Summary/Abstract for NIH-SPARC MAP-CORE The aim of this project is to provide tools for visualising data and models generated by the SPARC (Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions) consortium, which is generating data and models associated with the autonomic nervous system. By mapping the paths of these nerves throughout the body and understanding their role in controlling organ function, the NIH funded program will help provide the means for medical device companies to develop new stimulators that can modulate organ function in order to improve physiological function and hence relieve a medical condition. The MAP-CORE is one of three components of the Data and Resource Centre (DRC) for SPARC. DAT- CORE will manage the actual data generated by the SPARC community. MAP-CORE will integrate the multiple types of data (also from multiple species) into a cohesive whole, and organise and display it in a way that is useful to both the SPARC science community and the medical device companies. SIM-CORE will develop a framework, including simulation tools, to connect mathematical models of neural and other physiological activity based on the SPARC data. The MAP-CORE will ensure that suitable community standards such as CellML, SBML, FieldML and SED-ML are used (and if necessary, further developed) for encoding and annotating the data, models and simulations to ensure reproducibility, and to help ensure that all data and models are appropriately annotated to make them findable and accessible by the community in the DAT-CORE database. MAP-CORE will use ApiNATOMY to provide annotations for biological context and a framework for implementing biophysical concepts such as conservation of mass and conservation of energy. A portal, based on web 2.0 and subsequent standards, will be developed that brings the anatomy and multiscale physiology of all organ systems into a single database-driven user interface. The user will be able to examine data and models at all scales and to generate predictive multiscale models (solved with the SIM-CORE tools) to answer specific questions associated with the autonomic control of the visceral organs.

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