Future Now
The IFTF Blog
From Computational to Biological Previews
DISCIPLINES/TOPIC:
(ex: happiness psychology/neuromodulation/ persuasion (including behavioral economics, role of networks as social contagions)
regenerative medicine, pharmacogenomics, personalized medicine
HOW DOES IT ADDRESS “TRANSFORMING BODIES AND LIFESTYLES”
(behavior change/intervention at community/population level)
Treatment side—avoiding side effects of medicines, facilitating drug research,
EXPERTS: (Max 6)
(from the list, we’ll identify one or two people to invite to the APRIL 9th EXPERT WORKSHOP)
Geoffrey S. Ginsburg, MD, PhD
Director, IGSP Center for Genomic Medicine, Duke
Phone: 919-668-6210
Andrew Feinberg, Johns Hopkins University
Professor of Molecular Medicine
Scott Weiss, M.D.
Professor of Medicine (HMS)
Interm Scientific Director, PCPGM
Director of Respiratory, Environmental and Genetic Epidemiology, Channing Laboratory
Tel: 617-525-2278
Fax: 617-525-2745
Email: [email protected]
WHICH GHE CATEGORY/IES:
(health, information, consumer electronics, food etc, just to have a sense of the most obvious domains of health, health care, and well-being we are researching)
health care/pharma
EARLY WORKING HYPOTHESIS
(some sort of narrowing down the scope of your research, where you will be looking for directional change)
Regenerative medicine techniques will enable researchers to directly test the effects of different compounds, drugs, etc. on a type of cell or tissue—for example, heart tissue—to gauge potential physiological responses.
From computational to biological simulations
Signals:
See here.
Infectious Disease Previews: According to the WSJ, a Pentagon project has identified several genes that activate shortly before a person begins to show signs of/experience the flu—opening up opportunities to let people effectively preview if they’re going to get the flu. The Journal notes that this technology could be used by other institutions—schools, for example—during pandemic outbreaks or fears to make decisions about keeping institutions open, and so on. But I think the public health implications for adults are more interesting—would employers use the technology to ban sick employees? Would airlines prevent pre-sick people from getting onto planes?
This article focuses on 3-d bioprinting of cells, tissues, etc. so that “Researchers can place liver cells on a preformed scaffold, support kidney cells with a co-printed scaffold, or form adjacent layers of epithelial and stromal soft tissue that grow into a mature tooth. Ultimately the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses, and the best way to do that is get a number of bio-printers into the hands of researchers and give them the ability to make three dimensional tissues on demand.”