Grace C. Y. Peng

Editorial: Special Issue on Multiscale Modeling and Analysis in Computational Biology and Medicine—Part-1

The 22 papers in this special issue demonstrate some of the most exciting developments in multiscale modeling and analysis in computational biology and medicine across all levels of time, scale, and organ systems.

Epidural Spinal Stimulation to Improve Bladder, Bowel, and Sexual Function in Individuals With Spinal Cord Injuries: A Framework for Clinical Research

While some recent studies that apply epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) have demonstrated a breakthrough in improvement of the health and quality of the life of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), the numbers of people who have received SCS are small. This is in sharp contrast to the thousands of persons worldwide living with SCI who have no practical recourse or hope of recovery of lost functions. Thus, the vision is to understand the full potential of this new intervention and to determine if it is safe and effective in a larger cohort, and if it is scalable so that it can be made available to all those who might benefit. To achieve this vision, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering called for and organized a consortium of multiple stakeholder groups: foundations addressing paralysis, federal and public agencies, industrial partners, academicians, and researchers, all interested in the same goal. Based on input from consortium participants, we have reasoned that a first step is to define a scalable SCS approach that is effective in restoring lost autonomic physiology, specifically bladder, bowel, and sexual function. These functions are most critical for improving the quality of life of persons living with SCI. This report outlines a framework for conducting the research needed to define such an effective SCS procedure that might seek Food and Drug Administration approval and be implemented at the population level.

Editorial: What Biomedical Engineers Can Do to Impact Multiscale Modeling (TBME Letters Special Issue on Multiscale Modeling and Analysis in Computational Biology and Medicine: Part-2)

In virtually every scientific endeavor, computational models are used to aid the design and predict aspects of the physical world around us. Engineers see modeling as a necessary tool for developing research questions and designing tools. In biology and medicine, scientists have long used conceptual models to explain relatively uncomplicated data, and increasingly com putational models are recognized as an important platform for discovery and translation of complex data. We cannot, however, ignore the large number of skeptics who often question the use fulness of biocomputational models, as their ultimate impact is still debatable.

National Institutes of Health Research Plan on Rehabilitation

One in five Americans experiences disability that affects their daily function because of impairments in mobility, cognitive function, sensory impairment, or communication impairment. The need for rehabilitation strategies to optimize function and reduce disability is a clear priority for research to address this public health challenge. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently published a Research Plan on Rehabilitation that provides a set of priorities to guide the field over the next 5 years. The plan was developed with input from multiple Institutes and Centers within the NIH, the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research, and the public. This article provides an overview of the need for this research plan, an outline of its development, and a listing of six priority areas for research. The NIH is committed to working with all stakeholder communities engaged in rehabilitation research to track progress made on these priorities and to work to advance the science of medical rehabilitation.

Editorial: TBME Letters Special Issue on Multiscale Modeling and Analysis in Computational Biology and Medicine—Part-2

Editorial of the second part of the TBME Letters Special Issue on Multiscale Modeling and Analysis in Computational Biology and Medicine

National Institutes of Health Research Plan on RehabilitationNIH Medical Rehabilitation Coordinating Committee

Abstract One in five Americans experiences disability that affects their daily function because of impairments in mobility, cognitive function, sensory impairment, or communication impairment. The need for rehabilitation strategies to optimize function and reduce disability is a clear priority for research to address this public health challenge. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently published a Research Plan on Rehabilitation that provides a set of priorities to guide the field over the next 5 years. The plan was developed with input from multiple Institutes and Centers within the NIH, the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research, and the public. This article provides an overview of the need for this research plan, an outline of its development, and a listing of six priority areas for research. The NIH is committed to working with all stakeholder communities engaged in rehabilitation research to track progress made on these priorities and to work to advance the science of medical rehabilitation. This article is being published almost simultaneously in the following six journals: American Journal of Occupational Therapy, American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Physical Therapy, and Rehabilitation Psychology. Citation information is as follows: NIH Medical Rehabilitation Coordinating Committee. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2017;97(4):404—407.

