Computational modeling can help fill gaps in how we develop and review new drugs and devices
What role does computational modeling play at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)? If you ask Paul Watkins, MD, director of the Hamner—University of North Carolina...
Sep, 01, 2011
The National Institutes of Health Roadmap for Medical Research has recently completed the first stage of an ambitious program to expand the computational infrastructure and software tools needed to...
Jan, 01, 2006
Many a successful investigator working at the interface between molecular biology, genetics and computation will recognize the imperative to obtain biological validation for computational...
Jul, 01, 2008
Medicinal patches applied to the skin are an attractive route for drug delivery since they can release medicine slowly into the bloodstream and avoid being metabolized by the digestive system. Yet...
Oct, 01, 2009
How errors in data, software, and methodology can teach us how to do better
In 2006, a paper in Nature Medicine suggested a novel and potentially revolutionary method for predicting patient responses to cancer therapies using gene signatures. The finding piqued the interest...
Sep, 01, 2011
Many systems models are strikingly vulnerable to even small changes in the variables
Systems biologists seek to model many complex biological interactions all at once. Typically, they input tens or even hundreds of variables to produce predic- tions about a system—for example,...
Jan, 01, 2008
How mathematical models are transforming the fight against cancer
The most common test for prostate cancer (known as PSA screening) misses aggressively growing prostate tumors—the type typically seen in young patients. It’s a fact that was accepted by...
Apr, 01, 2007
Working in silico, researchers hone in on candidate proteins worthy of laboratory work
By stringing together amino acids in a prescribed sequence that then folds into a defined structure, nature designs proteins to perform specific functions. Nowadays, computational researchers are...
Sep, 01, 2011
Epistasis explored
When people work together, some individuals may hinder team performance—essentially masking the abilities of other members—while others may boost the group’s performance beyond the...
Sep, 01, 2011
POINT/
NO: Grant applications for the development and maintenance of software and infrastructure should compete with basic research applications.
Biomedicine has a strong...
Jul, 01, 2009