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Project Title:
Modeling Host Immunity to Agents of Biological Terrorism
Funding Agency:
National Institutes of Health
Total Project Period:
Jul 01, 2002 - Jun 30, 2006
Principal Investigator:
Gilles Clermont, MD
Co-Investigator(s):
Carson Chow, Yoram Vodovotz, G Constatine, S Iyengar, W Troy
Project Summary:
A large effort to develop an effective strategy against agents of bioterrorism has been undertaken by our nation. This strategy is multifaceted and includes source control, intelligence, disease prophylaxis prevention inhalational and gastrointestinal infection with Bacillus cmihrucis (anthrax) can cause an inflammatory reaction leading to multi-system organ failure and death. Various clinical cues and diagnostic tests are used to confirm suspected anthrax infection, and it is likely that emerging molecular diagnostic techniques will yield more accurate and quicker confirmation of anthrax infection.
Drs. Vodovotz, Clermont and Chow have developed a mathematical model incorporating cellular, molecular, and physiological details of the acute inflammatory responses to infection, and have begun to simulate the response to anthrax infection This model can be used to predict an individual patient's course of disease, as well as to test the efficacy of a given intervention in a simulated clinical trial. In this Phase I proposal. We propose the following: 1) to adapt and calibrate, based on existing data. Our mathematical model of the innate inflammatory response to a inhalational and gastrointestinal anthrax infection and its treatment: and 2) to develop a software tool designed for the input- visualization, and manipulation of (lie this mathematical model. This model and software too will be adaptable to incorporate the results of multiple diagnostic and clinical tests. The results of the research proposed herein will not only impact the treatment of victims of anthrax infection, but will also yield valuable tools for the treatment of sepsis in general.
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