BIO-RED in Kaunas: Working with a Young GlaucomAI Team

On 2–3 October 2026, the LSMU Emmanuel Levinas Centre hosted the BIO-RED AI, health data and personalised medicine hackathon. When a team did not form around his proposed topic, Saulius decided to contribute to GlaucomAI. The team included Arminas Zizas, Jewel Sengupta, Saulius Fomenko, Austėja Judickaitė and Šarūnė Riaukaitė.

The project explored how AI and information from different eye examinations could support research into earlier glaucoma detection. The proposed approach looks beyond eye pressure, bringing fundus images, optical coherence tomography (OCT) information and vascular context together in one research card. This would make hypotheses, supporting information and missing data visible in one place.

The team’s presentation showed a research-prototype demonstration using examples from the public PAPILA fundus-image dataset and a synthetic OCT demonstration. It illustrates the proposed approach. Earlier-detection benefit and the suitability of the complete system for clinical use still require evaluation in studies.

Proposed next steps include collecting matched data from different eye examinations of the same participants, agreeing a study methodology and conducting independent evaluation. The team explored potential research links in Lithuania and France and the funding needed for this work. Study sites, institutional agreements and funding were presented as future steps.

Kaunas also continued connections made at earlier BIO-RED events. Saulius met again with Rui, a doctor from Portugal whom he had met at the hackathon in Bulgaria, where they worked in different teams. Rui’s team won first place in Kaunas. Their photograph records that meeting and the achievement of his colleague’s team.