Apparatus and method for identifying therapeutic targets using a computer model

摘要

A computer program product, stored on a computer-readable medium, for identifying a therapeutic target is disclosed. The computer program product comprises instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to: execute a computer model of a biological system in a disease state to produce a baseline output; define a first virtual stimulus; define a second virtual stimulus; run the computer model based on the first virtual stimulus to produce a comparison output associated with the first function; and run the computer model based on the second virtual stimulus to produce a comparison output associated with the second function. The first virtual stimulus represents a modification of a first function of a biological constituent of the biological system and the second virtual stimulus represents a modification of a second function of the biological constituent. The computer program product further comprises instructions to identify at least one of the first function and the second function as having a difference in its associated comparison output with respect to the baseline output. A computer program product, stored on a computer-readable medium, for identifying a therapeutic target is disclosed. The computer program product comprises instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to: receive a user identification of a biological constituent selected as a potential therapeutic target for treating a particular disease state; receive a computer model of a biological system including a plurality of functions associated and operable to model one or more clinical outcomes associated with a particular disease state; receive a user input modifying one or more functions of the plurality of functions affected by the biological constituent; perform a sensitivity analysis on the one or more functions affected by the biological constituent to identify a set of functions of the one or more functions associated with one or more clinical outcomes; and modelling the effect of the identified set of functions affected by the biological constituent on the one or more clinical outcomes.