Descripción del proyecto
Simulación de enfermedades no transmisibles
Los gemelos digitales en el ámbito de la salud son modelos muy complejos que utilizan la inteligencia artificial, así como grandes cantidades de datos digitales y físicos, para reconstruir la fisiopatología de las enfermedades y simular nuevos tratamientos u órganos. Sin embargo, la realidad es más compleja, y cuando se trata de enfermedades no transmisibles (ENT) de órganos que soportan cargas, como la artrosis y la degeneración del disco intervertebral, es difícil recapitular «in silico» los complejos mecanismos subyacentes. Dichos modelos requerirían la integración de datos mecanicistas, biológicos y del mundo real en múltiples niveles. El equipo del proyecto O-Health, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, tiene como objetivo desarrollar modelos matemáticos de las ENT comunes combinando información a nivel celular y molecular, así como a nivel tisular y orgánico.
Objetivo
Non-communicable diseases (NCD) that involve load-bearing organs emerge silently according to complex mechanisms that are likely to involve inter-disease systemic communications. Clinical explorations cannot apprehend such intricate emergence, but I postulate that multiscale in silico models can. The digital twin for health has progressed a lot in the last decades, but multi-disease transversal modelling has not happened. It requires unique developments to couple small to large-scale model components with appropriate balance of phenomenological and mechanistic approaches, to cope with overwhelming biological complexity, preserve interpretability and incorporate real-world data. This is the niche of O-Health that proposes a scalable ecosystem of multiscale NCD models interrelated through a systemic model of low-grade inflammation. The project tackles such vertical and transversal physiology-based computational modelling through four major NCD, lung emphysema, atherosclerosis, intervertebral disc degeneration and knee osteoarthritis that affect load-bearing organs at different anatomical locations. The cellular /molecular scale components of each NCD model will vertically share predicted variables with an interface model of endothelial cell dysfunction that communicates with a transversal model of body-wide systemic communications. The O-health ecosystem will be modular and interoperable. Mechanistic modelling will be covered by finite element models at the organ /tissue scales and by agent-based (AB) models at the cell /molecular scales. AB models will incorporate high-level interaction graphs for interpretable phenomenological modelling where necessary. Graphs will merge knowledge projection and correlation models extracted from longitudinal population cohort data, also used to evaluate O-Health. Interoperability will be ensured through standard languages such as Field and Systems Biology Mark-up Languages, enabling the scalability of the O-Health ecosystem.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Institución de acogida
08002 Barcelona
España