There is no question that we will need the involvement of more mathematicians and engineers to contribute to solve the many problems in health, medicine, and drug development. Mathematical modeling and simulation is going to be an important tool. Hopefully, this deck of slides will attract a few more researchers into this area and get the non-technical leaders in these fields as excited as us.
You too will be excited about mathematical modeling & simulation in health, medicine, & drug development!
1. You too will be excited about
mathematical modeling & simulation
in health, medicine, & drug
development!
Rajiv P. Shrestha, PhD
rajivpshrestha
linkedin.com/in/rajivps
2. This presentation is an attempt to show the utility of
mathematical models in health, medicine, and drug
development to a broader audience.
We have skipped a lot of details for simplicity.
We will use an example of a system in our body that most of
us have heard of as it pertains to diabetes:
the blood glucose regulation system
3. A complicated system is in place to regulate glucose level in
our blood.
In the next slide, the major players of the blood glucose
regulation system are shown.
Note that the content of this presentation in based on the information available in published scientific literature. The
mathematical model is based on Man et al., Meal simulation model of the glucose-insulin system. IEEE Transactions on
Biomedical Engineering, 2007.
Blood glucose regulation system
9. When a healthy person eats a meal, the glucose contained
in the food reaches blood after digestion process in the
stomach and gut. Insulin is secreted as a response.
Just the right amount of this glucose is utilized for vital
functions of the body, or is stored in the liver and tissues,
and the rest is eliminated.
Just the right amount of insulin is secreted from pancreas
and transported to the blood via liver. It helps our body to
utilize the glucose in an appropriate manner.
Based on the understanding of the physiology and available
data a reasonable mathematical model can be built.
Glucose regulation: Healthy person
10. Mathematical model implementation
Blood Insulin Glucose appearance rate Insulin Secretion rate
A snapshot of a mathematical model of glucose regulation
implemented in a computational software.
We used Simulink in MATLAB.
11. What now?
Once we have a good mathematical model we can do a lot of fun stuff!
We can use the model as a “virtual” healthy person to understand and
study the glucose regulation.
We can test what happens if some part of the system fails/becomes less
effective (disease?) simply by “incorporating” those situations in the
model mathematically.
For example, by changing certain parameters, the model can be
used as a virtual diabetic person.
Next, you will see the simulated results for a virtual healthy person
after a standard meal.
12. A typical response after a meal
A virtual healthy person’s response after a standard meal:
After a standard meal, blood
glucose level starts to rise up.
13. A typical response after a meal
As a response, insulin in blood starts to rise
up. Insulin helps to reduce glucose in blood by
aiding in the utilization of glucose.
A virtual healthy person’s response after a standard meal:
14. A typical response after a meal
Right amount of glucose is
utilized in a timely manner.
A virtual healthy person’s response after a standard meal:
15. A typical response after a meal
Let’s simulate the response for a virtual type-II diabetic person and
compare with the simulation above.
A virtual healthy person’s response after a standard meal:
16. A typical response after a meal
For a diabetic person (red dash)
the glucose level in blood shoots
higher and stays higher all the
time compared to a healthy
person (blue line) for the same
amount of meal .
Comparing the response of a healthy person with the response of a type-II
diabetic person for the same standard meal virtual healthy person’s
response after a standard meal:
17. A typical response after a meal
Insulin response is slower. Note that even
though glucose level in the blood is much
higher, the insulin level does not rise as
much compared to the healthy person.
Comparing the response of a healthy person with the response of a type-II
diabetic person for the same standard meal virtual healthy person’s
response after a standard meal:
18. A typical response after a meal
Glucose utilization is slower
and muted.
Comparing the response of a healthy person with the response of a type-II
diabetic person for the same standard meal virtual healthy person’s
response after a standard meal:
19. A typical response after a meal
Remember, there is a mathematical model crunching numbers behind
these cool simulations!
Comparing the response of a healthy person with the response of a type-II
diabetic person for the same standard meal virtual healthy person’s
response after a standard meal:
20. What else?
The model can be used to test the actions of drugs to a
virtual diabetic patient.
It can be used to predict outcomes of various studies during
drug development.
It can be used to design better clinical trials increasing the
chance of success.
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21. Potentials are unlimited.
Are you excited yet?
For more info about Octet Research: http://1drv.ms/1Vb0oGt
& http://octetresearch.com