Cyberinfrastructure for Regenerative Personalized Medicine: The Vision and Challenges
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Abstract
Successive waves of advances in the biological sciences: genomic, proteomics and systems biology, have brought us to an unprecedented level of understanding of multi-scale (molecular to cellular) processes in living systems. Regenerative medicine fits into this framework by connecting new insights on stem cells (how they differentiate into the many cell types in the entire organism) to regenerative biology (multi-scale transport processes in tissue engineering). The ultimate vision is personalized medicine, namely therapeutic treatments for an individual based on reprogrammed cells from that same individual. Cyberinfrastructure is central to the realization of this vision. Within the next few years, we will transition from a few dozen stem cell lines to over a hundred thousand induced pluripotent (iPS) cell lines; the healthcare IT ecosystem that is already rife with “medical errors” as a leading source of adverse events will face unprecedented challenges in the personalized logistics of iPS cell banking. A collaborative cyberinfrastructure project between MIR and WiCell that explores strategies for meeting this challenge will be presented.
Bio
Prior to the Morgridge appointment, Sang brings experiences from three sectors: academia (distinguished professorships at University of Wisconsin and Purdue University), industry (VP of R&D IT at Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical Research and Lilly Research Laboratories) and government (inaugural Division Director for cyberinfrastructure programs at NSF).
On the research side, his current work in pharmaceutical informatics at MIR explores the intersection of cyberinfrastructure and drug discovery and development including the role of collaborative work flow tools.