ENISI MSM Models Trillions of Immune Cells and Molecules in the Gut Mucosa

Computational modeling tools play increasingly important roles in the understanding of biological processes. The high-performance computing (HPC)-driven ENteric Immunity SImulator (ENISI) - multiscale modeling (MSM) is at the forefront of modeling and simulation of biological systems. ENISI MSM enables the study of immunity at an unprecedented scale and speed by simulating immune responses with trillions of interacting components at the gut mucosa, and integrating spatiotemporal scales spanning from nanoseconds to years, from molecules to cells, and into clinical cohorts.

The unprecedented scalability achieved by ENISI MSM, unrivaled to date by any other biological modeling tool, is an important step towards building large-scale information processing representations of immune responses, replicating years of pre-clinical, mechanistic and clinical wet-lab studies in just a few hours of computer simulations.

“The ENISI tool suite is a first-in-class platform with applications ranging from expanding the frontiers in precision medicine to accelerating the development of disruptive therapeutics for infectious, metabolic, and immune-mediated diseases,” said Josep Bassaganya-Riera, Director of the Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Medicine Laboratory.

The modular architecture of ENISI MSM facilitates modeling therapeutic interventions during gastric infection with Helicobacter pylori and colonic infection with Clostridium difficile, as well as dysregulated immune responses to gut microbiota during Crohn’s disease .

The integration of ENISI MSM with advanced machine learning algorithms and data from electronic health records have enabled smart simulations of human clinical trials that accelerate the development of innovative therapeutics with the potential to disrupt current treatment paradigms.

Tools such as ENISI MSM move the field towards the next scientific revolution, a future in which computer simulation play important roles in guiding the design of wet-lab experimentation, clinical studies, product development, and enable end-to-end precision medicine solutions.

The latest version of HPC-driven ENISI MSM code can checked out via SVN here.

About NIMML

The NIMML Institute is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit public charity foundation focused on a transdisciplinary, team-science approach to precision medicine at the interface of immunology, inflammation, and metabolism. The NIMML Institute team has led numerous large-scale transdisciplinary projects and is dedicated to solving important societal problems by combining the expertise of immunologists, computational biologists, toxicologists, modelers, translational researchers, and molecular biologists. The Institute is headquartered in Blacksburg, VA. For more information, please visit www.nimml.org or contact pio@nimml.org.