Complex Systems And Computational Biology Approaches To Acute Inflammation

This second edition expands upon and updates the vital research covered in its predecessor, by presenting state-of-the-art multidisciplinary and systems-oriented approaches to complex diseases arising from and driven by the acute inflammatory response. The chapters in this volume provide an introduction to different types of computational modeling, and how these methods can be applied to specific inflammatory diseases, with a focus on providing readers a roadmap for integrating advanced mathematical and computational techniques with traditional experimental methods. In this second edition, we cover both well-established and emerging modeling methods, especially state-of-the-art machine learning approaches and the integration of data-driven and mechanistic modeling. This volume introduces the concept of Model-based Precision Medicine as an alternative approach to the current view of Precision Medicine, based on leveraging mechanistic computational modeling to decrease cost while increasing the information value of the data being obtained. By presenting the role of computational modeling as an integrated component of the research process, Complex Systems and Computational Biology Approaches to Acute Inflammation: A Framework for Model-based Precision Medicine offers a window into the recent past, the present, and the future of computationally-augmented biomedical research.

Biomaterials have existed for millennia as mechanical replacement structures following disease or injury. Biomaterial design has changed markedly from structural support with an “inert immune profile as the primary objective to designs that elicit an integrative local tissue response and a pro-repair immune cell phenotype. Immunomodulatory Biomaterials: Regulating the Immune Response with Biomaterials to Affect Clinical Outcome offers a single, comprehensive reference on biomaterials for modulation of the host response, for materials scientists, tissue engineers and those working in regenerative medicine. This book details methods, materials and strategies designed to regulate the host immune response following surgical implantation and thus facilitate specific local cell infiltration and tissue deposition. There has been a dramatic transformation in our understanding of the role of the immune system, both innate and adaptive; these changes include recognition of the plasticity of immune cells, especially macrophages, cross-talk between the immune system and stem cells, and the necessity for in situ transition between inflammatory and regulatory immune cell phenotypes. The exploitation of these findings and the design and manufacture of new biomaterials is occurring at an astounding pace. There is currently no book directed at the interdisciplinary principles guiding the design, manufacture, testing, and clinical translation of biomaterials that proactively regulate the host tissue immune response. The challenge for academia, industry, and regulatory agencies to encourage innovation while assuring safety and maximizing efficacy has never been greater. Given the highly interdisciplinary requirements for the design, manufacture and use of immunomodulatory biomaterials, this book will prove a useful single resource across disciplines. Holistically covers the design, manufacture, testing, and clinical translation of biomaterials that proactively regulate the host tissue immune response Provides a single reference for understanding and utilizing the host response in biomaterials design An international collaboration of leading researchers in the field offering a novel insight into this fast-growing area

Are we satisfied with the rate of drug development? Are we happy with the drugs that come to market? Are we getting our money’s worth in spending for basic biomedical research? In Translational Systems Biology, Drs. Yoram Vodovotz and Gary An address these questions by providing a foundational description the barriers facing biomedical research today and the immediate future, and how these barriers could be overcome through the adoption of a robust and scalable approach that will form the underpinning of biomedical research for the future. By using a combination of essays providing the intellectual basis of the Translational Dilemma and reports of examples in the study of inflammation, the content of Translational Systems Biology will remain relevant as technology and knowledge advances bring broad translational applicability to other diseases. Translational systems biology is an integrated, multi-scale, evidence-based approach that combines laboratory, clinical and computational methods with an explicit goal of developing effective means of control of biological processes for improving human health and rapid clinical application. This comprehensive approach to date has been utilized for in silico studies of sepsis, trauma, hemorrhage, and traumatic brain injury, acute liver failure, wound healing, and inflammation. Provides an explicit, reasoned, and systematic approach to dealing with the challenges of translational science across disciplines Establishes the case for including computational modeling at all stages of biomedical research and healthcare delivery, from early pre-clinical studies to long-term care, by clearly delineating efficiency and costs saving important to business investment Guides readers on how to communicate across domains and disciplines, particularly between biologists and computational researchers, to effectively develop multi- and trans-disciplinary research teams