Moving Toward Model Reproducibility and Reusability

This paper provides a brief history of the U.S. funding initiatives associated with promoting multiscale modeling of the physiome since 2003. An effort led in the United States is the Interagency Modeling and Analysis Group (IMAG) Multiscale Modeling (MSM) Consortium. Though IMAG and the MSM Consortium have generated much interest in developing MSM models of the physiome, challenges associated with model and data sharing in biomedical, biological, and behavioral systems still exist. Since 2013, the IEEE EMBS Technical Committee on Computational Biology and the Physiome (CBaP TC) has supported discussions on promoting model reproducibility through publications. This special issue on model sharing and reproducibility is a realization of the CBaP TC discussions. Though open questions remain on how we can further facilitate model reproducibility, accessibility, and reuse by the worldwide community for different biomedical domain applications, this special issue provides a unique demonstration of both the challenges and opportunities for publishing reproducible computational models.

Funding opportunities at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)

The mission of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering is to improve human health by leading the development and accelerating the application of biomedical technologies. The Institute is committed to integrating the physical and engineering sciences with the life sciences to advance basic research and medical care. The Institute plans, conducts, fosters, and supports an integrated program of research and research training that can be applied to a broad spectrum of biological processes, disorders and diseases across organ systems. The Institute coordinates with other agencies and NIH Institutes to support imaging and engineering research to facilitate the transfer of such technologies to medical applications. Discussion topics will focus on the challenges of promoting computational tools to the non-computational biomedical researcher, changing the culture of NIH peer review, and promoting model and data sharing practices.

The State of the NIH BRAIN Initiative

The BRAIN Initiative arose from a grand challenge to “accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain that show how individual brain cells and complex neural circuits interact at the speed of thought.” The BRAIN Initiative is a public-private effort focused on the development and use of powerful tools for acquiring fundamental insights about how information processing occurs in the central nervous system (CNS). As the Initiative enters its fifth year, NIH has supported >500 principal investigators, who have answered the Initiatives challenge via hundreds of publications describing novel tools, methods, and discoveries that address the Initiatives seven scientific priorities. We describe scientific advances produced by individual laboratories, multi-investigator teams, and entire consortia that, over the coming decades, will produce more comprehensive and dynamic maps of the brain, deepen our understanding of how circuit activity can produce a rich tapestry of behaviors, and lay the foundation for understanding how its circuitry is disrupted in brain disorders. Much more work remains to bring this vision to fruition, and the National Institutes of Health continues to look to the diverse scientific community, from mathematics, to physics, chemistry, engineering, neuroethics, and neuroscience, to ensure that the greatest scientific benefit arises from this unique research Initiative.

Perspectives on Sharing Models and Related Resources in Computational Biomechanics Research

The role of computational modeling for biomechanics research and related clinical care will be increasingly prominent. The biomechanics community has been developing computational models routinely for exploration of the mechanics and mechanobiology of diverse biological structures. As a result, a large array of models, data, and discipline-specific simulation software has emerged to support endeavors in computational biomechanics. Sharing computational models and related data and simulation software has first become a utilitarian interest, and now, it is a necessity. Exchange of models, in support of knowledge exchange provided by scholarly publishing, has important implications. Specifically, model sharing can facilitate assessment of reproducibility in computational biomechanics and can provide an opportunity for repurposing and reuse, and a venue for medical training. The communitys desire to investigate biological and biomechanical phenomena crossing multiple systems, scales, and physical domains, also motivates sharing of modeling resources as blending of models developed by domain experts will be a required step for comprehensive simulation studies as well as the enhancement of their rigor and reproducibility. The goal of this paper is to understand current perspectives in the biomechanics community for the sharing of computational models and related resources. Opinions on opportunities, challenges, and pathways to model sharing, particularly as part of the scholarly publishing workflow, were sought. A group of journal editors and a handful of investigators active in computational biomechanics were approached to collect short opinion pieces as a part of a larger effort of the IEEE EMBS Computational Biology and the Physiome Technical Committee to address model reproducibility through publications. A synthesis of these opinion pieces indicates that the community recognizes the necessity and usefulness of model sharing. There is a strong will to facilitate model sharing, and there are corresponding initiatives by the scientific journals. Outside the publishing enterprise, infrastructure to facilitate model sharing in biomechanics exists, and simulation software developers are interested in accommodating the communitys needs for sharing of modeling resources. Encouragement for the use of standardized markups, concerns related to quality assurance, acknowledgement of increased burden, and importance of stewardship of resources are noted. In the short-term, it is advisable that the community builds upon recent strategies and experiments with new pathways for continued demonstration of model sharing, its promotion, and its utility. Nonetheless, the need for a long-term strategy to unify approaches in sharing computational models and related resources is acknowledged. Development of a sustainable platform supported by a culture of open model sharing will likely evolve through continued and inclusive discussions bringing all stakeholders at the table, e.g., by possibly establishing a consortium.