Simulation and Mathematical Modeling

The importance and scope of simulation and mathematical modeling in biomedical research continue to expand and the CIBC will continue to develop and distribute the advanced software for simulation and mathematical modeling for which the Center is well recognized.

The goal of simulation in biomedicine is to capture in quantitative terms mechanistic understanding of the function of living systems. A simulation can include the knowledge of many scientists and thus greatly expand the capacity of any one researcher to integrate known relationships and mechanisms. Thus a simulation study can test the veracity of this knowledge and also predict responses to stimuli that are difficult (or impossible) to apply in an experiment. Challenges in simulating any living system include selecting the relevant mechanisms to include, capturing those mechanisms in mathematical form, and then making the necessary simplifications so that the result is a tractable computation.

The Center has focused a great deal of research and development in the past on simulations of bioelectric field problems in the heart and brain. The BioPSE software is a reflection of this emphasis and the CIBC will continue to expand support for solving the related biophysical and numerical problems.

In the new CIBC, we will expand the scope and applications of the simulation and mathematical modeling. One goal will be to extend the physical scale of the modeling to include mechanisms at the cellular and tissue level. By integrating these models with existing ones at the whole organ and body level, we hope to begin to span the full spectrum of biological systems. In this way, the impact of exciting new results emerging from molecular and cellular biology can extend to the function of whole systems and organs.

Role of anisotropic structure of the brain in source localization. Colors indicate electric potentials values (both panels) and colored glyphs (right panel) show the local orientation of white-matter tracts. The left panel shows results from an isotropic model and the right panel the results from the same source in an anisotropic model.

Finite element simulation of potential distribution throughout the whole heart. Results came from simulations of electrical excitation carried out by center collaborators at UCSD using a monodomain model of the heart.

High resolution model of small group of cardiac myocytes. Cardiac cells are embedded within a conductive extracellular matrix and are electrically coupled by means of gap junctions between neighboring cells. This model allows the calculation of tissue conductivity under a range of conditions that alter cell spacing and gap junctional function.