Health and Biological Systems

In the health and biological systems thrust we develop effective collaborations with biomedical scientists from across the UTC and University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine Chattanooga (UTCOMC) campuses to provide computational solutions for their research projects.  

Our goal is to position the SimCenter core capabilities and expertise to be an integral part of these collaborations.  With access to high-performance computing systems, health informatics and biomedical scientists are able to perform a wide range of bioinformatics and statistical data analysis tasks in the areas of genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epidemiological studies and electronic health record data mining. 

Collaboration

Current partnerships associated with biomedical and biobehavioral research at UTC include the UTCOMC, UTK, UTHSC, Emory University, the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation, Vanderbilt University, and local collaborations with Erlanger Health System, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee, TVA, and Chattanooga/Hamilton County Health Department, Southeast Regional Office of the Tennessee Department of Health, and the Tennessee State Department of Health.

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Additionally, SimCenter researchers have been engaged in developing  simulations of airflow and particle transport in CT-based human airway models; data analysis and modeling to predict rupture of aneurysms; simulation-based design to reduce the failure rates of percutaneous coronary interventions employing stents; analysis and design of osseointegrated dental prostheses; modeling and uncertainty quantification due to patient specific biophysical property variability for fine needle tissue electroporation and for femoral neck fractures; algorithms for index case identification and exposure prediction in infectious disease epidemics, etc. The aforementioned partnerships provide access to the required domain experts necessary to build further successful interdisciplinary collaborations.

Research Thrust Lead:

Team Members

• Fernando Alda

• DeAnna Beasley

• Jennifer Boyd

• Dawn Ford

• Loren Hayes

• Azad Hossain

• Hope Klug

• Francesca Leasi

• David Levine

• Henry Spratt

• Hong Qin

Current Projects

• Understanding diversity in mating behavior (NSF)
• Species rarity in plants (NSF)
• Relating conservation status to climate variables across spatial scales (CEACSE)
• Diversity in fish species globally
• Meiofauna biodiversity