TRANSCENDO: In silico models of disease pathogenesis and therapy

The overall objective of the project is to build a comprehensive modelling and biosimulation framework for studying human pathophysiology in silico, with the initial focus area of Diabetes.

The consortium assembles expertise in domains of computational systems biology (Matej Oresic, VTT, coordinator), semantic modelling (Antti Pesonen, VTT), probabilistic modelling (Samuel Kaski, Helsinki University of Technology), and pharmacology and animal models of metabolic disease (Eriika Savontaus, University of Turku).

The modelling goals of the project are:

• couple different modelling levels (cellular pathway-level knowledge, animal physiology, human physiology) together,

• predict the disease, its properties, and responses to interventions and

·         explain the experimental findings such as clinical data.

We aim to combine a variety of mathematical modelling approaches for these tasks, including semantic and probabilistic modelling, and biosimulation. We will apply our methodology to practical problems of direct relevance to drug discovery:

• Modelling the effects of insulin therapy.
• Discovery of at least one drug target for Type 1 Diabetes, with the elucidation of mechanism of action with its potential drug(s).

The results and deliverables of TRANSCENDO project are directly applicable to drug discovery, nutrition, healthcare, and bioinformatics domains. Given our approach uniquely combines several levels of modelling (semantic, probabilistic, and biosimulation), we expect our approach will result in novel solutions for modelling complex systems and phenomena.

Contact: matej.oresic@vtt.fi

Related projects: SYSDIPP, VISUBIOMED, PHENOMES, HEPADIP