This the research I carried out during my first postdoc at the Institute of Physics of Liquids and Biological Systems (IFLySiB) in Argentina, and the Institute of Chemical Physics Blas Cabrera (IQF) in Spain. I worked under the supervision of Prof. Manuel Carlevaro (IFLySiB) and Prof. Enrique Lomba (IQF)
General Aims
The general aim of this project is to set up a Virtual Lab by using an agent-based model (ABM), further accelerated by graphic processing units (GPU), to study cancer response to different types of treatments.
This will have two consequences:
In both approaches, the Virtual Lab would mean an improvement in drug design, a reduction in treatment costs and the most important, it will also mean a reduction of patient risks and side effects, which are still significant today.
This will have two consequences:
- On a research level, it will make possible the realization of virtual (in silico) clinical trials of different therapies with a level of detail that allows one to test and predict their failures in computational simulations instead of testing them in an experimental environment and/or in patients.
- On a patient-specific level, it will allow the clinicians to model the patient's cancer, understanding how it will develop and to outline different therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcomes.
In both approaches, the Virtual Lab would mean an improvement in drug design, a reduction in treatment costs and the most important, it will also mean a reduction of patient risks and side effects, which are still significant today.
Tentative Milestones
The set up of the Virtual Lab will most likely have a significant impact on different sectors.
- The first impact would be seen on basic research. Being able to model tumour growth and/or tissue regeneration, as well as its response to different factors in a computational environment, makes it possible to carry out studies that are difficult to approach in experimental settings. This not only opens the door to new lines of research, but could also result in a better drug design and the reduction of the development costs.
- The use of the Virtual Lab by clinicians, as a complementary tool, will improve their efficiency and productivity, allowing them to plan treatment strategies with higher success rates. In addition, the information provided by the clinicians and/or the researchers, will allow to improve the Virtual Lab calibration and, therefore, the quality of its results. This would generate a very important feedback loop for both clinicians and researchers.
- Being able to predict the specific response of each patient would not only improve the efficiency of the treatments, but also would prevent patients from suffering side effects. In this way, the project would not only have an impact on the field of physics. Its nature implies a highly interdisciplinary work, making an impact in areas such as biology, biotechnology, informatics, medicine, among others.
- And finally, the most expected impact will be the one caused on society. Although I am aware that computational simulations cannot replace clinical trials, I am highly convinced that they provide precisely enough information to improve success rates and increase the efficiency of the drug development process and treatments planification.