Gulf War Illness Research Development Consortium (GWIC)

Abstract

The goal of the GWI consortium is to develop a better understanding of GWI and identify specific disease targets to find treatments that will address the cause of the disease and not just treat the symptoms associated with the disease. Current treatments used for GWI only treat the symptoms associated with the disease and do not target the underlying disease process. This consortium will integrate our clinical understanding of the disease process with basic research efforts using a novel mathematical model. This mathematical model or computational biology approach will enable the consortium to quickly identify targets of dysfunction and find treatments that will address the causes of the disease. In an effort to quickly identify disease targets and find effective GWI treatments, this consortium uses a computational biology approach that combines data derived from animal models of GWI and humans. Our approach takes into account several alternatives, with different targets. By using this approach, the consortium will create a short list of attractive known and FDA-approved drugs that could be tested rapidly in clinical trials without requiring a drug development effort. However, we will also be able to identify highly effective disease targets that could also lead to drug development. By increasing the understanding of the reasons for GWI, our consortium will advance the diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Specifically, our more detailed understanding of the dysfunction involved in GWI would greatly increase the speed to identify targets for improved diagnosis as well as selection and testing of more specific treatments over the longer term that will address the causes of disease. The goal of this development project is to develop a research team to produce cutting edge research on GWI.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA611976

Entities

People

  • Mariana Morris

Organizations

  • Wright State University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Autonomic Nervous System
  • Biomedical Research
  • Clinical Trials
  • Computational Biology
  • Computational Modeling
  • Computational Science
  • Consortiums
  • Data Analysis
  • Diseases And Disorders
  • Dysfunction
  • Experimental Design
  • Mathematical Models
  • Medical Personnel
  • Metabolic Pathways
  • Models
  • Persian Gulf Syndrome
  • Systems Biology

Readers

  • Gulf War Illness and Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Veterans.
  • Systems Analysis and Design