Terrific paper by post-doc Alex Clark now out at @PLOSCompBiol. This tutorial enables students and biologists to simulate biological networks with our tool Netflux, no programming required! #sysbio

Undergrads: come to @UVABME *this summer* for our @NSF-funded #REU in multi-scale bioengineering!

Way to go Malcolm on his @NSF Fellowship! Malcolm is helping lead the expansion of my cardiac systems biolog lab into immunology.

Netflux webapp coming soon, let me know if you'd like to beta test!.

RT @UVACVRC: @Luke_Dunaway, PhD, recently received an @American_Heart Career Development Award to study iron's role in chronic kidney disea….

Thanks for featuring our drug discovery research! Original article @PNASNews here:

Here's the paper:

Thanks for featuring our latest paper @PNASNews! With our AI tool LogiRx, we discovered that the antidepressant Lexapro attenuates cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Validated in cells, mice, and 2 patient observational cohorts.

@JoshTravers89 @McKinseyLab Overall, we're looking forward to seeing how LogiRx and related mechanistic machine learning methods can predict what drugs to prioritize and discover the surprising pathways by which they work. Try LogiRx and adapt to your applications with our code! 6/6

@JoshTravers89 @McKinseyLab Finally, we mined electronic health records in both the FDA and UVA Health System. We found a lower incidence of left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with depression on escitalopram compared to other SSRIs. Similar trends across male/female and those with anxiety. 5/n

But does escitalopram attenuate cardiomyocyte hypertrophy in vivo? To find out, @JoshTravers89 and @McKinseyLab used an AngII/PE model of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and fibrosis. Escitalopram partially attenuated the cardiomyocyte hypertrophy but not fibrosis. 4/n

While escitalopram (Lexapo) is best known as an SSRI, LogiRx predicted that escitalopram instead attenuates cardiomyocyte hypertrophy via an off-target serotonin receptor/PI3Kg pathway. We mechanistically validated this in primary cardiomyocytes. 3/n

AI and machine learning excel at pattern recognition but rarely provide mechanistic understanding. We introduce LogiRx, a mechanistic machine learning method that predicts how drugs modulate cell phenotypes via new pathways into curated mechanistic network models in Netflux. 2/n

Happy to share our paper, "Logic-based machine learning predicts how escitalopram (LexaPro) attenuates cardiomyocyte hypertrophy" in @PNASNews, with @tayloreggertsen with @JoshTravers89, @McKinseyLab, & @MattWolfMDPhD. Validated in cells, mice & patients.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC asks, "What expertise does (Elon) have… in biomedical engineering devices?" #BME @BMESociety @AIMBE

Great to see these NIH cuts blocked by a restraining order nationwide until at least Feb 21.

In Virginia:.NIH Awards Funding: $664 M.Jobs Supported: 7,684.Economic Activity Supported: $1.73 B.working together for the health of all Virginians.

Trump's slashing of NIH indirects blocked for now in 22 states but not VA. Will the "peoples protector" Attorney General @JasonMiyaresVA stand up for Virginia researchers and doctors and their work to cure cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and more?.

Exciting new paper, check it on bluesky.

I invite you to the 3rd Netflux and Logic-based Network Biology Virtual Conference next week on January 8. Tutorials with user-friendly network modeling tools, talks by trainees, and a keynote by Reka Albert. 🧪 Info and free registration at: