In the future, cardiologists hope to predict a person’s risk of life-threatening arrhythmia accurately and non-invasively using heart models and the power of grid computing. Jacques Beaumont and his research group are determined to make such predictions reality.
Jacques Beaumont, associate professor and graduate program director for Binghamton University’s Department of Bioengineering, has always had an interest in the modeling of living systems, particularly the heart. Now, Beaumont and his team are developing a heart model to study of the mechanisms of the molecular processes of life-threatening arrhythmias.
Turbulent activity is a common mechanism underlying the most dangerous arrhythmia. Through his research, Beaumont hopes to determine how injuries and genetic mutations trigger turbulent activity in the heart, how the resulting arrhythmia can be prevented; and how it can be stopped once initiated. The simulation of impulse propagation in the heart could also tell researchers how minor arrhythmic disturbances become life-threatening arrhythmia and why heart attacks are fatal to some and not others.
“Our objective is to better understand the molecular mechanisms of cardiac arrhythmias, and based on this, to pursue the development of clinical protocols that will contribute to improved health care,” Beaumont explains.
TeraGrid, the world’s largest, most powerful supercomputer grid, provides the computational resources necessary to the research. TeraGrid integrates multiple high-performance computers and discipline-specific databases from the top facilities around the country, connecting them via fast, high-performance networks. Beaumont’s group uses a National Science Foundation roaming access account to tap into the network.
Beaumont, who joined the faculty at Binghamton in 2006, hopes his work will help save the lives of some of the 400,000 Americans who die annually from sudden cardiac arrest.
