University of Texas at Austin

Cross-
Cutting
Research Area

Computational Medicine

Modeling the Individuality of Health and Disease for More Accurate Decision Making

A Patient-Centric Approach - Providing Diagnosis and Treatment Tailored to Each Individual

Through its advanced mathematical and simulation approaches, computational medicine can build models of human physiology with unprecedented accuracy - from the cellular level to the entire body.

An Overview: Computational Medicine

What is Computational Medicine?

Computational Medicine uses advanced mathematical and simulation approaches to model the human body in a spectrum ranging from the molecule to the organ to the entire body and ultimately, to the health care system. To accurately represent such complex systems, the models need to capture the individuality of health and disease for accurate decision making at all levels. Ranging from the patient to the policy, these require state-of-the-art computational capabilities to make them a reality. The models can be theory–, knowledge–, or data–driven, or any combination of the three.

Current research areas

Research is multifaceted, ranging from foundational advances in theory, methods and algorithms, to real-world impact in societal grand challenge problems.

medical imaging

Medical imaging

molecular biophysics

Molecular biophysics

cardiovascular-science

Cardiovascular Science

neuroscience

Neuroscience

oncology

Oncology

Genomic dataset analysis

Genomic dataset analysis

Computational Medicine Portfolio

Portfolio programs promote cross-disciplinary scholarship and study by bringing together faculty and students from a variety of disciplines whose interests transcend the boundaries of traditional academic departments. The Computational Medicine Portfolio will provide an opportunity for UT Austin graduate students to pursue a program of study that will prepare them to interact and collaborate with members of the medical community on interdisciplinary, cutting-edge research.

Working with partners

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Oden Institute’s Center for Computational Oncology, led by Dr. Tom Yankeelov, and TACC are working together to find new cancer treatments through integrating oncological data with mechanism-based modeling techniques. MD Anderson is one of the world's largest and most respected centers devoted exclusively to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. Read more about our collaborations.

The Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation, led by Dr. Michael Sacks, at Oden Institute has been a long-standing partner of the Texas Heart institute (THI). The THI is recognized internationally for research programs in cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, regenerative medicine and pathology. The partnership with the Oden Institute is underpinned by research to advance computational modeling of the cardiovascular system with a view to providing tailored care for each individual patient suffering from heart disease — the number one cause of death worldwide.

Centers and Groups

To learn more about projects and people in Computational Medicine, explore the centers and groups with research activities in this cross-cutting research area.

Center for Computational Oncology

Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation

Center for Computational Life Sciences and Biology

News in brief

UT Experts Delve into Topics from Brain-Computer Interface to Space Junk at SXSW

News

March 27, 2024

UT Experts Delve into Topics from Brain-Computer Interface to Space Junk at SXSW

Oden Institute faculty lend their expertise at SXSW Festival. Dr. David Paydarfar shares his medical experience on brain-computer interface and Professor Moriba Jah hosted a fireside chat about space junk.

Read more

Deciphering Heart Disease - Profile Michael Sacks

Profile

March 15, 2024

Deciphering Heart Disease - Profile Michael Sacks

The Director of the Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation looks back on the beginning of his career and looks toward the next big step in his research.

Read more

Increased Use of Paxlovid Could Cut Hospitalizations, Deaths and Costs

News

Feb. 26, 2024

Increased Use of Paxlovid Could Cut Hospitalizations, Deaths and Costs

Using a mathematical model researchers found that using Paxlovid prescribed for COVID has the potential to reduce hospitalizations, save lives, and reduce medical costs.

Read more

The Cancer Equation

Feature

Jan. 11, 2024

The Cancer Equation

Read about Tom Yankeelov's fruitful career at the Oden Institute and his mission to individualize cancer care through computational science. 

Read more

New Report Urges Multiagency Action to Support Potentially Transformative Digital Twins Research

News

Dec. 15, 2023

New Report Urges Multiagency Action to Support Potentially Transformative Digital Twins Research

Across multiple domains of science, engineering, and medicine, excitement is growing about the potential of digital twins to transform scientific research, industrial practices, and many aspects of daily life.

This report identifies the foundational research and resources needed to support the development of digital twin technologies.

