A team of researchers at Michigan Technological University is harnessing the computing muscle behind the leading video games to understand the most intricate of real-life systems. The group has supercharged agent-based modeling, a powerful but computationally massive forecasting technique, by using graphic processing units (GPUs), which drive the spectacular imagery beloved of video gamers. In particular, the team aims to model complex biological systems, such as the human immune response to a tuberculosis bacterium. During demonstration, a swarm of bright green immune cells surrounds and contains a yellow TB germ. These busy specks look like 3D-animations from a PBS documentary, but they are actually virtual T-cells and macrophages—the visual reflection of millions of real-time calculations.
Researchers from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, developed the TB model and gave it to Michigan's team, which programmed it into a graphic processing unit. Agent-based modeling hasn't replaced test tubes, but it is providing a powerful new tool for medical research. Computer models offer significant advantages. It is possible to create a mouse that's missing a gene and see how important that gene is but with agent-based modeling, we can knock out two or three genes at once. In particular, agent-based modeling allows researchers to do something other methodologies can't: virtually test the human response to serious insults, such as injury and infection. While agent-based modeling may never replace the laboratory entirely, it could reduce the number of dead-end experiments.
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080916155058.htm
More information:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080916155058.htm