Living Smart

008 009 I ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY many viral diseases, the global number of deaths caused by hepatitis C is on the rise. Hepatitis C patients often display no symptoms for years; therefore, they do not seek treatment and may continue infecting others. If untreated, hepatitis C often leads to problems like liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. To add to the problem, while new hepatitis C treatments have been developed, access to these is still limited. The potential for big data tools and computational methods in medicine is greater than what you probably think. Ideally, with enough data points pulled from global patient populations, a mechanistic model can be created so that researchers can observe and predict how the virus reacts to different vaccine models, and to better highlight which vaccine model is most efficient in combating the virus. Such simulations can be run millions of times without human intervention, providing a valuable tool for rationally designing vaccines. As big data/medical science algorithmic tools develop and mature, we hope they can be employed to investigate a wide range of diseases to better help researchers and pharmaceutical firms develop effective vaccines. Published on November 14, 2018