Read more

Prostate, Mammography Analysis & Imaging Methods to be Tackled in Latest Texas Computational Oncology Collaboration

News

Dec. 5, 2023

Prostate, Mammography Analysis & Imaging Methods to be Tackled in Latest Texas Computational Oncology Collaboration

Announcing the 2023-2024 MD Anderson, Oden Institue, and TACC Collaboration Grant Recipients.

Read more

With Digital Twins of Brain Tumors, Computational Scientists are Personalizing Cancer Care

News

Dec. 1, 2023

With Digital Twins of Brain Tumors, Computational Scientists are Personalizing Cancer Care

Published in the journal Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence, Oden Institute researchers show how methods developed for digital twins in aerospace engineering can be used for high-grade glioma patients undergoing radiotherapy.  

Read more

Computational Mechanics Conference Celebrates Thomas J.R. Hughes's 80th Birthday

News

Nov. 20, 2023

Computational Mechanics Conference Celebrates Thomas J.R. Hughes's 80th Birthday

Researchers from around the world flocked to Austin for the conference held in honor of Dr. Hughes' 80th birthday. 

Read more

UT Biomedical Engineering Professors Receive ABME Best Paper Award

News

Oct. 23, 2023

UT Biomedical Engineering Professors Receive ABME Best Paper Award

Michael Sacks and James Tunnell, both professors at UT Biomedical Engineering, were co-authors of the award winning paper.

Read more

CSEM Student Kenneth Meyer Discusses Computational Medicine Portfolio Program

News

Oct. 18, 2023

CSEM Student Kenneth Meyer Discusses Computational Medicine Portfolio Program

Kenneth Meyer discusses how the computational medicine portfolio offered by the Oden Institute's CSEM Graduate Program allowed him to connect his passion for computation to healthcare and cardiology. 

Read more

Lois Okereke Named Provost’s Early Career Fellow

News

Sept. 11, 2023

Lois Okereke Named Provost’s Early Career Fellow

Lois Okereke, a postdoctoral fellow at the Oden Institute's Center for Computational Oncology, recently recieved the Provost's Early Careers Fellowship. 

Read more

Research on Heart Function Wins Best Student Presentation Award at CMBBE

News

June 1, 2023

Research on Heart Function Wins Best Student Presentation Award at CMBBE

Shruti Motiwale won the Best Student Presentation Award at the International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering (CMBBE).

Motiwale is a graduate student working with the Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation at the Oden Institute.

Read more

Work-Life Balance - Profile Ally Richardson

Profile

Feb. 15, 2023

Work-Life Balance - Profile Ally Richardson

Read more

Willerson Center Graduate Student Awarded AHA Fellowship

News

Jan. 13, 2023

Willerson Center Graduate Student Awarded AHA Fellowship

  • Natalie Simonian awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association
  • Her research is in developing 3D models of patients' heart valves from ultrasound imaging.

Read more

Lung, Breast and Colorectal Cancer Tackled in Latest Texas Computational Oncology Collaboration

News

Oct. 12, 2022

Lung, Breast and Colorectal Cancer Tackled in Latest Texas Computational Oncology Collaboration

  • Three new cancer research projects chosen to receive seed funding as part of program in Oncological Data and Computational Science
  • Third round of seed funding from collaboration between Oden Institute, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Texas Advanced Computing Center 

Read more

Willerson Center Postdoctoral Researcher Wins NIH Fellowship

News

Oct. 10, 2022

Willerson Center Postdoctoral Researcher Wins NIH Fellowship

  • Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellowship designed to support highly promising postdoctoral candidates with the potential to significantly advance the study of health
  • Postdoc chosen for her research on uncovering the cellular basis for aortic valve disease

Read more

Tom Yankeelov Wins Best Lecture Award

News

Oct. 7, 2022

Tom Yankeelov Wins Best Lecture Award

Read more

Making A Real Impact - Profile Casey Stowers

Profile

Sept. 13, 2022

Making A Real Impact - Profile Casey Stowers

Read more

The Peter O’Donnell Jr. Postdoctoral Research Fellows 2022-2023

Feature

Sept. 12, 2022

The Peter O’Donnell Jr. Postdoctoral Research Fellows 2022-2023

  • O’Donnell Postdoctoral Fellowship provides funding for outstanding graduates to perform high-level, computational research with exceptional faculty in an interdisciplinary environment
  • Five new postdoctoral researchers join the Oden Institute community for the 2022-2023 academic year

