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Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

Biography

Please check out my personal webpage for more information.

Rahele Kafieh is an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Durham University and an EPSRC Women in Engineering Ambassador. Her research focuses on using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for biomedical image and signal processing. She collaborates closely with clinicians and the NHS on initiatives aimed at the early diagnosis of disease, enabling home-based imaging for elderly populations, and streamlining AI-powered referral systems from the community to hospitals. With over 13 years of experience in medical data processing using AI, more than 120 research publications, and over 4,275 citations, she has secured funding from a range of national and international sources.

Research Funding

Rahele's research funding spans AI-enabled ocular and neuro-imaging, home-based diagnostic monitoring, signal and image processing, and interdisciplinary environmental sensing, with awards from EPSRC, MRC, UKRI, the Dunhill Medical Trust, Durham University, and international funders including TÜBİTAK, NIMAD, Einstein Forum, and the Iran–Switzerland Research Seed Fund, in roles as both Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator.

AI and Optical Coherence Tomography for Eye Health

  • A Pilot Study to Deliver Healthcare Innovation for Diabetic Eye Disease in the North East — EPSRC IAA, Co-I (2025)
  • EYESAVE: AI-enabled triage for Glaucoma — The Dunhill Medical Trust (Age-related Hearing & Vision programme), Co-I (2025)
  • Enhancing Healthcare with AI-Based Home Monitoring for Retinal Diseases — EPSRC IAA, PI (2024)
  • OCTage: monitoring the ageing brain via Optical Coherence Tomography of the eyes (MR/Y010825/1) — UKRI-MRC, Co-I (2023)
  • A Feasibility Study to Develop an OCT-Based Ocular Health Kiosk to Diagnose Diabetic Retinopathy — Iran–Switzerland Research Seed Fund, Co-I (2018)

Neurodegenerative Disease Screening

  • Deep Learning-Based Image and Blink-Rate Analysis, and Tear Protein Detection for Effective PD and PSP Screening — MRC IAA, Co-I (2024)
  • Deep Learning Models with OCT and MRI Data in Autoimmune Neuroinflammatory Disorders — Einstein Forum, PI (2018)
  • Automatic Analysis of MRI and OCT Data for Discrimination of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO) in the Presence of Isolated Optic Neuritis — National Institute for Medical Research Development (NIMAD), PI (2018)

Wireless Systems, Signal and Image Processing

  • Recyclable Chipless RFID: Bridging Sustainable Materials with Electromagnetic Innovation for Circular Economy Wireless Systems — EPSRC IAA, Co-I (2026)
  • Design and Application of Bandlet on Graph for Image Denoising — TÜBİTAK, PI (2014)
  • Non-Destructive Quality Testing of Polyethylene Pipe Welding Using Thermal Infrared Imaging — National Iranian Gas Company, Co-I (2014)

Environmental and Interdisciplinary Research

  • NemBio: Understanding the Functional Role of Nematodes in Degraded Terrestrial Polluted Environments — Durham Seedcorn, Co-I (2025)
  • Strategic Research Fund: SMART Soils Lab (Soil and Microbiome Augmentation and Restoration Technologies Lab) — Co-I (2023)

Other

  • Global Engagement Grant — PI (2024)
Honors and Awards
  • EPSRC Women in Engineering Ambassador
  • Recognised with the "Exceptionally Good Review" award by Translational Vision Science & Technology for an outstanding peer review, 2026.

Research interests

  • Medical Data Analysis
  • Machine learning / Deep Learning
  • Image Processing and Computer Vision
  • Time-frequency methods
  • Data Acquisition and Management
  • Data Quality Assessment

Esteem Indicators

  • 2026: Recognised with the "Exceptionally Good Review" award by Translational Vision Science & Technology for an outstanding peer review.:
  • 2026 - 2029: External Examiner, University of West London: External quality assurance of MSc modules in AI, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Responsible AI, Data Science, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Cyber Security, and Health Informatics.:
  • 2026: External Adviser, University of West London: Provided independent academic review and quality assurance for the design and approval of the MSc Computer Science and BSc (Hons) Business Computing programmes, evaluating curriculum, module specifications, learning outcomes, and assessment strategies against UK higher education standards.:
  • 2025: Member of MRC/NIHR Liaison Group, Durham University.:
  • 2023: Advisory Panel Member at Siloton:
  • 2023: Invited talk in UK Metamaterial Network:
  • 2023: Invited talk: 4th annual vision and colour summer data blast optica technical groups:
  • 2023: Invited talk in International Webinar on Image Analysis in Ophthalmology by Appraise:
  • 2023: Invited talk in DEMON Network: "Artificial Intelligence in Eye imaging: An easy-to-use mirror of brain-related abnormalities in Dementia"
  • 2022: Invited talk in Turing Network Development Award at QUB - AIQ Seminar on Ophthalmic Imaging:
  • 2022: Invited talk on 'Machine learning in Healthcare' in Institute of Physics (IOP), London:
  • 2022: Topic editor: in Artificial Intelligence in Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy:
  • 2022: Guest Editor: in Advances in Optical Coherence Tomography Angiography (Diagnostics):
  • 2020: Editorial Board Member of the 11 Iranian and the first International Conference on Machine Vision and Image Processing (MVIP) (2020):
  • 2018 - 2023: Section Editor in Journal of Medical Signals and Sensors (JMSS):
  • 2010: Director of Student Committee in 17th Iranian Biomedical Engineering Conference (ICBME’17) (2010):
  • 2007: Head of Biomedical engineering Section in 10th Iranian Student Conference on EE (ISCEE’07) (2007):

Publications

Chapter in book

  • Introduction to Optical Coherence Tomography
    Hajizadeh, F., Kafieh, R., & Tajmirriahi, M. (2023). Introduction to Optical Coherence Tomography. In F. Hajizadeh (Ed.), Atlas of Ocular Optical Coherence Tomography (2nd ed., pp. 1-34). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07410-3_1
  • Application of enface image registration/alignment to introduce new ocular imaging biomarkers
    Amini, Z., Kafieh, R., Tajmirriahi, M., Parsons, Z., & Rabbani, H. (2022). Application of enface image registration/alignment to introduce new ocular imaging biomarkers. In Photo Acoustic and Optical Coherence Tomography Imaging, Volume 2 (pp. 3-1-3-23). IOP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/978-0-7503-2056-6ch3

Conference Paper

Edited book

Journal Article

Supervision students