*** FACULTY CANDIDATE ***

Cassie Mitchell, Ph.D.*
 

PI/Director, Laboratory for Pathology Dynamics
Research Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology & Emory University

"Pathophysiology Informatics: Integrating Multi-scalar Experimental and Clinical Records to Forecast Disease"

ABSTRACT
We all watch the weather forecast so we can plan our life activities.  What if we could forecast disease and plan interventions in the same way?  That is precisely the goal of my lab’s “pathophysiology informatics” research—to utilize multi-scalar pathophysiology of disease data sets in computer models that can elucidate disease etiology, forecast disease progression, and predict the best treatment strategies. However, a key limitation is the preponderance of pathophysiology of disease data is scattered across millions of individuated journal articles and patient medical records.  Moreover, the sheer number and disparate types of assessments and treatment modalities, not to mention the vast range of experimental data collection and expression protocols, pose an immense challenge to aggregating and integrating this complex data into a form suitable for informatics analysis. However, for multi-faceted intractable diseases, like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), pathophysiology informatics is essential to identify multi-scalar relationships, to exploit synergistic interactions, and to assess temporal dynamics of disease—three keys to unlocking successful treatment paradigms. We will discuss new protocols for the aggregation and integration of thousands of disparate pathophysiology data into usable databases (e.g. biocuration), as well as novel methods for aggregating experimental, clinical, and theoretical viewpoints into real-time predictive disease models.  Finally, we will illustrate how pathophysiology informatics-generated disease forecasts are changing the current and future landscape of intractable pathologies like ALS and AD.

Host: Gari Clifford, Ph.D.

Thursday, January 19
10:30 a.m.
HSRB Auditorium, HSRB Bldg.,
Emory University

Videoconference:
Georgia Tech: McIntire Rm 3115,
  in the Whitaker Bldg.

Note: Will not be broadcast at TEP.