The Division of Quantitative Neuroendocrinology (led by Boris Kovatchev): The NIH Roadmap recognizes mathematical modeling and computing as integral parts to modern biomedical research.  The recent NIH symposium “Digital Biology: The Emerging Paradigm” (November, 2003) concluded that “… as models replace some experiments and complement others, as lone researchers are supplemented by interdisciplinary teams, there will be a need for an intellectual fusion of biomedicine and information technology.”  Thus, the understanding of health and disease evolves from studying the state of components of a living organism to studying the dynamics of the network encompassing these components.  It is now evident that the functioning of a complex living system depends to a large extent on its internal conduits and pathways of signaling.  As a result, network modeling, systems approach and nonlinear dynamics become tools of choice for the design, analysis and understanding of complex experiments.  The presence of in-house faculty/staff with appropriate expertise is justified by the specifics of modeling and computing support - in contrast to traditional statistical consulting it involves continuous interaction between the biomedical and quantitative components of a project, reflected by continuous collaboration between medical researchers and biomathematicians and resulting in custom project-oriented solutions.

Our group has integrated modeling and computational technologies into almost all of our research projects over the past twelve years.  Specific biomathematical projects have included creating the investigation of behavioral and endocrine feedback networks related to the control of Type 1 diabetes (RO1 DK 51562), the theory of risk analysis of blood glucose data, which, ; and in the area of ADHD, we have introduced the Consistency Index – EEG-based quantitative marker of ADHD, and the psycho-physiological assessment of ADHD based on a Bayesian decision-making procedure.