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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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"Multiscale Patient-specific Systems Biology"
Scott L. Diamond, Ph.D.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Institute for Medicine and Engineering
University of Pennsylvania
Predicting tissue function based upon an individual’s unique cells requires a multiscale Systems Biology approach to understand the coupling of intracellular signaling with spatiotemporal gradients of extracellular biochemicals. Hundreds of spatiotemporal reactions proceed within activating platelets and the polymerizing plasma when blood clots under flow. Clinically, excessive bleeding and clotting represent the two extremes of blood function that often concern patients and their doctors. Using high throughput experimentation, they obtained a large set of platelet responses to combinatorial activators in order to train a neural network (NN) model of platelet activation for several individuals. Each NN model was then embedded into a kinetic Monte Carlo/finite element/lattice Boltzmann simulation of stochastic platelet deposition under flow. In silico representations of an individual’s platelet phenotype allowed prediction of blood function under flow (as measured using microfluidics), essential to prioritizing patient-specific cardiovascular risk and drug response or to identify unsuspected gene mutations.