Read more

Postdoc Wins Prestigious H. D. Landahl Mathematical Biophysics Award

News

July 22, 2022

Postdoc Wins Prestigious H. D. Landahl Mathematical Biophysics Award

  • Award given once every four years to a single postdoctoral fellow
  • Chengyue Wu chosen for her extremely creative and high impact contributions for diagnosing breast cancer and predicting its response to therapy

Read more

Media Coverage

July 21, 2022

Michael Sacks featured in Austin American Statesman

Read more at statesman

New Collaborative Biomechanical Breast Modeling Project

News

June 17, 2022

New Collaborative Biomechanical Breast Modeling Project

  • Sacks received $3.7 million R01 grant from NIH to develop an accurate biomechanical model for breast cancer
  • Collaborative effort with MD Anderson Cancer Center and UT Austin's Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

Read more

Oden Institute Recognizes 2021-2022 Graduates

News

June 16, 2022

Oden Institute Recognizes 2021-2022 Graduates

  • Event honored 16 students that graduated in May 2022, as well as eight other students who graduated throughout the 2021-2022 academic year
  • "Congratulations to all our PhD and Master's graduate students. Collectively, you represent an incredible set of accomplishments spanning computing, applied mathematics, statistics, machine learning, engineering, science, geoscience, and medicine."

Read more

Oden Institute Awards Ceremony 2022

Feature

May 18, 2022

Oden Institute Awards Ceremony 2022

  • Awards Ceremony finally held in-person after two years of hiatus from COVID  
  • Staff, students and faculty celebrated and recognized for their significant contributions throughout the year

Read more

Tackling Science’s Grand Challenges

News

May 18, 2022

Tackling Science’s Grand Challenges

  • Five successful applicants gain the opportunity to tackle some of society's most pressing challenges 
  • Researchers will take on a broad range of challenges - from water efficiencies, materials science at the exascale,  the development of more energy-efficient algorithms, as well as advancing individualized care for breast cancer patients     

Read more

Changing The Cancer Equation

News

May 17, 2022

Changing The Cancer Equation

  • New research collaboration will integrate two emerging disciplines — computational oncology and machine learning — to transform the future of cancer care
  • Project only made possible thanks to the generosity of Dheeraj and Swapna Pandey

Read more

CSEM Student Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

News

April 21, 2022

CSEM Student Awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

  • Casey Stowers awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF-GRFP)
  • Her research exploring methods for incorporating genetic data into a multi-scale mathematical model of tumor growth has broad implications for computational science generally

Read more

Barbara Wohlmuth Elected to German National Academy of Sciences

News

April 12, 2022

Barbara Wohlmuth Elected to German National Academy of Sciences

  • Significant honor puts Wohlmuth in the company of scientific figures like Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Charles Darwin and Marie Curie
  • Her election to the German National Academy of Sciences - as a computational applied mathematician – establishes the field as a principal core area for scientific knowledge

Read more

UT Austin and MD Anderson Awarded CPRIT Funding to Advance Oncological Data and Computational Science Collaboration

News

March 2, 2022

UT Austin and MD Anderson Awarded CPRIT Funding to Advance Oncological Data and Computational Science Collaboration

  • David Hormuth and Caroline Chung awarded funding to further cancer research collaboration
  • Research will model effects of therapies on brain cancer patients, incorporating patient-specific data with the aim of enabling personalized treatment

 

Read more

Computational Medicine – A Campus Wide Collaboration

Feature

Feb. 10, 2022

Computational Medicine – A Campus Wide Collaboration

  • New Graduate Portfolio in Computational Medicine combines novel and existing courses from across UT Austin to create a unique program in a rapidly expanding medical field
  • "The practicing physician of the future needs to be able to understand how to think about data: how to visualize, interpret and accurately predict patient outcomes” 

Read more

Collaboration on Data and Computational Sciences Announces 2021-2022 Projects to Advance Cancer Breakthroughs

