The Virtual Physiological Rat (VPR) Project[1][2][3] is an international collaboration aimed at simulating the integrated cardiovascular function of the rat and supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences as a National Center for Systems Biology.
The project is motivated by the fact that, although there exist both a depth of knowledge of basic cardiovascular physiology and a host of physiological and genomic data from animal models of disease, there is a lack of understanding of how multiple genes and environmental factors interact to determine cardiovascular phenotype.
These tools are being developed and validated based on experimental characterization of physiological function across a number of organ systems in rat strains engineered to show relevant disease phenotypes.
Computer simulation is used to integrate disparate data (genomic, anatomic, physiological, etc.)
to explain and predict function,[4] and to translate the findings from animal models to yield new information on specific interrelated complex diseases in humans, including hypertension, kidney disease, heart failure, and metabolic syndrome.