Blanca Rodriguez | |
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 Rodriguez lectures in 2016 | |
| Born | |
| Alma mater | University of Valencia |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Oxford Tulane University |
Blanca Rodriguez is a Spanish computer scientist who is Professor of Computational Medicine, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and head of computational biology at the University of Oxford. Her research considers the development of in silico models for drug discovery and digital twins for the identification of innovative therapies.
Rodriguez is from Valencia. She studied engineering at the Technical University of Valencia. As a student, Rodriguez knew nothing about cardiology, but she attended a talk by an arrhythmia specialist. She decided to pursue a career in research, and completed a doctorate in computational biology. [1] She moved to Tulane University for her postdoctoral research, where she spent two years before moving to the University of Oxford as postdoc in St Cross College. [2]
Rodriguez was made a professor at Oxford in 2007.[ citation needed ] She leads the Computational Cardiovascular Science Team, where she develops methodologies for advanced therapeutics. Rodriguez studies the causes and modulators of differences in human pathophysiology. [3] Her early work considered the mechanisms that underpinned cardiac arrhythmias and their diagnosis. Cardiac arrhythmias impact large numbers of people worldwide and can have several causes, including mutations, disease and drugs. Rodriguez uses computational modelling and simulation to identify new treatment pathways for cardiac arrhythmia. [4] [5]
Rodriguez has developed digital twins for precision medicine [6] and in silico trials for new therapies. In silico methodologies can be used for drug development, and digital twins can eliminate the need for animals in research. [7] [8] [9]
In 2015 she was appointed to the Board of the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research. [3]
Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, computer programming, information engineering, mathematics and statistics to analyze and interpret biological data. The process of analyzing and interpreting data can sometimes be referred to as computational biology, however this distinction between the two terms is often disputed. To some, the term computational biology refers to building and using models of biological systems.
Computational chemistry is a branch of chemistry that uses computer simulations to assist in solving chemical problems. It uses methods of theoretical chemistry incorporated into computer programs to calculate the structures and properties of molecules, groups of molecules, and solids. The importance of this subject stems from the fact that, with the exception of some relatively recent findings related to the hydrogen molecular ion, achieving an accurate quantum mechanical depiction of chemical systems analytically, or in a closed form, is not feasible. The complexity inherent in the many-body problem exacerbates the challenge of providing detailed descriptions of quantum mechanical systems. While computational results normally complement information obtained by chemical experiments, it can occasionally predict unobserved chemical phenomena.
Computational neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematics, computer science, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand the principles that govern the development, structure, physiology and cognitive abilities of the nervous system.
Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is a condition affecting repolarization (relaxing) of the heart after a heartbeat, giving rise to an abnormally lengthy QT interval. It results in an increased risk of an irregular heartbeat which can result in fainting, drowning, seizures, or sudden death. These episodes can be triggered by exercise or stress. Some rare forms of LQTS are associated with other symptoms and signs including deafness and periods of muscle weakness.
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a condition in which the heart becomes enlarged and cannot pump blood effectively. Symptoms vary from none to feeling tired, leg swelling, and shortness of breath. It may also result in chest pain or fainting. Complications can include heart failure, heart valve disease, or an irregular heartbeat.
Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic medication used to treat and prevent a number of types of cardiac dysrhythmias. This includes ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and wide complex tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. Evidence in cardiac arrest, however, is poor. It can be given by mouth, intravenously, or intraosseously. When used by mouth, it can take a few weeks for effects to begin.
In biology and other experimental sciences, an in silico experiment is one performed on a computer or via computer simulation software. The phrase is pseudo-Latin for 'in silicon', referring to silicon in computer chips. It was coined in 1987 as an allusion to the Latin phrases in vivo, in vitro, and in situ, which are commonly used in biology. The latter phrases refer, respectively, to experiments done in living organisms, outside living organisms, and where they are found in nature.
Modelling biological systems is a significant task of systems biology and mathematical biology. Computational systems biology aims to develop and use efficient algorithms, data structures, visualization and communication tools with the goal of computer modelling of biological systems. It involves the use of computer simulations of biological systems, including cellular subsystems, to both analyze and visualize the complex connections of these cellular processes.
The Blue Brain Project is a Swiss brain research initiative that aims to create a digital reconstruction of the mouse brain. The project was founded in May 2005 by the Brain Mind Institute of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Its mission is to use biologically-detailed digital reconstructions and simulations of the mammalian brain to identify the fundamental principles of brain structure and function.
Biosimulation is a computer-aided mathematical simulation of biological processes and systems and thus is an integral part of systems biology. Due to the complexity of biological systems simplified models are often used, which should only be as complex as necessary.
Scigress, stylised SCiGRESS, is a software suite designed for molecular modeling, computational and experimental chemistry, drug design, and materials science. It is a successor to the Computer Aided Chemistry (CAChe) software and has been used to perform experiments on hazardous or novel biomolecules and proteins in silico.
In silico medicine is the application of in silico research to problems involving health and medicine. It is the direct use of computer simulation in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a disease. More specifically, in silico medicine is characterized by modeling, simulation, and visualization of biological and medical processes in computers with the goal of simulating real biological processes in a virtual environment.
An in silico clinical trial, also known as a virtual clinical trial, is an individualized computer simulation used in the development or regulatory evaluation of a medicinal product, device, or intervention. While completely simulated clinical trials are not feasible with current technology and understanding of biology, its development would be expected to have major benefits over current in vivo clinical trials, and research on it is being pursued.
Irene Mary Carmel Tracey is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and former Warden of Merton College, Oxford. She is also Professor of Anaesthetic Neuroscience in the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and formerly Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Oxford. She is a co-founder of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), now the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging. Her team’s research is focused on the neuroscience of pain, specifically pain perception and analgesia as well as how anaesthetics produce altered states of consciousness. Her team uses multidisciplinary approaches including neuroimaging.
Sarah Anne Harris is a British physicist who is an Associate Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Leeds. Her research investigates biomolecular simulations and the topology of DNA. In particular, she makes use of molecular dynamics to explore how DNA responds to stress. She serves as chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) computational collaborative project in Biomolecular simulation.
Alan Garfinkel is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles in the departments of Medicine (Cardiology) and Integrative Biology and Physiology. His research work applies nonlinear dynamics to cardiac arrhythmias and to the creation of biological patterns in space and time. As a teacher, he created a new course to teach dynamics and modeling to biology students, with no "calculus" prerequisite.
Emilia Entcheva is a Bulgarian–American engineer who is a professor of biomedical engineering at George Washington University. She serves as Director of the Cardiac Optogenetics and Optical Imaging Laboratory. She is a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Pharmacological cardiotoxicity is defined as cardiac damage that occurs under the action of a drug. This can occur both through damage of cardiac muscle as well as through alteration of the ion currents of cardiomyocytes.
Andrea Volkamer is a German bioinformatician and professor of “Data-Driven Drug Design” at Saarland University and an associated researcher at the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS). Her research focuses on data-driven drug design, with an emphasis on method development and application.
Bethan Psaila is a physician-scientist known for work in hematopoietic stem cell biology in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs). She is an Associate Professor of Hematology at the University of Oxford, a Cancer Research UK funded Senior Fellow, and a Senior Fellow of New College. In 2021, she co-founded Alethiomics, a drug-discovery company.
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