EPSRC logo

Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/S72023/01
Title: eScience Pilot Project in Integrative Biology
Principal Investigator: Gavaghan, Professor D
Other Investigators:
Waters, Professor S Jensen, Professor O Brodlie, Professor KW
Martin, Professor A Jeffreys, Professor P McKeever, Dr S
Kerr, Professor DD Coveney, Professor P Sansom, Professor M
Lewis, Professor C Byrne, Professor H Chapman, Professor SJ
King, Professor J Davies, Professor J Clayton, Professor RH
Kleese van Dam, Mrs K Kohl, Dr P Gaffney, Professor E
Simpson, Dr AC Sastry, Dr L Maini, Professor PK
Noble, Professor D Kwiatkowska, Professor MZ Giles, Professor M
Durham, Dr P Stevens, Professor M
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Mr M Dovey Dr J Wood
Project Partners:
Foreign Academic Institution IBM UK Ltd Innovation Centre
Department: Computer Science
Organisation: University of Oxford
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 February 2004 Ends: 31 January 2008 Value (£): 2,437,814
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
eScience Theoretical biology
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare Information Technologies
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
The goal of the proposed pilot project is to build a Grid-enabled development platform for integrative biological modelling. The project will build upon existing e-Science activities both within Oxford and throughout the UK to support life scientists in moving on to the next grand challenge: that of determining biological function from the wealth of biological data that is now available. The project will develop: grid-enabled generic and standardised modelling and simulation tools allowing assimilation and synthesis of data for use in model development and parameter estimation; a robust and fault-tolerant Grid infrastructure; and tools to allow seamless integration of HPC, cluster computing, distributed databases, computational steering, performance control, and visualisation of complex simulated data, in the biology domain. The platform will allow clinicians and biologists to perform in-silico testing and development of novel experimental approaches, concentrating in this development phase on two major disease areas: cardiovascular disease and cancer. In cancer, it will be possible to grow virtual tumours, through the crucial stages of early development. In wholeheart modelling the clinician will be able to explore in-silico the likely causes of commonly occurring heart conditions. For both disease areas, it will be possible to test the actions of new drugs, and design and optimise alternative treatment protocols such as multiple-drug therapies, supporting the drive towards patient-centred care regimes. The project will be undertaken by a consortium comprising experimental, clinical, modelling and computational groups at seven Universities: Oxford, Nottingham, Auckland, Birmingham, Leeds, UCL, and Sheffield. These are complemented by strong involvement from CCLRC and IBM.
Key Findings
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Potential use in non-academic contexts
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Impacts
Description This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Summary
Date Materialised
Sectors submitted by the Researcher
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.ox.ac.uk