Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is funding a $21 million initiative to develop computer-based methods to model and simulate hormone homeostasis—the self-regulating processes of human hormones. The Computational Modeling of Hormone Homeostasis Initiative aims to enhance understanding of how sex affects treatment response and drug toxicity.
Hormone activity differs significantly between men and women, affecting drug dosing, treatment outcomes, and toxicity. Existing mathematical and animal models inadequately capture these sex-specific variations, creating a need for improved human-based, data-driven computational models. The new models are intended to better reflect the complex physiology of both men and women by using advanced computational techniques.
Sex hormones influence multiple tissues and systems beyond reproductive organs, including the lungs, bones, and immune system. Fluctuations in hormone homeostasis during puberty, menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and menopause can cause systemic changes. The initiative emphasizes researching these fluctuations over the lifespan to maximize therapeutic and clinical benefits.
The program will fund projects that use novel computational techniques, including interactive machine learning, multi-scale models, AI-enhanced models, physics-informed models of mechanical stress response and tissue remodeling, and digital twins—virtual replicas of biological systems. These tools will be developed to test drugs and therapeutics for their efficacy and toxicity in a sex-specific way.
According to NIH officials, accounting for sex as a biological variable and expanding knowledge about hormone-therapeutic relationships across the lifespan could improve drug and biologics testing and facilitate translating research into clinical applications.