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A New Program, A New Medicine
Let me be the first to welcome you to a new era in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of human disease. Over the past ten years, extraordinary advances in modeling and computing technologies have opened the door to an array of possibilities that were previously beyond the reach of biomedical researchers. Today's powerful computational platforms are allowing us to begin to identify, analyze, and compare the fundamental biological components and processes that regulate human diseases and their impact on the body.
The next step, then, is to harness the potential of these theoretical and computational tools and theory in a meaningful way -that is, to apply this "new medicine" to the exploration and treatment of many of our current diseases. This is the impetus behind the founding of the Institute for Computational Medicine (ICM).
The ICM marks the collaboration of two remarkable institutions, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Whiting School of Engineering. What has emerged from this unique collaboration is a new research institute with a vision that goes beyond the sum of its parts, supported by a unique range of talent and resources. For the first time, the ICM brings together leading investigators in engineering, mathematics computational sciences and biomedical research on a single mission - to employ theoretical and computational technologies to reveal the causes of some of the major diseases afflicting the world today.
In so doing, we have created a new discipline of scientific and medical research that we call "computational medicine." As the first and largest research institute of its kind, the ICM will apply this advanced discipline to a range of investigations, all of which focus on real-world health applications.
In the following pages, you will glimpse some of the foundational work that the Institute has undertaken since its founding in July 2005.In less than a year, the ICM has already made enormous strides in creating significant collaborative partnerships with the Department of Medicine at Hopkins, focused on achieving a better understanding of the origins and treatment of diseases such as heart failure and cancer.
I would like to invite you personally to become part of this bold endeavor, and to help advance the cause of computational medicine and the exciting promise it holds for improving countless lives. Your investment in the Institute today could well have a fundamental impact on how major diseases are treated in the near future. Please join us at the start of this great adventure, in our exploration of the "new medicine."
Sincerely,
Raimond L.Winslow,PhD
Director, the Institute for Computational Medicine
