Military Medicine

CoBi tools, in large portion, have been developed under DARPA and DoD projects for applications in military medicine. Initial developments focused on spatial models of cell and tissue biology including signaling pathways and electrochemistry [1]. Computational modeling of an explosion blast wave lung and brain injury has been the main R&D activity in CoBi development and warfighter protection applications [2-6]. CoBi tools have unique capability to simulate 3D CFD propagation of blast wave dynamics, impact on the warfighter body and FEM biomechanics of the brain and lung injury (a true multiscale approach).

CoBi tools have been used to simulate ballistic penetration injury, musculoskeletal injury to the neck, shoulder, lower extremity and spine, biodynamics of aircraft pilot-ejection seat, human body exposure to RF waves and associated bioeffects, cardiovascular response to trauma and hemorrhage, mechanobiology of neuro axonal structures in vitro and in vivo, pulmonary toxicology in response to inhaled nanoparticles and chem/bio agents, and others.

Recently there is growing interest in military personalized medicine and warfighter protection. Working with the USAMRDC and USARIEM we are adapting CoBi tools as a framework for a Warrior Health Avatar – a virtual personalized warfighter body interacting with the armor, weapons and equipment and exposed to various stressors such a blast wave, blunt impact, ballistic penetrating injury, heart stress or directed energy weapons. In response to US Congressional mandate we are adapting CoBi fast running tools for monitoring serviceman repeated exposure to blast waves during military heavy weapons training.

References

  1. Przekwas A., Friend T., Teixeira R., Chen ZJ., Wilkerson P., (2006) Spatial Modeling Tools for Cell Biology”, CoBi Framework Documentation, DARPA/AFRL-IF-RS-TR-2006-318 Technical Report, Oct 2006, access at: www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA460852
  2. Przekwas A. (2008) Multiscale Modeling of Lung Blast Injuries, Chapter in “Explosion and Blast Injuries” Ed. by Nabil Elsayed and James Atkins. Elsevier,
  3. Gupta R.K., and Przekwas A., (2013) Mathematical models of blast induced TBI: current status, challenges and prospects, Frontiers in Neurotrauma, 4:59, 2013.
  4. Przekwas A., Somayaji M.R., and Gupta R.K. (2016) Synaptic Mechanisms of Blast-Induced Brain Injury, Frontiers in Neurology, 2016; 7: 2
  5. Przekwas A, Tan XG, Chen ZJ, Miao Y, Harrand V, Garimella HT, Kraft RH, Gupta RK. (2019) Biomechanics of Blast TBI with Time Resolved Consecutive Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Loads. Military Medicine. 2019 Mar 1;184(Suppl.-1):195-205