Birth Defects
Junichi Iwata, D.D.S., Ph.D.
Professor, The University of Texas School of Dentistry
Transcriptional and Chromatin Dynamics During Craniofacial Development Reveal Disease Related Genes and Loci
Justin Cotney, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Genetics and Genome Sciences, UConn Health
An Image-Based, Deep-Phenotyping Analysis Toolset, Repository, and Online Clinician Interface for Craniosynostosis
Ross Whitaker, Ph.D.
Professor, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah
Opportunities for Training Data Scientists in Ghana: FaceBase and Beyond
Christy McKinney, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor, School of Dentistry, University of Washington
Connect with FaceBase at the IADR/AADOCR/CADR General Session (Booth #109)! (29 February 2024)
Are you headed to the IADR/AADOCR/CADR General Session in the vibrant city of New Orleans? We are excited to announce that FaceBase will be part of this year’s Exhibit Hall, and we invite you to join us. Our team is looking forward to meeting attendees from all corners of the dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) community!
Exhibit Details:
- Location: Booth #109, Exhibit Hall, IADR/AADOCR/CADR General Session, New Orleans
- Dates: Thursday, March 14 to Saturday, March 16
- Time: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily
At the FaceBase booth, you will have the unique opportunity to dive into the world of data with us.
Here’s what you can look forward to:
- Personalized Data Demonstrations: Join us for personal data demos. We will guide you through our datasets, showcasing how they can be leveraged in your research or clinical practice to drive forward the understanding and treatment of dental, oral, and craniofacial conditions.
- Interactive Poster Sessions: View our posters to learn about the cutting-edge research and data produced within the FaceBase community. Engage with our team to discuss the science, methodology, and impact of our work.
- Free Stuff: Don’t miss out on some fun takeaways! Available while supplies last, our merch is a great way to remember your visit to our booth and the insights gained.
The IADR/AADOCR/CADR General Session is a cornerstone event for the dental, oral, and craniofacial research community, providing a platform for knowledge exchange, networking, and collaboration. FaceBase is proud to contribute to this vibrant community, and we look forward to discussing how our data and resources can support your work.
Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with us and explore how FaceBase can enhance your research and clinical applications. We look forward to welcoming you at Booth #109 and sharing our passion for advancing the field together.
See you in New Orleans!
Recent publications that use FaceBase data (12 December 2023)
Privacy, bias and the clinical use of facial recognition technology: A survey of genetics professionals
Authors: Elias Aboujaoude, Janice Light, Julia E. H. Brown, W. John Boscardin, Benedikt Hallgrimsson, Ophir D. Klein
Journal: American Journal of Medical Genetics Part C: Seminars in Medical Genetics
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajmg.c.32035
Summary: Facial recognition technology (FRT) has been adopted as a precision medicine tool. The medical genetics field highlights both the clinical potential and privacy risks of this technology, putting the discipline at the forefront of a new digital privacy debate. Investigating how geneticists perceive the privacy concerns surrounding FRT can help shape the evolution and regulation of the field, and provide lessons for medicine and research more broadly. Five hundred and sixty‐two genetics clinicians and researchers were approached to fill out a survey, 105 responded, and 80% of these completed. The survey consisted of 48 questions covering demographics, relationship to new technologies, views on privacy, views on FRT, and views on regulation. Genetics professionals generally placed a high value on privacy, although specific views differed, were context‐specific, and covaried with demographic factors. Most respondents (88%) agreed that privacy is a basic human right, but only 37% placed greater weight on it than other values such as freedom of speech. Most respondents (80%) supported FRT use in genetics, but not necessarily for broader clinical use. A sizeable percentage (39%) were unaware of FRT’s lower accuracy rates in marginalized communities and of the mental health effects of privacy violations (62%), but most (76% and 75%, respectively) expressed concern when informed. Overall, women and those who self‐identified as politically progressive were more concerned about the lower accuracy rates in marginalized groups (88% vs. 64% and 83% vs. 63%, respectively). Younger geneticists were more wary than older geneticists about using FRT in genetics (28% compared to 56% “strongly” supported such use). There was an overall preference for more regulation, but respondents had low confidence in governments’ or technology companies’ ability to accomplish this. Privacy views are nuanced and context‐dependent. Support for privacy was high but not absolute, and clear deficits existed in awareness of crucial FRT‐related discrimination potential and mental health impacts. Education and professional guidelines may help to evolve views and practices within the field.
Comparing 2D and 3D representations for face-based genetic syndrome diagnosis
Authors: Jordan J. Bannister, Matthias Wilms, J. David Aponte, David C. Katz, Ophir D. Klein, Francois P. Bernier, Richard A. Spritz, Benedikt Hallgrímsson & Nils D. Forkert
Journal: European Journal of Human Genetics
URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-023-01308-w
Summary: Human genetic syndromes are often challenging to diagnose clinically. Facial phenotype is a key diagnostic indicator for hundreds of genetic syndromes and computer-assisted facial phenotyping is a promising approach to assist diagnosis. Most previous approaches to automated face-based syndrome diagnosis have analyzed different datasets of either 2D images or surface mesh-based 3D facial representations, making direct comparisons of performance challenging. In this work, we developed a set of subject-matched 2D and 3D facial representations, which we then analyzed with the aim of comparing the performance of 2D and 3D image-based approaches to computer-assisted syndrome diagnosis. This work represents the most comprehensive subject-matched analyses to date on this topic. In our analyses of 1907 subject faces representing 43 different genetic syndromes, 3D surface-based syndrome classification models significantly outperformed 2D image-based models trained and evaluated on the same subject faces. These results suggest that the clinical adoption of 3D facial scanning technology and continued collection of syndromic 3D facial scan data may substantially improve face-based syndrome diagnosis.