Health Futures Institute
 

Centre for Computational and Systems Medicine

Centre Director: Professor Elaine Holmes
Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia

 

About the centre

The Centre brings scientists and clinicians together in an interdisciplinary environment, building on the academic strengths of individuals in cutting edge analytical chemistry, data science and data visualisation.

The Centre harnesses the capacity of the Australian National Phenome Centre to generate high throughput, deep phenotypic profiles of biological samples that define the metabolic status of an individual and which will contribute understanding of disease risk and aetiology.

This is an engine for data science and analytics that supports research across the Health Futures Institute.

 

News from the centre

 

The centre’s core research areas

The Centre is an engine for data science and analytics that supports research across the Health Futures Institute through the construction, development and visualisation of predictive and translational mathematical models.

Precision and Personalised Medicine

Precision and Personalised Medicine

Metabolic profiling undertaken at the Australian National Phenome Centre generates high-density molecular fingerprints that reflect the metabolic status of individuals.

This provides rich information that can be followed through time to provide an indication of metabolic stability, progression of pathology or responses to treatment or clinical intervention.

Researchers at the CCSM are analysing these fingerprints to identify individual variations and improve clinical care across a wide range of physiological and pathological conditions.

Precision Nutrition

Precision Nutrition

We are analysing population samples to reveal how human health is affected by the nutritional quality and density of food.

This analysis will lead to the development of nutritional and clinical stratification frameworks through the study of the metabolic interactions that occur within our gut.

This work involves collaborating with researchers around the world to better understand individual responses to diet by coupling data from highly-controlled dietary studies with deep metabolic phenotyping, with the aim to personalise healthy eating advice.

Predictive Modelling of COVID-19

Predictive Modelling of COVID-19

We are applying an extensive range of computational tools to create new engines for diagnostic and prognostic biomarker discovery and models for patient stratification.

Funding from the McCusker Foundation is supporting the CCSM in its aim to develop a predictive model for COVID-19 severity at an early stage to optimize patient response and management.

This work involves linking metabolic and phenotypic data sets generated by Murdoch and international research partners to drive a harmonised program of biochemical discovery.

 
 

Centre Director - Professor Elaine Holmes

Professor Holmes is Director of the Centre for Computational and Systems Medicine and Deputy Director of the ANPC. As the Western Australian Premier’s Fellow for Phenomics and Australian Laureate Fellow, Professor Holmes pioneers computational approaches to biomarker discovery by integrating multi-modal data associated with gene-environment interactions.

 

Key researchers

Dr Ruey Leng Loo

Dr Loo is the Premier’s Early to Mid-Career Fellow. A qualified pharmacist and emerging research leader, she is spearheading research in personalised nutrition to deliver a new knowledge of dietary influence on human metabolism and the microbiome.

Dr Torben Kimhofer

Dr Kimhofer is Senior Lecturer at the ANPC and specializes in bioinformatics and chemoinformatics. A data enthusiast, he is an expert in the use of multivariate statistics, pattern recognition and machine learning approaches; his research interests are in metabolic phenotyping of microbiomic interactions in autism spectrum disorders.

Dr Luke Whiley

Dr Whiley is Senior Lecturer at the ANPC who is a domain leader in the application of mass spectrometry for metabolic phenotyping. Jointly appointed by the Perron Institute, Dr Whiley’s work is focused on how genetics and lifestyle interactions influence the development of dementia and the maintenance of cognitive health throughout ageing.

Professor Julien Wist

Professor Wist is Professor of Computational Spectroscopy at the ANPC. In addition to the establishment of new mathematical and statistical paradigms, Professor Wist will lead the construction of organised data architectures for storage, retrieval, processing and visualization, and the implementation of novel pipelines unique to metabolic phenotyping.

 

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