Project Overview

The Virtual Physiological Rat Project is focused on the systems biology of cardiovascular disease—understanding how disease phenotypes apparent at the whole-organism scale emerge from molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and organ-system interactions. Ongoing studies are particularly focused on the inexorable link between cardiac and peripheral physiology/pathophysiology in hypertensive heart disease, aiming to understanding how disease phenotypes apparent at the whole-organism scale emerge from molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and organ-system interactions. Our overall scientific goals are to: (1.) use a systems approach to construct and test new hypotheses on cause-and-effect relationships in the etiology of hypertension and hypertensive heart disease; (2.) discover new strategies for managing, treating, and reversing disease mechanisms and improving/restoring intrinsic cardiac function, neurohumoral control of cardiac function, and physiological blood flow and pressure control; and (3.) use systems modeling to improve diagnosis and realize applications in precision medicine for cardiovascular disease.