Building a Digital Immune System

Credit: Courtesy of Dr. Tomas Helikar. The power of computer code has been a longtime fascination for Tomas Helikar, Ph.D., a professor of biochemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). In college, when he learned he could use that power to help researchers better understand biology and improve human health, Dr. Helikar knew he’d found his ideal career. Since then, he’s built a successful team of scientists studying the ways we can use mathematical models in biomedical research, such as creating a digital replica of the immune system that could predict how a patient will react to infectious microorganisms and other pathogenic insults. A Career in Computational Biology Dr. Helikar first became involved in computer science by learning how to build a website as a high school student. He was amazed to learn that simple lines of computer code could be converted into a functional website, and he felt empowered knowing that he had created a real product from his computer. It wasn’t surprising, then, that Dr. Helikar entered the University of Nebraska Omaha as an undergraduate to study computer science and computer engineering. In his sophomore year, while considering job prospects as a computer scientist, his professor Jim Rogers, Ph.D., sought undergraduate students to help build a mathematical model of biochemical pathways. Although Dr. Helikar was unsure what that entailed, he took the position. The decision to join Dr. Rogers’ lab entirely chang...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Being a Scientist Cells Tools and Techniques Bioinformatics Computational Biology Cool Tools/Techniques Modeling Profiles Source Type: blogs