Landmark Collaboration Links Global Imaging Data to Secure Compute to Build a Rare Lung Disease Intelligence Engine

SAUGATUCK, Mich. and EDINBURGH, Scotland, May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Open Source Imaging Consortium (OSIC) today announced a collaboration with the Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub at the University of Edinburgh to launch Project Cairn, an initiative designed to create a Rare Lung Disease Intelligence Engine by integrating global imaging data, clinical information, and phenotype within a secure compute environment.

The collaboration will combine OSIC’s globally harmonized dataset with infrastructure from the Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub at the University of Edinburgh. This collaboration, alongside the University’s broader strengths in artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research, will enable large-scale, integrated analysis across imaging, clinical, and biological data.

“As a not-for-profit and neutral convener, our role is to create the conditions where data can be trusted, connected and understood,” said Elizabeth Estes, executive director of OSIC. “Project Cairn is how we begin to build a true Rare Lung Disease Intelligence Engine to support earlier detection, better trial design, and more effective treatments. The patients deserve nothing less.”

OSIC’s foundation includes one of the world’s largest harmonized imaging datasets in rare lung disease. Building on this, its Collaborative Research Network (OCRN) works to generate prospective, longitudinal data aligned to modern research needs. Project Cairn brings these elements together, pairing curated global data and prospective research networks with secure compute infrastructure to enable a new level of disease modeling and insight.

“Combining deeply curated imaging data with secure, large-scale compute allows us to study disease in a far more integrated way,” said Professor Kenneth Baillie, co-director of the Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub. “This creates the opportunity to uncover patterns across data types at a scale not previously possible.”

“For patients with rare lung diseases, the challenge has been connecting fragmented information into something clinically meaningful. Deploying AI capabilities from across the University for rare lung disease is a transformative step,” said Professor Kev Dhaliwal, who leads the LifeArc Translational Rare Respiratory Disease Centre and is a co-director of the Baillie Gifford Pandemic Science Hub. “Project Cairn moves us closer to a future where imaging, clinical data, genetics and phenotype are unified to improve patient care and develop new approaches and therapies.”

Project Cairn will initially focus on early lung disease, including interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) and their progression to interstitial lung disease (ILD), with plans to expand over time to include additional rare lung diseases.

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