News

Nov. 10, 2021

Collaboration on Data and Computational Sciences Announces 2021-2022 Projects to Advance Cancer Breakthroughs

  • Second round of funded projects announced in cooperative research and educational program in Oncological Data and Computational Sciences
  • Latest projects include new ways for identifying, characterizing and treating prostate cancer, blood-related cancer, liver cancer and skin cancer

Read more

New UT research predicts effectiveness of breast cancer treatments — here’s how

Media Coverage

Oct. 14, 2021

New UT research predicts effectiveness of breast cancer treatments — here’s how

Read more at kxan

Technique Predicts Tumor Response to Cancer Therapy

News

Oct. 5, 2021

Technique Predicts Tumor Response to Cancer Therapy

  • Public/private collaboration led by UT Austin uses new mathematical modeling technique to predict response of tumors in breast cancer patients to first-line therapies
  • Research is “culmination of several years of work in a public-private partnership”  including Oden Institute, BME, Dell Med, Texas Oncology, Dell Seton Medical Center and Austin Radiological Association

Read more

How surgeons are using new technology to get inside brain cancer and destroy it

Media Coverage

Sept. 22, 2021

How surgeons are using new technology to get inside brain cancer and destroy it

Read more at wqad

Oden Institute Joins the Forty for 40 Party

News

Sept. 22, 2021

Oden Institute Joins the Forty for 40 Party

  • First time Oden Institute participates in 40 hours for the Forty Acres  
  • Annual UT Austin fundraising event now in its ninth year

Read more at utexas

Introducing The 2021 Fellowship…

Feature

Aug. 31, 2021

Introducing The 2021 Fellowship…

  • 2021 Peter O'Donnell, Jr. Postdoctoral Fellows bring variety of new skillsets and diverse research interests
  • Scope of projects range from computational modeling at atomic scale to development of tsunami simulation techniques

Read more

Thomas Hughes Honored by Japan Association for Computational Mechanics

News

Aug. 30, 2021

Thomas Hughes Honored by Japan Association for Computational Mechanics

  • Peter O'Donnell, Jr. Chair in Computational and Applied Mathematics inducted with Tayfun Tezduyar from Rice University
  • Tezduyar and Hughes first non-Japanese so honored by JACM

Read more

Shashank Subramanian Awarded BGCE Student Paper Prize at SIAM CSE 2021

News

March 19, 2021

Shashank Subramanian Awarded BGCE Student Paper Prize at SIAM CSE 2021

  • 27-year-old PhD student working at the Center for Computational Oncology with Dr. George Biros.
  • Subramanian was awarded BGCE Student Paper Prize for paper entitled, “A scalable inversion framework for brain tumor growth models in personalized medicine.”

Read more

Modeling The Fate Of A Blood Clot

News

March 10, 2021

Modeling The Fate Of A Blood Clot

  • Rausch to work on five year proposal
  • 'Towards a Fundamental Understanding of Why Thrombus Dissolves, Persists, or Breaks Off'

Read more

Computational Medicine — Moving from Uncertainty to Precision

News

Feb. 12, 2021

Computational Medicine — Moving from Uncertainty to Precision

  • Collaboration between Dell Med, Oden Institute, TACC, industry, government establishes Texas as computational medicine leader
  • Interdisciplinary research group provides a unique combination of resources

Read more at tacc.utexas

UT Austin and MD Anderson Collaboration to End Cancer Welcomed Enthusiastically by State and Federal Stakeholders

News

Nov. 3, 2020

UT Austin and MD Anderson Collaboration to End Cancer Welcomed Enthusiastically by State and Federal Stakeholders

Read more

UT Austin, MD Anderson Announce First Collaborative Projects in United Fight to End Cancer

News

Oct. 19, 2020

UT Austin, MD Anderson Announce First Collaborative Projects in United Fight to End Cancer

Read more

Oden Institute Welcomes Two New Faculty to UT Austin

News

Sept. 17, 2020

Oden Institute Welcomes Two New Faculty to UT Austin

Read more

Computational Modeling Techniques Enable Unprecedented Visualizations of Heart Valve Implant Behavior

News

July 31, 2020

Computational Modeling Techniques Enable Unprecedented Visualizations of Heart Valve Implant Behavior

Read more