Modeling the Individuality of Health and Disease for More Accurate Decision Making

Projects through the Joint Center for Computational Oncology will utilize established collaborative strengths to fast-track solutions for clinical needs.

Oden Institute Director Karen Willcox discusses the future of digital twins, their potential impact in medicine, engineering, and the Earth sciences, and the importance of building trust.

Oden Institute Adjunct Faculty Charles A. Taylor is newest Chairman of the Board for a German company that produces personalized, AI-enabled digital twins of lungs.

Learn about this unique graduate program offered by the Oden Institute, and hear from graduate student Benajmin Thomas about his experience with it. 

Hosted by Tom Yankeelov on September 16th, this half-day workshop brought together experts across AI development and clinical medicine in a discussion surrounding prospective applications and limitations of this burgeoning technology. 

Professor Tom Yankeelov discusses the role of AI in medicine on the Discovery Matters, a podcast by Cytiva, episode 92.

Read all about the Moncrief Interns of 2024 and the research they presented at their end-of-summer poster session. 

Dr. Tom Yankeelov was selected for the 2024 Centennial Teaching Fellowship for his work bridging the gap between computational science and oncology.

In two recent papers, Oden Institute researchers delved into the complexities of the mitral valve and heart valve function and introduced an innovative method for very high speed computational models of heart function.

Stampede2, Lonestar6, Corral systems help advance tumor models, treatment options. 

Read about the Center for Computational Oncology's work with the MD Anderson Cancer Center to design clinical trials for patients who are not average. 

Guillermo Lorenzo, postdoctoral researcher at the Oden Institute, recently published a paper regarding a framework to forecast the development and growth of tumors found in prostate cancer, providing personalized predictions to patients and clinicians. 

Oden Institute faculty lend their expertise at SXSW Festival. Dr. David Paydarfar shares his medical experience on brain-computer interface and Professor Moriba Jah hosted a fireside chat about space junk.

The Director of the Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation looks back on the beginning of his career and looks toward the next big step in his research.

Using a mathematical model researchers found that using Paxlovid prescribed for COVID has the potential to reduce hospitalizations, save lives, and reduce medical costs.

Read about Tom Yankeelov's fruitful career at the Oden Institute and his mission to individualize cancer care through computational science. 

Across multiple domains of science, engineering, and medicine, excitement is growing about the potential of digital twins to transform scientific research, industrial practices, and many aspects of daily life.

This report identifies the foundational research and resources needed to support the development of digital twin technologies.

Announcing the 2023-2024 MD Anderson, Oden Institue, and TACC Collaboration Grant Recipients.

Published in the journal Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, Oden Institute researchers show how methods developed for digital twins in aerospace engineering can be used for high-grade glioma patients undergoing radiotherapy.  

Researchers from around the world flocked to Austin for the conference held in honor of Dr. Hughes' 80th birthday. 

Michael Sacks and James Tunnell, both professors at UT Biomedical Engineering, were co-authors of the award winning paper.

Kenneth Meyer discusses how the computational medicine portfolio offered by the Oden Institute's CSEM Graduate Program allowed him to connect his passion for computation to healthcare and cardiology. 

Lois Okereke, a postdoctoral fellow at the Oden Institute's Center for Computational Oncology, recently recieved the Provost's Early Careers Fellowship. 

Shruti Motiwale won the Best Student Presentation Award at the International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering (CMBBE).

Motiwale is a graduate student working with the Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation at the Oden Institute.

• Natalie Simonian awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association
• Her research is in developing 3D models of patients' heart valves from ultrasound imaging.

