There is growing recognition that the emergent, integrative behaviors of biological systems are a result of complex interactions between all the components from which these systems are composed and that knowledge of each system component, however detailed, is not sufficient by itself to understand these integrative behaviors. Achieving an integrative understanding of molecules, cells, tissues and organs is the next major frontier of biomedical science. Because of the inherent complexity of real biological systems, the development and analysis of computational models based directly on experimental data is necessary to achieve this understanding.

Research in Biological Systems Modeling is focused on how best to synthesize mathematical and computational models of biological systems that capture knowledge through the explicit representation of dynamic biochemical and biophysical processes and the application of these models to understand biological system function in health and disease. Current research is focused on experimentally-based, multi-scale models of heart function. A particular interest is in understanding the origins and treatment of Sudden Cardiac Death in the setting of heart failure and coronary artery disease. Specific research areas include:

• Modeling of molecular dynamics and the signal transduction events in sub-cellular microdomains which underlie the process of excitation-contraction coupling;
• Integrative modeling of the cardiac myocyte directed at understanding the relationship between altered gene/protein expression in the setting of disease to functional consequences at the cellular level;
• Modeling of mitochondrial energy production, its coupling to energy consuming processes in the myocyte and its control in both health and disease;
• Use of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging to reconstruct and model the geometric and microanatomic structure of the heart in health and disease;
• Integrative modeling of electrical activation in cardiac tissue and ventricles and the molecular/cellular basis of arrhythmia

 See also the Center for Cardiovascular Bioinformatics and Modeling