A Truly Global Virtual Research Environment for the Modelling and Simulation of the Heart
Partners: Oxford University, Tullane University, University of California at San Diego and University of California at Los Angeles
The primary aim of this EPSRC-funded International e-Science Sisters project is to extend the reach of the current international Integrative Biology consortium to include leading research groups in the USA, thus creating a truly global research consortium. This will test the ability of current Grid technologies to support these types of large-scale, international, interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects. Research programmes which tackle grand-challenge problems such as the determination of biological function within whole-organ systems, are increasingly seen as the future of scientific endeavour. Working closely with the Integrative Biology project, this project will place the UK at the centre of one of the most advanced and long-standing of these activities - computational modelling of the whole heart.
Key deliverables of this project are:
- Deployment of Integrative Biology prototype software at each of the three partner sites in the US.
- Detailed annual feedback documents and input into the user requirements process from each of the partners in the US.
- Three workshops fostering extensive collaboration, facilitated by UK-developed Grid technologies, between leading heart-modelling groups in three continents. All presentations at these workshops will be made available to the wider community through the Integrative Biology project website.
- Extensive novel scientific output facilitated by the Integrative Biology Grid infrastructure in the form of journal publications and conference presentations.
- The final deliverable will be a tested and deployed global computational Grid infrastructure supporting the research work of this leading international research community.