Scientists at University College London have successfully utilized the national computing grids of the United States and the United Kingdom to create a Virtual Physiological Human simulation, essentially using supercomputers to simulate the inner workings of the human body. It may one day help people living with HIV better cope with drug resistance, ScienceDaily reports (sciencedaily.com, 1/29).
Using the amount of computational power necessary to perform long-range weather forecasts, scientists were able to predict how the antiretroviral drug saquinavir would work in the body. In simulating the human body’s reaction to the drug through this massive computer network, scientists are better able to examine phenomena at the organ, tissue, cell and molecular level.
According to ScienceDaily, the goal of this study is to eliminate “trial and error” prescriptions. However, researchers such as head study author Professor Peter Coveney at the UCL Department of Chemistry are concerned that running such simulations for individual patients may prove costly.
“We have some difficult questions ahead of us, such as how much of our computing resources could be devoted to helping patients and at what price,” says Coveney. “At present, such simulations—requiring a substantial amount of computing power—might prove costly for the National Health Service, but technological advances and those in the economics of computing would bring costs down.”
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
