Sepsis Sleuths

Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies without even realizing it. One devastating example is sepsis: our body’s overwhelming or impaired immune response to an insult—usually an infection or an injury to the body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sepsis affects at least 1.7 million people in the United States each year, and it can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death. (See our sepsis fact sheet for more information.) Credit: CDC. Sepsis is complex and not well-understood, so it’s challenging to diagnose and treat. NIGMS, along with its other NIH and Department of Health and Human Services partners, supports many researchers who are studying sepsis to increase our understanding of the condition and ultimately help patients. In honor of September being Sepsis Awareness Month, we highlight the work of three scientists who study sepsis and the immune system. Detecting Sepsis With Computers The immune system has many components that interact in a multitude of ways, and factors like sleep and physical activity can affect how it functions. Thanks to modern technology, researchers can collect a vast array of data from many people about the immune system and what influences it. However, these large datasets can make finding useful patterns an enormous, if not impossible, undertaking for a person. Dr. Nima Aghaeepour. Credit: Stanford University. Nima Aghaeepour, Ph.D., an associate professor at Stanford Universit...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Tools and Techniques Computational Biology Research Roundup Sepsis Source Type: blogs