An opportunity and a challenge
When discussing biocomputation startups, there’s one thing people agree on: These days, they don’t generate much excitement among venture capitalists.
“In the 1990s, there...
Apr, 01, 2007
Balancing Breadth and Depth
The last decade saw a proliferation of training programs at the intersection of life science and computation, with more than 60 new degree and certificate programs launched in the United States alone...
Sep, 01, 2005
A computer algorithm manipulates antibodies to predict which forms will bind their targets more tightly
The word “antibody” conjures images of our bodies fighting off bacteria and viruses. But because they can latch onto their targets with great precision, antibodies are also used to treat...
Jan, 01, 2008
Open Source reflections; designing with code re-use; and Cygwin
Do you have a few favorite books that you recommend to anyone with an interest in biomedical computing? Are there software products or Web sites that you love to evangelize? We’d like to open...
Sep, 01, 2005
Public databases impact not only how research is done but what kind of research is done in the first place.
The setting: a scientific conference in January 2008. The speaker, Bruce Ponder, MD, PhD, an oncology professor at Cambridge University, is describing a previously unknown link between a particular...
Oct, 01, 2008
Using computational models, researchers are gaining traction toward understanding what makes a stem cell a stem cell; how gene expression drives stem cell differentiation; why studying stem cell heterogeneity is important; and, ultimately, how stem cells control their fate.
To the casual observer, stem cells offer the almost magical promise of—Voila!—turning into exactly the kind of cell needed to repair an injured spinal cord or replace a damaged organ. And...
Apr, 01, 2010
Set objectives and follow through
Having engineered several scientific software applications for public consumption, the authors know from experience that the process offers unique challenges. Typically, the algorithms being...
Oct, 22, 2012
Moving from intuition to evidence-based intervention
To understand how muscles contract and joints flex, researchers have dissected cadavers and experimented with animals. They can describe how bones, muscles, and tendons connect in a complicated...
Jan, 01, 2007
University of California, San Diego’s Alison Marsden uses SimVascular to do patient-specific modeling of blood flow for surgical applications.
from http://biomedicalcomputationreview.org/content/simbios-bringing-biomedical-simulation-your-fingertips
Alison Marsden, PhD, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering...
Oct, 01, 2009
Using software designed for stress testing in engineering, researchers have modeled an American sabercat's skull in the highest resolution vertebrate animal model to date.
Wildlife biologists can watch a lion stalk its prey, but paleontologists must examine fossils to understand how the extinct saber-toothed cat hunted. Researchers now have modeled an American sabercat...
Jan, 01, 2008