Georgios Stamatakos
National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Title: Computational Horizons In Cancer (CHIC): Developing Meta- and Hyper-Multiscale Models and Repositories for In Silico Oncology – Strategies, Systems and Results
Biography
Biography: Georgios Stamatakos
Abstract
Developing robust, reproducible, interoperable and collaborative hyper-models of diseases and normal physiology is a sine qua non necessity if rational, coherent and comprehensive exploitation of the invaluable information hidden within human multiscale biological data is envisaged. Responding to this imperative in the context of both the broad Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) initiative and the paradigmatic cancer domain, the large scale integrating transatlantic CHIC project (http://www.chic-vph.eu/ ) develops a suite of tools, services and secure infrastructure that supports accessibility and reusability of VPH mathematical and computational hypermodels. These include a hypermodelling infrastructure consisting primarily of a hypermodelling editor and a hypermodelling execution environment, an infrastructure for semantic metadata management, a hypermodel repository, a hypermodel-driven clinical data repository, a distributed metadata repository and an in silico trial repository for the storage of executed simulation scenarios. Multiscale models and data are semantically annotated using ontological and annotating tools. An image processing and visualization toolkit, and cloud and virtualization services are also being developed. In order to ensure clinical relevance and foster clinical acceptance of hypermodelling, the whole endeavour is driven by the clinical partners of the consortium. Innovative cancer hypermodels are collaboratively developed by the consortium cancer modellers and provide the framework and the testbed for the development of the CHIC technologies. Clinical adaptation and partial clinical validation of hypermodels and hypermodel Oncosimulators are under way. Indicative strategies, algorithms, systems, results as well as the outcome of clinical adaptation and partial clinical validation of hypermodels are presented.