Higgins Lab
Read BioI study the dynamics of human pathophysiologic processes by developing mathematical descriptions of complex human disease phenotypes and how they change over time. Pathophysiology may be described at the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organismal levels and may show clinically significant variation over time scales ranging from less than a second to more than a decade. The research combines medical insight, dynamic systems theory, and experiments utilizing microfluidics, video processing, flow cytometry, simulation, and large-scale analysis of medical databases in pursuit of two goals: (1) advancing fundamental understanding of the dynamics of human pathophysiology, and (2) improving patient diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment.
Recent Publications
Qiang Y, Sissoko A, Liu ZL, Dong T, Zheng F, Kong F, Higgins JM, Karniadakis GE, Buffet PA, Suresh S, Dao M Microfluidic study of retention and elimination of abnormal red blood cells by human spleen with implications for sickle cell disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023;120(6):e2217607120 - PMID: 36730189 - PMCID: PMC9963977 - DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2217607120
Patel NJ, Tozzo V, Higgins JM, Stone JH The effects of daily prednisone and tocilizumab on hemoglobin A1c during the treatment of giant cell arteritis. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2022;:ePub - PMID: 36383175 - DOI: 10.1002/art.42405
Miller P, Fell G, Foy B, Scherer A, Gibson CJ, Sperling AS, Burugula BB, Nakao T, Uddin MM, Warren H, Bry L, Pozdnyakova O, Frigault MJ, Bick AG, Neuberg D, Higgins JM, Mansour M, Natarajan P, Kim AS, Kitzman J, Ebert BL Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential and Risk of Death from COVID-19. Blood. 2022;140(18):1993-1997 - PMID: 36096050 - PMCID: PMC9474399 - DOI: 10.1182/blood.2022018052
Foy BH, Sundt TM, Carlson JCT, Aguirre AD, Higgins JM Human acute inflammatory recovery is defined by co-regulatory dynamics of white blood cell and platelet populations. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):4705 - PMID: 35995789 - PMCID: PMC9395541 - DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32222-2
Grune J, Lewis AJM, Yamazoe M, Hulsmans M, Rohde D, Xiao L, Zhang S, Ott C, Calcagno DM, Zhou Y, Timm K, Shanmuganathan M, Pulous FE, Schloss MJ, Foy BH, Capen D, Vinegoni C, Wojtkiewicz GR, Iwamoto I, Grune T, Brown D, Higgins J, Ferreira VM, Herring N, Channon KM, Neubauer S, Oxford Acute Myocardial Infarction (OxAMI) Study, Sosnovik DE, Milan DJ, Swirski FK, King KR, Aguirre AD, Ellinor PT, Nahrendorf M Neutrophils incite and macrophages avert electrical storm after myocardial infarction. Nat Cardiovasc Res. 2022;1(7):649-664 - PMID: 36034743 - PMCID: PMC9410341 - DOI: 10.1038/s44161-022-00094-w
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Research projects
Physiologic and pathologic population dynamics of human blood cells in various forms of anemia.
Rheodynamics of vaso-occlusion in sickle cell disease.
Patient immunologic response to blood transfusion.
Other important pathophysiologic processes where states can be measured with temporal and spatial resolution sufficient for productive mathematical modeling.