Computers and human experts duke it out over who is better at diagnosing disease, interpreting images, or predicting protein structure
Dorothy Rosenthal tenses over her microscope, peering at the problematic nucleus on the Pap smear yet again. “It’s abnormal,” she decides, and then hesitates. “No, it’s...
Jul, 01, 2006
In a classic cartoon, a physician offers a second opinion from his computer. The patient looks horrified: How absurd to think that a computer could have better judgment than a human doctor! But...
Jan, 01, 2010
Bridging the gap between surgical simulation and surgical practice
When a knife cuts into an organ, forces push back in ways that mechanical engineers can, to some extent, predict. But other factors are also at play: Ions shift in solution within cells, causing...
Jan, 01, 2010
Many tasks in biomedical data analysis, such as kinematic data collection, involve 3-D motion analysis which requires precise representation of an object’s position and orientation. ...
Apr, 01, 2006
Predicting RNA structure remains an open challenge, but progress is being made
RNA is not just a single-stranded template. Like proteins, many RNA molecules can fold into three-dimensional structures that catalyze reactions and regulate gene expression. Predicting this...
Jul, 01, 2008
Unlike most classical engineering materials, biological tissues can adapt to external stimuli by growing in volume: Skin grows in response to wounding; muscles grow in response to exercise; cancer...
Apr, 01, 2011
How Simbios' state-of-the-art software tools are contributing to high-impact biomedical research
Simbios began with a simple idea: that physics-based simulation of biological structures at all scales could benefit from a
unified tool-building effort.
At the same time, the thinking went,...
Oct, 01, 2009
Computation offers a window into a disease often described as a black box
The growing threats of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB) are spurring worldwide interest in faster and more innovative research approaches, such as...
Jun, 06, 2012
Brain implants are giving hope to the disabled and revolutionizing neuroscience
Matthew Nagle can move a cursor on a computer screen with only the power of his thoughts. It’s a remarkable feat for anyone, but especially momentous for Nagle, who is paralyzed from the neck...
Aug, 31, 2005
According to a new computational analysis of DNA structure, variations in DNA shape—along the grooves of the double helix—may play an important role in defining how the genome works. The...
Jul, 01, 2009