Systems Biology 3.0: Integrating Datasets, Toolsets…and Mindsets

This webinar of the VPHi Keynote Webinar Series featuring Professor Yoram Vodovotz from the University of Pittsburg took place on Wednesday 7 June 20223, 18:00-19:30 during the 7th VPH Summer School in Barcelona.

Click HERE to watch the video on YouTube

Abstract

Systems Biology has evolved over the past 20+ years to include clinical applications, which we originally termed Translational Systems Biology in 2008. As Systems Biology continues to evolve, addressing unmet clinical needs requires an integrated, interdisciplinary approach leaving methodological silos based on distinct disciplines and methods. Our group has attempted to integrate data-driven and mechanistic modeling with a clinical focus using a variety of approaches. Dynamic biological network analyses have provided a unique perspective on how cytokines and chemokines, proteins that mediate inflammation, interact with each other across tissues to up- and down-regulate systemic inflammation.

These studies implicate IL‐17A in the cross‐tissue spread of inflammation, a process that appears to be in part regulated through neural mechanisms. Using parsimonious as well as large, multi-compartment, mechanistic mathematical models we have gained new perspectives on acute inflammatory diseases such as COVID-19 and the response to severe trauma. As we enter the next decade of Systems Biology, we are leveraging a rational workflow involving large datasets, data-driven modeling to define core interactions, abstractions of those interactions in the context of mechanistic models, and, ultimately, the use of those models for Rational Immune Reprogramming.

Biosketch

Dr. Vodovotz's research interests include the biology of acute inflammation in shock states, chronic inflammatory diseases, wound healing, malaria, and restenosis. His work utilizes mathematical modeling to unify and gain insight into the biological interactions that characterize these inflammatory conditions. As the Director of the Center for Inflammation and Regenerative Modeling (CIRM) at the University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, he has been involved in the mathematical modeling of acute inflammatory states (e.g. septic or hemorrhagic shock, wound healing), including cellular and physiological elements, as part of a large, interdisciplinary collaborative team. He is also a co-founder of Immunetrics, Inc., a company that is commercializing this mathematical modeling work.

This webinar belongs to the VPHi keynote webinar series, a quarterly event organised by the VPHi Young Scientists Committee that provides a forum for access to senior community members and their expert competence for chiefly young scientists, but also to the VPH community as a whole.

With the series, VPHi wishes to:

• Offer added value to prospective young scientist VPHi Student members through core content
• Create visibility of VPH knowledge dissemination for external stakeholders
• Highlight excellence within the VPHi, additionally providing student members with a label of quality
• Promote scientific interaction between junior and senior community members and across VPHi disciplines