MSM: Multi-scale modeling of the mouse heart: from genotype to phenotype

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

McCulloch 0506252 The aim of the research is to develop new multi-scale computational models of the mouse heart that integrate functionally and structurally across multiple scales of biological organization from molecular networks to organ system. These new models of the electromechanics of the normal and genetically modified mouse heart will integrate across the following biological scales and classes of mathematical model: (1) biochemical models of molecular regulatory networks; (2) biophysical models of whole excitation-contraction coupling; (3) microstructural constitutive models of the regional anisotropic electrical and mechanical properties of multicellular cardiac tissue; (4) three-dimensional anatomically detailed models of mouse ventricular geometry, fiber architecture and conducting system anatomy; and (5) lumped parameter models of circulatory system hemodynamics. This research will provide better understanding of the normal heart and how it becomes dysfunctional in pathophysiological states. The proposed research will initate a new inter-disciplinary collaboration between bioengineers at University of California San Diego and developmental biologists and anatomists at University of South Carolina. As a result of this collaboration, a large new multi-scale data resource that will allow scientists to navigate whole mouse heart anatomy at high resolution.