Following myocardial infarction (heart attack), damaged muscle is replaced by scar tissue, and the structure and mechanical properties of that scar are key determinants of the risk of a range of serious complications, including infarct rupture and heart failure. Contrary to expectations, we recently showed that highly anisotropic scar that is very stiff in the longitudinal direction but relatively soft in the circumferential direction can significantly improve pump function of the heart. Yet this scar structure has never been observed in naturally healing infarcts!

Sickle cells exhibit abnormal morphology and membrane mechanics in the deoxygenated state due to the polymerization of the interior sickle hemoglobin (HbS). We study the dynamics of self-assembly behavior of HbS in solution and corresponding induced cell morphologies by dissipative particle dynamics approach. A coarse-grained HbS model, which contains hydrophilic and hydrophobic particles, is constructed to match the structural properties and physical description (including crowding effects) of HbS.

Epilepsy - the condition of recurrent, unprovoked seizures - is a common brain disease, affecting 1% of the world’s population. Seizures are typically identified as abnormal patterns in brain voltage activity. Many open questions surround epilepsy and seizures, and identifying the associated answers promises new insights for treatment and prevention. In this talk, we will consider brain voltage activity during seizure as observed at multiple spatial scales.

Neural circuits involved in generation of the respiratory rhythm and control of breathing is one of the most studied system in the mammalian brain. Yet the more experimental data become available the more heated become the debates concerning the neural mechanisms involved. The main reason of the controversy is that particular oscillatory regimes observed result from interactions of mechanisms and processes operating on significantly different temporal and spatial scales.

This webinar is the first of a planned series to conduct discussion of key topics in Multiscale Systems Biology, in advance of further focused discussion at our upcoming Conference in Riverside in November. This webinar is hosted by the Multiscale Systems Biology WG.

The OpenSim Project and the National Center for Simulation in Rehabilitation Research (NCSRR) at Stanford invite you to join our next webinar, featuring Kevin Shelburne, Alessandro Navacchia, and Azhar Ali, University of Denver.

DETAILS

Title: Musculoskeletal simulations combining multiscale data and finite element modeling of the knee

Speakers: Kevin Shelburne, Alessandro Navacchia, and Azhar Ali, University of Denver

In this webinar, Dr. Wen Chen from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NCCIH, https://nccih.nih.gov/ will present her Center's interest in the IMAG Multiscale Modeling U01 Funding Opportunity, http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-15-085.html.

This webinar is hosted by IMAG.

Constraint-based modeling of steady state metabolic flux is one of the dominant genome scale modeling approaches in computational molecular systems biology. Fundamentally, this dominance can be attributed to the scalability & reliability of the underlying optimization algorithms. Any extension to constraint-based modeling, if it is still to be applicable at genome scale, must retain the scalability & reliability of the underlying algorithms.

The long-term goal of this project is to determine the role of tracheal and pharyngeal sensory feedback in the regulation of cough and swallow. Our central hypothesis is that an aspiration event produces a series of coughs and swallows which are expressed in various behavioral interaction patterns, and that there are decipherable rules that regulate the various patterns of expression. Cough and swallow are airway protective behaviors.