Descrizione del progetto
Simulare le malattie non trasmissibili
I gemelli digitali utilizzati in ambito sanitario sono modelli altamente complessi che utilizzano l’IA e grandi quantità di dati digitali e fisici per replicare la fisiopatologia delle malattie e simulare nuovi trattamenti od organi. Tuttavia, la realtà è ancora più complessa. Nel caso delle malattie non trasmissibili di organi portanti, tra cui osteoartrite e degenerazione dei dischi vertebrali, è difficile replicare in silico i complessi meccanismi di fondo. Tali modelli, infatti, avrebbero bisogno dell’integrazione di dati meccanicistici, biologici e concreti su diverse scale. Il progetto O-Health, finanziato dal Consiglio europeo della ricerca, si propone di realizzare modelli matematici delle malattie non trasmissibili comuni, combinando informazioni su scala cellulare/molecolare e a livello di tessuto/organo.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Istituzione ospitante
08002 Barcelona
Spagna