While systems biology and pharmacodynamics have evolved in parallel, there are significant interrelationships that can enhance drug discovery and enable optimized therapy for each patient. Systems pharmacology is the relatively new discipline that is the interface between these two methods. This book is the first to cover the expertise from systems biology and pharmacodynamics researchers, describing how systems pharmacology may be developed and refined further to show practical applications in drug development. There is a growing awareness that pharmaceutical companies should reduce the high attrition in the pipeline due to insufficient efficacy or toxicity found in proof-of-concept and/or Phase II studies. Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics discusses the framework for integrating information obtained from understanding physiological/pathological pathways (normal body function system vs. perturbed system due to disease) and pharmacological targets in order to predict clinical efficacy and adverse events through iterations between mathematical modeling and experimentation.

This two-volume book presents the outcomes of the 8th International Conference on Soft Computing for Problem Solving, SocProS 2018. This conference was a joint technical collaboration between the Soft Computing Research Society, Liverpool Hope University (UK), and Vellore Institute of Technology (India), and brought together researchers, engineers and practitioners to discuss thought-provoking developments and challenges in order to select potential future directions. The book highlights the latest advances and innovations in the interdisciplinary areas of soft computing, including original research papers on algorithms (artificial immune systems, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, genetic programming, and particle swarm optimization) and applications (control systems, data mining and clustering, finance, weather forecasting, game theory, business and forecasting applications). It offers a valuable resource for both young and experienced researchers dealing with complex and intricate real-world problems that are difficult to solve using traditional methods.

Organ transplantation is a life-saving surgical procedure through which the functionality of a failing organ system can be restored. However, without the life-long administration of immunosuppressive drugs, the recipient’s immune system will launch a massive immune attack that will ultimately destroy the graft. Although successful at protecting the graft from an immune attack, long-term use of immunosuppressive drugs leads to serious complications (e.g., increased risk of infection, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cancer). Moreover, recipients suffer from limited long-term graft survival rates due to the inability of current treatments to establish tolerance to the transplanted tissues. Thus, there is a great medical need to understand the complex network of immune system interactions that lead to transplant rejection so that new strategies of intervention can be determined that will redirect the system toward transplant acceptance while preserving immune competence against offending agents. In the past 20 years, the discovery and growing understanding of the positive and negative regulators of the activation of the immune system have fostered new interventional procedures targeting one or the other. While pre-clinical results proved the validity of these strategies, their clinical implementation has been troublesome. These results underscore the need for additional methods to determine the most effective interventions to prevent long-term transplant rejection. New tools of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics are being implemented in powerful analyses that promise the development of better, safer personalized treatments. In parallel, theoretical modeling has emerged as a tool that transcends investigations of individual mechanistic processes and instead unravels the relevant mechanisms of complex systems such as the immune response triggered by a transplant. In this way, theoretical models can be used to identify important behavior that arises from complex systems and thereby delineate emergent properties of biological systems that could not be identified studying single components. Employing this approach, interdisciplinary collaborations among immunologists, mathematicians, and system biologists will yield novel perspectives in the development of more effective strategies of intervention. The aim of this Research Topic is to demonstrate how new insight and methods from theoretical and experimental studies of the immune response can aid in identifying new research directions in transplant immunology. First, techniques from various theoretical and experimental studies with applications to the immune response will be reviewed to determine how they can be adapted to explore the complexity of transplant rejection. Second, recent advances in the acquisition and mining of large data sets related to transplant genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics will be discussed in the context of their predictive power and potential for optimizing and personalizing patient treatment. Last, new perspectives will be offered on the integration of computational immune modeling with transplant and omics data to establish more effective strategies of intervention that promote transplant tolerance.