Supercomputing Bioelectric Fields in the Fight Against Cancer

Supercomputing Bioelectric Fields in the Fight Against Cancer

by "staff" (bot?)

Researchers from of the University of California at Santa Barbara are using TACC supercomputers to study bioelectric effects of cells to develop new anti-cancer strategies.

The research centers around electroporation, the process of applying short, intense electric pulses to living cells. Every cell has a bioelectric physical nature, and it has been established that the bioelectric nature of living organisms plays a pivotal role in the development of their form and growth.

In new research published in the Journal of Computational Physics, Frederic Gibou’s team from UCSB delve into a new computational framework for parallel simulations that models the complex bioelectrical interaction at the tissue scale.

Each cell behaves according to certain rules. “But when you consider a large number of them together, the aggregate exhibits novel coherent behaviors. It is this emergent phenomenon that is crucial for developing effective theories at the tissue-scale — novel behaviors that emerge from the coupling of many individual elements,” Mistani said.

“This is an example where simulations are not merely used as a predictive tool, but help discover new phenomena,” Gibou said. “Under electroporation, cells respond in surprising synchronicity and it’s beautiful to witness how such levels of order emerge out of inherent randomness.”