Computer Modeling of the Heart: From Molecule to Organ and From Mouse to Man
Andrew McCulloch
Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine, UCSD
While traditional biological science has focussed on molecular reductionism over the past three decades, engineering and computing have helped pave the way for a new era of integration in biological science. Computing has facilitated three types of integration: Information integration is the goal of Bioinformatics; Analyses in which individual components are integrated in functional models of biological systems is the realm of Systems Biology; And computational modeling that uses data on biological form together with physico-chemical first principles to integrate structurally across physical scales of biological organization is the emphasis of Multi-Scale Modeling. I will illustrate the application of these approaches together with experiments to improve our understanding of the metabolic, neurohormonal, electrical and mechanical function of the heart from molecular to whole organ system scales. To validate computational models we used model organisms, especially genetically engineered mice. Clinical studies are now underway to test the ability of patient-specific heart models to improve therapeutic outcomes in patients with heart failure.
The following is a link to the PowerPoint presentation (pdf file extension, about 30 MB, takes time to download).
