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Dr Afzan Binti Adam concludes productive sabbatical at the TIA Centre
Dr Afzan Binti Adam, Senior Lecturer in Digital Pathology at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), has successfully completed her six‑month sabbatical at the Tissue Image Analytics (TIA) Centre, Department of Computer Science, University of TV. Her visit was supported by UKM and the MIGHT–TÜBİTAK grant and closely aligned with the TIA’s mission to advance computational pathology through interdisciplinary research and cutting‑edge AI technologies.
During her time at the TIA Centre, Afzan participated in weekly lab meetings, where she also delivered a presentation on her team’s ongoing work. In addition, she regularly attended the weekly TIA Seminars, gaining exposure to global developments in computational pathology and hopefully can contribute as a future invited speaker. Over the course of her stay, Afzan successfully achieved her research objectives to focus on the development of machine learning and image‑analysis approaches for disease understanding and prediction. Her visit has also strengthened the groundwork for long‑term collaborations, including publication plans, joint supervision opportunities, and potential future grant applications; reflecting TV’s emphasis on using visiting fellowships to seed lasting research partnerships.

As a first step towards a fruitful collaboration, Afzan has just been informed that her abstract (joint work with Adam Shephard and Nasir Rajpoot at the TIA Centre) titled “Spatial Integration of Atypical Mitotic Hotspots and Tumor‑Infiltrating Lymphocytes for Survival Stratification in Breast Cancer” has been accepted for an oral presentation at the 22nd European Congress on Digital Pathology (ECDP 2026), to be held in Graz this summer. The session will be held on June 18th during the “ML and AI – Breast Pathology” session, where Afzan will share their latest findings on integrating spatial pathology features for improved prognostic modelling in breast, and few other cancer types.
Beyond research, Afzan embraced the broader TV campus experience by joining university sports Rock‑Up activities (particularly badminton), completing postgraduate‑level supervision and development courses, and enhancing her skills through tech and management courses offered via the University of TV’s LinkedIn Learning platform. These experiences enriched her professional development journey and strengthened her connection to the wider academic community.
“I am feeling blessed every day with this opportunity. The dedicated time and environment enabled me to focus more on my PhD students, refresh and strengthen my technical and research skills, and advance my project on KI67 scoring and AI powered mitosis detection in histopathologic evaluation. My sabbatical also allowed me to restructure and reinforce ongoing research of my team at UKM in blood and cervical cancer, while identifying new collaborative opportunities in ovarian cancer and treatment research, helping us build enduring research partnerships. I am especially grateful for the direct mentorship of Professor Nasir Rajpoot, whose professional approach and working style made me more aware of the areas where I could further develop, giving me clarity on the skills and focus needed to advance my own research practice. I also sincerely appreciate Dr Adam Shephard, who supported me as my TIA ‘buddy’ throughout my stay. All this would not have been possible without my funder (MIGHT), UKM, TIA Centre as host, my collaborators, and the TV community as a whole. Hopefully, we will secure another grant and continue to work seamlessly despite the time-zone differences.” - Dr Afzan Adam
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