• Three new cancer research projects chosen to receive seed funding as part of program in Oncological Data and Computational Science
• Third round of seed funding from collaboration between Oden Institute, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Texas Advanced Computing Center 

• Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellowship designed to support highly promising postdoctoral candidates with the potential to significantly advance the study of health
• Postdoc chosen for her research on uncovering the cellular basis for aortic valve disease

• O’Donnell Postdoctoral Fellowship provides funding for outstanding graduates to perform high-level, computational research with exceptional faculty in an interdisciplinary environment
• Five new postdoctoral researchers join the Oden Institute community for the 2022-2023 academic year

• Award given once every four years to a single postdoctoral fellow
• Chengyue Wu chosen for her extremely creative and high impact contributions for diagnosing breast cancer and predicting its response to therapy

• Sacks received $3.7 million R01 grant from NIH to develop an accurate biomechanical model for breast cancer
• Collaborative effort with MD Anderson Cancer Center and UT Austin's Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

• Event honored 16 students that graduated in May 2022, as well as eight other students who graduated throughout the 2021-2022 academic year
• "Congratulations to all our PhD and Master's graduate students. Collectively, you represent an incredible set of accomplishments spanning computing, applied mathematics, statistics, machine learning, engineering, science, geoscience, and medicine."

• Awards Ceremony finally held in-person after two years of hiatus from COVID  
• Staff, students and faculty celebrated and recognized for their significant contributions throughout the year

• Five successful applicants gain the opportunity to tackle some of society's most pressing challenges 
• Researchers will take on a broad range of challenges - from water efficiencies, materials science at the exascale,  the development of more energy-efficient algorithms, as well as advancing individualized care for breast cancer patients     

• New research collaboration will integrate two emerging disciplines — computational oncology and machine learning — to transform the future of cancer care
• Project only made possible thanks to the generosity of Dheeraj and Swapna Pandey

• Casey Stowers awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP)
• Her research exploring methods for incorporating genetic data into a multi-scale mathematical model of tumor growth has broad implications for computational science generally

• Significant honor puts Wohlmuth in the company of scientific figures like Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Charles Darwin and Marie Curie
• Her election to the German National Academy of Sciences - as a computational applied mathematician – establishes the field as a principal core area for scientific knowledge

• David Hormuth and Caroline Chung awarded funding to further cancer research collaboration
• Research will model effects of therapies on brain cancer patients, incorporating patient-specific data with the aim of enabling personalized treatment

• New Graduate Portfolio in Computational Medicine combines novel and existing courses from across UT Austin to create a unique program in a rapidly expanding medical field
• "The practicing physician of the future needs to be able to understand how to think about data: how to visualize, interpret and accurately predict patient outcomes” 

• Second round of funded projects announced in cooperative research and educational program in Oncological Data and Computational Sciences
• Latest projects include new ways for identifying, characterizing and treating prostate cancer, blood-related cancer, liver cancer and skin cancer

• Public/private collaboration led by UT Austin uses new mathematical modeling technique to predict response of tumors in breast cancer patients to first-line therapies
• Research is “culmination of several years of work in a public-private partnership”  including Oden Institute, BME, Dell Med, Texas Oncology, Dell Seton Medical Center and Austin Radiological Association

• First time Oden Institute participates in 40 hours for the Forty Acres  
• Annual UT Austin fundraising event now in its ninth year

• 2021 Peter O'Donnell, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellows bring variety of new skillsets and diverse research interests
• Scope of projects range from computational modeling at atomic scale to development of tsunami simulation techniques

• Peter O'Donnell, Jr. Chair in Computational and Applied Mathematics inducted with Tayfun Tezduyar from Rice University
• Tezduyar and Hughes first non-Japanese so honored by JACM

• 27-year-old PhD student working at the Center for Computational Oncology with Dr. George Biros.
• Subramanian was awarded BGCE Student Paper Prize for paper entitled, “A scalable inversion framework for brain tumor growth models in personalized medicine.”

• Rausch to work on five year proposal
• 'Towards a Fundamental Understanding of Why Thrombus Dissolves, Persists, or Breaks Off'

• Collaboration between Dell Med, Oden Institute, TACC, industry, government establishes Texas as computational medicine leader
• Interdisciplinary research group provides a unique combination of resources